The Flash: Rebirth #3

Rearview Mirrors

Geoff Johns⚡Writer
Ethan Van Sciver⚡Artist
Rob Leigh⚡Letterer
Brian Miller of Hi-Fi⚡Colorist
Chris Conroy⚡Assistant Editor
Joey Cavalieri⚡Editor
Cover by Ethan Van Sciver
Colored by Alex Sinclair
Variant Cover colored by Brian Miller of Hi-Fi

Our main cover is an homage to the many Flash-Superman races over the years. And it's only fitting that a series that celebrates the history of Barry Allen would have one of these moments. Unfortunately, I don't think this is a very good cover. The choice to have them running sideways on a building is just odd and distracting. And both our look off here. The proportions aren't right — the chests are too large and stiff, arms and legs are too short, appendages are bending at awkward angles. And what's with Superman's shirt not covering his entire shoulder?

Our variant cover shows a gigantic Black Flash attacking Wally, Bart and Jay. This is supposed to be a more symbolic image, but it comes across as rather nonsensical. Why does the Black Flash have dinosaur legs? Well, at least Bart looks good here.

Our story begins with an unseen figure attacking Abra Kadabra in his Central City hideout. At the headquarters of the Justice Society of America, Jesse is staring fondly at statues of her parents when the stone monuments suddenly explode and Jesse sees a glimpse of her father in the Speed Force, begging Barry not to hurt Jesse.

Meanwhile, most of the other JSA members have joined many JLA members in Fallville, Iowa, to build a containment field around Barry. Well, not just a containment field, but also a device that should separate the Speed Force from Barry, as Wally and Jay believe removing Barry's super speed is the only way to prevent him from killing everything he touches. Suddenly, Bart shows up, asking about Max. Wally tells Bart it's not safe here and he should be back home with the twins, but Bart pushes him aside and tells his grandpa that he felt something was different the moment he came back. Bart thought it was Max, but it turned out to be Barry. So now he's asking Barry if Max is alive, but Barry doesn't know.

To Barry's dismay, Hal Jordan brings Iris to the scene. But Jay and Wally explain to Barry that they wanted her here because of the emotional nature of the Speed Force and how loved ones can act as lightning rods. Iris encourages her husband to calm down and think of spending more time with his family, but this only works Barry up more. Red lightning begins emanating from Barry, which soon destroys the containment tube he was in.

Hal scoops up Barry in a green container and starts flying him away with Superman and Wonder Woman at his side. A bunch of bolts of lightning start trying to hit Barry, but Wonder Woman and Superman block each strike. Once Barry is sure no one is following them, he vibrates out of Hal's container and says he's going to run back into the Speed Force. Barry quickly outraces all of them, but Superman manages to keep up for a while, begging him not to do this. As the two race up the side of the Daily Planet building for absolutely no reason, Barry tells Superman that he can't stop him even if he wanted to. Superman reminds him that he has beaten him in a couple of their races, but Barry smugly says those races were for charity, and he promptly leaves the Man of Steel in the dust.

As Barry runs into the Speed Force, he sees images of his life pass by him in reverse, ending with his own birth. He keeps telling himself that he'll be alright as long as he remembers Iris. But even though he's constantly repeating that phrase, he somehow forgets Iris' name and begins to panic, screaming out, "What's. Her. Name?" A voice reminds him that her name is Iris and his name is Barry.

Barry follows the voice to find Johnny Quick and Max Mercury entangled in some kind of red goop. Johnny cryptically tells Barry that he's the answer to his speed formula. Johnny becomes enveloped in red lightning and begs Barry to not let "it" hurt his daughter. He grabs Barry's arm and begins to die, asking Barry to tell Jesse he loves her and his wife, Libby, that he never stopped missing her.

Max grabs Barry's leg, and Barry tells him to let go, saying he'll kill him. But Max says Barry's not the one killing the speedsters. Right on cue, Eobard Thawne arrives and explains that he has shifted Barry into reverse.




I'm tired of this story. It's so angry. Everyone's yelling at each other and everything is awful. And a big part of that anger seeping through these pages in Van Sciver's art. I think I've figured out that I liked his work better when Prentis Rollins was inking it. Now that Van Sciver's inking himself, it becomes a tad less palatable for me.

The only positive takeaway from this issue was Bart's love and concern for Max. Bart shares my opinions on this latest "crisis" with Barry. Who cares about Barry? Where is Max? Is he alive? And the answer to that is a thankful yes. Max is alive and fighting valiantly to protect Barry from Professor Zoom.

Next time, we'll finally — finally! — see how Bart came home from the future in Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds #5.

Smallville – "Doomsday"

Director: James Marshall
Writers: Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson

Every two years, like clockwork, Kyle Gallner returned to Smallville to reprise his role as Impulse. But sadly, this will turn out to be his briefest cameo yet. Wait, why am calling this a sad thing? I hate this show. And these passing glimpses of a character that's loosely based on Impulse is not enough to save it.

Our episode begins with Cosmic Boy (above) telling Clark that according to historical records, Doomsday is going to kill him tomorrow. Cosmic Boy tells Clark to send Doomsday to the future so the Legion of Super-Heroes can defeat him, but Clark refuses. For no good reason. At least, no good reason that I can see.

Quick note: Smallville's version of Doomsday may look like the classic villain from the comics, but he's quite different. On the show, he's essentially a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde situation — a monster living inside a man named Davis Bloome. And since this is a CW drama, Davis is caught up in an overly complicated love triangle with Clark's friend, Chloe.

On the day Clark is supposed to die, he summons two old friends to his barn — Black Canary and Impulse. At Clark's request, Bart has gathered maps and blueprints of a geothermal facility with a mine shaft that burrows more than one mile beneath the Earth's surface. Black Canary is surprised that Clark wants to bury Doomsday alive, but Clark believes he can split Doomsday from Davis with a piece of black kryptonite, which he gives to Bart.

Green Arrow suddenly arrives, saying they should kill Davis, as he fears simply splitting Doomsday from him would create an even worse unstoppable monster without a conscience. Clark refuses to consider this possibility. He tells the others that Green Arrow killed Lex Luthor and he sends him away, telling Oliver he's no longer one of them.

That night, Clark responds to a cry for help, only to find Black Canary and Impulse calmly waiting there for him. In his brief moment of confusion, Green Arrow shoots a kryptonite arrow into Clark's back to hold him back long enough for the three heroes to carry out Green Arrow's plan.

And that plan involves them knocking out Davis and bringing him to the geothermal plant. For some reason, they also knocked out Chloe and brought her along, too. Conveniently, Chloe quickly wakes up, and our heroes decide to tell her everything. The even mention Clark's plan with the black kryptonite, which Chloe conveniently sees in Bart's open backpack. Chloe insists that Davis doesn't change when she's around him, but Davis, who has woken up by this point, says he agrees with Green Arrow's plan.

Suddenly, Davis is overcome by the monster within him. His eyes glow red and he instantly knocks out Impulse and Black Canary. Green Arrow draws his bow, but Chloe beats him to the punch and shoves the black kryptonite into Davis' chest. Just as Clark predicted, Doomsday is pulled out of Davis as a separate being.

Meanwhile, Jimmy Olsen stumbles upon Clark and pulls the kryptonite arrow out of his back. Clark admits to Jimmy that he's the "Red and Blue Blur," then races off to the geothermal plant. He finds everyone bloodied and on the ground, except for Doomsday. They tell Clark what happened, and he says he'll go after Doomsday, asking them to prepare the tunnel and detonators to carry out his original plan.

Clark quickly finds Doomsday out on the streets, and after trading a few blows, Clark manages to get underneath the monster, lift him up high into the sky, and slam him down hard into the geothermal plant, setting off a large explosion.

The next day, Jimmy and Chloe take the still unconscious Davis to their loft apartment overlooking Metropolis that is still under renovation. They have a long heart-to-heart that ends with a romantic kiss, before Jimmy is suddenly stabbed from behind by Davis. Davis thought that Chloe really loved him, so he tries to kill her for betraying him. But with his last ounce of strength, Jimmy slams Davis onto a pile of equipment that included a conveniently sharp and pointy spike, which kills Davis.

Later, we see Bart, Dinah and Oliver and Jimmy's funeral. But Clark watches from afar, refusing to interact with anybody there. After the funeral, Clark visits Chloe at her apartment. He's unable to explain how he escaped the blast that buried Doomsday, and he reports that Lois Lane is missing. He blames himself for Jimmy's death, but Chloe insists that it was Davis, not the monster, who killed Jimmy. She says that Oliver, Dinah and Bart have disappeared, and she wants to set up her apartment as a Watchtower that they can use to bring the team back together. But Clark refuses, and dramatically walks away.




This was a terrible episode. Partly because of the unbearable, lengthy relationship monologues, and partly because of the inherent limitations of the show itself. They clearly wanted a massive Superman-Doomsday fight for the season finale, but were simply unable to do that. Although Doomsday did look very good, that rubber suit could not move — like, at all. This made it unbearable whenever they tried to show him throw a big punch or leap halfway across the city. So, the climatic fight scene was reduced to a few quick blows.

In a similar way, I feel like director James Marshall did everything he could to minimize Kyle Gallner's screen time. Two years is a long time between episodes on a show, and Kyle seems to have lost half a step in the art of playing Bart. He appeared a bit on the pudgy side in this episode and was mumbling his lines throughout. Not his best work.

Storywise, this episode fell flat. There were a lot of interesting ideas that were glossed over or shoved to the side. Like the idea of sending today's problems to the future. Or the debates of the merits of lethal force and man vs. beast. This show simply was not interested in exploring any of these deep ideas. For proof of this show's cowardice, just look at what they did with Jimmy Olsen. They were too worried about upsetting the status quo to allow Jimmy to live with the knowledge of Clark's secret identity — or to even live long enough to get married to Chloe.

Next time, we'll return to The Flash: Rebirth.

The Flash: Rebirth #2

Dead Run

Geoff Johns Writer
Ethan Van Sciver Artist & Covers
Brian Miller of Hi-Fi, Alex Sinclair Colorists
Rob Leigh Letterer

Our main cover is inspired by 1956's Showcase #4 by Carmine Infantino, which was the first appearance of Barry Allen. The key difference, though, is instead of the film strip showing Barry in the act of running, this film strip shows Wally, Jay, Jesse and Bart withered and reduced to skeletons in their costumes. And for an added layer of complexity, the back side of the film strip shows the x-ray image of Eobard Thawne. I actually do appreciate the multiple layers of storytelling on this cover. And for once, I agree that Barry shouldn't look too happy here. I mean, all his friends and family are kinda dying right now.

The variant cover isn't too bad, either. It's just a generic pose of the Flash costume popping out of Barry's ring, but sometimes those generic poses are necessary. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's an iconic pose like Superman unbuttoning his shirt, but this is the closest equivalent for the Flash. In any case, I like this a lot more than Barry putting on his boot.

Our story begins in Gorilla City, where a gorilla is painting on the wall a symbolization of what's happening in our story right now. There's a large image of Barry in the center, surrounded by Bart, Wally, Irey, Jai, Jay and Savitar. The gorilla paints black lines of lightning coming from Barry and touching all the other speedsters. And the gorilla blacks out Savitar, indicating his death.

We then cut to the Balkan Mountains, where some of Savitar's old followers have rebuilt his castle and are attempting a ritual to bring their former master back, led by Christina Alexandrova, the former Lady Flash. Their enormous lightning rod is struck by lightning, but most of the acolytes are electrocuted or buried in the collapsing castle. Christina shown a vision of Savitar's final moments on Earth before she is consumed in an explosion of bright light.

Barry, meanwhile, is examining the remains of Savitar. Hal Jordan catches up with him again, but Barry warns Hal to stay away. He explains that Savitar's metal mask wasn't affected — only his flesh, which leads Barry to believe that he disintegrated from the inside out. Barry speculates that once he reached a high enough velocity, Savitar was able to use him as a doorway to escape from his Speed Force prison. But Barry has no idea how or why Savitar disintegrated once he touched him, so he decides to go consult with Wally. Completely ignoring Hal, Barry races off, leaving the Green Lantern mid-sentence.

But instead of running straight to Wally, Barry heads home first, having an extended flashback of his life on the way. When he gets home, he finds Captain Darryl Frye speaking to Iris about Barry's return. Frye believes Barry had been in witness protection all these years, and now that he's back, he wants Barry to help him solve the case of the two lab technicians who were murdered at the start of this story. But Barry turns him down, saying he's not up to speed with today's forensics.

Once Frye is out of the house, Wally calls, asking for Barry. Wally tells his former mentor about all the speedsters suffering what he calls a "speed seizure." All our speedsters seem to be fine now, but they're being closely monitored by their friends. Dr. Mid-Nite is examining Jay in the JSA's New York headquarters, and Cyborg is working on Jai and Irey in the Titans' New York tower. Beast Boy offers the children some ice cream, but Jai turns him down. And in San Francisco, at Teen Titans Tower, Robin has Bart walking on a treadmill, forbidding him from running to Wally like he wants.

Wally has now met up with Barry and explains to him that these "speed seizures" all occurred at the same time, but varied in intensity based on each speedster's connection to the Speed Force. (Bart's seizure was apparently longer and more painful than the others'.) Barry notes that this happened at the same time he touched Savitar. As they talk, they run out to Fallville to investigate a suspicious lightning storm — suspicious because Barry was born in Fallville.

Barry and Wally discover the decomposing remains of the Black Flash, wondering if the fight against Darkseid in Final Crisis was too much for Black Flash. As they recount how Black Flash appeared before the deaths of Johnny Quick and Max Mercury, they're suddenly attacked by Christina, seeking revenge for the death of Savitar. Claiming she's fueled by the speed of Savitar's hundreds of now-deceased followers, Christina actually manages to get the jump on Wally. But Barry's still faster, catching one of her kicks before it hits Wally in the face a second time. As soon as Barry touches Christina, she disintegrates just like her former master. And to Wally's horror, Barry's suit turns black, and he proclaims his former mentor as the new Black Flash.




I really don't have much to say about this issue. The main story only crawled forward a couple of steps, while the bulk of the issue was dedicated to Barry's flashbacks. I skipped over those because, like Bart, I just don't care that much about Barry's return. I'm only here for Bart, and he really didn't have anything to do this issue. So I'm left with another confusing story about one of my least favorite elements of the Flash mythos — the Black Flash. Honestly, the less said about Black Flash, the better. But that's just me.

Next time, we'll return to the TV show Smallville for another cameo of Impulse.