The Flash Vol.1: Move Forward (The New 52)
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| Hope you like this pose, you'll be seeing it a lot. |
Writer: Francis
Manapul
Artist: Brian
Buccalleto
Read as Trade Paperback
Background
Information:
Before you pick up Move
Forward, it’s important to know who this Flash is.
Most who are new to comics would probably know him from the Justice League cartoon of the early
2000s. That Flash was a quick-talking hero with a major funnybone. He was a
little flirtatious, very self-confident and for most of the series, he was
kinda’ the joke character. His highlight in the series was using his speed to
beat the ever-loving snot out of the Lex Luthor/Brainiac hybrid in the final
episode.
This isn’t that Flash.
In Move Forward,
The Flash is Barry Allen. He’s actually the original.
Barry’s been dead and brought back to life again, though some readers may see his
personality as never being alive in the first place. See, Barry isn’t a joker
like Wally, and he doesn’t share Wally’s self-confidence or his laid-back
attitude. Barry is a little bit geekier. He’s as forensic scientist who is
socially awkward around women. He is the original Flash, however; they guy who
got covered by chemicals and struck by lightning. Somehow that resulted in
super-speed instead of third-degree burns.
But this is comics. Realism be damned!
Review:
Move Forward, if
anything, is about Barry’s relationship to the Speed Force, the energy that
gives Flash his ability to run fast. The story is about Barry finding new
abilities with this energy, but also its deadly side-effects. It’s an
overarching story that ties the two story arcs of Move Forward together nicely.
It turns out the Speed Force does more than just make Barry
run fast. It can vibrate the molecules in his body which allows him to phase
himself (and even other objects) through solid walls. As Barry rotates his
arms, the Speed Force creates vortexes. Most significantly, in this volume,
Barry discovers that the Speed Force can help him to “think fast”. This means
considering every possible outcome of a situation and acting accordingly. This
ability needs a villain that can live up to it. Enter Mob Rule, an old friend
of Barry’s that can clone himself multiple times. It’s a decent set-up; a guy that can move and
think faster than anything verses a guy who can be everywhere at once. The
situation is complicated further by the fact that Mob Rule is actually an old
friend of Barry’s whose clones have turned against him.
The story moves about as fast as you would expect from a
book about the fastest man alive, which leads me to talk about one of the
book’s major strengths; a lot happens in a single issue. It makes sense, as
someone who can move quickly should be able to do more in less time. As a
result, I found myself getting my “Flash-fill” before I even reached the middle
of the book. That’s an advantage in my eyes, because it gives Move Forward an extended use-by date.
This book was just as good to read in the second sitting as the first, which I
appreciated.
Much of that sense of speed comes from the work of Brian
Buccalleto as artist. Buccaletto is a master at panelling the flash, creating
this ordered chaos in his panelling that makes each moment in The Flash feel
both quick and incredibly graceful. Between him and writer Francis Manapul, the
book has plenty of moments for huge page or double-page spreads. Nearly every
moment in this book has you thinking about how great this would be in a movie;
Flash vibrates an entire jumbo jet through a bridge. Boats are torn apart and
suspended on pillars of ice. Time and space get disrupted something shocking.
This is a spectacle book that plays perfectly on the skills of both writer and
artist.
My only complaint about Move
Forward is that it doesn’t quite end. This was a series that was clearly
designed to be read as separate issues. Each issue in this collection ends on a
cliff-hanger that really avoids any satisfying conclusion to the trade. It’s a small
matter, but it does make the end of Move Forward somewhat abrupt and forced.
Move Forward is
exactly what you should expect from a Flash story; it’s faced paced and heavy
on action. It gets four and a half out of five third-degree burns.
**** ½
+ Fast moving story.
+ Artwork matches the pace of the story.
- Ending is too abrupt.
Alternate Option: Flashpoint
It’s another Flash book that deals with Barry’s use of the
Speed Force. Damn that Speed Force.
agree that the ending is quite abrupt, I feel the same thing kind of happened in Vol 2 with the Rogues to set up the big Gorilla Warfare story in Vol 3. But both are still worth reading if you haven't already!
ReplyDeleteThe thing with that abrupt ending is that it left me only wanting more. I'm waiting for vol 2 and 3 to hit paperback on book depository. It left me thinking "but... but... what happens next?"
ReplyDeleteI felt the same thing was done with the "Wonder Woman" series- clearly not designed to be read as seperate issues. I will be reviewing those two together.