Review: Blackest Night: Flash Mini-Series
This Wednesday saw the conclusion to one of the last Blackest Night tie-ins, the three-part Blackest Night: Flash. Penned by the Blackest Night's creator Geoff Johns, how does this limited series stack up against the other concurrent event titles?
Well, for a series so concerned with timing, this Flash mini mostly suffered from its uneven pacing; In the first issue alone, we're treated to an over-saturated cast and their problems; First comes the opening exposition required for the Blackest Night subplots, then we enter into a brief scuffle with the Reverse Flash that literally gets tossed aside, shortly followed by a run in with Black Lantern Solovar who's fought, apparently, by Barry's inner monologue until the events of Blackest Night proper call him elsewhere. Meanwhile, a subplot involving the Rouges timidly advances towards... not quite anything yet. While this is clearly an introductory issue, discrepancies arise in the follow-up. There's a considerable gap in action before the startup of the second issue, as the month between their release saw a change in both Barry and Bart Allen. Johns exceeds to some extent in justifying these changes in the Flash by considerate deconstruction of his character, though Bart's change receives no attention, despite his perfectly healthy involvement in the the preceding issue, causing some concern for when these issues will be collected in May. Naturally, Johns does best in his portrayal of the various involved characters and the foils he establishes during their combat. This issue prominently features the Rogues, and while some pairings prove to be more compelling than others, the author manages to include at least a few interesting vantages, especially in his ability to really demonstrate Captain Cold's utter lack of emotional attachment. As the third issue winds down, John's privilege as author and orchestrator of Blackest Night is truly demonstrated, to what may be considered an almost unfair degree. While other authors tackling the event spin-offs, like Tomasi and Robinson, have had to invent ways to temporarily suspend the black lanterns, having to wait on the end of the event to form a real conclusion, Johns has the full authority to kill the opposing army by any rules that he comes up with, leading to a random, unfulfilling end to the battle of the Flashes, and a Rogue resolution recycled from Tomasi's Blackest Night: Batman mini. The end result leads this series to become a practice in thematically linking the Flashes to the Rogue gallery, as the action between the pages passes with little apparent significance, though we get a hint of Brightest Day symbol that may play into the Flash revamp later.
Scott Kolins's pencilwork does little to help the mediocrity of the run, offering inconsistent portrayals that are sometimes loosely-drawn and other times forged with strict, straight lines, a hodgepodge as varied as the the multiple plots within the story, executed randomly so as to leave no dramatic impact on the storytelling process. Kolins's drawings are best suited to landscapes and uncluttered scenery, but suffers when the script calls for dynamic posing or intricate group shots. While there are a few redeeming aspects, the inclusive package of this series is unsatisfying, considering John's much stronger work on other parts of the Blackest Night canon.
Rubber Justice
Posted to Review on 19 February 2010
· Comments (2)
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SPOILERS
I would not say the ending was recycled at all. The Brightest day (White Lantern?) stopping them was more the ending. Freezing the bodies was more of just in case they get back up kind of thing.
SPOILERS
I avoided mentioning the specifics to avoid spoilers (and be sure to add that tag if your comments include them, folks) but I think that we don't know enough about Brightest Day to understand precisely how the situation was resolved. My guess would be that some future Brightest Day event helped to stop the incarcerated Thawne, but as long as we don't know the specifics, it becomes as much of a Deus-Ex-Machina as Barry's Phoenix hug for Bart. It's one part Brightest Day hook and one part anticipated Fridge Brilliance, without yet having hit that moment of brilliance.