The Flash Annual #3 Review

Regretfully yours.

It’s a clever idea Vendetti and Jensen are using here, which has shades of the controversial Flashpoint event that spawned the New 52.

Also resembles Arrow in a manner, by juggling two different timelines and showing how different the two Barry Allens are.

With some good artwork, this is an excellent read that is both action packed and character exploring.

SPOILERS FOLLOW…………..

First of all, I’m not cool with Wally West. No, not the look (through c’mon, atleast make him a ginger!) but the background given here – basically an orphan, looking up to a Flash, but the wrong one (the villain Reverse Flash Daniel West, his uncle).

Wally’s sob story is something that’s a little too familiar to most readers, while his pre-New 52 familial background was refreshingly different.

But he’s no more than plot device right now as we see that the Future Flash is motivated by his death, feeling that moment was the pivot that sent his world spiraling.

Through Barry’s first meeting with Wally doesn’t end well. The Flash finds the kid tagging a Flash symbol and helps in his arrest.

Later, we find out that Barry is unconsciously loosing time, despite no knowledge of the gap. Meeting up with an enraged Iris, Barry learns that the kid is her nephew and she is now the sole guardian.

In the future, Barry stands before Wally’s grave when a wheel chaired Iris arrives. Revealing his secret identity (and in the process, Iris and Barry’s future relations), he goes to confront Grodd. It's surprising that it took twenty years for this reveal, despite Iris's reporter instincts and being with Barry for some time.

In Gorilla City, Grodd is in the process of eating another brain, this time of Eobard Thawne, a 25^th century scientist when Barry arrives.

We further find that after Daniel West’s first incursion in the time travel department, the Speed Force has slowing been bleeding out and Grodd has made it worse (he also seems to have eaten Daniel and left Gorilla City to ruin). They fight and Barry manages to place a microbomb in the Gorilla’s head.

This results in Grodd’s death (stubby Gorilla fingers? Barry, that's cruel) and Barry begins moving again, promising to kill the person responsible for everything wrong – Barry Allen.

The present Barry handles his first case back and concludes that the suspect was in jail at the time and his weapons were stolen.

Later in the day, he comes across an art robbery where the thieves use sonic guns to disrupt the Flash but fail to stop him. During the situation, Barry saves the life of one of the thieves and affirms that any death he fails to stop is his responsibility.

It’s a nice parallel Vendetti and Jensen are drawing here. Barry is making promises that the future shows he wont be able (and later, wont even try) to keep. Even as he saves the thief from certain death, he kills Grodd in the future quite ruthlessly.

The wordplay is great here. Grodd describing himself as a librarian and ‘treasure’ because of his numerous time travels and Barry’s snide side erupting once too often as he takes a cheap shot at Forrest (and Grodd).

I’ve already talked about Wally but the opening scene was heavily clichéd and dated. Barry catching Wally in the process of disfiguring a Flash symbol may have not sent the right message.

Also, we got some name-drops and reveals. Barry and Iris are known as a longtime couple pre-New 52 and it is revealed that they were together sometime during the New 52. Also, Eobard Thawne was the Reverse Flash called Professor Zoom pre-New 52, a man so obsessed with Barry that he created all the tragedies that made the Flash so willing to change the past in Flashpoint.

But in all, it was an excellent look at what makes Barry Allen tick.

SPOILERS END………………

Some great character exploration and epic fights aside, this arc is shaping up to re-establish Flash’s universe.

While I do not agree with all the decisions the current team are making, it is an engrossing read.

So, I give it 8.5 out of 10.

  

+Great character exploration

+Good artwork from Brett Booth, which shines during the action scenes

+The theme of promises was well done

+The juggling of the present and future was seamless

-Wally comes off as a little too familiarly tragic which he wasn’t pre-New 52

-Frenz’s artwork was average at best