Flash #1

Simon Spurrier and Mike Deodato Jr. make a splash in their first full issue on The Flash and leave readers with an enthralling first issue to their run. Read Full Review

This is easily one of the best first issues I've read in quite some time. I expected good, but got outstanding. DC has really tapped into something special with this team, and even if you haven't read a Flash book in a while, this issue serves as an excellent (and excellent looking) jumping on point. Do yourself a favor and spend your hard-earned money on this issue this week. You won't be sorry. Read Full Review

The Flash #1 changes everything. The book is such an emotional shift from what came before, uprooting the feelings of comfort and safety, which was a crucial aspect of the previous run. Now every part of the book is unsettling. Read Full Review

The Flash #1 reads like lightning in a bottle and there's no better approach to The Flash. Read Full Review

DC Comics' The Flash #1 is an incredibly promising start to a spooky, grounded, and wild new run on this beloved character. If you want to be intrigued by terrifying and mysterious forces, have your heartstrings pulled by relatable characters, and experience high stakes thrills -- The Flash has all of that and more. Read Full Review

Si Spurrier and Mike Deodato Jr. are working on something special with THE FLASH #1, and I'm excited to see how the first story arc plays out. Read Full Review

I'm not sure if I'm totally sold on The Flash #1 but it's a very entertaining start that feels like a new beginning. There's a vibe like we're walking into an expansion of The Flash's world, much like the growth Green Lantern saw many years ago. No matter, the art alone is more than enough to check out the issue. Read Full Review

The next wave of the adventures of the Fastest man Alive kicks of in magnificent fashion. Spurriers excellent writing paired with the impactful art of Deodato provides readers with a strong beginning to the future of the Flash. Dont miss this on New Comic Book Day. Read Full Review

Despite some warranted concerns about Wally and Lindas relationship and a too-talky first issue, the new creative team suggests a promising run with a very different take on The Flash than previous modern runs. Read Full Review

The Flash #1 sets up a new, cosmic horror, tone for the franchise, establishing something entirely new for the character. While the change is welcome, this headfirst dive into the story feels like its missing some much needed context rather than setup for future mysteries. Read Full Review

The main thrust here seems to be that the Speed Force is a wildly powerful and unpredictable forceand now something horrific might be emerging from it. The final visuals of this issue are deeply disturbing, plunging this issue into the realm of full-on horror. It's clear that's what this creative team wanted to go forI'm just not sure how well it works yet. Read Full Review

The Flash #1 begins a new era for the West family when the Speed Force gets wonky, new threats appear, and Mr. Terrific is let in on a reality-ending problem. Fans of Jeremy Adams's time on the title will get whiplash with the jarring shift in tone and attitude. Spurrier's foray into cosmic horror leads to more confusing questions than intrigue. The art team's stark, oppressive art makes this first issue in a new era a ponderous, joyless read. Read Full Review

TheObserver

Sep 28, 2023

This first issue of Flash by Simon Spurrier and Mike Deodato was a real surprise. I've never been much of a Flash fan, but here, oddly enough, I got right into the story. The atmosphere, the characters, the cutting, the sequencing, the storytelling, the pacing, the (fabulous) art... it's all good. I really liked the way the Spurrier Deodato duo presented Wally's current situation. It's done with great intelligence. Everything's fine, should be just fine, but... The family? great, except that Linda isn't entirely satisfied, the kids? they have their secrets. And even Wally is keeping things from Master Terrific, his eminence grise, friend and boss. Mr. Terrific himself is not totally transparent with Wally. What's going on outside seems o ut of control. There's a diffuse, eerie, almost sticky atmosphere throughout this introductory story. I'm caught up in it, wanting to see the next move. This hasn't happened to me in a long time. more

cincyfan

Sep 30, 2023

Absolutely tremendous start! This seems like a complex and deep story which is right up my alley. I was so excited for this to come out and it met or exceeded all my expectations

Jonn McLoed

Dec 24, 2023

I’ve read some great , bad , awful and utterly pointless comics since I picked up my very first comic lying in bed with a chest infection all the way back in 1968 but this issue for me highlighted why all these decades later I’m still in love with comics. This is some of the best writing and art anywhere just now and if this is where DC comics are pushing the medium in the future then count me in for another 50+ years

Brand

Oct 25, 2023

Decent. The art, not so super, but I'm a fan of comic art, so it's good. I love DC speedsters, but Wally isn't my favourite. I was hoping Barry could shine in this series. But no. Anyway, it's okay, the plotline is engaging and the battle panels are amazing. I hope it's as good as Flash(2016)

sawright20

Sep 28, 2023

Si Spurrier’s story in issue 800 was good, but it had me a bit worried that I wouldn’t care for this run. This first issue was a real pleasant surprise, though! New #1s annoy me, and I wasn’t looking forward to all of these characters being reestablished and going through the same concepts we’ve read about a million times. Shockingly, though, this feels like a direct continuation of Jeremy Adams’s run, though completely different in tone. A ton of stuff from the previous run is built upon here, such as Animal Girl and Jai’s “action log,” as well as Wally’s job for Mister Terrific. The issue opens with Max Mercury and Impulse with no explanation for new readers of who they are, too. I was pretty excited by this, as well as surprised by what a poor jumping on point this seems to be for readers unfamiliar with the Flash. It’s great for me, though! As I said, the tone is very different from the previous run, and while I’m a little nervous about what Spurrier seems to be setting up with Linda, everything else really worked. I’m glad how much focus there is on the West family besides Wally, and the fragmented structure of the narrative was reflected wonderfully by the literally fragmented panel layouts. And the lettering is awesome, too! In terms of plot, so far we’re not breaking any new ground. Something is wrong with speed force, yadda yadda, we’ve heard it all before. But that’s the Flash, and it’s the characters and tone that matter to me, both of which this issue has sold me on. It’s creepy and weird, while the characters all have retained their voice. I’d recommend checking it out for sure. more

Jawsh

Oct 03, 2023

VERY intriguing.

ResearchReader

Sep 30, 2023

So this is quite a strong start, but there are some serious red flags. Like this new direction is exciting as I like the unknown edrich horror stuff/things broken that shouldnt be broken, unknown unknowns ect. Big Red Flag- characterization. Like Linda I am worried he will ruin her and the marriage. Now if he decides to take it in more of a understanding post-postpartum and the family working through that, that would be more wholesome and nice. I just worry that he will ruin it and make Wally's like in ruins. That would ruin the run instantly and really just further break Wally's character. I hope that isnt the case. Overall, nervously optimistic.

maljoss

Oct 03, 2023

A very good fist issue. But not Great. Spurrier has a solid body of comics to his credit, and an ability to blend genres in ways that seem to work. I was cautiously optomistic when I heard he was on this book and I was not disappointed. A lot happens in the first issue, but not a lot gets resolved. The scene is set for the new status quo, and a mystery involving the speed force is introduced. There were some issues with characterization. Wally seemed a bit hapless and indecisive - not at all what you'd expect from a character that's been a superhero for his entire adult life. We're clearly headed for a "the speed force isn't what we thought it was" storyline, and I'm intrigued. Hopefully, Spurrier can keep the focus on Wally, and avoid him becoming a supporting character in his own book. Let's talk about the art. Deodato is in top form. His lines are clean and everything looks great.The page layouts are intense, with a massive panel count per page. Coloring is excellent as well. If you liked Immortal Hulk, Cates' Venom run, or Johnson's Action comics, you will probably enjoy this comic. more

Mout

Sep 28, 2023

I'm sold, Deodato back on DC after so much time is bonkers and he's doing a hell of a job here.

K-23

Oct 25, 2023

I'm still devastated Jeremy Adams' run was cut far too short and replacing him with Si Spurrier hurt even more as I'm usually not a fan of his work. That said, this was a solid issue to set up some interesting threats while also doing a decent job spending time with the Flash family which Adams excelled at. The art is also fantastic and the freaky scenes are some of Deodato's best work.

Reaper74

Nov 30, 2023

I really don’t know how I feel about this book. At times it’s fun at other times it’s word salad. The gist of the plot seems interesting but getting there felt like I was walking through a swamp. Overall I’m intrigued but I don’t know how long I can take the Psuedo nerd talk.

derbycomics

Sep 27, 2023

This debut issue was a head-scratcher. Nobody expected Si Spurrier to have to keep the same tone as the previous run, but we went deep into Spurrier’s typical larger-than-life sci-fi/fantasy lore in the blink of an eye. It was an abrupt start to say the least and I for one would have appreciated a bit more stage-setting before things got serious. There were also some heavy moments focused on the home life of the Wests, including an overworked, underslept Linda who Wally dismisses and demeans far too easily. Anyone who has read Spurrier’s work on the X-titles over the past year is far too-familiar with how the writer can introduce and probe fascinating genre-related questions, yet he can err on being too heavy-handed and make the journey so complex and convoluted that it removes the fun from it all. This issue immediately inches close to that line in Spurrier’s Speed Force setup and I worry that we won’t have a moment to get buckled in before we’re in the thick of things. Mike Deodato Jr.’s layouts are fascinating at first, but become repetitive and distracting. Multiple mini-panels are combined to form larger panels throughout, which adds to the overall complex feel of the book. Used sparringly, it may be more effective in creating disjointed and chaotic moments. Trish Mulvihill’s colors and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou’s lettering are both effective on their own and offer a highlight for the book. more

Screaming Enigma

Sep 27, 2023

I knew Spurrier's direction for Wally was going to be different than what we were getting before with Jeremy Adams, but I have to say I'm a bit disappointed with this one. I like a good amount of the concepts and ideas brought to the table here, but it felt like we were jumping around a lot in this issue, which could possibly be from Spurrier trying to establish a bunch of things for this run at once. Flash is, of course, a speedster, but I think things needed to be slowed down here a bit for this to work better. The content we got in this issue could have been spread out across at least two issues. As for the art, I thought it was pretty solid. It works better in some places than others, but it was good overall. All things considered, whil e I wasn't the biggest fan of this issue, I do think it has potential to become better and I was, if anything, fairly interesting. I'll keep reading for now and hope it does nothing but improve. more

2birdsstoned815

Sep 27, 2023

https://youtu.be/TbXkVlhF5Cw?si=B0FlWjyu9N0qp4Ec Review at (:45) in link

GreenWing

Sep 27, 2023

It's the first issue of a new run. The author put a lot of thought into it. I didn't enjoy it. There was too much distracting internal dialogue. It was a struggle to get through this ponderous story and I won't be buying issue #2. The family trope is overdone. We see it in the Batman books. We see it in the Superman books. We're even seeing it in the new Green Arrow and Wonder Woman books. Too many characters. Plot and action are drowned by exposition. Interaction between characters is replaced with page after page of internal dialogue boxes. I found the whole thing to be difficult to enjoy on any level. One case in point, Mr. Spurrier wants us to know he's a clever writer but putting that clever text in the mouth of Impulse shows a lack of understanding about Bart Allen. The author would be better served by trimming down the number of characters, which does not seem to be DC's way these days when there are so many editorial boxes to check, or better still go back to a Barry Allen-centered book about a forensic scientist solving cases. more

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Mout - Sep 28, 2023

Family trope? Everyone has a family

reading@dabeach

May 05, 2024

This is a review for #1 to the annual, so 9 books total. As of the time of this writing, it covers all the releases for the series thus far. There are new things and good things in this Flash run. The good things are not new. The new things are not good. I appreciate what Mr. Spurrier is trying to do, and at first glance, it looks like a great idea: Let's mess around with hard sci-fi concepts for this one! After all, the Flash family has been breaking the laws of physics more than most for decades. So how about we make the laws a little harder and with a little more consequence? While this is a nifty concept, the result we have so far is atrocious. There are simply too many ideas thrown in the blender, and they all need lengthy explanati ons. Suddenly, the books grow verbose, slow, and exposition dumps become the norm. The characters turn into hideous mouthpieces. On and off it turns into a novella. Are there cool ideas in here? There are, but most of them are not actually used in the plot and are not worth the cost or the pain. They never manage to coax it into a good, entertaining story. Too often, the pages serve as a gallery of ideas the creative team probably likes and wants to use but doesn't really know how, so they don't. They just throw it in there completely raw to prove to us, the readers, they have ideas, but that's about as far as it goes. The result is a convoluted, drudging mess. I feel the editor failed the creative team and us by allowing such excess to make its way to the final product. And then we have Mr. Deodato Jr. coming in to illustrate this mare's nest and what a blunder that is. It's not the artist's fault. Some artists are better suited to certain books. MDJ is not the guy to draw The Flash. His figures have a statuary quality to them. They're heavy, gloomy, always partially buried in darkness. Bringing that quality to a hero whose symbol is a bolt of lightning might not be the sharpest move ever made. The decision to slice full illustrations with panels is odd, unwarranted, and simply quite ugly. So, in the end, we have both the artwork and the writing being a detriment to what is trying to accomplish. It's supposed to be a hard sci-fi horror story. It has elements of both things, but it fails to be interesting or entertaining. I gave this run more than I felt it deserved. They didn't wrap it up in the annual, so I'm firing it. I appreciate the attempt, but it simply didn't work. It's time to move on. more