The Flash has so far been a surprising joy for me. I did not expect this series to be so great. It tells a great story for Flash and his supporting characters and always leaves us with a great ending for us to want to pick up the next issue.
In this issue The Flash is still trying to learn how to control his new powers. Manuel is trying to figure out a way to save his clones, but it may end up killing himself in the process. When something goes wrong with Manuel and his clones the Flash is going to have to save the day and pay the price.
The cover for this issue I thought had a great concept and even better art. In this issue Flash is going to have to save Manuel and many do die, but it is not as dramatic as they show it on the cover. I love the art even more than the concept though. One of the reasons I started reading the Flash was because of Francis Manapul’s art. He is one of my favorite artists and I think he does a great job with the series. The art for the cover was amazing like always. Great coloring and great artwork!
Something I really like that the Flash series has been doing well so far is that they know how to split their story time for all the characters in the series. We get story time in each issue for Iris, Manuel, Patty, and the Flash. Which is rare to see in some comic books. Sometimes it will take issues and issues to see the supporting characters progress in the series. But in the Flash we get to see every character’s story progress.
In the beginning of this series I hated the Manuel story, but as the story continued and we learn more about this character. I have been starting to really like his story. This issue is no exception of this. His character brings an interesting dynamic to the story. I think it is going to be if we get to see the evil side of Manuel fight the Flash in the next couple of issues. Since Manuel and Barry are such good friends it is going to be fun to see how Barry is going to react.
The best part of this issue was the cliffhanger, which seems to be the best part of every issue. From this cliffhanger it seems like we are going to get some great story in the next couple of issues. All I am going to spoil is we are going to see Barry have to retire from being the Flash for a while. I think it could be interesting to see a hero have to not be a hero to save the world. But I have a feeling we going to see Barry put back on the tights again in the near future.
The only disappointing part in this issue was Manuel’s clones. I am not a big fan of the clones because I felt like they were not necessary. It may have been smarter if there was only one clone so the readers could connect with the character more. So, when the clone died it would have been more of a sad death. But when a whole group of clones died in the issue it was less sad because we could not connect with their characters.
As I said for the cover portion of this review the art for this series is amazing. Francis Manapul is one of my favorite artists and he never disappoints. The art is so realistic and makes the art come off the pages. Especially for Flash’s speed force. Some artists would just put some random lines for when the Flash is running, but with Francis Manapul he puts great detail for the speed force and pretty much everything else in the issue. It really shows when the readers pick up this series and makes the series that much better. I was very impressed by the artwork and it is one of the reasons why this series is so great.
This issue was a great read. It made me excited to pick up the next issue ,which I think every great issue should do. The artwork was amazing and one of the best artwork I have seen for the Flash. This issue is worth picking up and if you have not read the series yet I would pick up the issues before this and start reading.
