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Some more ramblings about The Flash
Nov. 19th, 2013 10:10 amSo the guy playing Barry Allen on Arrow is really cute. I know Barry is usually portrayed a bit older, but I guess I can't complain if The CW wants a young, hip Barry Allen (the actor's only one year older than me o_O).
Yesterday I read the issues from The Flash: Brightest Day/Road to Flashpoint, a.k.a. the Flash issues right before the New 52 reboot. And now I can finally articulate why I've found New 52 Flash to be meh from a writing standpoint (it's stellar from an art standpoint—so stellar that I am gladly following Manapul and Buccatello to Detective Comics next spring).
According to the writing in Brightest Day, Barry Allen's life stopped when his mother was murdered and he became obsessed with solving her case...until he became The Flash and started to look forward to the future again. That's a good setup for character development, right? But in the New 52, that's not really the case. I mean, yeah, they say he's obsessed with his mom's murder in issue #0 and again at the end of issue #24, but other than that he seems pretty well-adjusted. He has a girlfriend for crying out loud. And that's kind of the problem with New 52 Flash: I love him, he's a super nice guy, but his character doesn't have that much room to grow. So far his issues/arcs have been more about other characters rather than about him.
I also dislike how the emphasis in New 52 Flash is on his struggle to prove his father's innocence. DC comics are already filled with superheroes who are much more influenced by their fathers than their mothers; it would've been nice to have the Flash be different for a change. But not anymore. Sigh.
Yesterday I read the issues from The Flash: Brightest Day/Road to Flashpoint, a.k.a. the Flash issues right before the New 52 reboot. And now I can finally articulate why I've found New 52 Flash to be meh from a writing standpoint (it's stellar from an art standpoint—so stellar that I am gladly following Manapul and Buccatello to Detective Comics next spring).
According to the writing in Brightest Day, Barry Allen's life stopped when his mother was murdered and he became obsessed with solving her case...until he became The Flash and started to look forward to the future again. That's a good setup for character development, right? But in the New 52, that's not really the case. I mean, yeah, they say he's obsessed with his mom's murder in issue #0 and again at the end of issue #24, but other than that he seems pretty well-adjusted. He has a girlfriend for crying out loud. And that's kind of the problem with New 52 Flash: I love him, he's a super nice guy, but his character doesn't have that much room to grow. So far his issues/arcs have been more about other characters rather than about him.
I also dislike how the emphasis in New 52 Flash is on his struggle to prove his father's innocence. DC comics are already filled with superheroes who are much more influenced by their fathers than their mothers; it would've been nice to have the Flash be different for a change. But not anymore. Sigh.
