The
Masked Bookwyrm's Graphic Novel (& TPB) Reviews
The Flash (Page 3)
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for other Flash appearances see Justice League of America, Justice Society of America, Crisis on Infinite Earths, DC The New Frontier, Flashpoint, and others
Showcase presents The Trial of the Flash
Written and illustrated by various
Reprinting: Superman (1st series) #199, TheFlash (1st series) #175, World's Finest #198-199, DC Comics Presents #1-2, The Adventures of Superman #463, DC 1st: The Flash/Superman #1 (1968-2002) Rating: * * * (out of 5)
Reviewed: Feb. 2020
Number of readings: 1
Published by DC Comics
This is kind of an odd review to write -- because I'm not quite sure what to say. It's a kind of obvious/neat idea for a collection, it's pretty much the best version of the concept it can be -- but whether that makes for a great book...I dunno.
Y'see the gimmick here was to collect various tales of Superman racing the Flash that DC has published over the years. It's, of course, the sort of question that fans (and creators) are inclined to ponder, like could "so-and-so beat whosis in a fight?" After all, Superman is, well, Superman, DC's premiere super hero, a guy (at least at certain times and during certain creative eras) who can fly from galaxy to galaxy and literally break the time-barrier. Yet, equally, the Flash is generally billed as "the fastest man alive!" So who's really the fastest?
So over the years creative teams have come up with contrived reasons for them to test their speed against each other, and this TPB collects (I'm guessing) most-if-not-all of them, with stories from both pre-Crisis continuity (spanning the so-called Silver Age and the Bronze Age) and post-Crisis continuity, and pitting Superman against all three Flashes -- Barry Allen (in the various pre-Crisis stories, which occupy the lion's share of this TPB), as well as Wally West and the Golden Age Flash, Jay Garrick (in stories from the post-Crisis era).
And on display is a not-exactly negligile array of artistic talent (especially on the pre-Crisis side) with the likes of Curt Swan, Ross Andru, Dick Dillin, Jose-Luis Garcia Lopez, and Dan Jurgens contributing to the stories. And writers ranging from a very young Jim Shooter to Denny O'Neil to current DC Golden Boy, Geoff Johns.
However equally -- this is just a collection of stories of Superman and the Flash racing for various contrived reasons. So there is a fair amount of repetition, and not a great amount of emphasis on depth or plot nuances.
At the same time, because it is almost like the same plot being re-imagined every few years, it's an interesting illustration of how comics, and storytelling, evolved over those years.
The first tale is pretty simple, with Superman and The Flash engaging in a race around the world for charity -- with some petty mobsters seeking to game the race because they've betted on one hero or the other. Even that aspect is pretty minor and most of the obstacles the heroes encounter are naturally occurring. The second time out the story is a little more super-hero-esque with the duo coerced into the race by the machinations of some evil aliens (a gimmick that gets recycled a lot) with a little more danger and complications to the race. And both stories end in a draw -- the DC editors perhaps realizing the question of who's faster is more interesting for fans than a definitive answer. (These two issues, Superman #199 and Flash #175, were collected in a treasury-size special in the 1970s -- just FYI).
The third airing of the idea (from the comic World's Finest which was generally a home for Batman-Superman team ups, but during this period had switched over to Superman-guest star team ups) makes it more complicated still (again involving evil aliens), stretching the tale over two issues and involving time warps and other dimensions, as well as a few colliding agendas (including some evil Kryptonians from the Phantom Zone getting involved) and occasional friction between the heroes. This time out they even have one hero win the race...although in sufficiently specific circumstances that the question can still be left open to debate.
To kick off DC Comics Presents (a newly inaugurated Superman team-up comic after World's Finest had long-since reverted back to Superman-Batman team ups) the idea gets dusted off again for another two-parter, and makes the story even more complicated than before (I kind of lost track if it made sense) with the characters racing across time as well as distance, with bigger dilemmas (involving interfering with history), and working in appearances by Flash villain Professor Zoom, and a cameo by the Legion of Super-Heroes. Admittedly, I did feel the story was a bit problematic morally when I first read it (it having been reprinted before -- notably in the Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez Superman collection) since it involves warring aliens, one side which wants to end the millennia spanning war and the other which wants to keep fighting...but by the end Superman and The Flash rather callously leave both sides to their unending war.
The next time the idea is revisited is in post-Crisis continuity, with Supes racing Wally West (Barry having been killed off at that point -- though year's later he was brought back). Funnily enough, it's actually a lighter and smaller-scale version of the story compared to some of the previous ones (told in one issue!), with Supes and The Flash forced into a cross country race by the mischivious imp, Mr. Myxtlplx. But writer-artist Dan Jurgens gives it a boost by making it a more intimate story, filtering it through the heroes' personalities, conveying a greater sense of their physical/emotional exertion.
The final offering (from the 38 page one-shot DC 1st: Superman/The Flash, one of a quartet of DC 1st one-shots): has Superman and The Golden Age Flash (with Wally also involved) being forced into a race by Flash vllain Abra Kadabra, the story taking them from the modern day to the far-future from which Kbabra originally came. Like with some of the other stories, there's a bit of an emotional component and dilemma thrown into the mix. It's decent enough but I've said before that I have issues with writer Geoff Johns (who has become one of the chief creative architects at DC in recent years) and his penchant for violence and sadism for no particular point. I mean, this is yet another Superman vs. Flash race -- about as goofy and trivial a concept as you can come up with -- and yet when Abra Kadabra breaks out of prison at the beginning he murders a bunch of guards, including using his magic to saw one guard in half (mimicking the stage magician illusion). Artist Rick Burchett draws it in a decidedly PG way, but still...huh? Not quite sure why anyone felt that was an appropriate way to begin the story except that, well, it's pretty much the only rabbit Johns seems to know how to pull out of his (writer's) hat.
Anyway, we get back to my initial point about not sure how to review this collection. I mean: it lives up to its title, and is pretty much as definitive "Superman vs. Flash" collection as you could ask for (after all, these aren't simply "Superman teaming with The Flash," but specifically stories involving Superman racing the Flash). And they're mostly decent page-turners, reflecting the styles and sensibilities of their various eras. But, equally, it is what it is: story after story after story of Superman and the Flash getting into/forced into a race with each other. With none of the stories really standing out as particularly significant or as creative milestones individually.
Still, none are particularly bad, either. I guess my summation would be: if the title grabs you, you won't be disappointed. But there won't be a yawning hole on your shelf if you pass on it, either.
Written by Cary Bates. Pencils by Carmine Infantino. Inks by Frank McLaughlin, others. Reprinting: The Flash #323-327, 329-336, 340-350 - with covers (1983-1985)
Rating: * * * * (out of 5)
Number of readings: 1
Review posted Sept, 2011
Published by DC Comics
The Trial of the Flash was the epic swan song of the Silver Age Flash -- the character who, in many respects, defined the super hero renaissance that began in the 1950s, leading the slow climb to where super heroes pretty much dominate the comic book industry. The Flash, arguably, never quite got a lot of industry approbation -- perhaps because there remained a deliberately old fashioned hokiness to his stories. Yet he must have been a fairly solid seller, as his series barrelled ahead undaunted for almost three decades while other, arguably better regarded, characters underwent publishing hiatus and "new directions" (at one point, with his comic on hiatus, Green Lantern was given the back up slot in The Flash).
By the mid-1980s, DC Comics was gearing up for its universe altering epic Crisis on Infinite Earths. And, in the case of the Flash, the plan had already been laid to kill him off in that mini-series. But unlike some comics at the time, which basically just trundled along until the Crisis, Flash writer Bates clearly decided to present, in a sense, the final Flash saga -- essentially wrapping up the series.
It's a rambling effort -- too long to fit into a conventional TPB collection, yet maybe not well regarded enough by editors, or believed appealing enough for modern fans (that ol' Flash stigma again) to justify being spread over a series of expensive, colour TPBs.
Which led to an unusual format. DC's "Showcase presents" TPBs (modelled after Marvel's Essential collections) usually just collect chronological runs of comics in a low-priced format -- black & white, cheap paper, but as big as phone books! But here they decided to turn the format to collecting a specific storyline, and so we have Showcase presents The Trial of the Flash, collecting over 20 issues between a single cover.
Now I'll begin by saying I have sort of mixed feelings about the Flash. I can't say I have that many comics of his compared to some other A-list heroes. But I do have a certain affection for him. I have a couple of digests I read when I was a kid (from back in the day when DC regularly put out digest collections) featuring him that were fun. The appeal of the Flash was that his stories were often quirky and imaginative, and the very simplicity of the concept -- a guy with one super power -- was actually what made him kind of neat...even cool.
The art in this collection, from first to last, is by Carmine Infantino. Infantino was the first artist to draw the Barry Allen/Flash in the 1950s and remained the chief artist up until the late 1960s, and had returned to the character by the 1980s. Some characters have signature artists -- and Infantino is definitely that for the Flash. And writer Cary Bates had been writing the Flash's adventures probably for over a decade. If a creative combo was going to write the Flash's final run -- these were the guys to do it. At one point, an issue here is wrapped around a reprint of an old Flash story from the 1960s, and nothing better establishes a sense of continuity than seeing a decades old reprint next to the newer pages -- by the same artist!
In truth, I'm not a huge fan of Infantino -- his figures are kind of squat and angular, his pencil work can be kind of rough and hasty (depending on the inker). Yet, I appreciate him, too -- his composition, his design work (like page 7, issue #325). And reading him here -- certainly I can imagine a lot of artists I would've liked less to look at for 500 pages! Infantino is given a few inkers at first (Kalus Janson is credited on the back cover -- but he only inks some covers!), before Frank McLaughlin is established as the main inker for the lion's share. McLaughlin isn't necessarily a subtle inker, given to stiff, thick lines, but he probably brings a decent solidness to Infantino's sometimes rough pencils for a respectable pairing. But what's too bad is there are a couple of issues inked by Dennis Jensen (actually he's credited with three issues, but I'm guessing that's a mistake, as only two of those issues look like the same style) -- Jensen brings a modelled, lush style to the pencils that actually put me in mind of some of Infantino's classic pairings with 1960s inkers like Murphy Anderson and Sid Greene. If DC had kept Jensen as the primary inker over Infantino's, as mentioned, sometimes stylish and eye catching composition -- this book might've been truly gorgeous. Ah, well.
The saga starts out on Barry (The Flash) Allen's wedding day to Fiona Webb -- a wedding interrupted by an attack by the villainous Reverse-Flash (a.k.a. Professor Zoom). R-Flash had previously killed Barry's first wife, Iris (in a story serialised in the 1970s -- and belatedly collected as The Death of Iris West) and in the struggle to save Fiona from a similar fate -- Flash ends up killing R-Flash. And though there's reasonable grounds for an assumption of justification, Flash is charged with murder...and his troubles begin.
This plot is stretched out over the next couple of years of issues, even as it might take a back seat to more conventional conflicts as the Flash ends up battling various of his main rogues gallery (being as this was intended as Flash's final run, one assumes Bates was deliberately calling upon the familiar foes to make appearances). Along the way there are also cameoes and appearances by Kid Flash, the Elongated Man, Green Lantern and the JLA. Indeed, what's too bad is most of these are cameoes. If Bates intended this as Barry's finale hurrah, it might've been nice to have better incorporated them in meaningful ways -- not gratuitous guest stars, but ones with a long history with him, like the Elongated Man.
And the result is mixed, with ups and downs.
Some of the "downs"?
For one thing, the central case/trial seems a bit of an odd hook. It's not a mystery (as the earlier murder of Iris saga had been) --there are no major surprise revelations. One can even question whether such a case would even be tried -- the prosecutor may question Flash's motives, but given the fight, it's hard to make the case beyond a reasonable doubt that it was anything more than accidental and unavoidable. At the same time, that may well have been Bates point -- his artistic conceit, if you will: to do a "realistic" court room drama. Yet Bates doesn't even really use the case to debate the morals and ethics of the situation.
Being put on trial -- even one where he still has the support of most of the city and the police, and is free without bail -- means Flash decides to make other changes in his life including dropping his Barry Allen secret identity. Again, the plot choices Bates makes seem a bit curious -- I mean, surely now is the time Flash would need the sanctuary of a secret identity more than ever? Particularly as Barry's "disappearance" leads to police wasting resources searching for the vanished scientist...and sends fiancee Fiona spiralling into a mental breakdown! It provides for plot complications, but does feel as though Flash is making things worse for everyone!
(A little aside: at one point characters suggest if people knew Flash was Barry, and that R-Flash had killed his first wife and was now trying to kill his fiancee, it would guarantee his acquittal -- but really, wouldn't that just lend credence to the prosecutions theory that the Flash acted with malicious intent?).
Peppered throughout are various characters and sub-plots that seem to come and go. The search for the missing Barry just seems like a shaggy dog plot (at one point a cop gets hold of Barry's ring -- the one that ejects his Flash uniform -- and it's teased along for a few issues, about what would happen if the cop discovered the ring's secret...but nothing really comes of it). Supporting characters (presumably long a part of the series) drift about and just kind of fade away (including Fiona!). And some of the secondary mysteries can seem a bit...obvious. Bates started acting as his own editor, and maybe needed a little more oversight on his plotting -- at one point the Flash successfully defeats various members of his rogues gallery, leaving them unconscious...yet then a few issues later, they are still running around free!
Another problem is a fault of the collection's editor. At one point in this largely consecutive run, we skip an issue -- but there's no indication we've missed anything when we get to the next reprinted issues. Yet later in the collection we skip three issues in a row. And after the gap we're in the middle of a plot involving a teaming of various of the rogues. What's more, you realize other things relating to the on going sub-plots also arose, or were resolved, in those missing issues -- minor plots, perhaps, but still...
So if there are flaws to the saga...what are the strengths?
Well, for one thing, even if I'm complaining a lot of the sub-plots can be half-heartedly developed and resolved...at least there are such plots. There is fun in cutting between some of the other plots and the unfolding secondary mysteries. There are a few twists and turns. And there's just an intrinsic fun in, well, a Flash epic. There are next to no collections of Barry's pre-Crisis adventures (save Archive and Showcase collections), so there is fun in breaking that drought with a 500 plus page opus.
And it's just eminently readable. I can complain about the story, the plot holes, the questionable characterization/motivation/behaviour, but the bottom line is that it's five hundred pages...and I never found it a struggle to start on the next chapter. I won't say it was always riveting...but if you can spend night after night reading through 500 pages -- I guess they're doing something right. Intellectually I can quibble...viscerally I enjoyed it.
Part of the appeal is the Flash himself. Yeah, Barry Allen is a kind of bland character -- but you still like the guy, you can still appreciate his joy and sympathize with his anger and despair. Above all, the appeal of The Flash was the very simplicity of the character -- he has one super power, just one. Speed. And the fun is just watching all the various tricks and gimmicks Bates (and earlier writers like John Broome and Gardner Fox) could milk from that idea. It's not just about beating up bad guys (despite fairly one note villains) but about performing super feats -- saving planes, or trains, or out running explosions.
Despite what Bates may have seen as a stab at doing a "sophisticated, mature" plot with the trial idea...at heart, the appeal is just the goofy charm of the fantasy of super feats, garish villains, and -- yes -- time travel and bizarre fantasy paradoxes. A comic book world where a masked man is put on trial...and no one asks to unmask him!
At the same time, it's equally true that few of the action-plots necessarily distinguish themselves as stories in and of themselves. At one point, we are treated to a flashback issue, largely comprised of reprinting some old John Broome stories from the 1960s, involving Flash and Kid Flash and an alien dimension. And it's actually more interesting, more clever, than a lot of the other stories here!
The thing builds to the double-sized 350th issue to mostly good effect. Bates treats us to some irony (a villain's actions...actually weren't necessarily as villainous as we thought) and plenty of weird time travel and paradoxes (though I'm not sure a character's explanations about time paradoxes really makes sense). And above all, Bates tries to wrap things up with a happy ending -- at least as far as the circumstances allow. The Flash's death was already decreed by DC's editorial staff, so all Bates can offer is a temporary happy ending, as some time travellers mutter cryptically about his troubles to come (foreshadowing the Crisis on Infinite Earths).
Is the Trial of the Flash a classic? Nah. But in its occasionally goofy, old school way...it is an enjoyable page turner. Cover price: $19.99 USA.
Written by Gail Simone. Art by Clayton Henry.
First published on-line, then in print as stories in The Flash Giant (1st series) #1-7, The Flash Giant (2nd series) #1-5 (2019-2020) - plus covers
Rating: * * * (out of 5)
Reviewed: May 2024
Number of readings: 1
Published by DC Comics
DC has done a few of these series where they are first posted on-line, before seeing physical printing. Part of the gimmick is these are often only loosely connected to the overall continuity, or -- as here, with these Flash stories -- a separate continuity (without being an Elseworlds-type mythology). In other words: a handy way for newer readers to dip into the DCU without drowning in incoherent lore.
Of these on-line-first series I've read, some are a chance for various creators to take a stab at the character (ala the Batman Legends of the Dark Knight stories) while others have a more consistent creative team (Superman: Man of Tomorrow). This Flash collection is of the latter variety.
Not only are all stories by writer Gail Simone and artist Clayton Henry, but there is a linked continuity which form two story arcs -- even as the individual chapters mostly tell individual stories.
I picked this up because I kind of like the idea of a bubble-continuity (ie: a chance to read about a character without feeling the collection is hamstrung by a need to link to past stories or foreshadow those to come) and because Simone is an A-lister whose work I haven't read that much, but what I have I enjoyed (notably Welcome to Tranquility).
Simone seems to being influenced as much by the popular TV series as the comics. Though come to think of it, other modern Flash comics I've read seem influenced by the TV show, too -- so I guess that's just the modern Flash. What I mean by that is Flash is both the traditional Barry Allen, the blonde police scientist, and has been the Flash for a while (he already has his rogues gallery) even as he is deliberately written in a youthful, shyly awkward way. Iris is a reporter, but not someone he already knows (as she was in the TV series) but is drawn as Black, ala the TV series (and arguably it's a testament to Candice Patton's performance/presence that it feels like the idea of Iris being Black is gradually becoming the default).
Perhaps the biggest hint of the TV show's influence is the way each instalment begins with Barry repeating the line in his voiceover: I'm the Flash. And I'm the fastest man alive!
Unfortunately, it left me a bit ambivalent. It's not by any means bad -- just kind of bland, I guess. In a way it reminds me of Superman: Man of Tomorrow. In these on-line comics written by varied creative teams those creators clearly saw it as an opportunity to be creative. But when it's one creative team, there's a danger they see it -- or the mandate they were given -- was more to cross their Ts and dot their Is. To essentially do a nice Reader's Digest version of the character.
The first seven-part story arc is that various of Flash's rogues keep attacking the city (as I say: this is already a Flash with some history behind him). But someone seems to be manipulating them, many not following their usual M.O.s. This builds up to a villain who this Flash has never met before but is a familiar DC villain (albeit not specifically a Flash foe) and you can probably recognize early by his silhouette. Meanwhile, as a sub-plot, we get Barry's relationship with Iris going from their first meeting, to a few clumsy dates, to becoming a couple.
The second five-part arc is a little more of a sustained story, though still with each chapter telling its own semi-self-contained adventure. This one involves the Flash encountering -- here for the first time -- his arch-foe, Professor Zoom, the Reverse-Flash, for a slightly wilder run of stories involving time travel and a few guest stars, including the Atom (who I thought was written really oddly until I realized he wasn't the Ray Palmer Atom but the Ryan Choi one) and cowboy Jonah Hex.
And the result is perfectly okay -- without being anything special. Although it's worth noting Simone is working with 12 page episodes in the first arc (bumped to 16 pages in the second) and she does cram a lot into those pages.
The idea of a story arc in which many of the key villains drop by sounds fun -- but here it's kind of bland. Especially as you lose the point of the different villains when they're basically doing the same thing for the same reason because it's the same mastermind behind it all. Why a villain does what he does, what his goal is, his Modus Operandi, is surely as much the point of a villain as his costume and super powers. And the fun part of (old) Flash comics was the pseudo-science and seeing all the wild ways the Flash could use his power to thwart the villains. They try to do that here -- just not as effectively.
Which is maybe the crux of it. When I think of, say, Cary Bates' Flash stories, they could often be goofy, and childish, and unbelievable -- but they often bubbled with quirky imagination and wild twists and turns. Likewise earlier Fox and Broome. And with Barry an appealing, level-headed adult.
The character stuff feels a bit generic (though I reiterate: they've only got 12 pages per chapter). Even pointless: there's a cop who resents Barry but never really becomes important to the stories.
Also the problem may be that Simone is faithfully trying to evoke the flavour of the old comics and I'm demanding too much as a grumpy, older reader. It's just I didn't really believe in the relationship with Iris, I didn't invest in it, or see what their attraction was to each other -- beyond it's pre-ordained. Barry basically meets Iris once and immediately is smitten.
I'll admit it's funny reading stories like this, written from a man's POV (Barry literally narrates) even as the writer is a woman. Because it feels like she's recycling male cliches that you might expect a woman writer to modify. Barry just falls for Iris love-at-first-site, while Iris is given little personality (again: 12 pages, so I'm probably demanding too much).
Or maybe Grant Gustin and Candice Patton raised the bar too high and a comic book can't really replicate what actors can on screen. (After all, I can't say I was some big Iris fan in the old days, either).
The second story arc is more epic, and with the action moving from present day to the future to the past, more wild and imaginative. But it, too, can feel a bit like we're just getting a perfectly nice, perfectly sturdy version of an archetypal saga.
I'm not sure why I struggled to connect with this, except as I say just a feeling it was solid and workmanlike -- and that's all it was intended to be. I wasn't really fond of the way Barry was portrayed -- I mean, Barry has always been a bit of a durably bland personality. But the quasi-teen personality just felt even more cliched. The modern style of voiceover narration (replacing the old thought balloons) I find can work against the immediacy of a scene, since even when written in present tense it can feel too much like the character is just dispassionately describing the moment.
Clayton Henry's art is a lot like Simone's scripts in that I can't say much bad about it, even as it didn't fully draw me in. His drawings are very good and his style is solid and realist (a style I'm generally partial to). It's a weird thing to say about drawings -- why some drawings work for you and some don't -- but I think part of my issue with Iris is she just didn't quite appeal to me. Though she has such a consistent look I wonder if Henry actually had a model for her. And there's maybe a general lack of mood or atmosphere (maybe some heavier inking and shadows would've helped add dimension).
But again -- I don't know. Because I reiterate: the art is technically quite good.
It's weird because I feel like Simone and Henry set out to create a Flash series that should've been right up my alley: a nice, Old School homage to the feel of Bates, Fox, Broome, Infantino, Novick, and those guys. And maybe that was the problem. They're so busy recapturing the form, they missed some of the substance.
Still, by no stretch is this a bad collection. And it is what it sets out to be: a distillation of the Flash mythos -- a parade of his rogues, a romance with Iris, and a time-hopping epic -- across two story arcs that can be read for themselves and themselves alone.
And something which I might warm to more after a second reading (I'll re-visit this review if/when I get around to re-reading the collection).
Back to
see The Trial of the Flash
Superman vs. The Flash (2005) 200 pages
Showcase presents The Trial of the Flash
2011 (SC TPB) 592 pages
black & white. Letters: various.
The Flash: United They Fall (2020) 182 pages
Colours: Marcelo Maiolo. Letters: Simon Bowland, Rob Leigh.
