Absolute Flash has raced into readers’ lives, and has done a pretty great job of setting up the world for the new Wally West. DC promised fans a new kind of Flash comic, and so far we’ve gotten a lot of interesting little changes to the canon. Barry Allen is dead, Gorilla Grodd is a cute alien monkey, and the Rogues work for the US government under the command of Wally’s father. Absolute Flash #4 doesn’t have the action of some of the previous issues, but it continues the world-building of the title, giving readers some great character moments, fleshing out the supporting cast, and teasing fans with even more Rogues goodness.
So far, fittingly, Absolute Flash has moved pretty fast. We were introduced to Wally, and then got the accident, then got the Rogues, and the fight. Writer Jeff Lemire set the stakes and let it rip for a quick three issue set-up story with some action. Absolute Flash #4 slows the pace down and does a load of world building. That’s the key to this issue. Lemire takes some familiar pieces of the Flash formula — Linda, Iron Heights, the Dibneys (just Ralph so far, but Sue is there off the page), a Thawne, and more Rogues — and lays them out for readers, moving the series into its next phase. We also get information on what Barry was doing for the military, and the reveal of a secret at the center of the whole thing with the Rogues. It’s all set up nicely, and drops even more hooks for readers to get stuck on.
Lemire’s Wally is very interesting. Older readers will remember when DC introduced Impulse in the ’90s, and made him into the living embodiment of ADHD (although back then, it was mostly just called ADD.) Lemire brings some of that to Wally. The book begins with Wally using a mnemonic technique his mother taught him to deal with his hyperactivity. Speedsters with ADHD-like symptoms is a really cool idea, and it works well for this version of Wally. Grodd’s telepathy proves vital to fighting Wally’s hyperactivity, which is a cool idea. We also find out that the military is tracking Wally through Grodd, which begs the question about whether Grodd is a help or hindrance to Wally. This issue was exactly what the book needed, a nice little break that deals with our characters and the new situation they find themselves in.
Nick Robles is out for this issue, replaced by A.L. Kaplan. Kaplan’s style is a bit more cartoony than Robles, but it all looks very good, especially on close-up shots. Longer shots don’t look as good — there are some panels with the Rogues in them that aren’t as detailed as some of the other panels — but it’s still a very good looking book. Kaplan’s style fits the slower, less action oriented tone of the issue. His character acting is especially good, which helps in an issue that’s all about introducing characters. For example, there’s a moment with Linda where Kaplan captures this sense of a secret, that there’s something dark in Linda’s life, that she’s keeping back. It’s all there in the panel, and it’s one of the more interesting parts of the book.
The issue ends with the reveal of the new Heatwave, and Kaplan does an amazing job of making this introduction feel very alien compared to other Heatwaves we’ve seen before. One of my favorite things about Kaplan’s Wally is his eyes. Kaplan gives a lot of attention to the eyes and eyelashs, and I got the impression that this was an artistic choice, because it made it look like Wally’s eyes were bleeding energy. This is a great little way of showing the raw energy inside of Wally, a visual representation of the hyperactivity that the writing told us about earlier. Kaplan’s stuff isn’t always perfect, but there’s a great sense of storytelling to the pages that makes it all work. Robles can be a tough act to follow, but Kaplan does a great job.
Absolute Flash #4 slows the book down for much needed worldbuilding. There are a lot of moments where longtime fans are going to get a little tingle from the book, seeing Linda, Ralph, and Elenore Thawne (maybe a female version of Eobard?) as well as the new Rogues, and introducing the town of Iron Heights. Lemire does a fantastic job with the characters, all while setting things up for the future of the book. Issue #4 introduces a lot of things that can be expanded on later, little hints and clues that can blossom into something special. Kaplan’s art feels exactly right for this kind of issue. While I hope we get to see him unleashed on his action scenes — check out his work with Circuit Breaker in Lazarus Planet and Titans: Beast World to see how exciting things can get in his action scenes — his art does a lot of the heavy lifting for the script.
Rating: 4 out of 5
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