Compared to the other Absolute Books, Flash is probably the most down-to-earth and least heavy. This book follows alternate universe Wally West, who becomes the Flash with no legacy or mantle to take on. We have Barry in the first issue, but we skip ahead and have him sucked into the speed force like energy before a crisis could even occur.
What we partake in is yet another teen runaway wanted by the government story. Wally is joined by a more monkey-like Grodd as his stowaway sidekick. I can’t help but draw a comparison to other books similar to this, such as the original Runaways run or Titans Earth 1 book. What this book does differently is that Wally is the main focus; this is a very personal story as he tries to stay a loner and come to grips with his new powers.
However, my grievance with this series so far was this interpretation of the roques. While Absolute Batman and Superman brought amazing reimaginings of their classic rogues’ gallery, Flash’s rogues go down a pretty obvious path. First, the changes here are pretty minimal; they are a task force for Fort Fox to track down Wally, but eventually get sick of being soldiers constantly taking orders. Compared to the brutal turns Absolute Batman took, this all felt pretty tame and predictable. I especially loathe how Glider’s main personality trait seems to be her angst about having prosthetic legs. This might also be a personal bias, but I’ve never been much of a fan of the anti-hero mercenary trope. Despite being pretty predictable, it was still very satisfying to see them disobey Thawne and offer to help Wally.
While I have seen a lot of complaints, the overall pacing for the series still seemed to work pretty well. The constant flash backwards and forwards felt more like padding than any setup. However, I think it’s fair to give Jeff Lemire the shadow of a doubt. The twelfth issue was a pretty big status quo shake-up, but I found it intriguing that this book still didn’t focus on Wally too much. Instead, we also have an entire issue devoted to Wally’s dad, Rudy, recruiting the Roques, and another issue involving Thawne recruiting Barry. The lack of focus on Wally does seem to be a bit of a wise choice because in this book, he comes across as a bit of a Ditko-era Peter Parker-like loner. It doesn’t help that Wally’s powers are a lot more speratic then usual, going off at random times, almost tied with his emotions. It even seems like this may also relate to a revelation we get in issue 13, where it is revealed that Wally’s mother had a manic personality disorder of some kind.
In Issue 12 of Absolute Batman, we had Bruce horribly tortured at the hands of Bane. In issue 12 of Absolute Superman, we had Superman horribly tortured by Brainiac. While Absolute Wonder Woman at Issue 12 just had her wondering Tartarus, making new friends. It was likely that Absolute Flash’s 12th issue would be an all-time low for Wally West. This is an emotional death as we see Wally’s father, who has been trying everything to track him down, pull a sacrificial death. This is where it comes together, what the series is really about: his relationship with his father. Afterall with no real mentor figure, it is suitable for Wally to continue on in the name of his father.
With Issue 13, it feels the series is now getting a fresh start as Wally returns to the youth house from an earlier issue and spends more time with Linda Park, and finally gets to see Wally come out of his loner shell.
So is the series worth checking out? It is a bit reluctant, yes, I think some will really appreciate the teen runaway angle, and the rougues are still part of a fun supporting cast. However, the series still lingers on in some places, not explaining things enough, while at the same time being slightly predictable. Things still seem to be picking up with issue 13, as we finally pick up with Mirror Master, who was hinted at the end of the first issue. Plus, I’m really invested in seeing how Wally’s relationship with Linda Park could go now that he is close with her so early in his career. In a way, it reminds me of Wally’s relationship with Artemis in Young Justice, and I was a huge fan of that. So I recommend checking out future issues at your local comic store to see how it could turn out.
