Team Up’s Comic Corner
Flash Year One (Issues 70-75)
Hi and welcome to Team up’s comic corner where each week I highlight a comic issue or series, past or present, that everyone should check out to make the most of nerd culture going on around us. It’s week two and it’s time to get into one of my favorite science fiction tropes with one of my favorite DC heroes, time travel (well sorta) with the Flash, as we look into one of the best ongoing DC characters and his story arc “Year One”.
Joshua Williamson has been the writer on The Flash comic series since the Rebirth relaunch in 2016, and it has been a blessing to us Flash fans. He brought us characters like Godspeed, Bloodwork, and Black Hole (all of which have or will soon be appearing in the CW Flash Series) since he began working on the series. Clearly a Flash fan long before he was given the opportunity to pen the books, his take on the Flash mythos has been a breath of fresh air.
Barry Allen’s powers have always come from something called the Speed Force, but Williamson has introduced the other forces of the universe during his run. The Still, Sage, and Strength forces are all similar to the Speed force as they all relay on an avatar in the world of man to anchor the forces and keep the universe balanced. It has been some great world building and I suggest you catch up if you have the time.
Year one takes a break from most of this to give us a retelling of Barry’s origin story and his first encounter with the Still force in the form of super-villain, The Turtle. The story involves a future version of Turtle coming to Star City to create a link between past and future, that will stop time in its tracks and cause the multiverse to collapse. It’s a bit much to summarize, but the most important thing this story gives us is a look into how quiet and shy Barry becomes the always optimistic and bright hero known as the Flash. The heroes of the DC universe have been on the losing end of things more often than not recently (even if they do technically save the day), so to see what happened to Barry in the past that’s been able to keep his spirits up and be that shiny beacon of hope has been a great respite from a lot of the brooding and loss prevalent in recent stories.
I highly suggest anyone go and check out this story arc if they need a dash of hope from the Scarlet Speedster before the TV series comes back in October. With the Flash movie from Warner Brothers on its way, this could be some good background on the character to get ready for that as well. See you next week and don’t be afraid to crease the corners on a good panel!
