Some people say Flash has the best rogue’s gallery in all of comics. I don’t know that I agree with that, but you can certainly make the argument for it. At the very least, I think he’s got to be top three. Batman and Spidey have some pretty iconic villains. But I bring this up because with the debut of the newest title to the Absolute line of comics from DC Comics, Absolute Flash, Flash’s iconic villains make an appearance already, and it sets the stage for a mysterious introduction to this new version of Flash that I want to find out about more.
Written by Jeff Lemire, with art by Nick Robles and Adriano Lucas, Absolute Flash #1 opens with Wally West on the run, but from what we have no idea. We’re then given a little bit of the young man’s backstory. He’s fifteen years old and he’s an army brat that’s now living at Fort Fox because that is where is father, Colonel West, is stationed. But at the same time, we’re shown time jumps. He’s running scared for his life, and then we’re taken back to two days in the past. There he’s shown a secret lab by Dr. Barry Allen.
Despite Barry wanting to help Wally, who seems like an outcast of sorts, with no friends to speak of, and not much of a relationship with his father since his mother is dead, Colonel West scolds Wally for being somewhere on the army base he shouldn’t be; a secret lab called Project Olympus. This leads to an argument between father and son, then we’re transferred back to present day.
And in this present day we’re shown a new team who are hunting down Wally. They seem to have orders from someone. And this isn’t just any team. Though they don’t call themselves these names, it’s readily apparent this is a team comprised of Captain Cold, Trickster, Captain Boomerang, and Golden Glider.
Wally’s then transported again. Whatever is happening to Wally, it seems he’s jumping around through time. He’s in the secret lab again but something’s gone wrong. An explosion happens, and we later learn that Dr. Allen died in it.
Before the issue ends, we’re given another time jump. This one isn’t a day or two, though. This one is a flash-forward of one year. And here we get what I can only assume is another well-known rogue of the Flash, Mirror Master. He’s looking up the Project Olympus archives, and ends the issue with the ominous words, “Mirror, Mirror, on the wall, time to make this whole world fall.”
I enjoy Jeff Lemire books, and I enjoyed this first issue for this version of Flash. Nick Robles’ art is cool, but I’m not really a fan of how Wally West was designed. It’s not horrible. I can’t think of the right way to describe it, except to say it feels like it’s designed for the generation of kids who say “radical” today like it’s cool. Does that make sense? Like, people in the 80s said things like radical and tubular (for whatever reason). People who say it today I feel like are almost saying it ironically. That’s what Wally’s design feels like to me. An ironic throwback. Still competently drawn, just… different.
But there are so many unanswered questions left for the reader in issue one. How is Wally jumping through time? Who is he talking about when he talks about a “her” and how she instructed him to breath? Was Wally really at fault for the destruction of Project Olympus, or was something else at play? Is his father the person behind the team chasing down Wally? And how does Mirror Master play into all of this?
These are all questions that will keep me coming back for the next few issues to see if they are answered and how.