The Flash by Mark Waid Book One

Product Information

Yes, the much-lauded Terminal Velocity story arc is present in this collection which serves as a culmination of Waid’s development of Wally West to this point. Year One as an arch-story became an instant hit and soon it became clear that Mark Waid has written a character that is love and accepted by fans. In 2000, Waid co-wrote a series named Empire with Barry Kitson, whose protagonist was a Doctor Doom-like supervillain named Golgoth who had defeated all superheroes and conquered the world. Waid also launched with artist Javier Garrón a Ant-Man and the Wasp miniseries to tie into the release of the 2019 film of the same name. I understand that they form a part of the entire arc, but they simply don't work in tandem with the rest.

Once the origin story is over, we have a couple of mediocre short stories involving Not Aquaman, and a revamped Abra Kadabra. Written by Mark Waid, with co-plotting and art chores handled by Graham Nolan, everyone's favorite walking chemistry set was in good hands. Her skin also gets progressively lighter each issue, the GL crossover with Gorilla Grodd is pretty starkly racist, and the only black 'regular' character is Chunk, who shows up maybe three times to be laughed at and discarded.Once the universe settles itself post-Zero Hour, the Flash must face down Kobra’s infiltration of Keystone City. Coming from the 30th century where he lived his life in VR, he has no real concept of reality which makes for an interesting dynamic between Bart and Wally. The specials and annuals are so different in style that they affect the overall enjoyment of the collection.

The first story has a far future Flash traveling back in time to gather past Flashes (Jay Garrick the Golden Age Flash, Barry Allen, the Silver Age Flash, and Wally West) to help against a world-ending disaster in the far future.

The thing is, I think Mark Waid understood something important about superhero origin stories, which is that they have two parts. As his non-creator assignments at DC lapsed, he stated that all his future creator-owned work will be with Boom! Maybe the book is just being thorough, but I wouldn't have minded if it started with the Born to Run issues, which are a great superhero origin (this coming from a guy who is SO TIRED of origin stories). We learn more about Max Mercury's LONG history, Jesse Quick is introduced, and most importantly we learn about the Speed Force.