Comic Info
Comic Name: The Flash (Volume 2)/The Flash: Iron Heights
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Geoff Johnsr
Artist: Angel Unzueta/Scott Kolins/Ethan Van Sciver
# of Issues: 14
Release Date: 2015
The Flash (2) #168
Reprints The Flash (2) #164-176 and The Flash: Iron Heights (September 2000-September 2001). The Flash finds himself in another world where he isn’t a hero and his only hope could be Captain Cold! Plus, the Flash takes on a villain named Cicada who could undo all the good that the Flash has ever done. Linda and Wally find their lives turned upside down once again when a baby shows up that could be tied to Wally’s past and a mystery is surfacing in Iron Heights that could lead to a deadly outbreak!
Written by Geoff Johns, The Flash by Geoff Johns—Book 1 collects the start of Johns’ game-changing run on The Flash. The collection features issues previously collected in The Flash: Wonderland and The Flash: Blood Will Run.
I actually always kind of liked the Flash. People always wrote off the Flash as the guy who could just “run fast” (like Aquaman could just swim and talk to fish). While that largely is true, it takes some clever writing to make the character more interesting than many of DC’s big guns. Geoff Johns managed to accomplish this in his run of The Flash which has a solid start here.
The Flash: Iron Heights #1
What is good about the Flash is that he can cross a lot of genres. His ability to time travel and jump dimensions with his powers allows for an almost endless set-up of stories including sci-fi fantasy stories along the lines of The Twilight Zone. That’s what you get in the start of this collection, but you get back to more classic superhero style storylines by the end of the volume.
Another reason I always like the Flash was his Rogue galleries. The Flash’s villains were always a strange balance of over-the-top supervillains and characters with strange moral codes. You have Rogues that switched sides like Pied Piper and you have Rogues that weren’t always just out for their own good like Captain Cold. The classic Rogues always work best in this series, so I’m never as interested as when Johns introduces his own characters like Cicada, Tar Pit and the villains in the stand-alone The Flash: Iron Heights issue.
Geoff Johns revolutionized the DC Universe in my opinion for better rather than worse, and The Flash was one of his early series. Here, Johns is just finding his footing and doesn’t have the massive creative control he has today, but you can tell at this point he’s already growing and learning in his writings…has he written better stuff? Yes. Is it still good? Yes. The Flash by Geoff Johns—Book 1 is followed by The Flash by Geoff Johns—Book 2.
