The Flash by Mark Waid—Book 3

Comic Info

The Flash (2) #83

Reprints The Flash (2) #80-94 (September 1993-September 1994).  Things never slow down in Central City, and the Flash is just speeding up.  When disaster strikes during a battle with Razer, Flash finds himself on the other side of the law and facing a criminal case claiming he isn’t fast enough.  With the challenge of becoming the hero Central City needs, Wally is out to tap into new speed and new powers he’s never imagined…and a visitor from the future could mean big changes for the Flash.

Written by Mark Waid, The Flash by Mark Waid—Book 3 is a DC Comics superhero comic book collection.  Following The Flash by Mark Waid—Book 2, the series features art by Mike Wieringo, Rob Hayes, Barry Kitson, Kris Renkewitz, and Carlos Pacheco.  Issues in the collection were also collected as part of Impulse:  Reckless Youth, Flash/Impulse:  Runs in the Family, and Zero Hour:  Crisis in Time 25^th Anniversary Omnibus.

Mark Waid breathed new life into the Flash and this volume has some of his biggest introductions.  The series about “a guy who runs fast” isn’t necessarily compelling depending on how it is written but Waid manages to keep pushing Wally’s abilities to the limit, and this volume cranks it up a notch.

The Flash (2) #92

In the volume, Wally has reached his natural peak and finds that it isn’t good enough.  He tries to push it further by using Johnny Quick’s speed formula and gets some first hints at the Speed Force.  The Speed Force becomes the driving thrust of the Flash in the next volume and has been the source of Flash stories for years since its introduction.  Much like the Green Lantern’s color spectrum, it really reinvented the Flash and Waid tips his toe into the story in this volume.

This volume also serves as the creation of one of Waid’s more important characters.  In The Flash #92 (with a tiny cameo in #91), Impulse is introduced to the Flash mythos.  Over the years, Bart Allen has played the goofy character, gotten older, and even stepped into the boots of the Flash a few times.  Here, his “impulsive” nature is introduced and he is less of the goofball as he becomes in his own title or in Young Justice, but it is always interesting to see how a new character evolves…and Impulse continues to grow in the DC world.

The Flash by Mark Waid—Book 3 has a number of good storylines.  The series falls in that weird in-between period in comic book writing where it was becoming less about the extreme imagery (that was sparked by many of the creators of Image Comics), but it also isn’t quite the formulated six issue storylines and arcs that have dominated comic books since the early 2000s.  The Flash manages to capture the fun of comics and still feel slightly smarter than many of the books being released at the time.  Looking back on The Flash “in the big picture”, Waid isn’t doing anything groundbreaking but he is creating a solid bedrock for the character that has been used to anchor him for years…and it is worth joining the run.  The Flash by Mark Waid—Book 3 is followed by The Flash by Mark Waid—Book 4.

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The Flash by Mark Waid—Book 6