The Flash #9 (The Road to Flashpoint, Part I)

  It's the day of the Flash Family picnic and Barry Allen is about to leave his overworked crime lab when he gets the call to investigate the death of a 'cape.' At the crime scene, things are nothing as they seem as the costume is that of the teenaged Elongated Kid but the corpse looks like that of an octogenarian. As Barry seeks to get behind this bizarre death, the crimefighter is challenged by a new foe that seems very familiar with the Speed Force. Only this speedster drives a souped-up motorcycle and is powered by draining the speed of others in tune with the Speed Force as the Flash learns when he touches his opponent's fuel rods.

    This is a really great issue. Full of drama, action, adventure, and mystery. Okay- there was a tiny bit too much soap opera drama but hey, Grant Gustin's Barry Allen gets mopey all the time! Speaking of Gustin, what I really liked about this issue is how closely the set-up is to that of the TV show. 

   When I first starting watching the Flash, I was disappointed at how it looked nothing like the comics. But I realize now that my judgment was based on the Pre-Crisis Flash and not the Post-Rebirth Flash. Man, I was so wrong. Most of the CW show's premise is the same with this 2011 series. Barry's mother was killed by the Reverse Flash. There's a fellow criminologist named Patty who has a thing for Barry. Even the archetypes for Joe West and Captain Singh are in this book (Barry's crime lab supervisor is named Singh. On the show, he's promoted to the  head of the CCPD precinct where Joe and Barry work.) Sadly, there is no Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, or whoever the heck the awesome Tom Cavanagh happens to be playing this week.

      Going into this Flashpoint summer reading, I was expecting to find a world completely unlike that on the live action series. How wrong was I to discover that the comics are much more in tuned with the Arrowverse's Flash that I ever expected! I can't wait for the next chapter!

    Worth Consuming

    Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.