Monday, December 07, 2015

I don't read a ton of DC lately--their last title I bought regularly was the charming Bizarro limited. But I'm usually up for a cheap book, and picked up Secret Origins #7 for fifty cents, with the current origin for the Flash. (And likewise for the Huntress and Superboy, although they aren't mentioned on the cover.) I was curious as to the over/under of this issue being a joyless slog, and am currently betting if we see Barry remotely happy at all, it's only in flashbacks (as it were) or before he becomes the Flash...let's see!

From "The Chase," written by Robert Venditti and Van Jensen, pencils by Miguel Sepulveda, inks by Scott Hanna.

I believe the first three pages are a relatively recent addition to the origin story, and probably from Geoff Johns: the death of Barry's mom, supposedly at the hands of his dad. The only reason this seemed familiar to me was because it used in the Flash TV show. Barry thinks he sees a clue at the crime scene, which drives him to be a forensic scientist, and we get back to the lightning bolt in the lab. Driven by a sense of duty, Barry becomes the Flash, and almost has the hint of a smirk on page 8. Barry's narrating the story to his dad, the "one inmate who'll have permission to leave (Iron Heights Prison) before his sentence is up." His dad would also be the one guy in the prison that didn't need to hear that story again, but he'd been in for what, over fifteen years? Your lawyer sucks! Barry's dad doesn't want his son to waste his life trying to help him, but Barry still thinks he remembers something...namely, a shadowy figure in the room where his mom died. (Someone else in the room seems like the sort of thing you should remember, Barry.)

Wow, they used a lot of this for the show; but Barry's life seems bleak and thankless without his friends, and we don't see any here. Speaking of thankless, the rest of this issue features the updated, Earth-2 Huntress origin, which didn't feel right either: there's no way any Batman or Catwoman would raise their daughter to think she was "cannon fodder," or second-best even to Supergirl/Power Girl. Then we have the most recent Superboy origin, which has the unenviable task of recapping events from his most recent series and Teen Titans. It's so weird that the Young Justice cartoon was able to do such a good job with the character, something the comics have seemed to stuggle with for years now.

2 comments:

Mr. Morbid's House Of Fun said...

I miss that YJ series so much.

SallyP said...

Joyless slog is an excellent description of a whole lot of DC books lately.