Reverse Flash is one of The Flash’s most heinous adversaries. He is a true embodiment of evil and what makes him different from The Flash is he can go back in time. What’s always interesting when DC introduces Reverse Flash is that they always change his origin story on how he becomes evil. In The Flash 23.2: Reverse Flash, the book is somewhat of a hybrid of an origin story and current day.
Story:
*******Spoiler Alert******
In Flash 23, they revealed Reverse Flash as none other than Daniel West (Iris West’s trouble making brother). In 23.2, the book shows how Daniel received his powers. Essentially, he drove a car into a Speed Force battery powering the city. The mangled wreckage mixed with the speed force infused with his body transformed him into the Reverse-Flash. Soon after he transformed, he was able to sense the people that were connected to the Speed Force and hunted them down in cold blood to gain their powers for himself. Reverse-Flash thought that by killing everybody who was in tune with the speed force, he would have enough power to go back in time to stop his abusive father. During the origin story, it does flashback and shows what environment Daniel and Iris West grew up in.
Writing & Art
The origin story is basically very cookie cutter at this point but, I really like the other part of the story of how Daniel West grew up. You could not help but feel for the guy when he was young and you understood why he had so much resentment of his father. The best parts of the story were the scenes with him and his older sister, Iris being his pillar of support. It was beautifully done and I have to give the writing duo Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato major props for it. The only thing I was disappointed about was, oddly enough, Reverse-Flash. I feel the story does not describe how evil he truly is.
The art for the most part was alright. It was done by Scott Hepburn and it felt a little bland. There was not a lot of expressions on the characters in it and the environment was a little plain. I would say the cover art that was done by Francis Manapul was the best that the book had to offer.
Conclusion
I am glad that Manapul and Buccellato explained the origin of Reverse-Flash and the reason why he is on a killing spree, before they leave the comic in November. They have set the platform for this series and I hope their replacements will keep the quality in tact. With that said, the story was good but the art was only fair. I would say if you are a fan of the Flash, it’s a good read, otherwise I wouldn’t bother checking this out.
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