At the end of Infinite Crisis, when I saw Bart Allen hand the Flash suit over to Jay Garrick, I was pleased. I'm a fan of Golden Age characters to begin with, but I liked the notion that instead of establishing a new Flash, DC was setting up the original to regain his iconic status as the main Flash in the echelon of heroes. And as this new series begins, that's the setup, but it soon becomes apparent that this series is going to be about Bart, not Jay. I'm a bit torn... I would have preferred a stronger focus on the Golden Age Flash, but TV writers Danny Bilson and Paul DeMeo have definitely piqued my interest with this new incarnation of Bart Allen. There's some interesting characterization going on, and the theme of the old versus the young ties the issue together nicely.
It's been a year since the Infinite Crisis, and the Flash continues to patrol the streets of Keystone City at super-speed. The latest Flash to take on the job is the first one to do so -- Jay Garrick. The last man to bear the mantle was Bart Allen, formerly known as Impulse and Kid Flash. His desperate journey into the Speed Force to save his friends aged him four years but robbed him of his speed powers. The Speed Force is gone forever, and now Bart works in an automotive plant in Keystone, servicing the robots that assemble the cars. Bart's turned his back on the super-hero game, the hero from the future will soon find that his past is chasing him.
Ken Lashley's work here shows significant improvement over the last time I saw it (which I believe was on a Justice League story in the long-since-cancelled Legends of the DC Universe series). The linework is much tighter and there's a more dynamic look at play. I'm actually reminded a great deal of the style of Howard Porter, who was the last artist to handle pencilling chores on the previous Flash series. There's a lack of clarity in a couple of pivotal scenes (the most obvious of which is the climactic one in the auto plant), and the use of several inkers on the book does make for a slightly inconsistent look at times.
The writers use the concept of the generation gap as a central theme in this opening issue, and it makes sense, given that the focus is on two Flashes: one who's in his 80s and one who's just entered his 20s. Bilson and DeMeo paint Bart as something of an old soul, given his extensive knowledge and traumatic experiences. But they also explore him as a kid who's still trying to find his way and his place in the world. His blowhard roommate may be something of a stereotypical frat-boy type, but he serves an important role: to contrast against Bart's far more complex nature. I also like that Bart is motivated by fear at issue's end rather than the heroic tradition in which he's been raised.
We get glimpses of Jay Garrick at the beginning and end of this issue, but the perspective is consistently that of Bart. I really have no problem with this series ultimately being about Bart's transition into the Flash role, but I'm honestly disappointed that Jay didn't get the spotlight to himself for a little while. The bait-and-switch from the ending of Infinite Crisis just comes too fast. Furthermore, it seems odd that after we're told the Speed Force is no more, it seems to be crackling back to reality already. 6/10
