Geoff Johns has done it again. While I thought John Ostrander would always hold the title of the guy who had best redefined one of Flash's villains in Captain Boomerang, Johns has revamped, slightly tweaked or just exquisitely written Captain Cold, Gorilla Grodd, Weather Wizard and now the Reverse Flash. Reverse Flash (or Professor Zoom, or Zoom as he's now being called) has long been a favorite villain of mine, and Mark Waid had written the definitive modern Reverse Flash story in "Return of Barry Allen," as far as I was concerned. However, if the first chapter of "Blitz" is any indication, Johns may be set up to challenge that notion.
Of course, Johns has a secret weapon that Waid didn't, and that's Scott Kolins on artwork. Kolins has done some amazing visuals with Grodd and Cold, not to mention his terrific work on the various speed effects of Flash, so I can't wait to see him tackle two speedsters duking it out. This issue, Kolins doesn't get a lot of really kinetic stuff to draw, as this is more the emotional and psychological underpinnings of the character, but he does a great job of conveying Zolomon's anger and frustration, as well as a particularly brutal vision of what changed Zolomon's life forever. I'd be happier if the flashbacks hadn't been drenched in such a dull, repressive yellow color, but that doesn't ruin the artwork so much as it mutes it unnecessarily.
While I'm anxious to see a superspeed confrontation between Zoom and Flash in upcoming issues, though, this issue is the origin of the villain to some degree, and it's the same kind of strong, well-thought-out character development I've come to expect from Johns, especially when it comes to the rogues. There are some big revelations about the dark moments in the past of Zoom here, and his psychotic break from reality and motivation for hounding the Flash are believable in light of the culmination of all these moments.
I'm still not entirely sure about the mechanism by which the new Zoom has gotten his powers, mind you. The Cosmic Treadmill has generally only worked for those with superspeed, even if the result was not the desired one of time travel. However, it seems possible that the original Reverse Flash (or his consciousness at least) might somehow be involved, and certainly I'm interested to find out what he's going to do now, even if the origin of the character and his powers is never explained further. His character is believable enough that where and how he got his powers seems a pretty minor point in the scheme of things.
What this issue reminds me of more than anything else is Johns's spotlight issue on Captain Cold. The difference is that all this setup is going to pay off immediately with the rest of the "Blitz" story, which makes it all the more engaging right off the bat. This creative team hasn't let me down yet, and most of their big epic stories have been terrific, so I have high expectations for the rest of "Blitz."
