This is a LONG one guys....
First, let me start off by saying that this was probably one of the most enjoyable ways I could possibly think of to fill six days. “Why did you do this?” you ask? “What a waste of time.” you say? Nonsense! It’s comics! I love comics! Plus, come on, it’s not like I had a lot going on this past week anyway. A week of going home after work and immersing myself in the world of Wally West. Same thing for this past weekend. I did nothing but read comics. Jealous?
I did this for a number of reasons. First of all, because I love the character of the Flash, especially the Wally West incarnation (check out two earlier blog entries with photos of action figures sets I got in the mail, THEY’RE AWESOME!). Secondly, because as my memory fades more and more each year, I wanted to re-visit the comics I loved so much, but couldn’t quite remember the details of. Plus, I thought it would be neat to read an entire run of one title from the inception through to the end. Unlike a lot of characters in the DCU, the Flash (again, the Wally West incarnation) didn’t really have a big turnover of writers. With a couple of exceptions, all the writers on this title stuck around for at least a year.
“How are you going to break it down?” you ask? Well, I’m going to start with the first writer in the run, Mike Baron, and go through to end with Geoff Johns. I’m stopping there because it’s a neat package. It has a start and it has a finish, well as much of a finish as you’re going to find in comics. I’ll do an overview of my thoughts on their run and then at then I’ll rank them. I’m not going to go through every issue one-by-one here. That’s what, 24 years worth of comics? I read them all, but I don’t necessarily want to write about them all.
Please keep in mind while you’re reading this that these are my opinions. That’s it. Just opinions. I don’t claim to be a Flashspert (Get it? That’s Flash Expert in one word!), in fact, I’d be willing to say that I’m quite the opposite. I don’t have the encyclopedic memory a lot of fanboys and girls out there have. You ask me trivia questions about the Flash and I’d probably get them wrong 70% of the time.
There’s no right or wrong here. If you disagree and want to tell me about it, please tell me! I welcome your opinions! Email me if you have my email address or leave a comment if you don’t have my email address. The point of this exercise was for me to read a run from start to finish and jot down my thoughts and then rank the writers. I’m not doing it to bash anyone or conversely, put anyone up on a pedestal. I don’t want to make anyone angry either. I know people on the web can be really mean (message boards are a cruel, cruel place!), so please don’t take any of this personally.
Oh yeah, I couldn't go over every detail here, so there are a few instances where I refer to characters as though you have already heard of them (Mason, Tina, etc). If you haven't heard of them----I apologize now for any confusion.
If you haven’t read these books but plan to, just skip to the end. There are spoilers in these here paragraphs.
Mike Baron
First up is Mike Baron. I don’t know anything about Mr. Baron. I don’t know if he is revered or reviled in the comic community. I didn’t troll the internet looking for other opinions on his run (no pun intended), in fact, I didn’t do that with any of the writers here. What I do know is he brought us the first run of The Flash with Wally West in the starring role. That right there is reason enough to like the guy.
He also brought us Chunk.
Chester Runk. Hmph.
That right there is reason enough to dislike the guy. Just kidding!
I kid, I kid!!
(not really).
Okay, first and foremost, I was surprised to find that this is not the Flash I’d read for the past 15 years or so or the Flash I’d seen in the Justice League cartoons. This Wally is not likable. At. All. To put it lightly, he’s a jerk. He wanted to charge a hospital for delivering a heart for cryin’ out loud! I believe he said “This isn’t a non-profit organization, everyone gets paid but me”. Oh. My. God. What a dick! And that was in the first few pages of issue #1!
These books jogged my memory on a lot of things I’d forgotten: Wally living in
New York, Winning the lottery (and losing all of the money he won) and being a jerk most of the time (as mentioned above).
And a slut.
Seriously.
That guy would and
did hit on and / or sleep with any woman that crossed his path.
Tina’s married to Jerry?
BAH!
He didn’t care.
Her husband was a villain hyped up on steroids and speed juice.
Plus he beat her.
She was fair game guys!
Am I right?
Come on people!
He loved her, right?
Oh yeah, no he didn’t.
Neither did his mom, the bitter old harridan who hated all of his girlfriends.
What a mess that woman was.
Both his parents were.
Baron made Wally’s dad (Who looked like the love child of Tony Stark and Floyd Lawton) a Manhunter.
How perfect, his asshole father is a Manhunter.
Too bad they couldn’t do something similar with his mom.
Instead she becomes an amateur spy.?!!!? Wait, really?
And she gets married to an Italian agent guy that she meets after commandeering the JLI teleporter to go to
Rome?
That woman was terrible, how did she find a husband?
TWICE!!!
She lost Wally all his money and used his JLI transporter and credit cards without his permission.
Just because she was bored and mad at Wally for not cleaning up the apartment.
That's reasonable, right?
He shows mom the door, right? Nooooooooo, Wally keeps her around AND LIVES WITH HER (through two writers!). What 20 year-old guy doesn’t want to live with him mom…… EVERY SINGLE ONE I’VE EVER MET, that's who!!! At least she gets a job working for Chunk. You think she’d be happy, right? Nope. Even that isn’t enough to make her relax and be a nice person.
At the start of his run, Baron shows us the Titans throwing Wally a birthday party and writes Vic (Cyborg) into a couple books. I’m guessing to use them as touchstones to remind the readers that Wally is a well-liked member of the Flash family / DC Heroes Universe. He also has people calling Wally “Kid” Flash a few times, much to Wally’s displeasure. I could understand doing this if it was building to some huge payoff where Wally shows everyone that he’s not Kid Flash anymore and proves that he’s worthy of the mantle of being the Flash, but that didn’t happen.
This run has four main stories in it. Since his run was fairly short I can describe the main themes here. Baron starts out strong with a story arc with Vandal Savage (a.k.a. Varney Sack.
Stop laughing!).
All the capes hate Savage, right?
They all know him, excellent villain that he is.
Baron writes him really well.
It was an interesting way to start-up the title.
I don’t think most people would have seen that coming.
They probably would have expected a more classic Flash rogue.
Seeing that he’s in
New York though, I guess it would have been odd to have Mirror Master or Captain Cold show up (unless of course, it’s at a big rogue party at the local Inn…invite only of course!).
After Savage we go to the Kilg%re, Red Trinity, and then the Velocity 9 storylines (this one runs through quite a few issues and into Messner-Loebs run). At first I thought that the Kilg%re was a pretty lame “villain”, but as the arc went on, it got more and more interesting. When you use technology as your bad guy, you run the risk of having what you’ve created being outdated in six months. This villain was left ambiguous enough that it actually stands the test of time.
Red Trinity: We need a scientist to help save Jerry’s life, but he’s in Russia! The Flash and co. go over to find him and bring him back to the good ole USofA. What does the crew find when they get there? There are TWO super Speed teams (red and blue…blue is bad, red is good) that the doctor helped create. The blue team don’t like Capitalist Americans, they only love Mother Russia. They try to stop the doctor and Flash from going back to the US with the Red Trinity team. Evil Russians are all over the place in this arc. Ah, then end of the Regan era. I remember it well.
Velocity 9. I’m guessing it was a metaphor for crack or regular cocaine. Crack was just starting to become popular in the big cities, so I'm leaning towards that. People with high pressure jobs used it to become faster (like a superhero!) and more energized. Too bad it ages you and makes you psychotic. Plus the effects don’t last that long, so you’re constantly looking for a new fix. Guess who is behind it? Vandal Savage! Just to be evil Savage injected Flash with it. He was really REALLY fast for a while and then he lost his powers. Vandal wants to inject him again and forces Dr. Boartz to make up a really strong batch to do it. But the good Doctor refuses and got back at Savage and injected him instead!
Thoughts -
Lot’s of racial generalizations in this run.
For instance, “Gomez”, the canteen worker, who’s a dancer in his spare time, says “chure” instead of “sure” and “adios cabeza de huevos” (“goodbye eggheads”…..seriously?) as he leaps over the counter with ballet-like grace to leave and go to Vegas to get a gig in one of the many shows that ask for swarthy looking Hispanic men to dance in.
I was half expecting him to shout out “Lookeeen Goooooood” before he was out the door (for you kids out there, that’s a tag line from the TV show “
Chico and the Man”, which wasn’t racist AT ALL).
Unfortunately, along those same lines, the colloquialisms in these books were about 10 years out of date
when they were published.
I don’t think anyone was using the words “dig”, “bread” and “jive” in 1987.
1977 maybe, but not 1987.
Now for Chunk.
Chester Runk.
Awe, Chunk.
The overly large African American genius with a big appetite for dense matter.
You see, there was an accident and somehow he swallowed a “singularity” that needs to be constantly fed.
He likes to say that people who piss him off are “smooth” and “popular” before he makes them go away to a weird void where the singularity is (tribes are formed, people resort to cannibalism…and there's a fancy yacht no one is allowed on!).
Wally helped him and brought most of the people that disappeared into the void back and was able to help Chunk start a very profitable waste disposal business.
Unfortunately, it seems like Wally uses him for his powers to make stuff disappear, then just keeps him around to treat him really bad (he made Chunk leave his own house when a girl came over).
Amazingly, he doesn’t understand why Chunk is upset with him for being a bad friend (again, through
two writers!).
He also brought us some great characters that stick around for years, like Tina and Jerry and the Red Trinity / Blue Trinity teams. We even meet Francine (Magenta) although, she doesn’t hang around for too long (she’s outro in issue #2). It sets the stage for other stories yet to come.
Overall, these books are very “of their time”. A lot of the references would be lost on youngsters reading them today (yes, I said youngsters). The Cold War was a big deal back then, but how many kids today would understand the references? They are very “Rocky fights Drago”. (“I will break you”. Come on! Like you weren’t thinking of that line!) Those evil Russkies! But again, very much a 1980’s story.
Hey! Speaking of 80’s references, we got Max Headroom in the Kilg%ore story. Cool right? Oh wait, only five people who might read that book today WOULD KNOW WHO MAX HEADROOM IS (I do, I watched that show every week). And before you say it, I know they weren’t written for the kids of today. But as a writer of a comic, don’t you think that they would have to have an eye on future generations that might pick up their classic books? I know it's a fine line to walk. You have to be topical and current, but you can't go overboard.
My favorite story arc? Probably a tie with the Kilg%re and Red Trinity arcs. They both plants seeds for future story lines. Plus, who knows? The Kilg%re thing could happen. As far as Red Trinity, I like how they developed into money-making Americans with their business “Kapitalist Kouriers”. Come on, it’s FUNNY because they spell words with a “k” instead of a “c”. Cause they’re Russian! Get it? They use…oh, forget it.
William Messner-Loebs
Messner-Loebs writing is similar to Baron’s writing at the start. I guess that’s good. A seamless transition. Don’t make too many changes or the kids won’t buy the books, right?
I can’t help but like Messner-Loebs.
A few issues in he gets his own voice and it’s hilarious.
I don’t know if it’s intentional or not though.
He brought Pied Piper back as a liberal Robin Hood type character who takes care of the downtrodden, he introduces Linda Park, he gave us Wally the IRS agent and Wally going down to
Cuba to fight along side Castro against aliens.
I’m serious!
All of that happened in his stories.
The Flash is working for the IRS in order to pay off his taxes, because he’s been broke since his mom lost all of his money.
I. Shit. You. Not.
Who knew Wally would become a Fed….. and like it?
Castro?
They made Castro look like a good guy!
Heck, he throws Wally a 21
st birthday party where everyone dressed up like a super hero.
Wally even saves his life when Mark Shaw (a Manhunter) plans to assassinate him.
One of the best things is when Castro sent Wally's mom a wedding present. So thoughtful! Very surreal stuff.
Tina and Jerry (who are back together) come up with a new costume for Wally since his was gone (I don’t remember him losing it). The Flash lost his powers for a bit after Vandal Savage gave him Velocity 9, then they’re kinda spotty, off and on . He got them back in spades, when Tina and Jerry (who will work at S.T.A.R. Labs in the future) built a dunk tank looking booth and did some experiments where they dumped chemicals on Wally and electrocuted him (not dangerous at all, right?). Guess what? It worked! Wally went super sonic, blew outta town causing untold damage across the country. This led to a Road trip with Mason, Tina and Jerry in a truck following the burn trail to find him. The fun ensues right from the start. An old guy in tight quarters with Tina and Jerry for a long period of time. The Bickersons are back! They finally find Wally near a small town, the fact that he’s been turned into Porcupine Man makes the story even more awesome.
Yay! Issue 32 and Flash moves to Keystone! To fight the..the..the Turtle? Huh? Couldn't they have used Captain Cold? Nah, you gotta surprise the kids, keep them on their toes! Good for you Mr. Messner-Loebs! You fooled us! You brought us the unexpected. Seriously! REALLY!
Milestone! New costume design for the Flash in issue #50. Not just one to replace the one that disintegrated. This is a new one altogether! Now everyone has to buy all new action figures because they can’t use the old ones with Barry’s costume. <grin> That’s Toy Companies: 1, Kids: 0
One of the most uncomfortable issues he wrote was when he tackled Piper’s “coming out”. I know it’s a tough topic and I don’t know why it was broached to begin with. It didn’t do anything for the story and it’s rarely mentioned in other runs. Unless it was a mandate from DC to make them seem current with the issues of the day.
From purely a reading standpoint, Messner-Loebs does one thing that began to grate on my nerves fairly quickly. He uses a lot of “’t”, “’n”, and “th’”. If you can’t see that typed an example would be:
“I’m goin’ t’ th’ store ‘n then I’m goin' t' go home”.
Finish your words! Please! I understand using one or two, what can we call them? Contractions? Whatever they are, a few are okay, but not all over every book. It seemed like they were everywhere.
One of the highlights of this run for me is Mason as “The Clipper”. There’s nothing funnier than an old man driving around in an old truck with the back full of gas, trying to stop crime. And not even really stopping crime, more like bartering with it.
Special mention: Thanks for including Ralph Dibney (Elongated Man) in a few issues. That was cool.
I liked these books for pure comedic value. Wally is still an ass, but he’s in Keystone now, plus he brought Piper with him and he has met Linda. I had a lot of fun with these books.
Favorite story – There was a three issue Vixen / Grodd arc that I really liked. Vixen looked like Grace Jones! Grodd controls all the animals in Keystone.... until they revolt. ZOW!
Mark Waid
The Man, The LEGEND! The guy who can correctly answer any question you may have about comics off the top of his head! I’ve seen him in action at conventions and he always wins! Waid is the writer with the longest run of anyone on the title. Therefore, he’s probably going to get the most editorial space.
Unlike when Messner-Loebs came aboard, this wasn’t necessarily a seamless transition where you couldn’t tell there was a new writer. You knew right off the bat that things were different. Change was afoot! There was a new sheriff in town. His run, quite rightly, starts out with Wally’s origins. Finally! We’re getting Wally’s back-story. Yesssss!!!!! It's about time!
Waid also phased out what I view as non-essential characters and gave Wally a personality makeover. Guess what? He did it in a nice way too! He wasn’t ruthless and didn’t get rid of stuff just for the sake of getting rid of it. You can tell he respected what came before him and wrote stories that didn’t make us think, “Hey, where did Mason go?”. It was more like “Mason who? Why was Mason even in these stories to begin with?”. (sorry Mason)
When Waid took over the title, Wally was such an unlikeable one dimensional character that it was hard for me to see him as “The Flash”, and not some other lame secondary character I really didn’t care that much about. Waid pulled me back in. He made me remember why I liked the Flash to begin with. A two in a billion accident! He’s a good guy again. I forgot what that felt like!
And we got Speedsters. Did I mention that? We got lot’s of Speedsters!!!! Plus a whole new stable of vital characters: Jay and Joan Garrick (not the old, kinda mean Joan or the DEAD Jay from Messner-Loebs run), Max Mercury, Jesse and Johnny Quick, Iris West, Impulse, Tornado Twins and many more.
In my opinion one of the most important things to happen in the Flash Universe under Waid’s watch was the creation and introduction of The Speed Force into canon (I think in issue #91). I never knew the books needed it, but boy am I glad we got it! I guess I had taken it for granted because it’s been a part of the stories for so long. For some reason, I didn’t remember a time without it. I know there has been a lot of debate on this subject as to who created it, but it’s my belief that Waid was the one who gave us this magnificent catch-all to answer all the questions as to how a Speedster can go so fast. We don’t need no stinking physics here, we have the Speed Force!
The stories that came out of this addition during this run are amazing. I loved hearing about Max Mercury’s past. He’s been around for a long time and I’d forgotten that! We learned of Max’s devotion to the Speed Force, Johnnie Quick’s disbelief in it and Jay Garrick being somewhere between the two. The way it affects how fast the Speedsters can run, the almost hypnotic allure Wally feels when he goes into it (but always comes out for Linda), all kinds of good stuff.
He also did something I didn’t think was possible. He made me like Impulse. Until I re-read these books I thought he was just a freaky kid from the future with dumb hair and a bad attitude for a hero. Reading his background, his personality as it was meant to be portrayed, and seeing him interact with the “Flash Family” made me like him. I don’t know why, it just did. I mean when Max was in the hospital it was just so…..anyway…what was I saying?
Lets see, oh yeah - Favorite story arcs? That’s a hard one. He was on the book for a long time! I’d say that if I had to pick one, I couldn’t. I could probably pick three though: “Identity Crisis”, “Terminal Velocity” and the “Cobalt Blue” issues.
Identity Crisis: It’s Christmas Eve and after a busy night with Jay, Wally gets the best present he could ever think of when he opens the front door. Uncle Barry is back! Or is he? If I’m honest, I’ll admit that I didn’t see the ending of this coming. It’s a beautifully written arc.
Note: At the end of Identity Crisis, back in the pages of issue #79 where the letters to the editor are, Waid explains what they did and why they did it. And guess what folks? IT MAKES SENSE!! Barry is dead, to bring him back would invalidate everything he died for. He’s the greatest hero in DC history. He gave his life to save the universe for crying out loud! Why would you bring him back? The Silver Age is over and the next generation has been doing a pretty fine job of taking care of things (Wally, Kyle, Conner, etc). Are you listening DC Comics? No, you aren’t. And that’s why I stopped reading Flash Rebirth and never really got into Blackest Night (although I DO have all the rings and a couple action figures). You can’t even begin to imagine the piles of comics I have sitting here, unread, while I went and re-read this entire run going back to 1987 instead of picking them up to read. I guess DC gets the last laugh though, after all, I paid for those books only to have them sit in my apartment all stacked up. Phew, rant over. Sorry about that.
Terminal Velocity:
Wally sees the future in the Speed Force and he’s going to do his best to change it. Can he really alter the events in the timeline? Read this terrific story to find out.
Cobalt Blue (at least that’s what I’m calling it… it had too many names and subtitles):
Wally and
Co. must travel through time to find the future Allen Speedsters to stop the descendants of Barry Allen’s unknown twin from killing off two Flashes.
They brush the dust off the treadmill and everything.
What happens next is one of my top 20 stories of all time.
Of any title.
Special mention: issue #0: Poignant story. Who is the stranger that visited a young Wally West and gave him all that good advice about never letting go of his dreams? You’ll have to read it to find out. Trust me, it’s a really good story. It’s a one-shot, so you won’t have to get a bunch of other issues. If you can find it, buy it.
I’ve seen Mark at conventions and have spoken with him on a few occasions and I truly believe he knows Wally better than anyone. Seriously, this man knows his stuff. When you read his issues, you can tell that he loved what he was doing and that he cared about the characters. You can feel the respect he had for the history of the Speedsters and the care he took crafting the stories. These stories enrich the Flash legacy, they hold-up, they don't feel like they were written just to meet a deadline or keep a title going.
Mark Waid gave us a Flash we could invest our time and money in and not feel ripped off. He's not a one-dimensional character anymore. He has a purpose, a grown-up relationship with Linda, a family around him and friends. And we care about all of them! At least I do.
Grant Morrison and Mark Millar / Mark Millar Solo
I don’t know a lot about Mark Millar, but I’ve seen Grant at conventions many, many times and I’ve read his work on other titles. He brought us the fantastic All Star Superman! He’s a man that can weave 5,000 different storyline threads into one book and still know what’s going on at the end! This guy is the Master of Master Plans! And he’s writing the Flash? Huh?
In all honesty, I did not expect to like this run. At all. Seriously, I just didn’t think it would be a good fit. I was wrong. There, I said it. I. Was. Wrong. The 12 issues they worked on together were fun and not in the least bit mystical or confusing. The remaining issues Mark Millar wrote alone were examples of great storytelling.
Plus, it was nice reading the Mirror Master written by Scottish guys, not non-Scottish guys trying to get the words right. These guys know how Scots talk!
They also know how to write a pretty cool Black Flash. They should, ‘cause they created him here in their run!
Favorite storyline - Emergency Stop. How can it be bad with a villain called The Suit?
After this run it went back to Mark Waid, then Brian Augustyn did one issue, Pat McGreal did one issue, then Mark Waid came back and did one, then Pat did another one, then it was on to……
Geoff Johns
<Rubbing hands together>. Now we’re there! Comic Book Superstar Geoff Johns run! The Golden Boy of comics. The man who was brought in ostensibly to return the DCU to it's glory days! An actual fanboy writing stories that protect the integrity of the characters and their history. Ahem.
Since he was the last writer on the title, I thought “Hey! I remember these books!…… I remember really liking them too!” At least I thought I did. Unfortunately, Geoff John’s run more than the others, didn’t benefit from me reading it right after I read other writers work. That’s not to say I didn’t like the work. I did, seriously, I did. I just didn’t like it as much as I remembered. And I didn’t like all of it.
I discussed some of the changes Johns made with a friend of mine the other morning and he came up with the perfect phrase for what Johns did.
Geoff Johns turned
Keystone City into “Keytroit”.
All of a sudden there are auto manufacturing plants, union problems and
Iron Heights prison (as opposed to or in addition to the one in Central City).
Keystone has gone from a fairly decent place, to a city where the good times were in the past.
It was dirty.
It was ugly.
It wasn’t a place you’d want to visit.
I mean when The Flash first arrived in Keystone, way back in issue (I think) #32, it was a shabby place, Central City was the nice city and Keystone was the one that needed revitalization.
But after Wally was there for a while, things got better.
He was keeping the streets clean and relatively free of crime. At least that's how it seemed to me. .
Then there were the backstories and more violent rogues.
Look, I don’t claim to be an expert on the Flash and all the characters that come with him. This is the new “gritty, edgy” Flash. "The Flash for the new millennium". What does that mean? More violence and just about everyone had a horrible childhood or traumatic events as their motivation for what they do. Some examples:
2) Captain Cold came from a home where his mom left because his dad was an alcoholic who beats him and his sister and she can’t handle it anymore. Seriously?
3) Mirror Master was almost raped by a boy at the children's home he lived in as a boy (so he killed the kid) ? How he was hired to kill his father and after he did so, he found out his mom committed suicide because she couldn’t live without him? Or that he’s a cocaine addict? Must have slipped my mind.
4) Hunter Zolomon turns into Zoom because he keeps remembering how he’s responsible for the death of his father in –law, thus losing his wife and Wally won’t go back in time to change it. He turns into a villain to seek revenge on Wally? As a result Zoom caused Linda and Wally lose their twin babies and Linda becomes barren (okay, I know the twins were brought back, but not until near the end of the run)?
Jeez. Overall, I’d say it’s just a shitty time to be in Keystone. I know a lot of kids like anger, violence and blood (Red Lantern shirts always sell out first, right?). Sure, all that stuff has its place and is called for in some stories.
I know what you’re going to say, “Hey man, Geoff is writing the Flash for today’s audience and you, Robin, are obviously out of touch and living in the past”. That may be true, these are just my opinions. Look, I read comics to escape from this world we live in, even though it’s for a short period of time. Not everyone has to be a badass with issues to deal with. Although, I do have to say, I love what he did with Heat Wave. That's a character that DOES need to be badass. But why can’t a rogue be a rogue because he’s just a plain old bad guy who likes being bad? You don’t have to give everyone a motive.
To his credit, Geoff expanded the Rogues quite a bit. There are now a lot of creepy characters in the Flash Universe, like: Zoom, Peek-A-Boo, Murmur, Tar Pit, Cicada, Brother Grimm, Double-Down, (for a while) a new really annoying Trickster, plus a new Captain Boomerang.
Except for a couple of issues, I didn’t have that “I can’t wait to read the next issue to see what happens” feeling.
Favorite story: Rat Race.
Conclusion
Okay, so what conclusion did I come to? Who wrote the best run in my opinion? I’ll go from the bottom up.
5.) Mike Baron – Yes, he brought Wally in as the Flash, but he just didn’t interest me that much. I didn’t really care what happened to characters in his stories. Look, he was given the difficult task of transitioning a sidekick to a central hero and he did the best he could probably do (and better than what most writers would have done), probably with a lot of restrictions put on him from DC. Not very many writers would be up to the task. I remember that people wanted Barry back, they didn’t necessarily want Wally as the Flash. I’m sure all he heard while he was on the book, was “When’s Barry coming back?”. Can you imagine the pressure he was under? I just wish I enjoyed the stories and character development more. For sheer nostalgia, I fully expected to rank him closer to the top, not the bottom, so this is a BIG surprise to me.
3/4.) Geoff Johns – This ranking is probably going to make some people really pissed off at me. I know he’s the “Genius” of comics right now, but to be honest, his run really isn’t what I remembered it to be. I’m not saying this was a bad run, so please don’t think that. I’m just saying that in comparison to the other writers, it’s not the best run I read. The stories didn’t engage me at the same level other runs did. That’s not to say he’s a bad writer, he’s not. He’s an amazing writer. I loved his work on Hawkman and he’s great on Green Lantern, so it’s not like I don’t enjoy his writing. I know from seeing Geoff at conventions and reading blurbs about him in the news that he really loves the Flash and the DCU, but this ranking is based on what I thought of the stories in his Flash run, not any other title. Unfortunately, I liked a few other writers work more than I enjoyed his. Geoff Johns is an incredibly popular writer / creator. I understand that. The target audience for comic books absolutely LOVE what he's done with titles in revamping or revitalizing them. I freely admit that I do not fall into that demographic. DON’T GET MAD AT ME FANBOYS!!!!!!!!
3/4.)
William Messner-Loebs – He had the balls to make Wally work for the IRS and a pal of Castro.
He kept me reading because I wanted to see what he would come up with next.
He made me laugh and he made me eager to read more.
I still didn't like Wally and the supporting characters that much though.
You might wonder why I have him at the same spot as Geoff Johns and I’ll be honest, I kept switching the two.
I guess you could say it’s a tie.
I laughed more and had a better time reading this run that John's, but my feelings about the characters were different. Even though their runs are so dissimilar to each other it didn’t feel right having one higher than the other. There are worse things than tying with the reigning superstar of comics, right?
2.) Grant Morrison / Mark Millar and Mark Millar solo – A good, solid 15 issues of great story-telling. Not much more to say really. That’s what this whole thing comes down to for me, good stories that I enjoyed reading and characters that interest me that I care about. You can’t ask for much more than that……
When even more is delivered than you expect………
1.) Mark Waid – He wins the top spot because I enjoyed how he wrote the Flash more than any other writer here. He made me like Wally again after the two writers before him made me dislike him so much, heck he even made me like Linda and Impulse when I didn’t really care about those characters going in to this. He made me interested in all the other speedsters in the Flash family. I wanted to know what was going to happen next in Keystone and Central Cities. I wanted to see his rogues. I wanted a longer run. I had a hard time putting his books down when it was time to go to bed or go to work, or actually get something done around the house. These were smart stories. The reader had to think a little when they read his books. That’s a good thing. At least I believe it is. I don’t think there was an issue in Waid’s run that I didn’t enjoy reading. And it was virtually Chunk-free to boot (as far as I can remember). Kudos to you Mister Waid!
I'm really very surprised that I ranked Waid number one. I'm ashamed to admit that I went into this project kinda biased and fully intending to rank him near or at the bottom. I just KNEW that I wasn't going to like his work. I read the books before, when they were current, and I'd hoped that my memory of liking them was wrong and that I was remembering them with rose colored glasses. In essence, I didn't want to like his books. After reading his stories I couldn't help but like them. Not ranking him at the top would have been wrong. If you can get your hands on anything from his run, do yourself a favor and buy / read whatever it is. Chances are, you'll be very happy you did.
Let me say that all of the writers here are amazing and have put out some truly great work. My comments are not meant to speak of their talent or any other work they may have done. It was just a silly experiment where I read every issue of a title and ranked the guys who wrote the stories.
Now, should I even bother to try tackling another title? I think it would be difficult to take on a project like this with another DCU character. Either there are too many issues to read (Green Lantern / Green Lantern Corps) or the runs are too spotty (Hawkman / Hawkgirl…. Although Geoff Johns would probably win that one hands down), Aquaman (Yeah right, Got his definitive origin handy for me to learn?), and so on. I might find one if I dig through my boxes of comics though, I’ll get back to you on that.
