I have an odd relationship with superheroes. I love the movies and TV shows, to the extent that I recently realized that I watch DC television series four nights a week. However, I’ve never been a comic book reader. I don’t know why really, but I never read them as a kid and don’t really remember my peers reading them. But all of a sudden these movies come out making billions of dollars and everyone I know is debating which minor characters are going to make cameos in the sequel. I missed the boat.
Of all the superhero properties currently on TV, my absolute favorite is CW’s The Flash. It’s a fun show with a sense of humor and great characters. It also inspired me to pick up a superhero comic book for the first time. The first two volumes of the New 52 relaunch seemed like a natural starting place for an amateur like myself, although if any superfans out there have suggestions I am glad to listen.
Reading these first two volumes was a bit of a struggle. I’m just not comfortable with the medium because I never got used to it. Whether this is standard for the format or not, the constant time jumps and alternate page layouts occasionally confused me, and the storylines often seemed to fizz out and pop back up again at random. It seems like the stories will interweave across multiple volumes, where I am more used to linear storytelling. As a fan of the TV series, I also find a lot of the differences between characters jarring, but I suppose real comics fans are more than used to that by now.
That said, the Flash is still a compelling character on the page, and the artwork in these two volumes is frequently impressive. I’m not sure I’m going to be attending any conventions any time soon, but I do think I’ll continue on with the rest of the volumes in this series.