About Heroes

Writer: Marc "Savior" Guggenheim
Artists: Ron Adrian & Art Thibert

You all know how much I hated issue #6 of the Flash. #7 and #8 weren't that great either. At last, writers Bilson & DeMeo left or were booted off the book, making way for Marc Guggenheim, who wrote the Civil War Wolverine Tie-In and is currently writing Blade for Marvel. He knows how to write comics, he's still a TV writer, but he's better than what we had on this book. What I immediately liked was how he handled Bart. Bart's internal narration referenced everything he's done in the past, being Impulse, reading an entire library, and growing up in the Speed Force. These are all things that Bilson & DeMeo chose to ignore. This issue is just a small starting point, it doesn't launch a new storyline, it is a single issue story just to get us started and interested in the character again. Bart feels like he used to be as Kid Flash, he still acts young and rash, but with a little added maturity. What also helped was the opening and closing conversation between Bart and Robin. It showed that Bart still has friends and didn't ignore them after coming back from the Speed Force at the end of Infinite Crisis.

The art by Ron Adrian didn't blow me away, but it was serviceable. He kept Bart young and lean, looking like a 20 year old rather than the buff 25 that Bart looks like on the great Ethan Van Sciver cover. It was a good simple little issue, if you got burned by the last arc, pick this issue up and give it a try. B-