142 Here Are Some Books That Have Pictures In Them That I Read This Wednesday (2/24/2010)

The Flash: Rebirth came out this week? Seriously? The last time an issue of this came out I was like 13, I think.

So is it any good? No, not really, but the reasons why it doesn’t work– and why Blackest Night does– are what I’m focusing on this Friday.

The Flash: Rebirth #6 (of 6)
Written by Geoff Johns
Pencils by Ethan Van Sciver

Blackest Night #7 (of 8 )
Written by Geoff Johns
Pencils by Ivan Reis

And so here it is, the conclusion of The Flash: Rebirth. A six issue series that took a year to come out. Sure, that averages out to a bimonthly comic, but that’s rationale that you can use only if you ignore the fact that comic shops haven’t seen a new issue of this series for three months. After a relatively good start Rebirth was so riddled with delays that even Captain America: Reborn, which began months later, finished before this comic did. It’s without question a huge fuck up on the part of DC, and something they’ve come to be quite known for.

But in fact, the fuck up goes just beyond putting out a late book. You see The Flash: Rebirth was spun out of Final Crisis, itself the product of lateness (in fact, Final Crisis ended up pushing back the start of Flash: Rebirth, which could account for their relatively quick output toward the beginning.) Rebirth was supposed to finish before Blackest Night, but has come out in the same week as Blackest Night’s second to last issue, and a full week later than the last issue of Blackest Night: Flash. This all goes without saying that The Flash: Rebirth was supposed to be the grand return of a character long dead– until then the longest dead popular character in comics– which due to all of this tardiness has become so muddled and non-linear that most of the dramatic impact is gone. Then again, it’s not like that matters because no one who likes this kind of stuff cares too much how it happens– just that it happens. The Flash is back! The real Flash! The one from my childhood I never actually read about or cared about before this event but was told is really special! Thanks DC, you are not a huge joke at all whatsoever!