The Flash: Savage Velocity

The Flash (1987) (New Editions) #1

by Mike Baron, William Messner-Loebs, Jackson Guice (Artist)

During the CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, Barry Allen--a.k.a. The Flash--made the ultimate sacrifice and gave his life to save millions. In his stead, the world welcomes the new Fastest Man Alive, as Wally West picks up his mentor's mantle. Long live the Flash!

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics, Graphic Novels, Comic Book, Graphic Novels Comics, Superheroes

475 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2020

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 3 out of 5]

The death of the Flash, sees Wally West pick up the mantle, and his own comic, a huge change to The Flash franchise post Crisis. 6 out of 12.
I read the comic books collecting Mike Baron's The Flash run - The Flash volume two #1-14 and Annual #1, but it's great to see that there's now a graphic novel available.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm glad to see DC finally reprinting some of these runs from the 80's that have never been collected before and I really hope they collect the rest of William Messner-Loeb's time on the book. Mike Baron's writing doesn't hold up very well here though. You can see his misogynistic views coming through the writing. Wally treats women like garbage and is just a straight up jerk throughout. There are some interesting villains, Vandal Savage, Kilg%re, Blue Trinity, Speed Demon, along with the speed drug Velocity 9. So if you're really curious about Wally West's early days as The Flash, this might be worth a read.

[Lyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mike Baron is one of the coolest, yet under appreciated writers to come out of the 80-90s. There was a time, back in the day, when this guy was writing for several different publications, including DC and Marvel, and was the man for his time and place. Most readers will think about him for his five year run on Punisher, really helping to define that character, but I was a big fan of his work for First Comics with Badger and Nexus.

True story: I have all of the Badger books, the entire series. I received the last dozen or so books from Mike himself. I wrote to him and he got me the last few issues I needed to complete the run and signed them for me.

And!

I liked his early run on Flash. This is volume II, after DC played with the idea of killing off Barry Allen, and Kid Flash Wally West became the default Flash. I always thought that Mike Baron was the perfect writer for Wally, who is a bit of a rogue himself and Baron’s edgy style worked for West’s story as Flash. Mike reveals Wally to be human, with family issues, girl problems and - btw - Wally as written by Mike Baron is a horn dog and I was here for it!

And Vandal Savage. And Chunk! And competing Soviet speedsters who want to be good capitalists!

Good fun.

[Gus Casals · Rating 5 out of 5]

For a whole generation, this is THE Flash. Wally, greedy Wally, horny Wally. Mike Baron got a brief for "different" and he ran with it. Messner-Loebs (also present in the collection) perfected it, and Waid, who gets all the credit, only did so standing on their shoulders.
So many of the concepts in these year and a half of stories have been influential for over 30 years and across all media: Chunk, Tina McGee, reinvigorated Vandal Savage, Velocity 9... and of course, Wally himself.
Baron's joke was making Wally rich, Messner-Loebs to make him dirt poor. Both work. The latter also set up a year long story that has me wishing for a second volume of this ASAP, which would include my all-time favorite issue, 24, as well as the actual return of a full-blown Flash.
The art is more of a mixed bag. Guice, as Baron, was going for all-different, but not always successful. Also, he did not complete a year worth of stories, with professional-but-neutral Mike Collins filling in. Then comes in LaRoque, who is an acquired taste, but who would complete a healthy 5-year + run on the book, and in my eyes, Wally is his Wally.
Enjoyed reading through these stories again, and could not put it away. here's to more collections!

[Shaun Stanley · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Flash: Savage Velocity collects issues 1-18 and Annual 1 of the DC Comics series The Flash written by Mike Baron and William Messier-Loebs with art by Jackson Guice, Mike Collins, and Greg LaRocque.

Set shortly after the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths which saw the death of Barry Allen, this series picks up with Wally West having taken up the mantle of The Flash. Wally has huge shoes to feel as he battles the immortal Vandal Savage, the technological terror Kilg%re, a living singularity known as Chunk, and a new drug that has hit the streets called Velocity 9 which grants its victims incredible speeds but wastes away their bodies until they get their next fix.

This collection contains some fairly standard stories of Wally West’s first adventures as the new Flash. They really nailed down some handicaps to Wally throughout the book: his speed caps out at about 750 MPH, he immediately needs to eat large amounts of food after exerting himself, and he is constantly sleeping for half a day or more at a time. This really restricts his powers but I do like how it puts some limits to what he can do. The biggest problem with the book is author Mike Baron. Hopefully his views have changed because his views on women are extremely misogynistic and his writing of black people comes off as borderline racist. When writer William Messier-Loeb came on near the end of the book, he quickly righted some of the problem issues of the book and the writing and characterizations vastly improved. I would love to see more of Wally’s early issues collected by DC.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's easy to forget how phenomenal Mike Baron's run of The Flash was. But his The Flash #1 is a groundbreaking and revolutionary issue that simultaneously treats Wally as a real person and considers his speed from the perspective of real physics. The result is a foundational change in The Flash.

The pseudo-realism cuts back a bit after the first few issues, which is a shame, but there's still plenty of great material in Baron's run, including the usage of Vandal Savage as Wally's archvillain, the introduction of Tina McGee, and the introduction of new speedsters such as Speed Demon, Red Trinity, and the Velocity 9 Junkies. They're nice tight stories, with a good villain, and a good supporting cast.

I was prepared for a big downgrade when William Messner-Loebs took over, but at least in these early issues, it's a slow fall. Even if he annoyingly reverses Baron's ironic final takedown of Savage, Messner-Loebs still provides some decent stories for Savage and for Speed McGee. But, it's hard to love the new supporting cast he's creating, with people like Mason (who?) and Chunk. Baron's pseudo-realism is slowly turning to Messner-Loebs' farce.

Overall, though, it's great to get this Baron run finally back in print, and though I don't think the Messner-Loebs issues were actually necessary to finish the story, they're still an interesting coda.

[Philip · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of this collection doesn’t hold up so great after 30+ years. However, the last 4 issues (the ones written by William Messner-Loebs) are great, developing the supporting characters quite a bit, and introducing new ones. I fervently hope DC continues to collect this run, so Messner-Loebs’ issues see print again.

[Nicholas Palmieri]

The first few issues were good, but Baron lost steam pretty quickly, and I'm not a fan of the early Guice art (those unintentionally misproportioned legs...). The later Baron issues were terrible- lifeless and anticlimactic. However, the last four issues collected here, written by Bill Messner-Loebs, are a masterclass in how to take a few poorly executed concepts from another writer and reconfigure them into a great superhero soap opera. In his first issue alone, he weaved together almost all of the characters and concepts that Baron had introduced but failed to develop. Really looking forward to reading the rest of Loebs's run.

[Michael Malloy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't love it it but didn't hate it either. It started off good, really lacked in the middle and the 4 issues by Messner-Loebs saved it at the end. Hoping DC keeps the run going.

[Yafu · Rating 4 out of 5]

El mejor Flash es Wally y estas historias tienen algunos de los mejores momentos de Wally.

[Ashcan F. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Imposible releer esto y no pensar en el viejo FLUSH MAN de Perfil.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

This starts out inspired, but quickly ran out of speed. I like Baron's approach--it's got the deconstruction of the Flash needing high caloric intake, clothing that deconstructs, etc. His insane metabolism affects his lifestyle. He can't slow down!

Vandal Savage wanting to harvest superhero organs is also a fun idea.

And this superhero f*cks. He's in his 20s and dating a lot. I think he sleeps with six women during the run. Pretty risque for the 80s.

But then there's a lot of suspension of disbelief such as Wally West winning the lottery at the end of the issue. And the woman he's dating--her ex-husband is a super-villian who becomes jealous. Baron simultaneously does an excellent job of updating the character to the times, but also falls pray to some eye-rolling melodrama.

[Guido · Rating 4 out of 5]

Todo el Flash de Baron y el arranque de Messner-Loebs.

[Ángel Javier · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ay, pero qué mal han envejecido estos cómics. Pero qué rematadamente mal.

De base, empezaré aclarando algo: me encanta Wally; para mí, siempre será mi Flash favorito, pero este... este no es mi Wally. Estos tebeos no van sobre un joven héroe compasivo, generoso, orgulloso defensor de un digno legado y, posteriormente, ejemplar padre de familia, sino sobre un soberano gilipollas con súper velocidad que se dedica a mantener relaciones esporádicas con todo tipo de mujeres, sin necesidad de antes dejar a su ligue anterior, a pedir dinero o beneficios de otro tipo a cambio de su ayuda, y a inflarse a comer comida basura (cierto, necesita muchas calorías para mantener sus poderes, pero no tiene por qué consumir enormes cantidades de lo que es, básicamente y hablando en plata, mierda). Cuando gana la lotería, no se le ocurre donar su dinero, ni siquiera una parte, ojo, a obras de caridad o algo semejante, sino a gastárselo en auténticas gilipolleces, como un puñetero Porsche (que ya me dirán ustedes para qué narices lo quiere), o una mansión de veintipico habitaciones para vivir él solo o con el ligue de turno.

Y su actitud hacia las mujeres es detestable en todos los aspectos. No había tenido la oportunidad de leer con anterioridad el Annual incluido en el tomo, pero solo por este cómic todo el tomo se merecería acabar en la basura, y, de hecho, me han dado ganas de hacerlo. Sus pensamientos sobre las féminas son tan detestables que ni siquiera voy a reproducirlos.

Y toda esta porquería que da vergüenza ajena procede de la mente de Mike Baron y de nadie más. Un tipo de la vieja escuela, en el peor de los sentidos posibles, con grandes ideas y un sentido del ritmo y de la acción impecables, pero con una ideología y un desarrollo de personajes lamentable. Todo esto se intuye ya en su obra magna, Nexus, pero ahí se veía contenido por su viejo amigo Steve Rude, y, todo hay que decirlo, en el antedicho cómic a Baron solo se le ve la patita cuando se burla de cualquier tipo de ideología que no sea el libertarismo al estilo yanqui, o sea, la defensa a ultranza del individuo por encima del estado. En Flash, sin embargo, no se va a cortar un pelo: va a sacar a la luz todo su vitriolo para convertir a Wally en un puto cretino, y, lo que es peor, un vocero de su propia ideología. Afortunadamente, el muy llorado Jackson Guice, excelente dibujante incluso a medio gas (como en estos cómics) salva (más o menos) los trastos, sobre todo por las grandes secuencias de acción, que, como ya he comentado, es algo que Baron borda. Al César lo que es del César.

Pero tan solo hay que leer los últimos episodios del tomo, escritos ya por William Messner-Loebs, para comprender perfectamente todo lo que Baron hacía mal: convertir a tu protagonista en un narcisista insensible y machista no es la mejor manera de vender un tebeo. El nuevo guionista titula su primer número «Tocando fondo», y es que, ciertamente, era difícil que Wally pudiera caer más bajo. Incluso hay multitud de súper villanos campando por ahí más dignos de simpatía que este rematado imbécil. Messner-Loebs va a cambiar toda la dinámica entre Flash y su repertorio de secundarios, dejando de cosificar a las mujeres (en la medida de lo posible; algunos de los daños que Baron ya había infligido eran irreparables), creando nuevos personajes y remozando a los antiguos (¡qué diferencia entre la insoportable bruja que era la madre de Wally en los episodios de Baron y la mujer abrumada por la pérdida y la culpa de los de Messner-Loebs!), y, sobre todo, transformando al baboso insufrible del protagonista en un joven confuso que intenta con escaso éxito honrar la leyenda de su tío Barry, y sufre por ello. Lo que logra el nuevo guionista es convencernos de que lo que hemos leído en los episodios previos es ni más ni menos que el inicio y desarrollo de una crisis de identidad basada en la pérdida y la culpa del superviviente, que, como hombre-niño que es, Wally no logra gestionar hasta estos últimos números. Es en ellos cuando el héroe vuelve a asomar, tímidamente pero ya de manera perceptible, la cabeza. Cuando Flash se despide de esa vida de mierda con la que ha intentado enmascarar su dolor, y acepta su rol de verdad. Lástima que el nuevo dibujante, Greg LaRocque, sea aburrido e inexpresivo, poco dotado para plasmar a un personaje cuya misma esencia exige que rebose energía y dinamismo. Pero bueno, esperemos un nuevo volumen de esta serie histórica para juzgar: a fin de cuentas, no mucho después LaRocque firmaría unos números bastante decentes de la Legión de Superhéroes. A ver si aquí también nos sorprende.

[Fizzgig76 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reprints The Flash (2) #1-18 and Annual #1 (June 1987-November 1988). Barry Allen is dead, and after years as Kid Flash, Wally West discovers he is now stepping into Barry’s shoes. Being Flash isn’t easy for Wally who doesn’t have a secret identity, but when Wally hits the lottery, Wally discovers his luck is changing. With more speedsters, and more danger, Wally finds being the Flash is a whole different level than his days as a Teen Titan…and when Vandal Savage targets him, Wally better watch out!

Written by Mike Baron and William Messner-Loebs, The Flash: Savage Velocity is a DC Comics superhero collection. The volume follows the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths which relaunched much of the DC Universe and also included the death of the Silver Age Flash Barry Allen. The collection features art by Jackson Guice, Mike Collins, and Greg LaRocque.

Despite having Barry Allen in things like The Flash TV series and Super Friends, Wally West was always my preferred Flash. When I started the jump from being a complete Marvel reader to picking up some DC Comics, it was in the thick of Wally’s “run” and I found him to be a much more identifiable character than many of DC’s big names like Batman or Superman…reading The Flash: Terminal Velocity, I found that it was a long and painful road to get there.

The series really struggles. While much of the comic could have revolved around the changes in Wally’s life simply by taking on a new title, the comic decided to focus in on the really negative aspects of Wally’s life. The lottery “deus ex machina” was a wild card that kept Wally from being Peter Parker and always looking for his next paycheck…but it also kind of turned him into a womanizing jerk that treats everyone around him poorly.

He jumps from woman to woman (rarely breaking up) and he even has some racists undertones that Cyborg picks up on in an exchange about “chitlins and gravy”…it doesn’t make him very likable. In fact, no one in the series is likable. Everyone’s worst aspects seems magnified. It feels like an attempt to make Wally “human” gone wrong.

In addition to that, the story completely stalls. The series takes too long to get into events and the Vandal Savage storyline stretches almost the entire first eighteen issues. It would have been nice to see more variety in the title and maybe bring in characters that aren’t normally Flash villains since Wally isn’t “the Flash” of old. A Teen Titan villain or two might have been what was needed.

The Flash: Savage Velocity is a struggle. While the collection is nice and big, it had me wishing I was reading Waid or Johns’ runs instead. Despite this, I would continue to get The Flash collections to see how Flash evolved…not only that it would be nice to see him get past the sleeping and eating phase of his powers (that also slows the story down). I hope The Flash: Savage Velocity gets a sequel and that eventually we’ll see it merge with The Flash by Mark Waid to finish the whole 1987 Flash comic book run in reprints.

[Brian Rogers · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a real mixed bag. The initial stories are Baron doing a rapid cut, almost disjointed book emphasizing the characters immaturity and speed. Wally, always the midwest Republican in a Teen Titans full of coastal Democrats in the Wolfman/Perez run this is building off of, becomes more ideologically shallow while his parents have a Post-Crisis retcon moving from being a fine loving family Wally has to remember to slow down and spend more time with (in Titans) to a dysfunctional hot mess where his dad is a grifter latching on to a galactic conspiracy as part of his big chance and his mother as a stymied, scared woman who feels she's wasted her potential. In this Wally makes mad decisions by moving to quickly, being a raging bag on insecure hormones, etc. Looking at it again for the first time in 20 years there's parts that work as a character study, but the super-hero elements fall flat early on as Baron loses steam.

Then at the end of this volume Bill Messiner-Loebs takes over as writer and the book changes tune. Messiner-Loebs, rather than playing somewhat into 1980's Reaganism, is running against it. Wally becomes a vehicle for seeing inequities even as he remains quick to accept the status quo and slow to change. Messiner-Loebs can get preachy, but he has an ear for dialogue and a deft handling of the supporting cast that Baron for some reason had left behind on Nexus. The three issue arc "The Adventures of Speed McGee" that closes out the book are incredibly deft - you're still in Wally's head as the narrator, but you're seeing him through the eyes of older, sadder, more experienced Jerry McGee, one of the villains earlier in the run who is in the process of making one of the best Heel/Face turns in comics.

After McGee deftly lays out every confused, self centered thought in Wall's head:
Wally: "How did you know I was thinking that?"
McGee: "I was twenty once."

The change of artists from Jackson Guice to Greg LaRoque makes a huge difference. Guice's stylized anatomy with its elongated legs and strange freeze frame positioning works well with Baron's deliberately disjointed, quick cut writing, while LaRoque's smoother style (which has a touch of animation in exaggerating some characters facial features to make them more distinct) makes it clear the book is going in a new direction.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got all these issues as singles from the library store as a teenager so I wanted to see if they were as fun as I remembered and I was pleasantly surprised. Outside of a bit of directionless rambling with the crossover manhunter storyline the various story arcs were genuinely fun with interesting characters. Speed Demon, Chunk, Red Trinity and Vandal Savage all are very charismatic in their own ways and offer a variety of strange situations to read about. West is a bit of an arrogant womanizing dick early on so he's not always super likeable but I found it to be totally believable with him growing up with super powers and winning the lottery at 20 years old. The art is pretty hit or miss with some backgrounds left totally blank, I'm assuming to save on costs and make their publishing schedule, but some of these covers are in my mind totally iconic, in particular issues 7, 10, 11, 16, 17 and 18.

Also a note on the price - $30 for a now thirty year old collection of comics seems a bit steep, and the ebook is the same price which is just totally baffling considering it eliminates many of the costs associated with publishing physical material.

[Francisco Rivero]

The Mike Baron run isn't very good, to be honest. I liked some aspects, like the arc in the Chunk's world, which I wished it was longer, Randal Savage as the main antagonist, the first issue (easily the best part of the run) and the attempt to make Wally West a flawed character.

However, all the characters are annoying, subplots like the fact that Tina is a married woman goes nowhere, Flash flirts with all the women he meets, even when he is supposed to be in a relationship, his parents are awful people and the father has a whole subplot that is forgotten and is just an excuse to tie the story with the Millennium event, psychologists are portrayed as self-centered and useless people for some reason, the annual comic has pretty misogynistic and xenophobic remarks that weren't needed at all, the anatomy sometimes is so weird that it is distracting (especially with the legs) and the romantic subplots are so underdeveloped and derivative that they become boring.

In conclusion, this is a really low point in the life of Wally West, but at least reading this will make you appreciate the Mark Waid run a lot more.

[Leo · Rating 4 out of 5]

First two issues by Mike Baron were great, after that he started to slip in quality. He introduced tons of cool characters and concepts and his run was overall good, but I disliked how he kept throwing love interests at Wally while he was already in a commited relationship. Also didn't like how he put Frances Kane on a bus in the third issue. But Chunk, The Mcgees, The Kapitalist Kouriers, are all worthy additions to the Flash canon, so all is forgiven.

William Messner-Loebs then comes in for the last four issues of this trade and... it doesn't feel all that different. Honestly the way he wraps up some of Baron's subplots I would have guessed it was Baron himself.

All-in-all a good take on my favorite Flash. Liked how they focused on the oft-ignored side-effects of having super-speed: a ravenous appetite and the need to get 20 hours of sleep at a time.

[Seth Isenberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

This begins the now-classic "post-Crisis" run of Flash with the former Kid Flash playing lead. What I loved so much about this run is that Wally is de-powered, down on his luck, and a bit of an a-hole. Throughout the first 80 issues or so he undergoes a gradual change of character as he learns and grows. Mike Baron set all this up really well in the first issues. There is some promise unfulfilled, as I would have liked to see him go deeper into what is motivating and eating at Wally, (later writers do a better job of this) but it still sets the stage magnificently. It was fun revisiting the creation of villain Kilg%re, and Jackson Guice gives him menace in a particular 80's slightly abstract style that works so well and looks great in 2021.

Again, this is far from perfect, but it has so many of the elements that Wally Flash carries through much of the run.

[Cybernex007 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series has a lot of high's and lows. Highs ranging from winning the lottery, to fighting vandal savage, chunk, and blue/red trinity and velocity 9 being developed. The lows definitely being all of Wally's personality and his general man-whore attitude and general misogyny towards women and that first annual was pretty rough. But it really starts to find it's stride when William Messner-Loebs and his team takeover. They send Wally to rock bottom and re-invigorate the character through real growth that makes it 10x better to read.

I included the bulk of by thoughts/notes on the individual issues. This volumes includes:

Issue 1-4
Annual 1
Issues 5-18

I wish they included annual 2 and issue 19, those are both amazing and annual 2 is a major step up from the first.

[Paxton Holley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I originally read this Flash title back in 87 starting with issue #3. Off the rack. I read and collected the issues for the first few years. I even still have my original issues that I bought off the rack in a filing cabinet.

I’ve been meaning to revisit this title for years. This collection contains the first 18 issues of the title and it was so much fun to revisit. Everyone remembers and talks about Mark Waid’s run on this title, but he didn’t come in until issue 62. Everyone forgets about Mike Baron and William Messner-Loebs runs in the first few years of the title. It’s really very good.

Very much looking forward to continuing on with further issues of this title.

[roberto ortiz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok. Volver a leer estos números después de 30 años y más de 35 años de ser publicado. Un nuevo Flash (Wally West) con el traje rojo y el relámpago. Quien es este joven que es irreverente, interesado en el dinero y las mujeres. Todo era nuevo, excepto el traje, los villanos iban apareciendo y principalmente estaba el dibujo de Jackson Guice. Uno se suele enganchar con el primer dibujante de una serie, el cual marca el camino con su realista estilo, a mi.patecer dejando la vara difícil de alcanzar por Mike Collins y posteriormente x quien duraría mucho tiempo como Greg Laroque. Buen ejercicio de nostalgia presentando un buen personaje que tenia lo mejor x venir.

[ISMOTU · Rating 4 out of 5]

A new hero for a new era. Wally West inherits the mantle of the Flash at a time when he’s maybe not quite ready for it and makes some very believable terrible decisions. The general crumminess of Wally’s attitude and demeanour over much of this run makes his journey toward true heroism all the more rewarding and enjoyable over the course of the next underrated run by William Messner-Loebs and into the more remembered Mark Waid years. The art by Jackson Guice, Mike Collins, and Greg LaRoque is bar none spectacular.

[aiyonna · Rating 3 out of 5]

everyone’s so creative

my favorite parts of this run were made on accident like wally spiraling after crisis and the death of barry + iris and being forced into the flash = he’s an asshole most of the time. i love the atmosphere/vibe but the plot is lacking to put it kindly and sometimes outright offensive. but it’s fun it’s wacky it’s commenting on the politics of the era

[Roberto Lagos Figueroa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Flash Sally West año uno

Recopilación de las primera etapa de Sally West como el Flash sucesor de Barry Allen , tras la Crisis en Tierras infinitas de 1984, y Leyendas de 1986. Vemos un joven y nuevo Flash, si bien con el mismo traje, muy diferente del personaje clásico. Recomendado para iniciarse en aventuras más contemporáneas.

[Brent Corey · Rating 4 out of 5]

No one’s the best version of themselves at the age of 20. Especially if they have super speed. This collection follows Wally West’s first adventures as the Flash after the death of Barry Allen. Reminded me of Scott Pilgrim in a way, an immature dude trying his best and mostly failing while being a jerk to everyone.

[Elder Magalhães Campi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Apesar de ser fã do personagem e das histórias em quadrinhos, senti que as narrativas deste volume estavam um pouco fracas. Além disso, a solução principal envolvendo os Manhunter sendo resolvida em outra série acabou deixando este graphic novel a desejar. A falta de fechamento das tramas dentro do próprio volume foi decepcionante e tirou um pouco do brilho da leitura.

[Jeff Mayo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collects the first 18 issues and the annual of the 1987 reboot of The Flash. I bought these monthly during the original D.C. run. Wally West has taken over the mantle from his mentor Barry Allen. It has solid artwork and decent storylines, but without the major D.C. characters of Superman, Batman, and/or Wonder Woman, it feels a little flat.

[Richard Schaefer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I give this five stars because I’m glad DC is reprinting these stories in a trade, and I hope they’ll print the rest of the pre-Waid issues as well. The stories themselves are probably 3-3.5 stars for me; enjoyable but not a high water mark for the character.