The Flash, Vol. 7: The Secret of Barry Allen

The Flash (1987) (Old Editions) #14

by Geoff Johns, Howard Porter (Illustrator)

Wally West, a.k.a. the Flash, is just settling into the anonymity of his new secret identity when he discovers a letter from his predecessor, Barry Allen, that reveals a dark decision that haunted his life. Plus, Wally, with some support from Nightwing, tangles with Gorilla Grodd.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Superheroes, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Science Fiction

240 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2005

About the author

Geoff Johns originally hails from Detroit, Michigan. He attended Michigan State University, where he earned a degree in Media Arts and Film. He moved to Los Angeles in the late 1990s in search of work within the film industry. Through perseverance, Geoff ended up as the assistant to Richard Donner, working on Conspiracy Theory and Lethal Weapon 4. During that time, he also began his comics career writing Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. and JSA (co-written with David S. Goyer) for DC Comics. He worked with Richard Donner for four years, leaving the company to pursue writing full-time.

His first comics assignments led to a critically acclaimed five-year run on the The Flash. Since then, he has quickly become one of the most popular and prolific comics writers today, working on such titles including a highly successful re-imagining of Green Lantern, Action Comics (co-written with Richard Donner), Teen Titans, Justice Society of America, Infinite Crisis and the experimental breakout hit series 52 for DC with Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka and Mark Waid. Geoff received the Wizard Fan Award for Breakout Talent of 2002 and Writer of the Year for 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 as well as the CBG Writer of the Year 2003 thru 2005, 2007 and CBG Best Comic Book Series for JSA 2001 thru 2005. Geoff also developed BLADE: THE SERIES with David S. Goyer, as well as penned the acclaimed “Legion” episode of SMALLVILLE. He also served as staff writer for the fourth season of ROBOT CHICKEN.

Geoff recently became a New York Times Bestselling author with the graphic novel Superman: Brainiac with art by Gary Frank.

Reviews

[Matthieu Savignac · Rating 4 out of 5]

Geoff Johns a un réel talent pour narrer les aventures de flash et de s'approprier et d'étoffer chaque personnages, et il arrive avec brio à utiliser les évènements d'Identity Crisis afin de les intégrer à son run de manière cohérente, tout en apportant une trame scénaristique utile et intéressante qui pourrait même être importante pour la suite.

Les dessins sont corrects et Howard Porter, même si il succède avec brio à Scott Kollins n'arrive pas à apporter la même magie que celui ci. Malgré tout, c'est très bien executé et dessert parfaitement les histoires de Johns !

[machado · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5*

A story hindered by too many tie-ins to an event that isn't well explained (despite the heavy exposition) and the issues outside of that were just boring filler, but the artwork was good at least.

[Austin Hill · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Sotofunkdamental · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entretenido pero muy dependiente del evento "Crisis de Identidad". Geoff Johns escribió arcos argumentales mejores para Flash.

[Michael Hitchcock · Rating 3 out of 5]

After Barry Allen died saving the universe, he left behind a grateful world, a grateful Justice League, and a heartbroken protege, Wally West. During that post-Barry time, Zoom killed Wally West's children, so Flash begged The Spectre (formerly the Green Lantern) to erase everyone's memory of his identity as the Flash- The Flash being one of the few heroes who work more in the open.

Over time a few people got their memories back as Wally chose to reveal his identity to them and the pain of all this made Wally's wife leave him for a while.

This whole memory erasing bit has a lot of fallout, with the Justice League, particularly Batman and Green Arrow feeling violated at having their memories wiped. When their memories came back, it triggered Green Arrow to give Wally a letter from Barry explaining his greatest regret- a rehabilitation scheme that changed villains memories and made the heroes.

It was really great how the two halves of the book played against one another like that, exploring some of the consequences and feeling around so fundamentally modifying a person like that against their will.

The Top, the villain who suffered the most from this scheme left with chilling words for Wally, that he wasn't the only one changed this way and that other's facades of goodness would soon break down as well.

That was in interesting way to connect the seemingly random subplots of some of the reformed rogues working for the FBI.

I didn't love the way this author treated women, especially Wonder Woman, typifying her as preachy and explaining how one of the main characters got caught staring at her boobs and just generally defining the women only through their relationship to men.

Sometimes I was exhausted by several pages in a row of narration. I'm sure it worked for many readers, but I was a little cold towards it.

One thing I thought was handled really well was when Superman chased Wally around the world talking sense into him. It was clever because he was explaining how Wally had peers and friends in the Justice League he could count on to help him while literally chasing the fastest man alive all around the world and demonstrating that peer-ship.

I also loved when Batman confronted Wally about his rogues getting out of control and Wally, between words in a sentence, changed into his Flash costume and said, "First of all, you touched me because I let you touch me." Nice to see the humble and friendly Flash whip out an utterly bad ass line like that from time to time.

It was a little shallow and fluffy, but fun and with a few good thorny moral questions. Probably suffers being read in isolation like this, but that's what happens when someone randomly gives you a graphic novel for Christmas, I guess. You have a semi-coherent reading experience never knowing which stuff was left unexplained or which was just stuff we'd already know and then you write a disjointed review.

[tony dillard jr · Rating 4 out of 5]

After an attempt on the life of his wife, Wally West made a deal with the Spectre to have his secret identity become secret again. The deal comes with a catch. It not only made everyone forget that Wally is the Flash. It also made him forget too! Thusly Keystone City is without a protector and that means it’s open season for the Rogues!

As Wally regains his memory, he must face the consequences of his actions. His wife has left him. The Justice League is weary of their mysterious ally. In addition, Wally must learn to have faith in himself as his brings his city back under control.

Meanwhile, the events of Identity Crisis is unravelling in the DC Universe. Sue Dibny has been murdered and the terrible role Wally’s Uncle, Barry Allen played in the punishment of Doctor Light has been revealed to both the superhero and criminal communities. Can Wally continue to operate as the Scarlet Speedster knowing that his idol was flawed? Moreover, how will West be able to rectify his image considering how his deal with the Spectre has tarnished his own image as well?

I’m a huge fan of the Flash. However, it’s the Barry Allen Flash that I am so devoted to. I do not hate Wally west. It’s just that I grew up reading the classic Barry Allen Flash tales and that’s the one I am fond of. So when I found a trade that united both the Allen and West Flashes together,, I thought this to be a good starting point to determine if I want to get into the Wally West years or not.

Geoff Johns wrote this book. The man is a freakin’ beast when it comes to writing anything DC. (Okay, has he written for any other company?) With that being said, I knew that I would be in good hands diving into the West era. I was not wrong either. Johns crafts two very compelling storylines while blending the action in seamlessly with the events of Brad Meltzer’s Identity Crisis.

Artwork duties were executed by Justice League 3000’s Howard Porter. His style was pretty decent and the way he renders a Speedster on print media was adequate enough to make me feel like the Flash and other characters were animated on the static two-dimensional page. One thing I felt was off was Porter’s drawing of the Flash’s feet. Compared to the hero’s stick legs and very narrow hips, the feet look ginormous! Plus a little goofy.

I loved the covers by Michael Turner. He’s like the Tupac of the comic book world publishing works almost a decade after his untimely passing. However, The Secret of Barry Allen was from 2004-05, so that’s not the case here. Nevertheless, his covers are amazing!

I was really impressed with this trade. I think if I ever come across further volumes, I will definitely consider them- for the right price. But right now, it’s completing a run on the Barry Allen Flash books that’s my main priority. Once I complete that search, who knows? Maybe a run of Wally West tales is next?

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having not read Identity Crisis, a lot of these issues were exposition heavy, so i had no idea WTF is going.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shorts (207-211, 213). The short stories that lead off the volume are surprisingly mediocre for Johns, not adding much to his run. The Rogues attack on the parade (207-208) is mostly a big punch 'em-up, as is the Gorilla Grodd battle (210-211). The latter seemed particularly dull because it's something like the third fight with Grodd in this run. The battle against the Turtle (213) was somewhat better for its weirdness and the story with the Justice League (209) was the best of the lot because it was mostly about character. There were some interesting subplots running through all of this, but the took up the minority of the space; the rest of the stories suggested that Johns had told all the new stories he had to tell [6/10].

The Secret of Barry Allen (214-217). The plot line that ends this volume of the Flash is much stronger. It makes good use of the Identity Crisis mini-series while also making it very personal to the Flash ... and in the end raises interesting questions about the people around Wally. The last issue, focusing more on the Rogues and Captain Boomerang, is also strong [7+/10].

[Printable Tire · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was too mired in the DC-Universe system for my liking. Without any interesting overarching plot, most of these issues felt like meandering filler, tying up loose ends or creating new problems to be tackled later. Watching a hero multitask is only so-so interesting. Reading a lot of exposition and still only getting unremarkable psuedo-substance back is pretty unacceptable.

Interesting to note the number of rooms with life-sized mannequins of supervillains/heroes on display throughout here. As if the fanbody reader will be satiated by shear excess rather than quality. Well, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I'm boring of the concept of "rogues" and "hero communities"- it's becoming much too self-serious and embarrassing. I wish the Rogues were more than comically regenerating Megaman villains, sent to prison one day to be popped free two days later.

[Lissibith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whelp. This book was a tie-in to Identity Crisis. So, depending on your feelings about that... story... you may find yourself either liking or hating this story more than you might on its own merits.

For my part, it marred an otherwise solid book.

To be fair, it was at least sweeter and more concerned with the victims than Identity Crisis was. The majority of the references to that storyline amounted to people talking about the murder victim and remembering her for who she was and how she affected the DC universe. So, points for that.

Otherwise, this is about on part with the rest of Johns' run on this series. Solid characterization, believable and threatening villains, fun stories... what else is there to say. I definitely am digging this series and suggest Flash fans who haven't give it a shot.

[Paul Williams · Rating 2 out of 5]

I forgot that so many of the early to mid-2000s Marvel and DC comics are both not fun and not interesting. Identity Crisis was the starting point of making superhero comics dark but also bereft of nuance and complexity. Grant Morrison had a good idea which was basically, stop making the worlds of superheroes like ours and make our world more like there’s. Take what you want from that vague aphorism but it’s a moral call to action in our world and a plea to comic book creators to stop destroying the magic, wonder and even whimsy of superheroes. You can tell stories that deal with hurt and trauma but that don’t suck the life out of the reader. Telling a story about miscarriage and the struggle to continue a marriage afterwards is not something the superhero genre is apt to do.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have most of the rest of Johns' run in single issues, so to be fair I"m starting here on goodreads. Some of the best writing in the DCU. I had greatly over-estimated Mark Waid's contribution on my first read through. In fact, I'm trashing all of those issues, but Johns' material is a keeper. The man knows how to create interesting villains and compelling storylines. Returning the rogues to terrifying status was by far his best contribution though. Most of the time I feel like he's the only guy in the DCU that remotely understands how to create a mythology. All of his issues are highly recommended.

[Anchorpete · Rating 4 out of 5]

there is this great line in Grant Morrison's book, Supergods, where he says something along the lines of "And this is where I entered continuity".

At this point, in the legacy of the Flash, this is where I came in. I got back into comics, as an adult, and became a DC guy, leaving my Marvel love behind, when Identity Crisis came around. I was into Geoff John's JSA work, as soon as I learned I could rent out books from my store at Waldenbooks. I went right from Identity Crisis to JSA. I didn't even know that Johns was working on the flash at the time, but boy am I glad I finally found this book, Fourteen or so years later.

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this one in conjunction with Identity Crisis, which I think adds to the force of both books (and if you want to do the same, I suggest reading the first half of this, then IC, then finishing this, as suggested by www.crisis2crisis.com).

It's a fairly busy story, but there's a lot of meat in it.

[Chadwick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Somewhere, in a parallel universe, someone has written a Flash comic that is the bright, shiny flashing plastic fun thing that a Flash comic should be. Until we can reach that dimension, we're stuck with forgettable nonsense like this. Still, Gorilla Grodd=Always Good.

[Terri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wally West has grown up a lot since I last read the Flash. A lot happens in this book, maybe a bit too much since so much happens. I think a lot of what is mentioned happens in other books (maybe JLA) and I wanted more info. But loved the scenes with Nightwing and Green Arrow.

[Mollie · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was interesting and I liked the tie-in to Identity Crisis but otherwise I was not impressed. I believe that if I was more of a fan of the Flash I would like it more but Wally West is not a character I have been exposed to on a regular basis. Still worth the time.

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one wasn't great. Nothing really happens other than Wally brooding about his mistake (that has already been fixed). The biggest issue is that it takes place during the depressing Identity Crisis storyline and I've put that all behind me.

[J · Rating 2 out of 5]

Never was a big Flash fan.

After reading, I'm liking the arc in which the character is developing. Stories were interesting. Illustrator and coloring was good.

[Jared Conti · Rating 5 out of 5]

So happy to've found this on the shelves at Webster's. Looking forward to following it up with back issues from the collection!

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wally needs to angst less. :/ Parts of this were awesome, though.

[Dan Chandel · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5, not an awful book. I was just disappointed. That secret is so cheap. Though this made Wally to look thru Barry transparently. I still didnt enjoy much of it.