Art by: Phil Hester
Cover Price: $0.99
Release Date: November 3, 2014
The Talented Mr. Bliss
The Flash on CW is considered to be some of the best comic book television out there, on par with shows Arrow (from which the show is spun off) and Gotham over on Fox. Unfortunately, The Flash: Season Zero #5 doesn't continue that tradition from screen to page. If anything, Flash: Season Zero captures the spirit of the Silver Age Flash comics, without capturing the fun those stories had.As the Freak Show storyline continues, Flash finds himself caged like a rat while Mr. Bliss rambles on about how he got to be the way he was, which is constantly rebuked by comments from Flash--and believe me, it's a whole lot of cheese. Removing Flash from the cage does very little, save for putting Flash in contact with a hallucinogen that conjures up a vision of his mother at the books close.
The writing on this issue seems to have met every trope in the book in a way that even Batman 66 doesn't touch at its worst. In fairness to the creative team behind the book the story is split in a way where one digital issue only equals half of a print issue, though that does nothing positive for the pacing of the story.
The one bright spot I found through (most of) the book was the art. While Andrew Kreisberg and Katherine Walczak put together a less than stellar story in the life of Central City's defender, Phil Hester gave the story a face that's happily welcomed. At moments even the art shows signs of cheese that make you wonder when this story was REALLY meant to be released, but the majority of the art works great for a television tie in. When the story isn't trying to explain the back story of Mr. Bliss the colors are bright and really pop off the screen, which as a Batman 66 fan, I appreciated.
Bits and Pieces
Sadly even the best moments of art and the occasional chuckle from the dialog do little to save this story from its inevitable fate and eventual removal from the minds of fans everywhere as better stories are released.The visual style at times was pleasing and I really am looking forward to seeing where the Freak Show storyline goes, but I hope it shifts gears and takes a different path to its final destination.
4.5/10
Yeaaahhh...this is one I dropped. I don't know, I just can't get into this story. Sometimes the art does work, but overall I'm just not a big fan of this comic as I am the show :/ I do hope it gets better though
ReplyDeleteIt's strange, the writers seem to try too hard yet still miss the boat completely.
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