The Flash: Francis Manapul, Brian Buccellato, Marcus To, Ray McCarthy, Ian Herring, Wes Abbott

Great coloring on that cover!

The return of Marco Mardon, the Weather Wizard. Interesting how we’re getting these issues, back-to-back, that are reintroducing the preboot Rogues. It helps maintain that “single story” idea that DC had for the relaunch. Even if this is all building to something big (like, oh, an Annual?), each issue is a stand-alone entity.

Art changes for the issue, here. The brilliant Marcus To takes over for Francis on pencils, while colors are split evenly between Brian and Herring. Luckily, you can’t really tell the difference between the two just in reading the issue. I tried to guess where page 10 and 11 were by flipping through the issue and looking at the color job, but couldn’t without counting. Nice job.

The story takes us to South America, where Flash is looking for the captive Patty Spivot. He believes Wizard has her, and won’t leave him alone until he admits it. Wizard seems to be telling the truth when he says he doesn’t know what Flash is talking about. Typically villains like to gloat their victories, savor in the frustration and anxiety in the hero. So for him to take no ownership of it makes me believe he’s honest.

What’s not so honest is that Madron IS trafficking drugs. He’s got fields of them! There’s also the mystery of the death of Madron’s little brother, years ago (which we see at the beginning of the issue). This is what brought Patty to South America. This is the case that she had that I didn’t know about at the end of last ish, when I thought it was confusing that she was suddenly following up on a cold case.

Flash does some pretty awesome things in this issue, including funneling a tidal wave, and running maybe a few miles in less than a second. The art for both of these feats is really incredible. I especially love the intercutting panels where he’s beating up the guys on his way to Patty. Flash also considers telling Patty that he’s actually Barry Allen, her love. I won’t spoil how that goes, though.

Wizard has a really emotional moment, which is nice to see. The love of his brother hasn’t faded in the years following his violent death. And we’re also introduced to someone new at the very end. I’m definitely interested to see how this goes…and came to be!

The only one thing that I thought was weird were the bullets coming out of Claudio Madron’s body at the beginning. They were whole, perfect even. Whereas bullets crush and actually sometimes break when entering/exiting a body. Too me it looks to clean and polished. But that’s actually To’s style…very clean-cut. Never a line out of place. That’s one of the reasons I like it, actually. So it’s a strange conflict in me, that impactful panel.

Conversely, I like how To drew Barry as Flash in this issue JUST A LITTLE MORE than I like how Manapul handles it normally. For me, Manapul’s Barry looks no younger than the preboot Barry he drew when Geoff Johns was writing. But he IS supposed to be younger. To me, Manapul’s Barry looks early-mid thirties. But To’s Barry here definitely looks mid-late twenties. A good ten years younger. What do you think?

The Flash #10, the verdict: A great issue that gives us fans back one of the Rogues in a stylish way, with a murder mystery! Granted, there wasn’t a lot of clue-finding or anything, but it was pretty good still. Seeing Flash in action, doing really awesome things that only Manapul and Buccellato could dream up, really brightens my day. I loved it when Barry helped the fisherman to the shore. To’s pencils are definitely a huge compliment to the book, and would be a fitting replacement should Manapul ever decide to step down from drawing. Though I really like Manapul’s style, so I’d rather see him stay on for a while longer. The Flash is building to something big, and it’s exciting. Is the world ready for a reunion of Rogues?

(Photo Source: SpeedForce.org)