The Flash, Vol. 1: Move Forward by Francis Manapul
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The Flash is like the anti-Batman. He believes in the best in people where Batman sees the worst. Even his costume runs in direct opposition to the Dark Knight’s. There’s a great scene in the book when the Flash extols the virtues of Captain Cold as the Captain is trying to kill him. Without spoiling anything, I’ll only say that the Flash does a very unBatman-like thing.
This first volume of the New 52 Flash provokingly adds a cognitive element to the Flash’s powers. the accident that created him and given him physical speed has also given him greater, faster cognition which leads to stuff I can’t speak about for fear of spoilers. It made him a little more interesting than a guy who can run really fast. What also made this story interesting is the idea that his powers come with disastrous consequences to the time-space fabric of reality. The Flash must learn to adapt to a specific set of rules in order to preserve the known universe.
The Flash is the fifth New 52 title I’ve read. In my opinion, DC has been successful in providing an entry point for new readers like me who possess only a vague familiarity with characters like the Flash, Batman, and other DC heroes. I also want to mention that I really enjoyed how Francis Manapul represented speed and motion and how clever he was with masking (not sure this is the right term) letters and images.
Vincent Young 
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