Welcome To The Other Side — Reviewing ‘Absolute Flash’ #6

A hero and their rogue’s gallery go hand in hand. Very few more so than those who regularly vex Flash, one of the few groups that formally are actually known as The Rogues in print and fandom alike.

Things are slightly different in the Absolute DC Universe and the curtain around these Rogues, who are hunting Wally West, is pulled back in Absolute Flash #6. An illuminating interlude from Jeff Lemire, Nick Robles, Adriano Lucas, and Tom Napolitano.

What a fun shift.

For a moment I didn’t realize that it was Robles still on the artwork, because a noticeable shift was made. A lot of the trademark style is very much there once focused upon. What threw me off was that the first issues were very big and bold with lots of wild visuals playing into the science-fiction stuff surrounding Wally West. Here though, we’re focused on very human characters.

Robles really works well to continue to deliver depth and emotional bandwidth for these characters, giving things a very grounded type of stance through most of the issue. Then he jumps things back up to grander levels once the group comes to Fort Fox and some more of the mystery of Thawne and the technology begins to unravel.

Lucas brings a very pared down color palette for much of this. Things are still bright and dark to varying degrees, some flashier tones popping up, but it’s more familiar to the world outside our window, again, waiting till the later sequences to begin really pushing the limits and punching things up.

There’s something well done tonally in the first bits of the book, really selling the mood of these characters, helping frame the humanization that is somewhat being done, in a sense, overall, with the players in this game.

It’s a nice touch by Lemire here. Taking these characters who normally are bank robbers and the like in the standard DC and turning it into something much more relatable in some respects. People that joined military, did something that potentially crossed lines, and had it all placed on their heads are now forced to take shady deals with secret government organizations lest they face being criminals forever.

There are still morally dubious things that we can feel about them, and glean, but there is also something more to them. Not that the Rogues are flat in regular DC, they’re some of the best overall villains after the likes of Batman and Spider-Man.

Giving us more about the conflicted Rudy West and his pain over the estrangement with Wally was also nice. We’re feeling more about the character, especially near the end when his strides lead him down the wrong path with Thawne. Same with seeing Jay Garrick and gleaning more about the mysterious force.

(Not to mention seeing that Barry Allen isn’t the standup guy we were shown in the first issue.)

All of this is delivered in various visual ways, including through dialogue, which is where Napolitano lets his lettering skills shine brightly- Delivering every character’s unique voice in very similar but fitting ways. Keeping the words flowing smoothly from start to finish with the right little flavor added each time. Little shifts in the font or SFX are big and loud or soft and small. All of it right there front and center helping guide the way through this human tale.

Absolute Flash #6 is now available from DC Comics.