That’s One Dangerous Selfie — Reviewing ‘The Flash’ #31

Dangerous trends have existed for as long as human beings have been trying to prove something to themselves or others. They took on a whole other life with the invention of the internet, as people could pass those trends globally in moments.

What moves faster; a viral trend or Wally West, the hero known as the Flash? That’s a good question, and one that the scarlet speedster must deal with as The Flash #31 kicks off a whole new storyline from a brand-new creative team.

Get those TikTok filters ready as Ryan North, Gavin Guidry, Adriano Lucas, and Buddy Beaudoin take the fastest man alive on a trendy new adventure.

— Spoilers Follow —

Full stop, I’ve barely ever read any Flash comic books.

Go ahead, finish throwing whatever is nearby at me. I get the sentiment. There’s nothing that I have against the character, and the much-lauded Mark Waid-era run is on my list to read. Said list is gigantic and keeps getting pushed aside by the crushing weight of life and other things. But it is on there, I promise.

Wally West is my Flash though. From the Justice League cartoons to the Grant Morrison era of JLA to just about anything that has featured the character. I’m all about legacy at DC, which is why Kyle Rayner is my Green Lantern, Tim Drake is my Robin, and on and on.

I did watch The CW The Flash series though, from beginning till like the seventh season. Which was the only time I liked Barry Allen, mostly because his personality and mannerisms were very much taken from Wally West.

This is a long way to get to the point of saying; I loved this issue and now consider myself a regular Flash reader.

North is a writer that I’ve come to really enjoy just about everything that I find with his name attached. His work on Fantastic Four the past few years has been an inspired true understanding of that family, their dynamic, and how to utilize them in science fiction and bizarre situation stories. So as soon as I saw that he was now tapped to tackle Flash, another character who lives in that similar space, it was a sold concept in my mind.

Not surprisingly, North makes it glow radiantly here. Wally is a family man, and we get some amazing fun beats with the family. Such pure and real feeling humor and heart pours off the first few pages. The superhero stuff is great, but just the interactions between a hero and his family sells everything. Far too many superhero books sacrifice relationships and connections for pure ‘smash and bash’ action pieces.

Sure, they are heroes, but the way they interact and the people they lean on mean so much to good storytelling. North packs so much into this issue as we get to see domestic Wally and then good-hearted hero Wally, like with his interaction with Tar Pit and the malfunctioning yard sale bought Weather Wizard wand. This is all before we even get to the heart of the issue mentioned above, of Wally having to save people because of a trend.

Oh, the joy meets hard sad reality in this moment. Of course, there would be a growing trend of people throwing themselves in danger to get photos with the Flash to earn money. We live in a capitalistic hellhole that drains every dollar from us. People have done no less wild and crazy things to earn money to fight that very sentiment.

Adding to all this is the amazing visual work that Guidry is pulling off here. It’s so very authentically whimsical and smooth in its delivery. The artwork has a dense structure to it. Everything around the character is fully realized with deep lines and plentiful amounts of detail. Even when that detail is pulled back in the background or elsewhere, the whole of the work feels hefty and tangible.

The Flash moves quickly (obviously) and the artwork really makes that believable. Not just the speed lines or such, but in how it’s all pieced together on the page. Kinetic energy is pouring out of each panel as we feel like we’re moving alongside Wally the whole way through. Panels shift and morph on the page, beyond the standard style, add to this sense of motion and bold depth. This adds an intrinsic sense of motion that our eyes cannot help but follow all the way through.

Superheroes are colorful costume-clad figures who stand within and apart from the world around them. This requires a deft hand that can make sure that the world on the page feels familiar enough to the eye on sight and that the hero and other fantastical elements don’t feel too outlandish at the same time. Lucas is a colorist that makes this happen seemingly as easily as some of us take a breath or roll over in the morning.

I’ve been lucky enough to cover various books the past few years where Lucas has been the colorist. There is a reason that his name is found on quite a few DC and beyond books at this moment. There is a perfect balance on the page here between the more neutral sedate color tones and those that skew darker or brighter. Flash’s costume is bright and scarlet as it should be, standing out from some of the backgrounds easily, while never feeling too far out in left field.

I love the way that Central City and much of the regular stuff is tonally very natural, as if it’s just a snapshot of regular life that we all see around us on a regular basis. Not too bright, not too dark, with plenty of lighter grays, whites, and other tones being the regular. All the stuff that is beyond the norm gets to feel bolder and louder in that space in a more relaxed style.

I can’t say that I recall coming across Beaudoin’s name in the past in any books. Turns out he’s the steady hand on the book, having done lettering for the series before this new run began. All that aside, I like what I’m seeing here.

The lettering has that emotional and resonating spark that it requires to give our mind the right sounds. This allows the voices to really resonate within our heads. Boxes and bubbles have visual punch to them with their shapes, colors, and even varied placements on the pages. All of it is really satisfying to behold and allows the tone and speed of the comic to hit even harder the deeper one goes.

I’ve been converted here and now, and I’m going to be regularly reading a Flash comic book. This DC era truly is something.

The Flash #31 is now available from DC Comics.