OK - so to get you up to speed, in the aftermath of DC's big "event" story, the major heroes have disappeared for exactly 1 year so the timeline jumps ahead for that much (the "missing time will be covered in the ongoing series called "52"). But where does the time-line pick up? Well, DC has decided to relaunch two of their most popular characters...
First up is Wonder Woman (who actually launched last week but I didn't get around to visiting my local comics store until now). What to say? This is EXACTLY what I expected. There're just enough unanswered questions (they don't really tell you up front where Diana's been during the missing year - but the narrative hints that although she was inactive, she did have contact with Donna Troy - the former Wonder Girl - and asked her to take up the Wonder Woman mantle... and then there's the requisite knock-down drag-out fight scene with new artistic takes on Cheetah and Giganta. And yes, Steve Trevor makes an appearance as well! I'm loving it.
Then we have the Flash who relaunched this past week... and boy are we talking about a 180 turn from Wonder Woman. I fancy myself a comics geek and even I got somewhat lost. The Flash has never been a particular favourite of mine - I read a few issues from before the Infinite Crisis event and I kept up with Teen Titans a few years ago so I know about Bart Allen switching his name from Impulse to Kid Flash, and I know he had a brief stint as The Flash... and well, not to ruin anything but Wally West (the version that seems to be best known thanks to him being in the Justice League cartoon) disappeared during Crisis (we don't know if he died or not)...
Anyway, this is most definitely the least casual-reader-friendly issue I've EVER read in my life. With what little I know about current Flash-related continuity, I barely kept up. The issue starts with Jay Garrick (the 1940's Flash from JSA) being the only Flash - Bart is a grown up now... and then there's all this soul-searching business... And then at the end they sort of hint at Bart becoming the Flash (again?)... And in the middle of all that there's a Flashback sequence that mentions Barry Allen (Wally's predecessor who died back in the 80's during the first Crisis story). I mean, geez, I pretty much had a headache... if there was a way to relaunch anything, this is NOT the way to do it. I think they tried to tackle too many facets of the Flash title all in one shot. All that served to accomplish was to bog the plot down in too many details. My rating: be forewarned.
Now on an unrelated note: if you want something fun and totally wacky - go with Marvel's She-Hulk. The first several issues of the current line are available now in a collected edition so check it out! I can't say enough about how good this series is. I've never had so much fun with a comicbook as this one.
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