023 Grayson Vol 5: Spiral's End

Grayson.  The final volume of his series.  One of the better series DC has put out.  And probably my least favorite volume of the book.  It was a fine story, but it felt a little rushed to me.  I'm guessing that Rebirth was in the full planning stages and the book was put on the cancelled list, so things needed to be wrapped up and wrapped up quickly.  And that's what we got.  A big, kind of off-feeling wrap up.  Tim Seeley and Tom King were only involved in the first chapter of this book, so maybe that contributed to it feeling off?  I don't know.  I'm assuming they plotted the whole thing out, but only worked on the first part.  

The series ends with an Annual, written by Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly, the same team who wrote the rest of the series.  The Annual felt like such a waste of time.  There was really no point of it.  It wrapped up loose ends that were quickly created so they could do an annual.  Whatever.

This volume was okay, but not quite up to snuff if you ask me.

Grayson Vol 5: Spiral's End

Writer: Tim Seeley, Tom King, Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly

Artist: Roge Antonio, Carmine Di Giandomenico, Geraldo Borges, Natasha Alterici, Christian Duce, Flaviano, Javier Fernandez

DC Comics

017 Flash Vol 1: Lightning Strikes Twice

Confession time.  I love the Flash.  I've always loved the Flash.  Then the New 52 came along and I couldn't read the Flash anymore.  It was an awful book.  They took away the Flash and replaced him with someone I didn't recognize.  Now we're in the midst of Rebirth and I thought I'd give The Flash a look.  I was happy with what I read.  I honestly wasn't expecting to like this book.  Maybe I had the bar set low and this exceeded my expectations because of it?  I don't know.  He still isn't quite my Barry Allen, but this is the Barry Allen I could have accepted with the New 52.  He sounds like Barry.  He looks like Barry.  He acts like Barry.

I felt like this first trade was kind of mirroring or maybe aping what's going on on the Flash TV show.  That show is obsessed with speedsters.  Every season, every week it seems like all we have are speedsters.  And it gets tiring.  This trade is all about speedsters.  A new speedster villain.  A new speedster sidekick.  A whole slew of new speedsters.  Speedsters speedsters speedsters.  Sure, a lot of them end up dead, but there are still way too many speedsters in this book.  But it was a well done story, rushed (no pun intended) in some spots, but a really fun read.  The art is beautiful.  Carmine Di Giandomenico has something in his style that reminds me of Scott Kolins run on the book.  It's beautiful.  My only gripe with the art is I still hate all the lines in the costume and I really hate the constant halo of lightning surrounding the Flash.  That shit needs to go.

Based on this first volume, I plan on a return visit.

Flash Vol 1: Lightning Strikes Twice

Writer: Joshua Williamson

Artist: Carmine Di Giandomenico, Neil Googe, Felipe Watanabe, Andrew Currie, Oclair Albert

DC Comics