No. 0: The Flash: The Human Race
My Review
This trade is actually two stories, “The Human Race” and “The Black Flash”. I enjoyed the former, not the latter.
In “The Human Race”, Wally West — The Flash — is chosen by some intergalactic gamblers to run in an unending race through space and time. The stakes for the gamblers are inconsequential; the stakes for the runners all important: when you lose, your planet is destroyed. It’s a message about harmony and coming together in a crisis, in which the world’s support actually helps the Flash run faster.
“The Black Flash” is…uninspiring. For “speedsters”, like the Flashes, Jesse Quick and Max Mercury, death comes in the form of a demon in a black Flash uniform (complete with bolt logo and antennae). One of the heroes discovers that Wally is next, and manages to save him, with dire consequences. But, as we’ve all learned from Final Destination, Death gets the one it wants; so the Black Flash comes back for Wally. There are some decent teamwork scenes, but it comes down to Wally running fast.
While the first part is uninspiring, the resolution is just plain strange, and involves running 20 billion 100 million (he was quite precise) years into the future to a moment that is at once the end of time and the second big bang: “The end of life, the universe and everything…where death ceases to exist even at a conceptual level.” In the next panel he refers to the entropy of the universe (which is death, essentially) without irony.
And of course, somehow the Flash manages to survive this trip to “the end”…all while dropping “Flash Facts” and misstating the color of his own boots. Not great, but Morrison gets a free pass once in a while based on the quality of his other work.
I haven't read a lot of Flash comics but I do remember reading the Human Race at the supermarket when you could still find comics there. Are you actually a DC fan and if so are you current at all?
I'm new to comics, and at this point there's just too much in the DC Universe to catch up on. I started with Marvel at the Civil War, and I'm moving forward from there.
I like the medium, but don't have quite the time to keep up with it.
How strange, I have a cousin who just got back into comics and so I am right now in the midst of a similar education with him. When I got into comics, I was just reading X-Men after their cartoon in the 90's came out. After about 15 years of reading comics, I have somewhere over 3,000, mainly Marvel and DC. If you are looking for suggestions, I am happy to oblige. Since you hopped on the bandwagon with a crossover, I don't have to warn you too much how big and sweeping they can be. For the most part, I would stick with the trades. Beyond that, enjoy.
P.S. Avoid Final Crisis like the plague. If you want a good Morrison story, read All Star Superman or his JLA run.