Murder in a Flash
See, this would be an awesome cover for an issue in the middle of the arc, where Flash was actually FIGHTING Reverse-Flash. This isn't a great cover for the beginning where the two haven't met and are barely are of each others' presence. I mean, the focus is a little too zoomed in, but overall the sense of excessive speed attacks ON the freaking hero of speed is very smart, and the execution is pretty sweet.
Ok, of course Francis Manapul's artwork is gorgeous. There's a lot of excellent surreal layouts, not his most interesting or experimental work, but still definitely a flair of his unique style. The scenes with Reverse-Flash especially look stunning, a lot of that has to do with the coloring I think.
I'm liking The Flash doing detective work. He's not Batman, but this is still his job. He's a police detective dammit! So what's he doing? Investigating a super crime so he can use his powers to stop it. This balance is great for Flash, and the pacing seems to have definitely smoothed out quite a bit.
After so much chaos for the whole big buildup of all the chaos that became Gorilla Warfare, it's great to finally see Flash settling into a status quo and working out his social life. I'm a little nervous about the teases of Iris creating a love triangle because, no disrespect to comic history, but so much is different in the New 52 and Barry/Patty have been making such a fantastic couple I'd be infuriated if they were driven apart just to keep up with tradition after such lengths were taken to make sure this was something new.
Now I've praised the artwork, and it is definitely praiseworthy, but it's a bit of a double edged sword here. There's a bit of an overuse of large panels, and it makes the issue feel a bit short. This is especially apparent during a fairly forced 'action' scene where Flash has to get a train back on the rails and then pose for the cameras. There's some character spotlight in there just a sprikling, but overall it's a fairly obvious filler scene for most of it.
The other problem is the leap in logic at the end. He sees a backwards version of his symbol, says he;s seen it before, and remembers Kid Flash WHOSE SYMBOL IS EXACTLY THE SAME AS HIS OWN AND NOT BACKWARDS. I mean, maybe it's time for this overdue confrontation to happen, but it's pretty obvious he's got nothing to do with the new Reverse-Flash, so the next issue is just going to be filler. Plus, it's just dumb logic.
In Conclusion: 4/5
It's overall a very competent issue, and what I've generally come to expect from Flash lately. There's less glaring flaws than most issues, but being at the beginning of an arc, I'm just not super into what's going on. But in many ways this issue demonstrates that Manapul has improved his storytelling ability.
