The Flash meets Hot Pursuit AKA Barry Allen from a parallel dimension. Why is he here? What does he want? Why is Barry such a jerk to Bart?
The Good
I love Francis Manapul's art sooooo (some extra "o"s to declare the importance of this statement) much. It seems he's changed up his style a bit. I've been noticing heavier inking lines on the outside of the characters, which I don't remember being there before. So, I've already established that the art is super-duper awesome, but how's the story? Well, I'm a bit down the middle on this one.
There's the reintroduction of the 52 DC worlds, a concept that is really cool, but not always used particularly well. Hot Pursuit brings back the idea that if the Earth that all our heroes are on dies, so does the rest of the 52 worlds. In addition, we find out Barry is actually the generator of the Speed Force. So, we get a lot of cool information right from the get-go, and after that, well the issue becomes a bit of a let down.
The Bad
We get a tiny bit more info on Hot Pursuit, that his bike can leach the speed force from Barry. I'm not the biggest fan of that idea personally, but owe well. The issue just goes downhill from there. It's not bad by any means. It just feels like it's on cruise control doing the speed limit through a small town. Hot Pursuit is confirmed as Barry Allen from another Earth through the magic of evidence, which I'm not really complaining about, and Barry is dragged to the scene of a crime, through a side-story that I had completely forgotten about since the beginning of this issue thrust us into the middle of a scene. I really wish more happened in this issue, and that's my biggest complaint.
The Verdict
There's some great dialogue, and this issue starts off amazing, but then it slopes down from there. It's still an extremely solid issue, but it's the weakest of the volume thus far. The art is flat-out my favorite art at DC, and the writing is always solid, but this issue is mainly all set-up for the upcoming storyline, so be aware of that. "Road to Flashpoint"is on the cover for a reason, unlike so many other tie-ins where the issue has little to nothing to do with the actual upcoming storyline. Pick the book up or borrow it from a friend. It's a solid read, but a terrible jumping-on point for new readers.
