Top Of The Pile: Blackest Night - The Flash #1

I was enjoying the first issue of the latest Blackest Night three-part spin-off - The Flash - until the final page, then I felt a broad grin spreading across my face and gave writer Geoff Johns a "virtual high-five".

The Flash and his Rogues' Gallery have been an important part of superhero lore for me since my first encounters with American comics back in the early 1970s.

I've always enjoyed the simplicity of the characters - on both side of the law - as they were all built around a single concept or power, then that single power was dissected to the nth degree to add spice and variety to their M.O.

In Blackest Night: The Flash issue one, my first Flash - Barry Allen - is acting as a global messenger for the forces of good, alerting heroes to the threat of the Black Lanterns but also dealing with his own problems with the Reverse-Flash who claims to have been traveling backwards in time and dogging Allen even before he became The Flash - to the extent of taking responsibility for the murder of Barry Allen's mother.

Meanwhile The Rogues are getting together to face off against their dead counter-parts, with the idea of a preemptive strike - which leads to the wonderfully gung-ho final image of grizzled old Len Snart - aka Captain Cold - declaring: "Let's go shoot some zombies."

I wasn't initially that taken with Scott Kolins art for this issue, the first page looking rather scratchy, but as it progressed I realised that his style was well suited to the frequent speed lines and blurred images one associates with The Flash.

There was a lot of recapping as well in the early parts of the story, but Geoff Johns still managed to weave in some new information which justified going over old ground, resulting in yet another superb chapter of this mighty fine cross-title saga.

It almost seems a shame that it's got to end - and I still worry that the climax will be some deus ex machina, a massive reset button or just a bit of a cop-out.

Of course, I also have to weigh this against the fact that the Blackest Night saga is being authored by the mighty Geoff Johns...