Cheap Trick and The Flash have many things in common. If you ask 10 people to name a great rock band then Cheap Trick would be in many of their lists. They might not be their favorite, but their list will have some Cheap Trick in there. For our money, check out Cheap Trick Steve Albini rerecording. Albini had the band do their sophomore LP, In Color but amped up the power pop. It’s brilliant. The point is that most people like Cheap Trick and most comic book fans like The Flash in much the same way. The Flash 100 Greatest Moments Highlights From the History of the Scarlet Speedster is out and will reinforce your admiration of the yellow lightning cap hero or introduce you to the hero whose action you might have only seen on television.
As a kid growing up I loved to read The Flash. He always had the coolest covers and was more relatable than some of his contemporaries. Barry Allen was entirely too human. He had a job and essentially just had one superpower, which is the power of speed. It’s how he used that one power, either moving a body part fast or using his mind to outsmart the baddie which I always found entertaining. The Flash was also always willing to team up with other heroes or those part-time baddies who needed the means to justify their ends.
The Flash 100 Greatest Moments presents highlights from the comic book incarnation of Central City’s go-to fast guy. It’s written by Robert Greenberger, who readers might know from his Batman, Super Heroines, Super-Villains or Justice League 100 Greatest Moments, among other books. Greenberger presents The Flash in a manner that’s obviously from a fan’s perspective but is also incredibly entertaining and education. Think of this as an encyclopedia for all things comic book-oriented regarding The Flash.
The Flash has changed since 1940. He’s had multiple costume upgrades, discovered new abilities-like time travel, has made a couple of mistakes-like time travel, and has changed who and where he is. This book has 100 fabulous storylines that will make fans out of casual readers, only know The Flash from TV, or don’t know much about him at all. As I, a casual fan, was reading through the book I remembered the plot points from many of the pivotal issues. The covers were as fabulous as I remembered and it had me wishing that I had more Flash in my collection.
100 Greatest Moments counts back from the biggest number and has many of those great covers to kick off the snippets presented from that issue. Some of the classic moments only have a key page from that issue. Underneath every image is a couple of sentences that recap what happened. To get more edutainment from The Flash, each chapter of the book is broken up into six different similarly themed areas like The Rogues, The Cosmic Treadmill, The Flash Museum, Flash Facts, The Speed Force, and The Fastest Man Alive. By breaking up the character’s life into segments like this, readers of any knowledge base will be intrigued and want to read more. The book does not take a chronological look like the comic books and by doing so lets us see how The Flash has evolved and makes the book a very entertaining read.
This is a slightly oversized book that will stay in your forever library. It’s as at-home on your coffee table, as it is on your nightstand or in the bathroom. I can say this with confidence because those are only a couple of the places that The Flash 100 Greatest Moments have been the past couple of days with me. The reading level in the book is on par with middle school readers who are good with a book that’s as intent on educating as it is on entertaining.
The Flash 100 Greatest Moments Highlights from the History of the Scarlet Speedster is by Robert Greenberger and on Chartwell Books, an imprint of Quarto Knows.
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