Each Friday, we'll be letting a different DC.com writer share what they'll be reading over the weekend and why you might want to check it out. Here's this week's suggestion for a perfect Weekend Escape!


With HBO feeding fans of genre TV better than ever before with shows like A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and IT: Welcome to Derry (to say nothing about The Penguin, Peacemaker and the upcoming Lanterns), you may find yourself wondering if there’s a comic book equivalent. The answer, of course, is yes. There are plenty. The most recent is probably Absolute Flash Vol. 1: Of Two Worlds. Like all of DC’s Absolute titles, Absolute Flash is set in a new continuity, meaning you don’t need to have read any previous Flash comics. Heck, you don’t even need to know who the Flash is. But if you do, you’ll likely be intrigued and delighted by this new take on the Scarlet Speedster, which taps into the prevalence of anxiety in today’s society for a fast-paced tale that will leave your heart and mind racing.
 

THE PREMISE:

Wally West is a fifteen-year-old boy with some big problems. The teenager suffers from racing thoughts and panic attacks and feels truly alone in the world. Of course, it doesn’t help that his father Colonel Rudy West is constantly uprooting him from army base to army base. Colonel West’s latest assignment has placed him and Wally at Fort Fox in Colorado. For Wally, it’s another wasteland and his only friend is Dr. Barry Allen, a research scientist who is working on a secret government project.

Unfortunately, an accident in Dr. Allen’s lab changes Wally’s life forever and now he’s on the run. Barely understanding what has happened to him, Wally is running from the army, running from his father, running from his memories and running from his guilt. He soon finds that the accident has changed his body in ways he couldn’t imagine, but at a great cost. Now Wally must figure out his new abilities while being hunted by his father’s mysterious agents.
 

LET’S TALK TALENT:

Absolute Flash Vol. 1: Of Two Worlds is written by Jeff Lemire, who has scripted acclaimed runs on Green Arrow and Animal Man, but is probably best known for writing and illustrating the Vertigo series Sweet Tooth. With Absolute Flash, Lemire takes familiar faces and concepts from the Flash mythos and reimagines them from the ground up. From the first page, Lemire connects the readers with Wally and we can feel his isolation, his fear, his guilt and all the tension that’s building.

Of Two Worlds is illustrated by Nick Robles and A.L. Kaplan. That’s Robles’ work on the cover and it’s clear that the man was born to reinvent the Flash. The image is moody, mysterious, dynamic and one of the most interesting Flash covers I’ve seen in years. Adriano Lucas and Chris Sotomayor provide the colors and their palettes and tones set the mood, giving the book a sense of whimsy during the Grodd scenes, dread during the scenes with the Rogues and tension during the sequences when Wally is on the run. The comic is primarily set in the desert, but Robles, Kaplan, Lucas and Sotomayor still find a way to make it one of the most colorful books you’ll read this year.
 

A FEW REASONS TO READ:

  • Much like the other Absolute titles, Absolute Flash Vol. 1: Of Two Worlds reimagines its protagonist as a hero reflective of today. Our world is a scary place. Anxiety runs rampant, so seeing a character whose superpower is not just a reflection of his racing, uncontrolled thoughts, but might very well be powered by them is refreshing and likely highly relatable to readers who have also suffered from panic attacks. And it feels so natural for the Flash, a character who has always thought through things far faster than average. In the real world, that’s not always a good thing—in fact, it’s frequent overwhelming, and we see that in this version of Wally.
     
  • Absolute Flash holds plenty of surprises for fans of Wally’s DCU counterpart, subverting your expectations and keeping you on the edge of your seat. For example, you might think Barry Allen is being set up as Wally’s mentor, but that expectation is dashed before the end of the first issue.
  • Wally might be on the run, but he isn’t alone. The teen speedster is joined by a tiny green monkey named Grodd who communicates with him telepathically, and let’s face it, everything is better with monkeys.
     
  • Along with Wally, we’re also given reimagined versions of the Rogues, and they’re one of the most interesting things about the book. Leonard Snart, Lisa Snart, Digger Harkness and Jesse James steal the show every time they appear, and as the book goes on, you find yourself liking them more and more. Yes, they’re hunting our teenage protagonist, but they’re paying the price for a past mistake as well and you can’t help but feel a bit for them.
     

WHY IT’S WORTH YOUR TIME:

You know that feeling you get when you watch the first episode of an addicting streaming show? That’s what will happen when you read this first volume of Absolute Flash. Like the other titles in DC’s Absolute line, this comic gives new readers a perfect jumping on point, while still giving longtime readers something new and daring. This is the Flash mythos deconstructed and reimagined for the modern era. Lemire, Robles, Kaplan and Lucas give us a new take on the Scarlet Speedster while remaining true to the core of the character and his world.

Above all else, it’s an entertaining story. Absolute Flash Vol. 1: Of Two Worlds is a fast-paced thriller about an anxiety-prone teenage boy alone and on the run with his psychic green monkey. With a premise like that, you know you’re in for a good time.


Absolute Flash Vol. 1: Of Two Worlds by Jeff Lemire, Nick Robles, A.L. Kaplan, Adriano Lucas and Chris Sotomayor is available in bookstores, comic shops, libraries and digital retailers as a softcover graphic novel. It can also be read in full on DC UNIVERSE INFINITE.

Joshua Lapin-Bertone writes about TV, movies and comics for DC.com, is a regular contributor to the Couch Club and writes our monthly Batman column, "Gotham Gazette." Follow him on Bluesky at @joshualapinbertone and on X at @TBUJosh.

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this feature are solely those of Joshua Lapin-Bertone and do not necessarily reflect those of DC or Warner Bros. Discovery, nor should they be read as confirmation or denial of future DC plans.