Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Andrew Kreisberg, Comics, dc, entertainment, phil hester, The Flash

The Flash Season Zero – 24 Trades Of Christmas

Published Sat, 10 Dec 2016 18:00:18 -0600

Now that the build up to the holidays meets the dread television winter hiatus, this seems like a good time to throw the spotlight onto The Flash: Season Zero trade from DC Entertainment. It's a series of stories that take place between the pilot episode and the first regular episode of season one. If it were a true season zero, we'd have a book full of stories about an non-powered Barry Allen showing up late to crime scenes. I'm not sure how exciting that would be.

The trade includes a variety of stories from a slew of different writers and artists, but the first one is a story by the series executive producer Andrew Kreisberg, scripted by Booke Eikmeier and Katherine Walczak with art by Phil Hester. For me, Hester's art alone is worth the money after his run on the Green Arrow comics. It tells of a traveling circus that got affected by the particle accelerator explosion and how the "Freak Show" gains power including the Ring Master who could now control peoples minds. Its a well written story that feels like it could easily of being an episode in the first season.

From there we get a story by Kreisberg and another executive producer Marc Guggenheim that Kreisberg scripted for art by Marcus To… and what did Guggenheim bring with him from Arrow? Miss Felicity Smoak, who is being attacked by killer drones sent by an arch nemesis… because everyone needs an arch nemesis. And from there we get a King Shark story by Kresiberg, scripted by Kai Yu Wu and Lauren Certo with art by Phil Hester and Eric Gapstur. Here we get to see the origin of the big meta with guest appearances by Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, Cupid, Amanda Waller and Green Arrow.

Another stand out story centers on Caitlin Snow and what she did prior to STAR Labs. How she helped with a space program and how the astronaut she worked with was in the space station when the particle accelerator exploded. This story was written and drawn by Hester and may have had the most heart of any in the trade.

The rest of the talent involved in the book are Sterling Gates, Ben Sokolowski, and Ibrahim Moustafa, and we get a look at an early mission for Leonard Snart and Mick Rory, long before they got their high tech guns.

This is a great trade for anyone who is a fan of the television series as it fills in a lot of background on characters, expands in areas the show might have trouble in doing and are overall fun tales in the CW television universe.

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