Absolute Flash Vol. 1: Of Two Worlds proves that old adage that’s there’s very little that can’t be made better with a telepathic monkey.

Perhaps it’s the shock of the new wearing off, but Absolute Flash Vol. 1, and Absolute Green Lantern Vol. 1 for that matter, did not seem to be up to the standards of the Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman volumes that proceeded. Or maybe it’s just that in this second set of Absolute Universe debuts, Absolute Martian Manhunter was so good that the others can’t help but pale in comparison. Fortunately Absolute Flash gets better as it goes along and the second volume promises to be even better than the first. But had these books premiered before the first volumes of the Big Three, I wonder if my excitement for DC’s Absolute titles would be quite as high.

With all due respect, I’m finding it hard to know what I’m going to get from writer Jeff Lemire. There’s a long list of books I’ve enjoyed by Lemire¹, but also a few lately that have been letdowns. I held out hope that Lemire’s recent JSA walked so that his Absolute Flash could run (sorry), but the first two issues at least don’t prove that true. With the final four, and the addition of the aforementioned simian, Absolute Flash might begin to right itself, but I haven’t seen enough yet to know for sure.

[Review contains spoilers]

The big hurdle for the Absolute books is that long-time readers have seen so many alternate versions of these characters, not to mention all the different mainstream iterations, that to deliver something new is no small feat. That most if not all of the first Absolute books managed this is no small part of their success, but that’s the first place Absolute Flash stumbles.

The entire forward action of the first two issues, flashbacks aside, is young Wally West versus his gathered “rogues.” We’ve seen Rogues-as-law-enforcement enough times in other Flash series that this is hardly interesting enough to launch the book, especially as compared to the shocks, surprises, and can’t-look-away dynamism of just the first issue(!) of Absolute Batman, nor does main series artist Nick Robles deliver more than DC’s house style. Neither Wally’s military father nor the death (again) of Barry Allen nor Wally’s ill-defined powers quite measure up.

Fortunately we get a little something different in the third issue. Robles' Y, the Last Man-inspired cover heralds the coming of Grodd, no longer a rampaging gorilla but rather a small blue monkey with its brain exposed(!!) — that we haven’t seen before. It is not as though the taciturn Grodd brims with personality, but rather it’s a moment where neither the reader nor the characters — who expected Grodd to be on the Rogues' side and not Wally’s — know what’s going to happen next, and that’s a big difference.

Plus, for all that Wally’s busy new costume is not particularly impressive against Batman with a giant axe, Wonder Woman with a giant sword, and Superman with a nanobot cape, having a monkey riding on his shoulder while he “flashes” around is, at least, something. There’s a suggestion toward the end of the book that maybe Grodd is still working for the military’s Dr. Thawne, but I hope not, in the sense that I hope Grodd is intended to stay right on Wally’s shoulder and not fall away in a villain arc a volume hence.

The Absolute books have been staking out their fiefdoms. The Big Three books have enough to worry about perhaps just within their own families, but we saw Absolute Green Lantern for instance expand its purview to not only Alan Scott but also his son Todd “Obsidian” Rice and Sylvester “Star-Spangled Kid” Pemberton, suggesting Green Lantern as the site of the Absolute Universe’s Infinity, Inc. properties. For its part, I thought Absolute Flash got a second boost when Wally comes upon an Iron Heights youth mission run by Ralph and Sue Dibny, with young Linda Park as one of the participants.

Indeed Ralph got his start in Flash, so maybe this is no surprise, but then again it’s so easy to think of Elongated Man as a Justice League-centric character these days. Then again, another Easter egg is a mention of “that Raymond kid” — presumably Ronnie “Firestorm” Raymond — so maybe indeed what we’re looking at is a 1970s-1980s Justice League backdrop to Flash, not unlike iterations of Elongated Man, Vibe, Gypsy, and Firestorm appearing on the Flash TV series. I appreciate Lemire taking it slow, though, eschewing any winks and nods to Ralph smelling a mystery or the like.

That we have young Wally and young Linda — so, aged down versions of the mainstream characters — perhaps signals Flash as the Absolute Universe’s first “teen” book. Here too, I hope DC takes it slow; to my eye, the best path forward for Absolute is as few books as possible, not a line of the size to rival the DCU. I guess, if Absolute doesn’t have a teen-focused book a la the Robins and Blue Beetles of the past, then maybe it should, but I would hope the (inevitable?) Absolute Teen Titans with Wally and a rumored Dick Grayson and etc. is a long way off — again, all to keep the Absolute Universe as something distinct and not just a pocket New 52 line.

In Absolute Flash Vol. 1: Of Two Worlds, we’ve got young Wally West struck by the lightning of a science experiment gone awry, an incident that also kills scientist Barry Allen, just as seemingly scientist Jay Garrick was killed before him. And here we see the distillation of Jeff Lemire’s conception of the Flash mythos, a chain of speedsters who essentially go it alone, Wally as the character who had to be Flash by himself after the death of mentor Barry.

That’s interesting, including because it steps away from the current conception of “Flash family” (a near legion) toward something closer to the post-Crisis status quo. And then of course that in each of these incidents, there was also a Thawne at hand; also that Wally seems to time travel with abandon without all the angst that’s brought to the Flash title in recent years. I am hopeful that Absolute Flash keeps on improving; I am hopeful Lemire keeps on moving away from and not toward what we’re expecting.

[Includes original and variant covers, concept art, character designs]