The Flash #783
- Writer
- Jeremy Adams
- Artist
- Amancay Nahuelpan
- Letterer
- Rob Leigh
- Cover Artist
- Brandon Peterson, Michael Atiyeh
- Publisher
- DC
- Price
- $3.99
- Release Date
- 2022-06-21
- Colorist
- Jeromy Cox
The search for Barry Allen is on as Flash and Kid Flash speed their way through other universes. As DC's Dark Crisis rages on, things are starting to look dire. But Wally is determined to set things right and find Barry no matter what, and he's gotten the Flash family back together to conduct the search. But the question is not whether they can find Barry -- it's whether Barry even wants to be found at all.
The Flash #783, written by Jeremy Adams, illustrated by Amancay Nahuelpan, colored by Jeromy Cox, and lettered by Rob Leigh, continues the Dark Crisis arc. The Flash family has come together to search for Barry, who is lost in one of three possible timelines. But unfortunately, that's not all they need to find. Determined to prove themselves, Wally's kids foolishly dive straight into the time portal, and now the race is on to find both Barry and the kids -- before everyone runs out of time.
The Flash #783 makes liberal use of its movie and comic references as the issue bounces between three timelines. The Flash #783 makes good of familiar multiverse tropes without taking them too seriously, despite the rather high stakes in this plot. Adams balances the signature levity of the Flash with the ominous nature of Dark Crisis. The issue opens with Barry attacking a young Wally, as Kid Flash, in a garish screen-toned nightmare and maintains a similar level of intensity as the story progresses. While Wally's children escape into one of the alternate dimensions to have an adventure of their own, the fear their family experiences, and their own panic upon seeing the creepy cyberpunk world they've landed in, is palpable.
This is one of the most visually fun issues in recent memory. Artist Nahuelpan and colorist Cox clearly had a great time with this The Flash #783, mimicking familiar art styles in the three alternate dimensions. Nahuelpan creates breathtaking landscapes reminiscent of the sleek cyberpunk and neon signs of Blade Runner, and the rugged, dry, and dusty car-laden dystopia of Mad Max, complete with an equally rugged, ragged, and bearded Barry Allen behind the wheel of a car. The third and final universe, an idyllic setting straight from the Silver Age, complete with the aesthetic trappings and dialogue of the '50s is the most impressive.
The seemingly perfect world of this third universe evokes comics of the '50s and '60s, with bright, saturated primary colors, thick lines, a papery, aged texture, and liberal use of Ben-Day dots. It's cheerful, if rather unsettling, enough to make the reader and the heroes feel ill at ease. This is the only segment of this issue with this aesthetic, so the contrast between universes is particularly striking. Notably, when Prime universe Flash and Kid Flash are visible in the hyper-saturated pseudo-50s world Barry inhabits, the two characters are the only ones who retain their dark palette.
The Flash #783 continues the Dark Crisis by taking the Flash family to a much brighter place. While its use of time travel and alternate universe hopping is nothing new -- and is becoming something of a modern cliché -- The Flash #783 does just enough with it, and sets up just enough discomfort and suspense alongside witty, bubbly humor–to make it worth sticking with.
