Who was Flash/Barry Allen's greatest writer?

[Adset]

i can't comment on the pre-COIE stuff. i've read a little, but so sparingly i'd be talking out of ignorance (more than usual!).

wolfman, waid, cooke, morrison... all great writers, and some wonderful renditions of barry allen, but it's hard to quantify what they did against creators who worked on a barry allen solo book. i think i've read all these, but alas. so of the modern day writers who have handled him...

1. williamson. almost by default. i wouldn't rank this current volume of flash with the greats, but it IS consistently entertaining. i'm... nervous for some of the elements introduced during flash war, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. still, i'm reading the flash monthly (bi-weekly, i guess) and not fearing what i'm about to read for the first time IN A LONG TIME, and that's a nice feeling.

2. johns. the rebirth/short-lived pre-flashpoint series gets second place because it was, at worst, readable, and therefore leagues above whatever the hell they tried to pass off on us in the new 52 era. i was against bringing barry back, but you can't fight city hall, and it is what it is. rebirth and the first arc was OK, then it basically became a prelude for flashpoint. nothing fantastic, but again, i didn't want to burn it with fire, and apparently that's good enough for the silver on this podium.

3. manapul/buccellato. i thought long and hard about this, but if forced to choose i would begrudgingly re-read the manapul/buccellato new 52 run over venditti/jensen. the reason is almost entirely art-based, as manapul's flash is, of course, very pretty to look at. but make no mistake: this was awful. really, really awful.

4. venditti/jensen. take all the charm you get from a fantastic artist like manapul and replace it with brett booth, and you get garbage. straight up garbage. the story went nowhere -- the writing may have been a bit more structured than the previous duo, but my god, the art. i wouldn't wish brett booth on anyone. this was a travesty. the flash was ALL about tragedy in this short-lived nut punch of a run, and i'm not talking about the characters in the book.

[Buried Alien]

John Broome was sometimes given a break by Gardner Fox, who wrote such trivial stories not worth our consideration as "Flash of Two Worlds" (not to mention all those JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA adventures).

I considered including Fox on the list too, but he's more known for Jay Garrick than Barry Allen (which I know, curiously, was Waid's deal with Wally vis a vis Barry too).

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[KC]

John Broome and Robert Kanigher. Broome and Kanigher built most of the Flash's mythology (and all of the good parts of the Flash mythology in my opinion) and their stories are fun.

[MajorHoy]

At the moment, poll results show the top vote getters are currently:

* Cary Bates (Bronze Age) = 12 votes
* John Broome/Robert Kanigher (Silver Age) = 6 votes
* Mark Waid (Post-COIE) = 6 votes
* Francis Manapul (New 52) = 3 votes

On principle I'm almost willing to just give more points to anyone who wrote Barry pre-"dead mom" status quo.

There's something to be said for that, but I will add that Manapul with Brian Buccellato wasn't too bad.

[HAN9000]

The thing is, Mark Waid doesn't like Barry at all... He even hates Barry after he came back.

[Buried Alien]

The thing is, Mark Waid doesn't like Barry at all... He even hates Barry after he came back.

I'm going to ask you to substantiate that claim because it doesn't appear to be supported by any facts. I think you're projecting your own dislike of Barry onto Mark Waid.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[LifeIsILL]

Come to think of it, I don't think The Flash ever had a bad run....I mean yeah he had bad issues here and there like anyone else....but his comics have been really consistent ever since the beginning.

It's a damn shame the TV show can't do the same.

[Kyer]

The thing is, Mark Waid doesn't like Barry at all... He even hates Barry after he came back.

For someone who hates Barry he sure did a great job of writing him.

I can't really say I've read more than a book's worth of pre-COIE Barry although I'd love to read the fantastical stories (intelligent clouds, turned into a puppet, etc.) Waid introduced me to the character and made me love him without much of any prior knowledge of the character beforehand. Cooke added to that with just one story.

Morrison and Vendetti tooketh away. Final...eh...ugh.

Liked Manupal's art. A lot. It was worth it to buy the first trade just for the art even if the stories were lacking.

Williamson is about tied with Waid for me. I'm enjoying the stories, but am still snarluffigumphed over Barry's parents and other thing. Still, those last upsets are likely the fault of Editorial (my nemsisss!) Waid wins by a nostalgic nose.

I absolutely loathed Geoff John's Flash Rebirth 2009. That and Flashpoint were imho gawdawful.

[Frontier]

Yeah, I don't get Waid hating Barry at all. I think he had a lot of respect for Barry as a character.

Come to think of it, I don't think The Flash ever had a bad run....I mean yeah he had bad issues here and there like anyone else....but his comics have been really consistent ever since the beginning.

It's a damn shame the TV show can't do the same.

Uh...I think the Venditti and Van Jensen run would probably be put up as one of the worst Flash runs.

[married guy]

I chose Broome over Bates, but honestly, it could've gone either way!

That said, I LOVED Mark Waid's take on Barry Allen. I thought he really nailed everything that made Barry great.
JLA Year One in particular really highlighted for me just how great a writer he is. (Brave & Bold was a ripper too)

[married guy]

Come to think of it, I don't think The Flash ever had a bad run....I mean yeah he had bad issues here and there like anyone else....but his comics have been really consistent ever since the beginning.

It's a damn shame the TV show can't do the same.

Don't ever read Flash: Fastest Man Alive then.
Honestly, every issue is just a dumpster fire and a HORRIBLE mistake by the DC PTB who thought it was a great idea to shoehorn Bart into the role.

[Jim Kelly]

I think Mark Waid hated the mess that DC made of his Flash family. Bringing back Barry was just a symptom of that. As much as I like the classic DC, the universe that Waid constructed around Wally was pretty good. In that universe, Barry is like the Silver Agent in Astro City. He exists, but he's best as a symbol of a time that is now past and his sacrifice has meaning for all the heroes that are living.

[HAN9000]

I'm going to ask you to substantiate that claim because it doesn't appear to be supported by any facts. I think you're projecting your own dislike of Barry onto Mark Waid.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

There're so many interviews that Waid has expressed his opinion on Barry. If you ever listened or read or watched one of them you would know that he never approved of Barry's rebirth. And he got pissed off after he knew Dan Didio was planning on it.
For example
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phutpBtTcMs
Waid said "I liked Barry and this has changed some in the last few years after DC brought him back" and "there was nothing terribly interesting about Barry".

Of course Waid did a decent job on Barry. He is a good writer and he liked Barry as a dead predecessor.

I'm honestly surprised that these many people don't know this fact.
I think you are thinking of me in terms of your own desires.

[Jim Kelly]

Well it's kind of like asking what Albert Einstein thinks about Newton's law of universal gravitation and answering, "Oh, he hates it." That's hardly a helpful answer and there's much more information needed to understand what he actually thought.

[HAN9000]

Well it's kind of like asking what Albert Einstein thinks about Newton's law of universal gravitation and answering, "Oh, he hates it." That's hardly a helpful answer and there's much more information needed to understand what he actually thought.

Suit yourself. Waid doesn't hate Barry. He just thinks Barry is uninteresting and should be dead.