All pleasures are guilty pleasures if you have high enough anxiety

Picture of the first two trade paperbacks of Si Spurrier's run on The Flash. On the left is Vol 1: Strange Attractor, and the on the right is Vol 2: Until Time Stands Still.

Finally.

Absolute Flash design by Nick Robles

🔥🔥🔥

It's good! I respect any list that puts Batgirl at the top. But seeing Absolute Superman at the bottom hurts me a little ngl

My impact

The worst Big 2 comics I've read this year

1) The Flash by Spurrier 2) Fantastic Four by North 3) Ultimates by Camp and Frigeri 4) Detective Comics by V 5) Absolute Superman by Aaron and Sandoval 6) Absolute Wonder Woman by Thompson and Sherman 7) Ultimate X-Men by Momoko 8) The Boy Wonder by Ba 9) Zatanna: Bring Down The House by Tamaki and Rodriguez 10) Exceptional X-Men by Ewing and Carnero 11) Batgirl by Brombal and Miyazawa 12) Ultimate Spider-Man by Hickman and Checchetto

The best Big 2 comics I've read this year

The first 25 issues of this run are peak (aside from the questionable America's Most Wanted arc). But this run falls off hard as it goes into Infinite Crisis territory and never really recovers afterward.

Marvel Knights Spider-Man #3 by Millar and Dodson

Marvel Knights Spider-Man #9 by Millar and Dodson

Marvel Knights Spider-Man #10 by Millar and Dodson

Marvel Knights Spider-Man #12 by Millar and Dodson

Thinking about Marvel Knights Spider-Man again. What a run.

The Flash (1987) #36 by Messner-Loebs and LaRocque

Thinking about this page again

The Flash (2023) #9 by Spurrier and Perez

The Flash (2023) #9 by Spurrier and Deodato Jr

But the middle of her arc is where it didn't quite work for me. Handwaving away Linda's postpartum depression by having her just go back to her usual self right after Kadabra's spell gets broken felt very rushed to me.

The Flash (2023) #6 by Spurrier and Deodato Jr.

The Flash (2023) #6 by Spurrier and Deodato Jr.

The Flash (2023) #12 by Spurrier and Perez

The Flash (2023) #12 by Spurrier and Perez

Her arc starts off really strong in the first six issues; I loved the insight we got into her perspective on things. And the payoff in issue 12 with the reveal that the Resident was the missing parts of her? Chef's kiss it made me believe in love again

The Flash (2023) #1 by Spurrier and Deodato Jr.

I hope we get more focus on Linda going forward in Spurrier's Flash. While he's definitely the best writer for her since Waid, the resolution to her part in the first arc felt a little bit underwhelming to me.

The Outsiders by Judd Winick

#NR:

That was definitely a story!

We got Jeff the Land Shark and Peni Parker before the Fantastic Four 😭😭

Yes I know it's bad. But it leads into Outsiders 2003 and I'm about to read that so I figured why not? It's only three issues

Cover of Titans/Young Justice: Graduation Day #1 by Winick and Garza

#NR:

What a journey.

I'm losing it

What the hell is Wally wearing 😭😭 He does NOT have that shit on

They need to bring back this dynamic yesterday

PEAK.

Loved how this story used Cass and Rose as parallels

LMAO

This arc was kinda mid tbh but I liked this moment

I hope this run builds up a strong civilian supporting cast for Cass. We don't really have a lot of those in Big 2 superhero comics anymore

She's a community hero ❤️

Personally I think Wally and the Flashfam are now in much better hands with Spurrier. Idk if that's still considered a hot take lol

I thought his run was fun at first, but after a while it just felt kinda empty to me. Imo it's like the Flash equivalent of Wayne Family Adventures; it's cute and heartwarming, and that's fine, but overall it played it too safe and lacked depth and drama. I respect that you love it though