Of the many questions this volume leaves me with, I'll focus on one: why bring back Barry Allen, the Silver Age Flash?
The short, flippant answer: nobody stays dead in comics. A better answer, provided by the superstar creative team of writer Geoff Johns and artist Ethan Van Sciver: Barry Allen is central to the Flash franchise, both ontologically and morally. "Flash: Rebirth" has so many plot twists and major revelations (including, at last, an explanation of how the "speed force" that all Flashes draw upon works) that it's difficult to suggest how good this story arc is without dropping any spoilers, so let's just say that in the aftermath of the Final Crisis, Barry Allen returns to Central City, which is more than happy to welcome back its original Flash. The moment Barry confronts his first supercriminal, though, things go catastrophically wrong.
Time and physics are always, uh, flexible concepts in a Flash story, and when I wasn't trying to wrap my head around this book's grim time travel/murder mystery plot, I found page after page of smaller pleasures to enjoy; for instance, Barry's conversation with Hal (Green Lantern) Jordan in the Flash Museum; Iris West's first meeting with Paul Gambi, tailor to the Rogues; another Superman/Flash race, ending with a SMALLVILLE-inspired punch line; even a thoroughly delightful explanation of why Barry Allen used to wear those goofy bow ties in his early appearances.
Geoff Johns, whose 2000-2005 run on the Flash comic book convinced me that Wally West was THE Flash, now imagines Barry Allen as "a man out of step with everyone else," from his quirky sartorial and social habits to his old school sense of morality. His reintegration into a grittier, somewhat more corrupt 21st century Central City will be a treat to watch. Ethan Van Sciver's artwork, a blend of photorealism and wild exaggeration, is in a class by itself; "Rebirth" looks like a six-issue riff on Carmine Infantino's spare, stylized Flash pages from the 'sixties and 'seventies. Like their previous collaboration, Green Lantern: Rebirth, the Johns/Van Sciver Flash is an exciting, must-read update of a classic Silver Age hero.