The Flash – A Celebration of 75 Years by DC Comics, various editors, 2015 oversized hardcover
A while ago I decided — why, I’m not certain right now — to buy three of the DC “75 year celebration” volumes: Flash, Green Arrow and Batman.
I remember a lot of the earlier stories in this one, Flash was a character I liked a lot at a certain point, but as I got into the later stories, during and after DC had their Crisis On Infinite Earths event(s), the stories became more jumbled and made less and less sense. Finally, in disgust, I quickly scanned the last fifty pages or so and closed the book.
The development of the character, and the DC Universe surrounding it’s major characters, is interesting, but as the stories focused more and more on The Speed Force and time travel and multiple Flash characters in overlapping timelines, I lost interest.
I’m hoping the other two volumes interest me more, I expect the Batman one will.
Here are the covers for all of the 75 year books:
Tip the Wink 
I like those covers, but have no real interest in them. I was never a Flash fan.
I read We’ll Always Have Casablanca after reading George’s review a couple of weeks ago, and found stuff I didn’t know about a favorite film. The idea of a sequel with David Soul was stupid from the beginning, and had the result it deserved.
Currently reading Flight or Fright, the anthology edited by Stephen King & Bev Vincent. Still nothing has come close to Richard Matheson’s “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.”
I am enjoying the fantasy mentioned last time, C. L. Polk’s Witchmark, though I just have not been having all that much luck concentrating on reading. In a more normal time, I would have finished this over the weekend. Apparently it is going to be a trilogy, with the first two books out so far.
I have now read two of the three I bought. I’m enjoying the Green Arrow more than the Flash, but I wonder why comics got so dark in the 90s. Honestly, Batman has always been my favorite DC character, so I’m sure I’ll like that one more.
I’m also having trouble concentrating on reading, but there’s not much else I feel like doing. We watched another episode of Morse last night, as we’ve recorded them each week and we’re behind. It wasn’t as good, but it was one “based on an idea by”, not based on one of the books. The “based on an idea ones are more uneven.
I’m reading some anthologies, and many of the stories are longer, 35-50 pages. Seems stories are shorter now, or is it just me?
Like you, I grew up reading BATMAN and SUPERMAN comics. But I really enjoyed the early issues (1960-ish) of THE FLASH. I was also fond of GREEN LANTERN and GREEN ARROW back in the early 1960s. You’re right about the darkness of 1990s comics. And the shortness of contemporary stories. Diane just read Ann Tyler’s THE REDHEAD BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD. The most common complaint is that it’s just too short (177 pages). Diane called it “an inflated short story.”
Those are very nice covers. I would also be more interested in Batman, I will see what you think of that one. And maybe Superman.
I am currently reading The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov, and frankly having a hard time understanding it. I think it is maybe one of those books you have to read more than once… and not sure I want to do that right now. But I am only halfway through it … maybe there is hope.
Quite a neck he has. You could stand on it. How’s the Pain, Pascal Garnier. A lot like a Simenon or Highsmith.
I quit reading comics about the age of 10. And except for an occasional graphic novel haven’t bothered since. I do like some of the artwork but the whole idea of superpowers just seems silly to me. Probably why I liked Batman best. Finishing up Paul McAuley’s War of the Maps. A SF novel I like a lot. Next up either Lavie Tidhar’s By Force Alone or the Scottish crime novel February’s Son by Alan Parks. I enjoyed his first in this series, Bloody January, a lot.