Teen Titans #26

By Scott Lobdell & Tyler Kirkham

Finally! The Teen Titans series has been building to the origin of Kid Flash, or Bar Torr, since issue one and the beginning of the New 52. Although this story treads some familiar “future story” water, Scott Lobdell  and Tyler Kirkham produce an interesting origin for Kid Flash.

Lobdell writes a pretty standard future story for Bart Allen. One part oppressive government organization, one part rebellion, one part injured family, mix it all together and you’ve got yourself an origin story. While the actual explanation for how Kid Flash got his powers is a bit weak, seeing Bart as a young boy protecting his sister and doing what he had to to survive was effective and interesting.

Kirkham draws the slums of Bart’s homeworld well and has the necessary futuristic look to make things look slightly different. He handles young Bart’s struggles and hardships and then coming into power well, with both his smaller moments and action scenes both looking strong.

Issue #26 offered a good but not great reveal of Kid Flash’s past. Although the futuristic themes in the story have been done to death and the explanation of Bart acquiring his powers is a bit weak, it is exciting to have this part of the story revealed and will be interesting to see how the rest of the Titans react to Bart’s past.