But I'd be willing to give Johns the benefit of the doubt - maybe all is not as it initially appears

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Except that there is a copious amount of blood that does appear in the story, including the "death" of Barry's mom.  Now, some of this has to fall on the artist, who's work I really like, and some of it on the editor, but the artist wouldn't be drawing it if the story didn't call for it.  (At least, I've heard no disclaimer from Johns saying, "Uh, I love Van Sciver, but my script didn't call for this much blood.)

I liked the 1st issue of Rebirth and am willing to see where this goes.  I'm glad to have Barry back and that's no slap against Wally.  For years one of my favorite books was Flash during runs by Johns and Waid.  I've gotten a lot of enjoyment out of many of Johns' other runs: GL, Hawkman, JSA, Booster Gold (and yes even Infinite Crisis which was better by far than Final Crisis) etc and havn't been let down yet. 

But I'd be willing to give Johns the benefit of the doubt - maybe all is not as it initially appears
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I see this sentiment a lot, and it's never true. These days in comics, what you see is what you get.

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I like Johns.  I read some of his earlier Flash run and found it interesting, despite no Barry.  I don't think you can read the tea leaves of one story based on your (apparent) unhappiness with comics in general today.  I haven't read it yet but I would surmise Johns has more to tell and that it won't wind up being Barry's dad.   I hope so, anyway.  We'll see.

I knew this was coming.  Derek, The Flash is also my favorite and as much as I hated Barry Allen's death in Crisis I was so hoping that he would stay that way considering the current storytelling climate. 

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I didn't like Barry Allen's death in Crisis, either.  That being said, I actually enjoyed the stories with Wally West as the Flash.  So much so that he became the Flash for me.  That being said, I wasn't disappointed with the decision to bring Barry Allen back - except that it was a gimmick.  He had been gone for so long that generations of fans (using John's argument that the fan base should turn over every five years or so) only knew, or should have only known, Wally as the Flash (in "current" stories.  The "revival" just didn't feel right.  Like John has maintained that the current X-Men aren't "his" X-Men, I'm not sure that this Barry Allen is "my" Barry Allen.  Maybe its time to quit reading comics.  I find myself reading less and less each month.

If you are not loving comics maybe you are loving some thing else

That ROCKS!