Flashpoint #2

The second chapter of DC's five-part Flashpoint event arrives with a striking Andy Kubert and Sandra Hope cover that says everything without saying a word: a battered, wide-eyed Flash crackles with lightning while restrained in a chair, rain pouring down around him, with a brooding, cape-swept Batman looming in the shadows behind him. The tension radiating off that image — two of DC's most recognizable figures, one captive and desperate, one watchful and imposing — makes this a compelling centerpiece for Geoff Johns' reality-reshaping 2011 storyline. With Johns writing and Kubert's kinetic pencils powering the interior as well, this is the kind of mid-series issue that keeps you turning pages.