No such luck. I think I read some of the Messner-Loebs run back in the day (I remember an early one where Wally West --the kid from the Teen Titans-- was now the Flash because the Flash turned into powder in Crisis. He had to deliver a heart by running cross-country to save a life. This comic was supposed to be more "realistic" (it seemed to me this was the author's intent) because the new Flash couldn't run as fast (the old Flash could run at the speed of light or something) and after he ran across the country, Wally had to eat a bunch of hamburgers to get back his energy. Like Pac-Man or Popeye. Also it had horrible art by someone like Butch Guice (Jackson Guice?).
Jackson Guice (it rhymes with "juice."). The issue you're referring to is FLASH #1 (1987) where Wally has to get a heart to a science fiction writer in time for surgery. The person that wrote the first year's tenure was Mike Baron, from 1987-88; Messner-Loebs came on to write the book afterward.
The "realistic" touches were made to give Wally his distinctive identity, as different as the Flash that came before him, as Barry was to Jay, because he had a reduced speed level, worried about caloric intake (a situation that was used to create dillemmas, just as often as the "you can't beam through a forceshield" rule was used to create dillemmas in STAR TREK). It was a part of who Wally WAS - and it strikes me that while writing the list of things that Wally had particular to him, none of them were still true come Waid's tenure on the book. Waid's intention may have been to make Wally "King" of Speedsters, a patriarch to a Flash Family - but all he did was make him just another speedster.
Messner-Loebs was kind of fun on Journey but his best work was Welcome to Heaven, Dr Franklin. I didn't buy or read any of the later Flash stuff (ie, Impulse) because it looked like crap visually and because I heard rumours of similar criticisms to yours at the time. Never a big Flash fan anyway, although now I can appreciate the Cary Bates run because of the Superman connection. I enjoyed the giant Flash #300 issue with Infantino art. A great superhero "graphic novel".
Personally, I always thought Bill Messner-Loebs' best work was on the IMPACT! comics JAGUAR, which was the only comic from that entire line that was really worth reading, not just thanks to Messner-Loebs gift for characterization (Maria de Guzman feels like a real person, as does everyone else in their world, in a very subtle way so that they're personalities can't be defined in one word phrases) but also thanks to Chuck Wojtkiewcz's art and the stellar inking job he received, making the Jaguar curvy and with wonderful muscles.
The "world's most dangerous game" metaphors got stale, but Messner-Loebs's gift for wordsmithing made them extraordinary because he described everything in terms of all five senses, something only Miller and Loeb do very well.
How do you describe the smell of an alien creature? "Like molasses in mineral oil, or like a turtle."
Special props should be given to Loebs for how he characterized the Jaguar's sorority girl rival, Tracy. Sure, she could have been another uppity "mean girl" proxy revenge fantasy for every girl that turned the writer down in high school, but as the story goes, this classist, shallow, casually cruel and slightly racist blonde becomes LIKEABLE, she becomes HUMAN - no mean feat at all for someone possessing so many unpleasant qualities. Tracy alone learns the Jaguar's identity, and she first intends to use this knowledge for personal gain, slowly the characters become friends. It was a triumph for M-L's gift for characterization.
There are no villains in JAGUAR - just misunderstood monsters. Conflicts are due to misunderstandings and confusion. A most atypical - and wonderful - superhero comic.
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