The Flash #798 review

With just two full issues to go before his stint on the book ends, writer Jeremy Adams adds to the legacy of The Flash with a new member of the family.

OK, it was pretty obvious to anyone who’s been reading comics for more than five minutes that mystery speedster Wade from the last couple of issues would be the baby in Linda’s belly, but give me a wee bit of applause for predicting our new mum’s super-speed journey last August.

You know, if this was 1963 Julie Schwartz would send me a piece of art for that! Anyway, enough of me, I know no one is impressed.

Back in the story, Wally goes to his engineering gig at Terrifictech, where Mr Terrific Michael Holt and his pack of boffins are testing… er, some time-bending thingie. It’s super-dangerous, but not as dangerous as the woman who comes to take wee Wade Park-West off Linda’s hands.

Granny… Goodness! The woman who trains Darkseid’s shock troops from childhood via brainwashing and torture. That is not someone you want babysitting your offspring.

Happily, help arrives in the firm of time-travelling android Hourman, who’s ready to lead a rescue mission. Wally and Mr Terrific have some ideas as to who else can lend a super-powered hand.

Kid Flash, Mr T’s in-house super team The Terrifics – Metamorpho, Phantom Girl and Plastic Man – and the character find of Heaven knows when, Goldbug!

I can’t imagine anything scarier than having your baby go missing, never mind being kidnapped by one of the worst people in the Multiverse. Wally, though, is a massively experienced hero, he knows he’s not alone and he holds it together. And while Linda reacts initially as would any of us, she calms down and lets the super-powered crew get on with things. I’m confident that by the end of next issue the whole Park-West family will be reunited… Adams likes his characters too much for any other ending to be conceivable.

Hourman showing up is a real treat. It’s funny, we don’t see him for years and then he shows up in two series in two months, Geoff johns and Todd Nauck’s Stargirl: The Lost Children being the other one.

The illustrating assignment is split between series regular Fernando Pasarin and inker Oclair Albert, and Will Robson. There’s a little disparity in style, but the book doesn’t miss a beat as Adams’s pacy script and the colours of Matt Herms carry us across the visual gap. The detail Pasarin and Albert put into the hospital scenes is exemplary… heck, I don’t have a child and I’d buy the adorable little shawl Wade is wearing – I reckon the elephants must be by House of Herms! And the body language is superb, little moments such as Linda propping herself up on the hospital bed have real weight. And Robson captures Goldbug’s nervous energy before giving us a splendid first look Mr Terrific’s fabulous flying machine.

I don’t think letterer Rob Leigh is on Twitter so he doesn’t know how much I appreciate the work he puts into every story he works on. I really do though, with the thoughtful, well-rendered title treatments he comes up with always a highlight.

Taurin Clarke’s cover is a moody affair, gathering Wally, Linda and Michael and introducing baby Wade.

The Flash has obviously being selling pretty well to be publishing two issues per month. Everyone I see express an opinion on this book loves it… so why the heck is DC tampering with a winning formula by taking Adams off the book? I may enjoy the upcoming run but it sounds as if the Flash Family dynamic is being thrown out the window, and that’s one of the elements that makes this series extra special.