DC KO is coming, and Impulse isn’t going to sit back. He has an idea to beat Darkseid that doesn’t involve a contest of champions. It comes after a discussion with the other members of the Flash family. There’s cousin Wally, his daughter Irey, Jay Garrick and Maxwell Crandall – the Flash, Thunderheart, the Golden Age Flash and Max Mercury.
To say Wally is rattled is an understatement.
And while Wally is arguing the toss, Bart shoots off into the timestream to take on Darkseid. Of course, Wally follows…
Oh, I did enjoy this comic. Mark Waid back writing Wally and Bart makes for the first issue of this series I’ve enjoyed for a good while. I jumped off the Simon Spurrier run at the beginning of this year, but according to a panel this issue, the apparently neverending story is finally over. Wally is still wearing the appalling costume he donned for… well, no good reason, it just showed up one issue. Happily, Bart is in his iconic outfit and on good form, thinking at a million miles an hour – sometimes in his trademark cute pictograms – and acting almost as quickly.
But he’s not stupid. His and Irey’s plan makes good logical sense, and Wally is wrong to dismissed it in such a kneejerk reaction – despite the cover blurb’s nod to Flashpoint, it’s not like you have to worry about the timestream, Darkseid has already squashed it.
Mind, Bart has traditionally brought out Wally’s impatient side so his reaction isn’t out of character.
Before the DC KO storyline kicks in, Waid and co-writer Christopher Cantwell give us a mini-adventure with Alchemist, a second-rate Dr Alchemy.
It’s entertaining enough but seems such a waste of space given the big stakes that it’ll no doubt feed into the resolution of the story which, I think, will run alongside the main DC KO business.
My favourite part of the issue is the ‘Speedster huddle’, it’s always great to hear the different voices of the Flash family, with personality and experience feeding individual reactions.
There’s also a moment when Bart makes history. Literally.
The art by Vasco Georgiev is decent but inconsistent, at times the figures get strangely skinny and bendy, or less detailed. I’m not terribly keen on the way he sharpens Wally’s limbs to show superspeed, with The Flash slicing across the page. The storytelling is good, though, and there’s a nice sense of physicality when the issue’s main villain shows up.
Matt Herms does smart things with colour, while Buddy Beaudoin’s lettering is smart and varied without going too far. And the stunning cover is by Dan Mora, because of course it is.
The issue closes on a tense note and I look forward to seeing what comes next, presumably a team-up between Wally and Impulse in the classic style.
And if Wally’s outfit gets destroyed along the way, so much the better.
Too Dangerous For a Girl 2 
Wait… so Alchemist *isn’t* Dr. Alchemy? I thought the dude underwent a rebranding. When did this dude appear? Don’t make me hit the wikis and googlers!
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OK, he was a guy who stole Dr Alchemy’s act in Mark Waid and Greg LaRocque’s Flash #71, he did originally use the name, too.
The new comic gets his surname wrong, it’s Engstrom, not Angstrom.
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Wow! I loved Laroque’s run on Flash. It’s my favourite (well, Laroque and Messner-Loebs, but Waid’s run was pretty sweet too) and I have no memory of this. Time to pull out my back issues!
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I have it but haven’t read it yet. I didn’t notice Waid’s name on the cover so when this review mentioned it being a Yuck-O tie in I was gonna leave it unopened but now. Too bad the godawful word balloons didn’t leave with Spurrier though.
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And it’s not even the same letterer!
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I thought this was a solidly enjoyable issue. I like the art, and I’m definitely onboard for Waid and Cantwell’s script, and the focus on Wally & Impulse (who acts like Impulse for what seems like the first time in ages! But he probably was pretty on-brand in Bendis’s Young Justice, I’ve just forgotten it, and he hasn’t had much of a showcase since then).
In any event (even this one!) I’m happy to be picking this book up again. I was on the verge of dropping it a couple months ago, and then a day after deciding to I got word of Spurrier’s departure and decided to stick it out. Waid & Cantwell will be around for 5 issues, I believe. After that, I hope to see a whole new team!
Not sure who I’d want, but I’d steer into lighthearted adventure if possible. Rainbow Rowell has been dipping her toe into the DCU lately… maybe she’d be a good choice.
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I’m not sure Rainbow Rowell would be right for the book, given her run of She-Hulk… lots of relationship stuff, little action – maybe with an editor who would require some balance, she’d work.
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The thing I like about her work is how grounded it is. After 2 years of Flash that leaned hard into psycho comsmobabble, I’d much rather have stories pinned to more mundane problems Wally can have while solving superpowered emergencies.
I agree that She-Hulk was a romance book, first and foremost, and I think she delivered on that mission well. That’s not what I want for the Flash… but if she were interested, I think she could use the skills she showed there and add it to some traditional superhero action. I don’t think DC’s Flash editors would be as indulgent as the editor was on She-Hulk, which at the time they were treating like a boutique, expand-the-market title. When I think about her on the title, I’m seeing meat-and-potatoes superhero action, but with a warm, family-comedy underpinning. I think she could do it, and really make the book shine.
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