Wally West is revelling in the new super-power he gained after the DC KO event. The Flash gets glimpses of the future and has been tapping into them to tackle crimes, accidents and disasters before they happen. After having success in his hometown of Central City he’s extended his efforts to Metropolis and Star City. An initially reluctant Superman Jr has come around, but Green Arrow wants Flash to stay out of his city.
The visions have been showing things further and further ahead, and today Wally sees simultaneous events in all three cities, one week hence.
He’s able to freeze the vision, enter it, have a poke around and determine that the explosions aren’t the work of supervillains or aliens, but embittered regular people.
And back in the regular world, Wally acts.
From Strangers on a Train to Minority Report.
As Wally wallows in the aftermath of his work, some of the World’s Greatest Super-Heroes are talking about him. Some positively…
… and one negatively.
And Wally shows up, a Flash of Insight having told him the meeting was coming.
The smugness doesn’t last long – the bridges in all three cities are blown to smithereens… and any chance Green Arrow and Jon Kent might have had of saving the day are gone, because they’re on Mount Bleeding Everest.
Oops.
Will people die? We’ll find out next issue, which will be part eight of ‘The Speed Was Power, and the Speed Was Joy’ (a Jonathan Livingston Seagull reference, this month I finally looked it up). Writer Ryan North has made a splash with dozens of mainly single-issue science-heavy tales in current Fantastic Four issues. Here, in his first DC series, he’s going in the opposite direction, dragging out what would be a comfortable three-issue story to trade paperback length. This issue, for example, having seen the bridge explosions previewed, when they happen for real they’re given a full, dull page each. We only get 20 story pages, a single page triptych would have done the job perfectly well, leaving room for more than the two-thirds of a page given over to Wally, wife Linda and their kids.
I was really hoping to see the West family’s reactions to Wally’s obvious overreaching. Having been with Wally for years, having seen the madness of his superhero life from both the sidelines and the thick of it, Linda should be giving him a reality check. That’s her personality – Wally’s a bit of a dreamer, she’s a tad harder. Linda should be pointing out that if he keeps aiming bigger and bigger, there’ll be no family life.
And never mind Linda, Wally should see this himself, he’s been in the hero game almost as long as the older heroes, longer than many. He’s seen it all. Twice, probably. Superman, Batman, Green Lantern Hal Jordan… in differing ways they’ve all gone too far in interfering with world events, and they’ve all been humbled. The Flash needs to stay in his lane.
North is writing Wally too young – were this story set in his first year of trying to fill Uncle Barry’s boots, it may make sense for him to try too hard. But it’s not, Wally is a long way from a young seagull discovering the bliss and freedom of high-speed flight. And I honestly can’t see him locking people up before any crime has been committed, police scientist Barry would surely have knocked into him the need for evidence. ‘Vibes from the future’ would not cut it. The Wally I know would sit the three suspects down and try some group therapy.
The art by illustrator Gavin Guidry and colourist Adriano Lucas is attractive – there’s a classic Flash in motion on page 1 – but an inker would make things 100 per cent better, sharpening up the linework. Guidry puts a lot of work into the storytelling and backgrounds, which is appreciated, and when not nailing the action he’s selling the comedy beats North drops in.
The colours of Lucas ensure we can easily see when we’re in the real world – naturalism rules – and when we’re in vision – intense, hot tones, with regular Wally in the middle of things.
Lucas again impresses with the snow tones on Guidry’s cover illo; heroes from behind, though, are never exciting.
Buddy Beadoin’s lettering is lovely, super friendly.
This issue isn’t a bad read, but I’m more than ready for the story to wrap up. Just me?
