The Flash #84 Review

Writer: Joshua Williamson

Artist: Christian Duce

Colors: Luis Guerrero

Letters: Steve Wands

Published by: DC

This week in The Flash, we have the Speed Force going haywire, the Rogues are still in charge of Central City, and Team Flash are beginning a quest to retrieve the shards of Mirror Master’s enhanced mirror (by Lex Luthor’s gift - see Year of the Villain) that can provide, what we are told, almost anything. 

Storylines revolving around quests may not be everyone’s favorite style of storytelling, but I for one enjoy the use of the trope from time to time. Here, Williamson uses the quest-style storyline to tie-in the concept of the Rogues each controlling a portion of Central City, and Team Flash now having to collect the mirror shards they all have in their possession to reverse what Captain Cold has done to the city. 

The quest itself starts off with Glider as Team Flash’s guide (a good choice if my memory of Flash/Rogues history is accurate) as they go and confront Weather Wizard as their first “target”. As with all comics, a fight breaks out, but it is the denouement that held my attention as we get to learn a little bit more of the circumstances of what happened and how some of the Rogues outside of Captain Cold, feel about the new normal. 

With Luthor’s gift, one of the added bonuses to it was the fun redesigns that the Rogue’s received in their outfits, and let’s just say, Weather Wizard’s is pretty outlandish compared to some of the others and how Duce portrays it is a little wacky and over the top. Duce is an artist I am not too familiar with, but his work on this issue is pretty good and interesting. With Flash artists, the one thing I like to look out for is how they convey the Flash’s speed on the page. Here, Duce goes for more of the vibrational look as he frames the speedsters in overlapping pencils. It’s good, if a little busy at times. 

Outside of the speedsters, I did enjoy Duce’s linework for the supporting characters such as Captain Cold and Glider (less so Weather Wizard). His eye for cinematography in the fight scene was again, pretty good, but I would have liked to see a little bit more. His linework is enhanced by Guerrero’s excellent color work and choices throughout.