Flash #32

Story - Robert Venditti, Van Jensen

Art - Norm Rapmund, Andrew Dalhouse

You wanted Wally West, you got him, fanboys!  Changes are a-brewin’ for the Scarlet Speedster, his new “mentee” of sorts (Side note:  I Googled it.  Mentee is totally a word.) is just one of the balls Barry Allen is juggling under his new creative team.

I’m not kidding when I say there’s a lot going on in Flash’s world these days.  This current story arc has not one, not two, but three major storylines coming to a head.  In the present day there’s the killer of ex-cons, using stolen villain-tech and the Barry/Patty/Iris dynamic with a side of Wally.  Oh, yeah, and there’s a grim future Flash on a collision course with present day righting wrongs as he goes.  Because that always works out well.  I’m looking at you, Flashpoint!  Snark aside, this is probably one of the more fun books DC is currently putting out.  Reading it, I”m reminded of older stories that really caught my attention as a youth.  One of my favorite aspects of superheros is their ability to juggle their masked life and their personal life.  The varying degrees of success make for great dramatic storytelling.

The decaying of powers may be a trope, but it is one I generally find to be interesting.  The future Barry Allen gives a great deal of exposition in this book as to what has happened over the years.  We’re starting to see hints of those moments in present day Barry, so the tension is building nicely.  While on the subject of future Flash, we’re treated to a quite intimate moment during that exposition as we see the eventual end of noted Rogue/Reformed Rogue Captain Cold.  The heart that is put into those pages is worth the price of admission alone.  Both sides of the creative coin got to shine here, with the art crew’s creation of the fight with pseudo-Merge turning the page into, as Barry puts it, a living Salvador Dali piece.  Being able to take a character with a powerset as ridiculous as Merge and making the action seem believe is a testament to the qualiy

of the team.

After the mess that was Forever Evil, I’m happy to be reading a lighter, fun book from DC. I highly recommend the current Flash series if that’s what you’re looking for out of your comics.  There is a place for the darkness, but there is also a place for fun, self-contained story arcs.

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Matthew can be found on Twitter at @mahargen, and he totally didn’t watch the leaked Flash pilot.  But if he did, he’d be wondering when he could review it without the man coming down on him.  Thoughts?