Flash #232
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Flash
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- Price:
$2.99$2.39- Release Date:
- September 19, 2007
- In Stock?
- Not currently available
- Genre:
- Science Fiction
- Colouring:
- FC
Comic Summary:
What alien menace lies beneath the Flash's own home? And what's his dark, dark family secret - the one that's helping him keep the peace in Keystone?
Codes:
76194120024823211 JUL070229
Customer Reviews
One of Mark Waid's many claims to fame is his near-encyclopedic knowledge of comics history--and not the who drew what variety, but the what's-Lana-Lang's-middle-name variety.
Based on his previous work and that encyclopedic brain, it's clear this is a man who loves his Silver Age. That's what is creeping into this issue. There are aliens, and they travel the cosmos via water, and they are naturally invading Keystone City.
So to stop them, the Flash basically pulls a Silver Age miracle out of his cowl. He uses an old version of Captain Cold's sub-zero gun to build a massive version that freezes all the water in the city, including every drop inside every human being, all in an effort to stop the invasion and buy himself some time. He does it all in a matter of minutes, by teaching himself how the sub-zero gun works, then replicating its technology on a massive scale.
Clever? Absolutely. But incredibly Silver Age, and not necessarily in the best way--this is a classic example of the storytelling solution that strains even the well-expanded boundaries of comic book credibility.
All told, Waid's plotting for this first arc of his second run on the Flash isn't quite at the level of his characterization, which still soars--the first sequence in the book, featuring Iris and Jai West wandering around Keystone City without their dad, exposes the flaws in kid superheroes even as it endears us to them.
In the end, it's a classic your-mileage-may-vary--if you can put aside the crazy Silver Age plotting Waid is displaying here, or if that's your cuppatea, then you'll find no flaws in this issue. But anyone who reads any comics message boards on a regular basis knows that this is the kind of flamboyant comics storytelling that drives certain breeds of fanboy nuts. Consider yourself warned.
Based on his previous work and that encyclopedic brain, it's clear this is a man who loves his Silver Age. That's what is creeping into this issue. There are aliens, and they travel the cosmos via water, and they are naturally invading Keystone City.
So to stop them, the Flash basically pulls a Silver Age miracle out of his cowl. He uses an old version of Captain Cold's sub-zero gun to build a massive version that freezes all the water in the city, including every drop inside every human being, all in an effort to stop the invasion and buy himself some time. He does it all in a matter of minutes, by teaching himself how the sub-zero gun works, then replicating its technology on a massive scale.
Clever? Absolutely. But incredibly Silver Age, and not necessarily in the best way--this is a classic example of the storytelling solution that strains even the well-expanded boundaries of comic book credibility.
All told, Waid's plotting for this first arc of his second run on the Flash isn't quite at the level of his characterization, which still soars--the first sequence in the book, featuring Iris and Jai West wandering around Keystone City without their dad, exposes the flaws in kid superheroes even as it endears us to them.
In the end, it's a classic your-mileage-may-vary--if you can put aside the crazy Silver Age plotting Waid is displaying here, or if that's your cuppatea, then you'll find no flaws in this issue. But anyone who reads any comics message boards on a regular basis knows that this is the kind of flamboyant comics storytelling that drives certain breeds of fanboy nuts. Consider yourself warned.
2 pts.