Wednesday, November 26, 2008

The Flash #246

The Flash seems to be a book at the crossroads/ We've seen the Silver Age Flash, Barry Allen, make his long-overdue return in Final Crisis, and reports have been circulating for a while that Geoff Johns is crafting a new series starring that character.

So where does that leave the Bronze Age (and current) Flash, Wally West? Will he continue in the title, or will he step aside to make room for Barry? Those questions will be answered in the months ahead, but in the meantime we have a four-part story written by Alan Burnett that may (or may not) be setting up some major changes for Wally.

In this issue (which is part three), we see Wally's wife, Linda, lying near death after a supervillain's attack.

The comic provides a nice flashback into how Wally and Linda met and fell in love.

The issue focuses on the family Wally has built, and his struggles to save the woman he loves - which are complicated by the fact that he seems to be losing control over his super-speed.

It's a touching story, and one hopes they won't do anything crass like kill off Linda - but of course, they killed off Barry a couple of decades ago, so I suppose anything's possible.

The artwork in this issue by Carlo Barberi, Drew Geraci and Jacob Eguren is OK, but not much more than that. It tells the story clearly, but there's not much variety to the panels - just lots of mid-range shots.

The story's interesting and worth following, but I can't shake the feeling that they're just marking time until Final Crisis wraps up. Which is bound to happen eventually. We hope.

Grade: C+

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