The Flash #241

The Flash #241

Fast Money part four.

I can't get around how tepid this series has been. DC does a great job bringing Wally West back into the DCU and then basically throws the character away. Mark Waid kicks off the relaunch and just basically bashes out a script to sell. Tom Peyer, bless 'im, is trying, he's trying reeaaal hard, but considering what he had to work with after Waid's run, it's proven a virtually impossible task. Peyer has a lot going on trying to tell this story between Flash and his kids, Flash and Spin, Flash and Gorilla Grodd and Spin and Gorilla Grodd that the stories are stretched impossibly thin. There's nothing really worth getting excited over. If Peyer could concentrate on one area or another, that would be great. Personally, I think it would have been best to knock out a couple of straight up action tales with the kids before really getting into this whole they age at super-speed thing. We, sadly, don't know the characters nearly that well to worry about, for example, Iris suddenly aging to full blown womanhood. And it's pretty clear that the kids are doomed to die very quickly.

Check it out, when we first see the kids in this issue, they're escaping from the goons that took them in the last issue. Here we see some cool shit. Iris really enjoys using her powers. Later, when we see her meet up with Flash, the excitement she shows starts oozing off the page. Yeah, she's pumped at the idea that she coan take on her old man. Man, that's the kinda shit we should have been seeing since the relaunch. Mostly, it has just been Wally running in circles. Hey, cool, I can understand his ordeal, but the book has been needing a more exciting dynamic and I think the evidence of that wasted potential is highlighted in this issue. A total shame.

The other events of the issue include an almost origin of Spin. Gorilla Grodd pries into Spin's mind and we get about, oh, half the tale. Mostly what we need to know but not enough to make the character interesting enough. When Iris comes, the beatdown of Grodd begins and is over relatively fast. We see Wally's reaction and how he has to repress his feelings about his daughter's transformation, which was kinda cool. Grodd, after that, pretty much disappears (literally) and then the characters are off to save the Flash Museum from burning down.

Okay, now here was the moment that I think should have defined the relaunch from the beginning. Back in All Flash, Wally trapped Interia, the dude who killed Bart Allen, in frozen time (or...something). So here he has to confront the guy who killed the boy who was like a son to Wally. He wants to see him suffer immensely. But Wally is a hero, so naturally he saves Inertia rather then be the same kind of man. This was a cool moment to me. It's as complex a moment as Wally has shown since the relaunch. This kind of moment should have been stretched out a little over the course of the series, or at least during Waid's run. Hey, what can you do? DC could have gotten behind more serious writers, more talented creative staff, but opted to let some characters coast by on the loyalty of their diehard fans.

Sorry, no dice. Next month is my last issue and that's it for me.