Flash #3

Our last review of the week? My monthly “fuck you” to Geoff Johns and all of the other assholes at DC who decided that Barry Allen is the ONLY Flash allowed in the current DCU. Yes, it's time for the third issue of Wally West's Flash series... The first two issues have been okay, here's hoping we get over the “okay” hurdle and land in “great” territory.

Flash #3:

What Happened: Wally West returns home to his recently purchased mansion to discover a Dear John type note from Magenta stating that their relationship was moving too fast(HA!) so she needed some time away from him. With no girlfriend, Wally decides to go to see a STAR Labs professor in Utah who wanted to help Wally boost his speed powers. While at the lab, Wally hears rumors that there was something in the desert that could only be seen at high speeds. Wally doesn't take the stories seriously until he's running some tests for the professor and spots a strange orb-like shape in the desert. Wally races around it, which draws it fully into this dimension, allowing everybody to see it. The professor decides to get a closer look at it at which time it lops off his finger(!). With that, STAR Labs security orders everybody inside until they figure out what was happening. Inside the lab, all of the computers end up being taken over by the orb(or maybe whatever was in the orb), something called Kilg%re. Like most crazy electronic-based entities, Kilg%re decides while Earth's computers were great, the humans proliferating the planet weren't, and as such it was going to kill them all off. After that, Kilg%re is quiet, until the next day when it goes on TV and tells the world that it wanted all humans to vacate North America in a few hours lest they're wiped out. To prove it was serious, Kilg%re fires a missile at Paterson, New Jersey(why there?) but luckily for the people of Paterson, the missile malfunctions in the air. Kilg%re shrugs that off and states that when Kilg%re was building the missiles, they wouldn't fail. The feds head to STAR Labs and request Wally's assistance, since he had the most experience with Kilg%re, as well as the professor. The two hop into a limo where Wally is shocked to see that the professor's finger had regrown...

The Good: The story here was solid and the pacing was great. Kilg%re is shown to be a huge threat, one that Wally is going to have tons of trouble halting. As always, Wally was portrayed wonderfully here.

The Bad: The ending wasn't exactly the strongest I've ever read... Kilg%re being near the lab Wally was visiting was just a bit too pat for my liking.

The Verdict: I really enjoyed this issue... I mean like a lot. A good story, good art, strong dialogue and a major threat makes for a happy X. Sure, the ending could have been better(it ends with Wally exclaiming in his head, “His finger!”), but 21 good pages and 1 strange one is a damn fine ratio in my eyes. I'll definitely be looking forward to reading issue #4 to see how Wally ends up stopping something electronic based like Kilg%re.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.Damn crazy computers!!!