Flash #102 (June 1995)

Hey there X-Maniacs! With my new comic pile dry until tomorrow, I have no new material to post... So you know what that means... It's time for a pair of Retro-Reviews!!! As usual, I'll do a DC book, followed by a Marvel comic. First up we'll hit DC and take a look at an issue of Flash from the mid-90's.

Flash #102:

Summary: This issue takes place after the big Flash storyline that ended in Flash #100(I'm totally blanking on the name... Terminal Velocity perhaps?), meaning Wally has his Flash powers amped up and is having some marital trouble. We open with Linda asking Wally to stick around for a few minutes to assist her with a case she was researching. Wally agrees, but upon hearing that some alien was wreaking havoc in Keystone, he takes off,leaving Linda behind. While Wally is gone, Linda gets a call and leaves herself. As for Wally, he discovers Mongul running amok and immediately attacks, since Mongul's appearance gives Wally the opportunity to forget about the troubles in his personal life. The two battle, with Wally using his speed to confound and enrage Mongul, at least until Mongul manages to collapse the street under both himself and Wally. Upon landing, Wally discovers a spacecraft(?!) in the sewers, and Mongul explains that was his true reasons for being in Keystone, to get the ship and leave the Earth. Knowing he couldn't let Mongul go free to devastate other planets. Wally attacks Mongul anew, and eventually manages to defeat him by using his speed to send some debris back at Mongul at hyper-speed, before speeding up the molecules in the alien ship, making the metal malleable enough to trap Mongul. With Mongul's threat finished, Wally heads home and is dismayed to find Linda gone... He's more dismayed to discover a picture on Linda's desk showing her and another man in a rather cozy situation.

Thoughts: This issue was heavy on the action, with just a little bit of story advancement taking place. While I enjoyed the battle for the most part, I was a bit... surprised, I guess, by how easily Wally took Mongul down. Wally himself stated that Mongul had recently menaced Superman AND Green Lantern, and took THEM to the limit! In this comic though, Wally basically gets hit once, and then defeats Mongul handily. I mean I'm as big a fan of Wally as you'll find, and I get that Mark Waid was trying to establish that Wally had kicked his powers up to the next level, but I kind of felt that Waid should have used a lower-level baddie to establish Wally's newfound toughness... Not a guy who regularly gave Superman fits! Other than that, this was a good, action-packed comic book that was easy to pick up, read and then put down again.

Score: 7 out of 10.

Come on Mongul, like one punch turned Wally into DUST?! What an idiot...