The Flash Stands Against Paradox One Last Time
It’s time for the Flash Age to end. The Scarlet Speedster has sought out his archnemesis, Eobard Thawne, to help him take on Paradox. The speedsters agree to work together to take him down. While they search for the speed force lightning rod, the time-traveling villain uses Godspeed to hunt down versions of the Flash, killing him at iconic moments in the character’s history. When Barry and Thawne arrive to take down the man who’d become Paradox, they begin to fight with each other. During their fight, Paradox comes and kills his younger self to absorb the paradox energy. With Paradox more powerful than ever, can The Flash survive?
**Some Spoilers Below**
Story:
We pick up where we left off with Barry and Thawne staring up at an overcharged Paradox. The Flash quickly frees Godspeed before the trio are teleported to the villain’s realm. As the trio bicker, Thawne realizes that there is still a chance to save everyone. Due to Paradox’s lack of knowledge of how time travel works, Thawne knows that the changes he had made haven’t happened yet. This leads to The Flash coming up with a plan. While Barry and Godspeed distract Paradox, Thawne heads back in time and makes sure the man who would become the villain is safe. As Thawne speeds off to the past, the remaining two speedsters prepare for their final battle.
Maybe it’s because of the first issue of the arc being issue #750 with a theme on The Flash Legacy, but this felt underwhelming. The entire goal of Paradox was to wipe the scarlet speedster and his impact from existence. Sure, the last issue we saw brief glimpses of these legendary moments and a few brief glimpses here and there, but it played no part. Instead, it ended like a run-of-the-mill Flash story: Bad guy is defeated, heroes outrun the explosion. It’s honestly a bit of a let-down considering how all of this started.
There are some positives in all of this, specifically near the end. Along with a surprising kind act from Thawne, we get an ominous promise from Thawne. While The Flash has the same powers as Eobard, there is one significant aspect that Thawne has never had. While I won’t say what it is to preserve the suspense, it gets me excited at just the idea alone.
Art:
Rafa Sandoval finishes off this arc with one of the best looking issues the series has had yet. His designs for the characters have always been top-notch, but he leaves nothing behind this time around. It has giant moments like Paradox using his powers to small details like Thawne’s see-through hands as he’s being erased.
The thing that makes these illustrations better, however, is the spectacular colorwork. Arif Prianto takes up the colorist position and honestly does a great job. The brightest colors come from the powers being used, leaving a perfect balance of bright and subdued colors for the characters. It’s a good look for The Flash comic, and I hope we get more of it.
Conclusion:
This finale wasn’t entirely disappointing, but it wasn’t great either. When having a story about the legacy of The Flash, you’d think the ending would reflect that. Instead, we get a conclusion we’ve seen done before, only leaving the final page to get us ready for the future. The art team, on the other hand, brought it home with the best looking issue of the arc. In the end, this was a tremendous looking average issue when it could have been so much more. We’ll just have to keep running forward to see what the future holds for The Flash.
