The Flash Faces The Legion of Zoom
As we approach the end of Joshua Williamson’s run, The Flash faces his greatest foes once more. After the defeat of Paradox, Eobard Thawne traveled across time to gather the greatest enemies of the Flash to form a team. As Barry tries to figure out his nemesis’ master plan, he keeps the younger speedsters and Iris at arm’s length to protect them. To his horror, however, the Scarlet Speedster learns of this new team and can’t help but panic when Grodd, Trickster, Turtle, Golden Glider, and Captain Cold attack the city in several places. How can Barry be in four places at once?
**Some Spoilers Below**
Story:
The Flash Family quickly runs into the city as they assess the damage. The villains only attacked within the span of five minutes and thirteen seconds, a reference to Barry Allen’s birthday. It becomes apparent to Barry that his Rogues are making their crimes based around himself and not his alter-ego. Realizing that means anyone close to him is in danger, The Flash sends his family away as he prepares for the next attack. He heads to his childhood home, as that would be the next logical area that would be attacked. Instead of finding Thawne, however, Barry finds unexpected foes in his future children, the Tornado Twins.
This issue escalates exceptionally quickly, even for the second part of a two-parter. We go from assessing the damage to the flat-out defeat of Barry Allen within pages of each other. This isn’t entirely a bad thing. With Williamson’s run coming to an end with the next arc, we need to make sure the stakes have never been stacked higher, and honestly, and he does an excellent job with it. Even though we had a paradox-creating monster a few issues back, there is something more terrifying with what Thawne has planned.
The biggest problem I have with this issue was honestly the wasted potential of the Legion of Zoom. We still have the coming arc, so there is a chance to see more, but we only saw the villains attack the city while apart once. When The Flash shows up here, it’s really the Tornado Twins that do the heavy lifting. With Thawne’s final plan, it makes sense that we don’t get a savage beat down. However, with as much hype as we got since the end of Flash Age, you would expect a much more significant impact than there is.
Art:
We have two long time Flash artists returning for this issue, and they do a good job. The artist who covers most of the issue is Christian Duce, and any longtime reader of my reviews already knows his work on the series and how he succeeds in character designs. The stand out characters here are the Twins, giving them new menacing looks to fit their dark turn to evil. The other artist is Scott Kolins, who provides a terrifying fate for the Flash in the final pages. I won’t reveal what readers will see, but it sent a shiver of fear down this reviewer’s spine.
Conclusion:
Overall, this issue sets up the final arc pretty well. The plan of Eobard Thawne is one we’ve heard before in several comics, but the way it’s executed will have readers wanting to know more. The only real downside of the story is how underutilized the Legion of Zoom actually was, but for all we know, they’ll be back for the final story. The art team makes up for that little misstep with incredible artwork and character designs. This was a great issue as we move on towards the end.
