This tie-in to CONVERGENCE moves to issue #2, with one more look at the Wally West pre-FLASHPOINT fans know and love. This was actually a stronger issue than #1, with a conclusion as good as one could hope for in this CONVERGENCE battle-world setting. Just how does Wally fare against the FLASHPOINT Wonder Woman?
SOME SPOILERS AHEAD
We pick up the story as Wally and FLASHPOINT WW face off in the FLASHPOINT version of Gotham City. Diana’s Amazon Warriors are everywhere…not just here but in the Pre-New52 version of Gotham as well, and Wally, Iris, Jai and the odd speedster from the Zoo Crew known as Fastback are finding out just how formidable an opponent this version of WW can be. The issue obviously is meant to feature the fight sequence with FLASHPOINT Wonder Woman, and it is handled well for the most part by writer Tony Bedard and the art team of Tom Grummett (pencils), Sean Parsons (inks) and Rain Beredd (colors). My one quibble is that Wally seemed to effortlessly vibrate through a wall without blowing it up…though Diana took care of that by blasting through that same wall in pursuit of our Scarlet Speedster.
The other thread in this story is Wally’s desire to keep Iris and Jai safe – and Fastback does help get them out of the main fight for much of the story. That doesn’t mean they are completely out of danger or even out of the battle, as they prove their mettle against a group of Diana’s warriors back in their version of Gotham before being pulled back to Wally at a pivotal moment in the storyline. We see how Wally resolves not only the fight but his own feelings of inadequacy as a husband and father, in as good a conclusion as one can hope for given the constraints of placing these characters in restricted cities on the Blood Moon.
This was a strong conclusion to the SPEED FORCE series, if anything actually stronger than issue #1. SPEED FORCE gives us a very familiar Wally West (with the exception of that vibrating-through-walls-without-blowing-it-up thing), and a nice return for Iris and Jai, leaving Linda as the only missing piece to this tale. The fight scene was handled well, yet it was still Wally’s strength of character that was key to the resolution of the story. That’s as it should be, and I found SPEED FORCE #2 to be a very enjoyable book.
Whether we see this version of Wally again any time soon, it was great to revisit the pre-FLASHPOINT Wally West, and this story did a credible job of bringing him back, however brief that appearance may have been. What are your thoughts? Please share them below.
Wally vibrated through things without blowing it up all the time. Even when he first started doing it he said “I need to fix that.” And he did. Like that one time he vibrated bombs out of a couple of Rogues’ throats or when he vibrated himself and Plastic Man through a wall etc etc. There’s other weird scenes like him going through a wall and it only exploding a tiny bit because he messed up a little.
Basically, he can do it but it’s harder.
I honestly didn’t expect any of these tie in’s to end well. I am seeing stuff online “DC Comics makes history cannon”. So basically, same thing as now but everything happened not reset. I’m still confused about post-convergence land scape. Solid issue…that kick was coooo.
Enjoyed the book. The only real letdowns were that I didn’t care for the cover on this one and…no Linda. Surprised myself about how letdown I felt about that….more so than I thought I would be.