Wally West has his own series – that’s the very good news. The tough part is that this follows the heartbreaking events of HEROES IN CRISIS. How can you rehabilitate a beloved character who accidentally killed 13 other heroes? How do you heal a broken person in Wally West? This story starts that journey, and it appears to be an epic tale from the very beginning! Want to know more? Follow us after the jump!
SPOILERS AHEAD!
Many parts of this story read like a classic galaxy-sized (and more) Marvel story, in the best sense of the word. Wally West is going to find out that there are forces in the multiverse far beyond his reckoning. And, this Flash will find himself called to action in spite of himself.
Wally is in Blackgate Supermax prison after the events of Heroes in Crisis. He is wearing a suppression collar to avoid having his powers flare up again. And, he is awaiting trial, planing to please guilty to all charges even though this was an accident beyond his control. Wally West is wracked with guilt and can’t get past his actions at Sanctuary. He is in prison with the worst of the worst, including several of the bad guys he put away over the years. Of course, Wally is attacked over and over again by those whom he put away.
One of the toughest moments for Wally in this issue comes when he receives a visitor…Linda Park! She appears sympathetic to Wally, but he is simply not ready to deal with it, or her considering that she was his wife in another timeline. The heartbreak is just to powerful.
He is saved from the first attack by Murmur, strangely enough. But, later Girder and Tar Pit managed to bribe their way out of their collars and stage a full-out assault to kill Wally! It almost works…until they accidentally crush Wally’s suppression collar. He makes short work of them, only to find…
Tempus Fuginaut – a character seen more recently in the DC Universe as one trying to keep the barriers intact between our multiverse and the Dark Multiverse. He is seeking out the one hero who can destroy the anomaly that allows the Dark Multiverse to invade…the Fastest Man in the Multiverse, Wally West!
Wally wants no part of the battle, but he has no choice in this. He is given back his new Flash uniform and sent into the Multiverse to begin his adventure…and that is where we leave him for issue #1.
Just a quick note before we get to the formal NOTES section: There is an “interlude” where a bounty hunter finds and attempts to use the Mobius Chair. It’s still unclaimed…but far too powerful for this bounty hunter to use. It will certainly come back into the story soon.
NOTES:
- FLASH FORWARD has a very difficult task for the first issue – bridging the gap between the horrific events of HEROES IN CRISIS and this new adventure for a very broken Wally West. You’ve heard me rant about HIC before, so I’ll spare you here. The point is that FLASH FORWARD takes us from there to hopefully a whole new direction for the Fastest Man in the Multiverse.
- The approach here seems twofold – retell just enough to bring a new reader up to speed, while introducing a truly epic-sized story line to take Wally…Forward (excuse the pun). Scott Lobdell did a good job of setting the stage for this series, and I’m excited for how he will bring Wally along in future issues.
- SO glad to see Brett Booth on this book! Booth is a true Wally fan, and it makes absolute sense that he would handle the pencils for a Wally West series. This has some truly epic pages, setting a tone for FLASH FORWARD that is spot on to both the script and to what Wally fans would hope to see in this series. It’s also great to see Norm Rapmund on inks and Luis Guerrero on colors. It’s a great art team for the series. Add that Doc Shaner cover and you have a great first issue!
SUMMARY: This is a solid start for the series, and I’ll give it an 8/10 – of course, that’s just my opnion. What do YOU think? Leave your comments below!
Great review, I enjoyed the issue but I felt it dragged on in the middle though. Looking forward to the next issue though
I liked it too, so far. Any speculation on the outcome? Do any of the heroes get revived/undone? Does Wally get his family back? Or get together with this timeline’s Linda? My guess is that Wally chooses to sacrifice himself in some way to bring back the 13 heroes, but TempusF saves him anyway.
Also, as someone who liked Heroes in Crisis a lot (yes), one thing I still don’t get is why the confessionals were released? In what way was that an attempt to do a good thing?
It wasn’t. Someone should have explained HIPAA to Tom King.
I really Enjoyed it. At first I was worried that Wally was going to be in a fatalistic funk the whole way through. But after Wally took down Tar Pit and Girder, (and shouldn’t they be in Iron Heights anyway?) Wally actually seemed to be having fun and I became a lot more enthusiastic about the series direction.