[Editor’s note: This review may contain spoilers.]
Writer: Joshua Williamson
Artist: Howard Porter
Reviewed By: Derek McNeil
Summary
“RUNNING SCARED” part two! Barry Allen and Iris West witness a chilling vision of the future courtesy of the Reverse-Flash, who reveals the couple’s legendary romance will yield only darkness for the world of tomorrow. Now, Thawne forces The Flash to make a choice: spend forever alone or doom the future?
Positives
Flash receives new powers based on the negative Speed Force. I’m sure this is only temporary, but it should be interesting to see how they differ from his usual power set. Will he be able to adapt to their use easily, or will mastering them prove difficult?
There are also a lot of nods to classic Flash history in this issue. The appearance Barry and Iris’ future children, Don and Dawn Allen, the Tornado twins, raises the hope that we might again see their children Bart Allen (Impulse) and Jenni Ognats (XS) again.
Also, in the future Flash Museum, we can see busts of two very familiar figures. One is Jay Garrick, who has already appeared in “The Button.” The other appears to be Max Mercury. Hopefully this means that both will be restored to their rightful places in the DC Universe in the near future.
Negatives
The future Iris refers to Wally without qualifying which Wally she means. I hope this doesn’t mean that she never remembers the original Wally. It could just mean that they figured out some way of dealing with the confusion of them both having the same name.
Although it’s noble, the fact that Barry is willing to sacrifice his future with Iris to save her life, it doesn’t bode well that he does so over Iris’ protestations. Iris will likely not like that he doesn’t take her feelings into account. Adding to this that Iris has just discovered Barry is the Flash, their relationship might be in trouble.
Verdict
The Flash is really starting to feel like the Flash comics I read as a kid in the 70s. This really reminds me of the fun and excitement that comics used to have. The DC Rebirth ethos is really paying off for longtime fans of Barry Allen’s Flash.
