Review: FLASH FORWARD #2
[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Writer: Scott Lobdell
Artists: Brett Booth, Norm Rapmund
Colours: Luis Guerrero
Letters: ALW’s Troy Peteri
Reviewed By: Derek McNeil
Summary
Flash Forward #2: When the border between the Multiverse and the Dark Multiverse starts to buckle, who do you turn to? The answer: Wally West. Once the Fastest Man Alive, he’s now a man with nothing left to live for. Will Tempus Fuginaut’s chosen champion rise to the occasion and fight back the demons of the darkness, or will Wally’s own demons win the day?
Positives
Wally West was enlisted by Tempus Fuginaut to save the Multiverse with little indication of how he was supposed to accomplish this. Well, in Flash Forward #2, Wally starts to figure it out.
His quest starts on Earth-23, most commonly known as the home of President Superman. Dark matter from the Dark Multiverse is eating this Earth, and it’s up to Wally to stop it.
I love that Wally is starting to recover somewhat from his tragic experiences and actually starts enjoying himself. “Is there something wrong with me?” Wally asks, “We’re talking the end of the worlds — and I haven’t had this much fun in years.”
His experiences have also given him a new resolve. “No more death!” he declares, “Not if I can stop it!” Even when Fuginaut declares Earth-23 a lost cause and urges Wally to move on, the Flash refuse to give up.
Positives Cont.
And if there was any doubt that Wally is still one of the DCU’s heaviest hitters, he manages to hold his own against some rather… marvelous heroes. Despite the interference of ersatz versions of the Avengers and X-Men, Wally manages to destroy the Dark Matter and save two universes.
I’m also enjoying the artwork of Booth and Rapmund. They really manage to express the raw kinetic energy of Wally’s speed. And while I’m still not sure that Wally’s costume is an improvement over his old costume, they certain do make it look amazing on him.
And that ending… It makes me very happy, although it also leaves me with a lot of questions. At the source of the Dark Matter incursion into the Multiverse lies “The Dark World That Would Not Die” – whatever that means. And on that world we see strange stone monuments to the heroes killed in Heroes In Crisis. Why they are there is a mystery.
But what’s got me excited is the two children pondering over these monuments: Jai and Irey West! I wasn’t sure if Lobdell was going to be able to repair the damage done to Wally in Heroes In Crisis, but this page won me over. I can hardly wait to find out more.
And is Irey appears to still be wearing the tatters of her Impulse costume! DC really needs to release this page as a poster. After seeing this page, the future of the DCU suddenly seems much brighter.
Negatives
After that ending, I can’t bring myself to engage in picking nits about the rest of the story. The entire issue seemed pretty solid up to that point anyways. The complaint is that we have to wait to find out how Wally’s children got there, and what their return means for Wally’s future.
Verdict
Only two issues in, and Flash Forward has already delivered the one thing I most wanted to get from it. This issue should remove any doubt that Lobdell is the man to redeem Wally West. I can hardly wait for the next issue to arrive.
