The Flash #164

Lightning in a Bottle

Geoff Johns Writer
Angel Unzueta Penciller
Doug Hazlewood Inker
Gaspar Letterer
Tom McCraw Colorist
Joey Cavalieri Editor

We have a new creative team on The Flash, but are keeping to same practice of having a different artist do the covers. Luckily, the subpar Steve Lightle was traded in for the far superior Brian Bolland. This cover is a direct scene from the story, showing that not only is Flash being arrested, but he has also somehow been forgotten by the world.

Our story begins with a haunting image of Flash falling down into darkness, surrounded by skulls, lurking evil policemen, and some playing cards representing the Flash family. Jay Garrick is the Ace, Barry allen the King, Jesse Quick the Queen, Wally West the Jack and, naturally, Impulse is the Joker.

And that's all the Impulse we get in this issue. And to make matters even worse, that's the last we'll see of Impulse in The Flash for about two years. Geoff Johns seemed more focused on building up the world around Wally than writing stories involving the entire Flash family. And that's fine, it just means I'm going to miss including regular issues of The Flash in this blog.

Anyway, this issue does give us an idea of why Flash is unable to help Max Mercury in the pages of Impulse, but no questions are answered here. Wally wakes up imprisoned in a strange world where nobody know who he is, Heat Wave is a cop, Captain Cold appears to be a hero, Aquaman and many of the classic Rogues are dead, and not only is Barry Allen alive, but he hasn't even become the Flash yet. It's all very wild and confusing, and we'll never find out what's really going on here, since this story does not include Impulse.

But next time we will cover a story that involves Impulse in Young Justice #23.