The Flash #223

Rogue War Chapter 4

Geoff Johns – Writer
Howard Porter – Penciller
Lives – Inker
Pat Brousseau – Letterer
James Sinclair – Colorist
Rachel Gluckstern – Asst. Editor
Joey Cavalieri – Editor

Our cover by Howard Porter proclaims "The Reverse Flash vs. The Rogues!" When I think Reverse Flash, my mind goes to Barry Allen's rival, Eobard Thawne. But from this cover (and the inside story), we see we're really dealing with Wally West's rival, Hunter Zolomon, aka Zoom. Their costumes are nearly identical, but the key difference is their eyes. Eobard's eyes are normal, Hunter's are black. Moving past this unnecessary confusion, this cover does portray an exciting setup. Zoom taking on Captain Cold, Mirror Master, Weather Wizard and the new Captain Boomerang.

Our story begins with a tense standoff over the corpse of the original Captain Boomerang, Digger Harkness. On one side is Zoom and his wife, Ashley. On the other is the original Trickster, Weather Wizard and Digger's son. While they fight, Wally has his hands full trying to prevent basically all his villains from destroying the city in their war. He throws Girder into the river, punches out Plunder, and builds a cage around Murmur.

We then cut to the Garricks' home, where Joan, Bart and Iris are watching the Rogue War unfold on the news. Apparently Central City is being evacuated, and the Flash pulled a quarter of the city's population out himself before returning to the fight. Sensing Bart's desire to help, Joan tells him to wait for Jay. But Bart reports that the JSA said Jay never showed up for their meeting today, and Bart believes his absence must be connected to the war. Iris agrees with Bart, saying Wally needs his help. So Bart throws on his uniform, saying that even though Wally will never admit it, he really needs Kid Flash right now.

Back to our first fight, Zoom has knocked out Weather Wizard and decided that his wife isn't safe. So he rushes Ashley over to Wally's house, where Linda is tending to an injured Pied Piper. Zoom tells Ashley she should talk to Linda before smirking at Linda and saying her "future is at hand" and quickly taking off.

Wally, meanwhile, is nursing a twisted ankle while trying to dodge Doctor Alchemy's attacks. Captain Cold creates a larges sheet of ice, which Mirror Master uses to bring Gorilla Grodd into the battle. Grodd smashes Wally through a bunch of walls before Bart shows up, calling the ape "Kong." Bart jokes that Mario wants his barrels back, and he jumps on Grodd's back, claiming he can vibrate through the ape's attacks. But Grodd is able to take down Bart with a psychic blast to his mind.

Doctor Alchemy then tries to turn Wally's blood to formaldehyde, but Wally manages to push Grodd into the path of Alchemy's blast. Wally pulls Bart out into the streets and even thanks the teen for his help. As Wally and Bart face down all the remaining Rogues, Zoom suddenly shows up and throws Captain Cold through his own ice sheet. He knocks all the other villains down with one of his patented supersonic snaps, saying this fight isn't about the Rogues anymore — it's about the Flash.

Wally tells Bart this is too big and he needs to leave. Bart says he's here precisely because it's too big. They both charge at Zoom, who punches Wally down and grabs Bart's throat. Zoom tells Wally he still wants to push him harder and make him a better hero. Bart calls Zoom "Speed Freak" and says he's not scared of him. But Zoom says he'll twist Bart's neck just like Barry did to Eobard years ago. There's suddenly a big flash of pink light, and Jay Garrick emerges from it, urging Wally to run away. We then see that Jay is chained up to the Cosmic Treadmill, and riding on that treadmill is the original Reverse Flash, Eobard Thawne.



This was a pretty exciting and wild issue. Everybody you could imagine is involved in this free-for-all some way, and it's enough to make anyone's head spin. And I'm glad Geoff Johns decided to bring in Bart for this crazy story. Unfortunately, he didn't let Bart do much more than be a "damsel in distress." He did drop a line about being able to vibrate, but we didn't see him actually vibrate — even when Zoom was holding him by the neck. It's kind of frustrating how Kid Flash is less powerful and innovative than Impulse was. At least Bart has been toning down the useless fact-spouting recently.

Howard Porter is a very uneven artist. Some pages and panels are absolute gold, while others can be cringe-worthy. Luckily, he brought his A-game for that glorious shot of Kid Flash rushing off to the rescue. It's easily one of the best images of Bart as Kid Flash. I just wish that heroic shot was followed by something better than teasing Gorilla Grodd and nearly being killed by Zoom.

Next time, we'll return to the Insiders storyline in Teen Titans #25.