The Flash #227

The Last Days

Joey Cavalieri – Writer
Val Semeiks – Penciller
Livesay – Inker
Pat Brosseau – Letterer
James Sinclair – Colorist
Harvey Richards – Asst. Editor
Stephen Wacker – Editor

Our cover by Art Thibert is a pretty cool closeup on the Flash costume coming out of the ring. The simple white background gives it a clean, artistic presentation of an iconic, recognizable piece of Flash lore.

In my trade paperback of Infinite Crisis, Dan DiDio says DC spent three years planning that event. That gave Geoff Johns enough time to set things up in Teen Titans and The Flash, but he ended his run with the Scarlet Speedster a bit early. As such, DC had to awkwardly fill four or five months of Flash stories before being able to launch the new story set up by Infinite Crisis. So in comes former Flash and Impulse editor Joey Cavalieri to the rescue, giving us a rare DC comic that isn't directly connected to the Crisis.

Our story begins a bit in the future. Wally's twins are now adolescents and have been thrown into special cages in Iron Heights on murder charges. Wally is meanwhile fighting a couple of large tentacle monsters, which eventually do ensnare him, putting him at the mercy of Doctor Alchemy. As the villain turns Wally's flesh to steam, the Flash begs him to stop on behalf of his children. With Wally out of the way, Weather Wizard, Heat Wave and Gorilla Grodd break into the West household and kidnap Linda. Luckily, an older Bart Allen is here to save the day.

Weather Wizard mocks Bart for still going by Kid Flash and hits him directly with a bolt of lightning powerful enough to instantly vaporize the young adult.

Wally then wakes up from his nightmare, one of the many that have plagued him since Linda gave birth to the twins. The babies are healthy and happy, despite their dad's worries, and his well-connected friends have given them some great (and unusual) gifts. Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson have opened college accounts for the twins, Wonder Woman gave them bracelets and a sword (which Linda is not happy about) and Superman apparently chose "all-terrain mecha high chairs and virtual playpen."

Linda's parents are worried about the babies' spiritual well-being, and they convince Wally and Linda to check out a church with them. While at this church, Wally discovers a group of super-powered people living in secret. After he convinces them he's a good guy, the people reveal they're from a different dimension — a utopian world where everyone has powers and can live in peace and harmony. This sounds very appealing to Wally, who is certain his children will manifest super powers before too long.

The people tell Wally the one flaw of their society is the lack of medical advancements, which is why they've come to this world. They tell Wally they need a device from the Flash Museum called the Summoner to save a dying woman. So Wally immediately takes off to find this object without thinking twice. Bust as soon as he is gone, the people begin laughing at how the Flash fell for their deception.




This was an OK issue. It is a little jarring to go to something like this after having spent so much time building up and preparing for Infinite Crisis in every other title. This story just feels so ... inconsequential. It's not bad, just not on the same level of excitement and importance. The art was fine, but nothing to get too excited about. And I feel the same way about the story, too. I wasn't too interested in this community of metahumans, and the opening dream sequence felt lacking. It either needed to be wackier or more believable. Or perhaps more gruesome. I guess everything just needed more "oomph."

Next time, we'll wrap up the Titans' quick encounter with Supergirl.