Lightning in a Bottle Part Four: Fast in the Life Lane
Danny Bilson & Paul DeMeo Writers
Ken Lashley & Sal Velluto Pencillers
Wong, Thibert & Leisten Inkers
Rob Leigh Letterer
Richard & Tanya Horie Colorists
Rachel Gluckstern Asst. Editor
Joan Hilty Editor
Our cover by Ken Lashley is his best one yet. And I think that's mainly because he actually drew a background this time. Bart is running up the side of a building with his new girlfriend, Val, in his arms. It's a fairly interesting perspective, even if I think the execution could have been refined a bit. And no, I still don't approve of Val or Bart's infatuation with her, but I can at least take some comfort in having a cover that doesn't have vague explosions of lightning and rainbows in the background for a change.
Our story picks up where we left off last issue, with the Griffin perched on the yacht of the Keystone Motors CEO, while the terrorist Luke Thatcher approaches in a small dinghy with a homemade torpedo. Griffin relishes the fact that he's called Jay Garrick away on a wild goose chase, and realizes that his new superpowers include being able to see clearly for miles in the dark.
With a flash of green lightning, Griffin leaps off the yacht, lands on Thatchter's dinghy, and brutally electrocutes the man. He then jumps back on to the yacht, allowing the dinghy to crash into a buoy and explode, while Griffin personally protects the CEO, William Slout. Jay Garrick returns just after the explosion clears, and Slout happily proclaims Griffin as the "new hero in town."
The next day, Griffin is honored at a press conference in front of all the Keystone Motors employees. Bart is in the audience, and he angrily shouts out a question about Griffin being a vigilante. Griffin defends his actions, comparing himself to a marine taking out a suicide bomber. Slout agrees with Griffin and presents him with a check for $100,000, which apparently was the posted reward for the apprehension of Keystone's serial bomber. Griffin gladly accepts the check, saying protecting the city is a tough job and donations are always welcome.
That night, Bart meets with Jay at the Flash Museum and complains about Griffin's attitude after he killed a man instead of trying to bring him to the police. Jay says he and Detective Morillo figured out that it was Griffin who sent him on the wild goose chase. He tells Bart that he's getting slower each day without access to the Speed Force, and without directly saying it, Jay strongly implies that Bart needs to get over his fears of using his powers and stop Griffin.
Bart walks home after this talk, only to find a gathering of paparazzi outside his apartment building. Turns out Griffin has used some of his reward money to buy a fancy sports car. One of the journalists asks Bart what it's like to be roommates with Keystone's new hero, and Bart can only give a one word response: "Crowded." Griffin then invites Bart to take spin in his new car at super speed. Bart says he used to be into speed, but he's not sure anymore. However, he still willingly gets into the car and rides with Griff to a club called Hell.
Griff quickly has a girl in each arm, and a third girl is trying to get with Bart, who Griff refers to as "Kid Griff." Val just so happens to be at the same club at the same time with some of her girl friends, but she says she shouldn't be out clubbing since she kind of almost has a boyfriend. Val immediately spots Bart next to a girl, and even though Bart is clearly not into that girl, Val becomes heart-broken and leaves the club in disgust.
Bart rides back to the apartment with Griff and the three girls, and Bart meekly points out that their apartment is too small for the five of them. Griff waves him off and offers to let Bart sleep with one of the girls. Bart coldly says the Griffin should be able to handle all three of them. Griff angrily tells Bart he was just trying to help him, but Bart says he doesn't need that kind of help. So Griff announces plans to move to a new place tomorrow.
During their argument, Bart suddenly notices that Griffin's hand looks withered and old (even though Griffin was wearing gloves on the previous page). Griffin tries to brush it off as dry skin, but he rushes to the bathroom to get a better look at it. Upon discovering he has the hand of an 80-year-old man, he freaks out and sends the three girls away.
The next day, Bart returns to S.T.A.R. Labs for more testing. Dr. McGee finally asks Bart the number one question since this series began: What happened when he took Superboy-Prime to the Speed Force? Unfortunately, Bart says he can't remember anything from that moment. He still remembers all the books he read at the San Francisco Public Library, but nothing from this most significant moment. Pushing forward, Dr. McGee theorizes that not only has the Speed Force become altered significantly, but it is now embedded into Bart's system, concentrated into him alone. In other words, Bart is the Speed Force.
This naturally unnerves Bart, who points out that Barry, Max and Wally all vanished into the Speed Force and became part of it. But as soon as he says that, he realizes this must be why he's been getting all those nightmares. Bart sort of begins to spiral, saying he's a walking graveyard and the Speed Force really can blow him apart. But he is still willing to undergo more tests with Val. But Val sadly rushes out the room, telling Bart he needs to schedule something with her replacement.
Bart chases Val down and she immediately begins complaining about seeing him at the club with another girl. Bart assures her that he spent the whole night trying to get away from that girl. Val then tells Bart that she has been officially fired from S.T.A.R. Labs because she lied about being Manfred Mota's daughter. She says she thought her dad was dead, but he's recently been stalking her. Val starts to cry a bit, but quickly catches herself and laughs about Bart unwittingly keeping company with the daughter of his "family's mortal enemy" (a very generous description of a man who only fought the Flashes three times). Bart says he thought they were doing more than "keeping company" and Val says they are. She then asks him to run her home, like he did when she was 16. Bart asks if she's worried about getting hurt, but she says she's not afraid with him. He says he's not afraid with her, either, so he pops on the Flash costume and races her away.
That night, police are engaged in a high-speed chase with a couple of suspects from a drive-by shooting. Jay runs up to the side of the suspects' van and tells them to pull over. They refuse, and one of them even fires his gun at Jay, but he easily deflects the bullet. Up ahead of them, in the middle of the road, is Griffin, glowing with green lightning. He shoots a massive blast at the van, causing it to flip over upside down. Jay pulls the men out of the van and shouts at Griffin for almost killing them. Griffin justifies his actions, saying they were going to run him down and they had to be stopped. Jay says a real superhero can stop crime without leaving a trail of corpses. Griffin then randomly pulls down his hood, revealing a wrinkled face and white hair.
Griffin returns to his new swanky apartment on the top of a skyscraper. He watches a news broadcast of Jay publicly warning the citizens of Keystone to beware the Griffin. But the news reporter openly mocks Jay and praises Griffin for bringing in criminals dead or alive. Bart suddenly arrives and says they need to talk. But the first thing Bart notices is that Griffin has shaved his head. Griffin says he just felt he needed a new look. So Bart dives right into his prepared speech, telling Griff that every time he stops a crime, someone dies. Griff says that's not true, pointing out that on his first mission, the kid did survive the fall off the building, but Bart reminds him that the Flash saved that kid.
Griffin defensively argues that the people he has killed deserved to die. Bart says he should let the courts decide and he needs to ask himself what kind of a hero he wants to be. Griff boasts that the people love him and he can leap tall buildings in a single bound. Bart points out that Griff looks like he's aged 40 years and he offers to introduce him to the doctors at S.T.A.R. Labs. Griff doesn't want to be a lab rat and says he needs to spend his time protecting the city. Bart insists the Flash can handle Keystone, but he asks who's going to handle the Griffin.
Griff's temper finally gets the best of him. He rants about all the times he helped Bart — getting him a job, putting up with his nightmares and mysterious past — and now he's not going to take this kind of talk from him. Bart says he'll stop Griffin himself if he has to, which prompts Griffin to attack his friend. Bart quickly evades the strike, but crashes into a table. Stunned, Griff asks Bart how he pulled off that move, so Bart lamely lies about having taken karate lessons. But Bart doesn't use his super speed to avoid being picked up by Griffin and thrown out the window. However, he does catch himself and throws on his Flash outfit before running back up the skyscraper to continue the fight.
Meanwhile, Val receives a knock on her door. She hopes it's Bart, but it turns out to be her father, who is now a being of pure energy.
Well, I guess all it took for Bart to finally act like a hero was to literally have his own life threatened. Good job, Mr. Superhero! Yes, I'm still upset that it's been four issues and Bart still doesn't want to be the Flash. But I'm more upset with the inconsistency with this series. In these four issues, we have had four different art teams. Is it too much to ask for the same penciller, inker and colorist on just two consecutive issues?
This issue had two writers, two pencillers, three inkers and two colorists. And between the nine of them, a bunch of continuity errors were made that slipped past our two editors. The most glaring was Griffin's gloves suddenly disappearing so we could see his withered hands. But we also had his hood suddenly disappear so we could see his hair. And we later had a huge argument about all the people Griffin had supposedly killed, even though we only saw him actually kill one person. Was he supposed to have killed those people in the van? Because Jay very clearly yelled at him for almost killing those people. I don't know. It's all very frustrating.
And nothing is more frustrating than the portrayal of Bart Allen in this book. He knows that Griffin is out of control. He knows he has needlessly killed (at least one man). And yet he still meekly hops into Griff's sports car and goes to the club with him. Why? Look, just because you're too much of a wuss to confront your evil roommate doesn't mean that you need to go out clubbing with him! Oh wait, I know exactly why we had this scene. It was so we could get the incredibly lame and clichéd trope of a girlfriend seeing her boyfriend with another girl and instantly running away in jealousy, even though he obviously is not into that other girl. Ugh! How uninspired can you get?
I honestly have no reaction to the reveal that Bart essentially is the Speed Force now. This whole series has made me incredibly indifferent to everything. In this issue, Bart claims to have no memory from his trip to the Speed Force, but that contradicts what he has previously stated in Infinity Crisis and 52. And I tend to believe those comics more than this one, so I can only surmise that Bart still isn't being completely honest with Dr. McGee. Or Bilson and DeMeo just don't know what they're doing. One or the other.
I also suppose now is the time to mention that Griffin Grey did appear in a 2016 episode of CW's The Flash called "Back to Normal." I was surprised that the show would turn to this most frustrating era of the speedster for a storyline. I was also disappointed that the episode essentially ended with "Team Flash" intentionally killing Griffin.
Well, enough of this sadness, let's take a look at the new ads:
The final battle. The ultimate adventure. The last stand. X-Men: The Last Stand on DVD.
His time has come. Smallville season five on DVD.
Goal by Beckham. Body by milk. got milk? with David Beckham.
Blast by ARod. Body by milk. got milk? with Alex Rodriguez.
The first 5,000 Pontiac G5's come with the digital mix: A year of XM Satellite Radio, plus and MP3 music download a day for one year.
The DC Nation page has Dan DiDio giving a brief tour of the editorial offices. Former Impulse and Flash editor Joey Cavalieri is currently working on Shadowpact. I kind of wish he was working on The Fastest Man Alive, but I'm not sure how much he'd be able to help with this creative team.
Next time, we'll return to our adventure with Superman in Action Comics #843.
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