Full Throttle: Running Out of Time
Marc Guggenheim – Writer
Tony Daniel – Penciller
Art Thibert & Jonathan Glapion – Inkers
Pat Brosseau – Letterer
Tanya & Richard Horie – Colorists
Rachel Gluckstern – Associate Editor
Joan Hilty – Editor
Cover by Tony Daniel
Our cover is a symbolic representation of Bart's final moments. The clock is nearly at midnight, the face has shattered, and Bart continues pressing steadfastly on toward his certain death. It is a pretty nice cover. Unfortunately, the number 9 on the clock is upside down. I would say I'm surprised nobody caught this, but considering how many errors slipped by once this series gained "lame duck" status, I'm not surprised at all.
Our story picks right up where last issue left off, with Bart ending his interrogation by revealing himself as the Flash and preparing to head out to stop the Rogues at the Getty Center.
News quickly spreads of the Rogues' attack, reaching Iris West Allen and Valerie Perez, who is catching a taxi to the airport. As Bart races to the Getty, he spots a dark figure following him, but he isn't concerned. Bart sees a large yellow forcefield around the entire building and recognizes it as a trap set just for him.
The forcefield came courtesy of the original Trickster, whose presence especially irritates the Pied Piper. Mirror Master starts to get anxious about whether the Flash will show up, but Inertia reminds him that he's from the future and he knows the Flash will arrive momentarily. And at that moment, Bart is vibrating through the bedrock underneath the forcefield — having assumed he can't vibrate through it. Bart acknowledges to himself that he should take a minute to contact the Teen Titans or Justice League, but he decides to press forward solo, saying he already knows what's going to happen. He recaps how his grandma Iris told him everything, and Bart seems to look on her with pity for believing the future can be changed.
Abra Kadabra pulls Inertia aside to present some concerns he has about the device they just built that is supposed to stop time. Kadabra says he doesn't see any of the necessary components in the device that will actually accomplish that task. Inertia tries to brush this off by saying Kadabra simply doesn't understand 30th century technology, but Kadabra reminds him that he's from the 64th century, where he was taught temporal physics in the third grade. Realizing he's been caught, Inertia tells Kadabra to talk a walk with him.
Val reaches the airport, but before she can board her plane, Iris teleports in front of her, saying she needs her help to save Bart. While Bart continues his astonishingly slow underground journey, Inertia begins beating up Kadabra. He admits that he didn't give Kadabra enough credit and reveals his plan to use the Rogues as bait to draw out the Flash. As Inertia moves in to kill Kadabra, Bart finally arrives, joking about how the Rogues don't need to fight over him.
Bart attacks Inertia first, asking him if he learned nothing from his debacle with Deathstroke. But their fight doesn't last too long before the rest of the Rogues find out what's going on and join the battle. Bart punches out Captain Cold and chastises the Pied Piper for returning to a life of crime while snapping his flute in half. The Mirror Master then pops out of the reflection on Bart's earpiece, forcing him to rip it off his cowl. Bart then picks up Captain Cold's ice gun to deflect a blast from Heat Wave, admitting he's always wanted to try that.
Iris and Val teleport inside the Trickster's forcefield and Iris explains that her temporal transport can move through time and space. She shows Val Inertia's machine and asks her to find a way to dismantle it. Val, however, is overwhelmed by the 30th century tech. Iris explains that the machine is designed to take the Speed Force away from Bart, which helps Val start to grasp what she's looking at. Unfortunately, she's unable to find an off switch, and worries that if she does anything to the machine it could blow up half the county.
As Bart takes on the Trickster, Weather Wizard and Abra Kadabra, Val realizes with horror that the machine has already been activated. And just like that, Bart loses the Speed Force. He was moving at 350 miles per hour at the time, causing him to take a nasty tumble when his speed suddenly disappeared. The Rogues gleefully gather around the depowered Flash, believing this to be a fortunate side effect of Inertia's time-freezing machine. Mirror Master plans to take over the Flash Museum, and Weather Wizard says he's headed to the FBI headquarters. But the Pied Piper notices the police helicopters above them are still moving, indicating that time hasn't stopped, and Inertia lied to them. While this realization sets in, Bart looks up and gets a good look at the dark figure that was following him earlier — the Black Flash, the omen of death for all speedsters.
Val continues studying the machine and theorizes that the Speed Force is inside it now. Iris laments that they were too late to save Bart, but Val has an even bigger concern. It appears that the Speed Force is in flux, creating more energy than the machine can handle. Val believes when the Speed Force is transferred into Inertia's body, there is going to be an enormous amount of excess energy that will be released in an explosion she believes could be the equivalent of 10 atomic bombs.
I'm having a hard time figuring out Bart's motivations. Previously, it seemed like he wanted his grandma to tell him the future so he could prevent it. But now it seems like he's accepted that future as an inevitability and has charged toward a certain death without making any attempt to alter it. I don't know if that's heroic, stupid or arrogant. You can't call it impulsive, because Bart acknowledges that he should have called in additional heroes. The more I think about it, the more I think Bart may have been just a little suicidal. At least subconsciously. A year ago he sacrificed himself to save the world. When he came back, he was suddenly thrust into an adult world of drinking and sex and jobs and car payments that he was not emotionally ready for. It took him a whole year to figure out how to use his increased speed without tearing his body apart, all while living in a crappy apartment with a crappy roommate, working at a crappy factory job. Bart made mistake after mistake after mistake — leading to the death of Griffin and Bart's breakup with Val. And now he's stuck in a boring class where he already knows everything, he has a car he doesn't need and doesn't want to use, and as the Flash, he's trapped in no man's land — too old to be a Titan, too young to be on the Justice League. As an adult, Bart doesn't fit in anywhere. And so, even though he'll never admit this, I think a small part of Bart was thrilled at the prospect of ending all this with one last heroic act.
I am disappointed Val returned. I never liked her. And I never will. She is totally a creepy stalker girl. I mean, who goes out and buys an airplane ticket to fly down to Los Angeles to show up at her ex-boyfriend's police academy? Just call Bart on the phone! I also have to laugh at how bad Iris Allen is at changing the future. After spending years of living in isolation, paralyzed by fear of altering anything, the one time she actually wants to change something, she's completely inept. I don't know where she got her "temporal transport," but she doesn't seem to be using it very wisely. Iris, honey, you do know that Val was only an intern at S.T.A.R. Labs, right?
Well, that's enough frustrations about the end of a frustrating series that was doomed from the get-go. Let's check out the new ads:
Transformers. A Michael Bay film.
Has anyone ever nearly scared you to death? Master storyteller Darren Shan will. The Demonata.
Afro Samurai action figures.
Fear them. Everyone else will. Sinestro Corps.
Hunger gets what hunger wants. Ball Park hot dogs.
An ad for Countdown, showing a closeup of Robin's new outfit, adorned with a pin that says, "I found Ray Palmer."
Batman: Ego and Other Tails.
Batman Dark Crusader statue, designed by Alex Ross.
Batman and Son action figures.
DC Nation features a farewell letter from editor Peter J. Tomasi, who is beginning a writing career.
World of Warcraft action figures.
From the people who brought you Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! ... ChaoticGame.com.
Next time, we'll take a very quick look at Inertia and the Rogues in Countdown #46.
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