The Flash #189

Messengers

Geoff Johns • Writer
Rick Burchett • Penciller
Dan Panosian • Inker
Gaspar Saladino • Letterer
James Sinclair • Colorist
Digital Chameleon • Separator
Joey Cavalieri • Editor

Our cover by Scott Kolins is a fun homage to the Silver Age of comics, where it was quite common to throw a bunch of melodramatic questions and teases on the cover. I do, however, find Wally's smile to be a bit unnatural. I know this is a lighter issue, but it still looks weird to have him smiling like that.

For our review, let's just answer the questions on the cover. Who causes chaos at the ice rink? Wally. He's ice skating with his wife, Linda, and he falls on his butt. Not a whole lot of chaos. But after their date ends, Wally tells Linda that he's going to be checking in on a bunch of his friends today and he wants to tell them that Linda is pregnant. She, however, wants that to stay a secret for a little bit, and Wally agrees.

Who needs a helping hand from the Flash? Cyborg. He's now living in an apartment in Central City and is a bit depressed, since he recently had an accident that more or less reverted him back to his "classic" form he had back on the old Teen Titans. They're calling it "metallic paralysis." Whatever. Wally cheers him up by telling an extremely corny Gorilla Grodd joke.

Who is chasing after the Golden Age Flash? Impulse. Jay and Bart are training in their backyard in Denver. Bart is tasked with taking Jay's helmet off his head, and he tries sneaking up on Jay, but the experienced speedster dodges Bart's attack at the last second. Bart insists he is faster than Jay, so Jay explains he needs to work on his stealth, recommending he try to glide instead of making his feet so heavy. Bart holds up one of his infamously large feet and says that might be hard for him to do.

Wally suddenly arrives, and Bart excitedly runs circles around him before grabbing Jay's helmet. Jay says he feels like waking up from a nightmare after his encounter with Rival, and he plans on staying in Denver until Joan completes her real cancer treatments. He also vows to continue training Impulse, as he grabs back his helmet. Bart claims he wasn't ready and he reminds Jay of Mr. Terrific's motto — fair play. Joan then comes out and gives Wally a plate of cookies.

Who is Iris West's new best friend? Officer Fred Chyre. Iris seems to have abandoned her life of solitude for fear of revealing secrets about the future. Not only has she adopted the infant Joshua Jackam, but now she's dating one of Wally's best allies on the police force.

Who broke out of Iron Heights? The Pied Piper. This is the only potentially threatening question from the cover. However, Hartley Rathaway may be under some sort of mind control right now. I don't know, and I really don't care too much. But I do care about Wally's brief conversation with Jesse Quick. When the Rogues made their big attack against Wally, they apparently also prepared for Jesse by targeting her company, QuickStart Enterprises. They made it look like she had lost billions of dollars in seconds, so she spent her time with her accountants and programmers undoing that damage instead of helping Wally fight the Rogues. But as we can see, Wally obviously survived the attack that took months to plan.


This issue wasn't too bad. It's nice to occasionally take time to provide a quick update on all the supporting characters in a book. However, I am very frustrated that neither Bart nor Jay mentioned Max Mercury. Their first words to Wally should have been, "Help! Jay's archenemy Rival has possessed Max and stolen a time machine!" I mean, seriously! That's a big deal! And both Wally and Bart have the ability to travel through time! Sigh ... We have now entered the post-Impulse world. Bart will still be around, but no one is going to care about anything that happened in his series.

Next time, we head to the publication date of November 2002, where Impulse finally rejoins his friends in Young Justice #49.