Countdown #46

Weapon of War

Paul Dini – Head Writer with Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray
Jesus Saiz – Pencils
Jimmy Palmiotti – Inks
Pete Pantazis – Colors
Jared K. Fletcher – Letters
Jeanine Schaefer – Associate Editor
Mike Marts – Editor

Our cover by Ed Benes shows a new character named Forerunner fighting Jason Todd in Washington, D.C. Apparently she was sent by some of the Monitors to stop Jason from telling Donna Troy about the murder of Duela Dent. Or something like that. None of that concerns us.

The story that does concern us is the one of the Piper and the Trickster. We open on the two Rogues in a diner in Keystone City, joined by Mirror Master, Weather Wizard and Heat Wave. Even though it does seem pretty late at night, I'm still surprised to see them all out in public wearing their super villain outfits. Anyway, the waitress gets Mirror Master's drink order wrong, and the Pied Piper takes issue with McCulloch's excessive rudeness. A fight quickly breaks out, with the other Rogues idly placing bets on the winner. But the fight doesn't last long before Captain Cold arrives and freezes the brawling villains.

Inertia is at Cold's side and, after drinking a shot off Mirror Master's frozen arm, he tells them they have work to do. Presumably to go over their plan to build a time-stopping machine and kill the Flash. And that's all we care about from this issue — two panels of Inertia.

I appreciate the effort to link this series to current events in the DC Universe, but the timeline here doesn't match up very well with The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive. It's not a direct contradiction of anything, but I do have a hard time lining this event up with the issues we've just reviewed.

Well, I guess that's all I have to say on this comic. Next time we do the big one — The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #13.

The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #12

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.

Countdown #51

Look to the Skies

Paul Dini Writer
Jesus Saiz Pencils
Jimmy Palmiotti Inks
Tom Chu Colors
Travis Lanham Letters
Jeanine Schaefer Associate Editor
Mike Marts Editor

Fresh off the rousing success of the 52 weekly series, DC immediately dove into another weekly series. But this time, they decided to shake things up a bit. Countdown was intended to literally count down the weeks to the next big event, hence the reverse numbering. It can get a bit confusing, but just keep in mind that issue #51 is actually the first issue of this series.

Our cover by Andy Kubert is three times as wide as a normal cover. I'm assuming it folded out somehow (I only have the digital version, so I'm not sure). The cover is a really neat image of every major DC hero triumphantly rushing forward. I am happy to see Bart's prominent placement in the middle, right next to old friend Tim Drake. On the left is Jay Garrick, Cyborg and even Red Tornado. Unfortunately, this cover is kind of misleading, as Countdown followed the model of 52 by focusing mostly on side characters. Many of the big names on this cover — Bart included — barely make an appearance in this yearlong story.

Our story begins on a rather haunting image of Darkseid's lackey, Desaad, torturing people and waxing poetically about the nature of life. Darkseid considers his views limited, and hints at an upcoming, reality-altering event, as he tends to a chess board with pieces shaped like superheroes and villains.

And that's all the "Bart" we get in this issue. But there are a couple of interesting tidbits I'll hit on. Duela Dent, whom we recently saw in the Titans East fiasco, is killed by one of the Monitors because she's from an alternate world. The original Trickster meets with Heat Wave to presumably discuss their plan to freeze time and kill Bart. Heat Wave is understandably suspicious of Trickster, who has spent the past few years helping authorities track down criminals. And neither of them notice the Pied Piper using his trained rats to spy on them.

The issue ends with one of the Monitors traveling to the Source Wall to find out what's going on. A floating hand appears and writes in burning letters, "Great disaster." The Monitor asks what's the solution to the great disaster, and the hand writes "Ray Palmer."




This was a mildly interesting start to a series that unfortunately failed to deliver on its promise. But in the meantime, I do kind of like seeing some of the Rogues outside the pages of the Flash. Technically, the timing doesn't match up very well with The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive, but it was a nice gesture all the same.

Next time, we'll return to the main series with The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #12.

The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #11

Full Throttle: Storm Front

Marc Guggenheim – Writer
Introduction Tony Daniel – Penciller
Art Thibert – Inker
Pat Brosseau – Letterer
Tanya & Richard Horie – Colorists
Rachel Gluckstern – Associate Editor
Joan Hilty – Editor
Cover by Ethan Van Sciver
Variant cover by Tony Daniel

This is probably Van Sciver's best cover for this series, which isn't saying much, but I will give him that credit. Of course, I probably only say that because this cover doesn't have Bart's face on it, which Van Sciver insisted on drawing as angry and evil-looking as possible. Anyway, the idea of the Flash being flat on his back with the Rogues laughing above him is an intriguing prospect. However, as we'll soon see, Bart doesn't actually begin fighting the Rogues in this issue, much less lose to them.

I happen to own the Daniel variant, which I find to be the superior of the two. We're right in the middle of the fight, and everybody looks pretty good. I'm most pleased with the expression on Bart's face — he's resolute, focused, but not boiling over with pure rage, like he so often has been on the covers of this series.

Our story begins right where we left off. Bart has finally gained the upper hand over Zoom, only to learn that Zoom is working with his grandmother, Iris Allen, who is now pointing a gun at Bart.

Iris immediately fires three shots at her grandson, and Bart is mildly comforted to see these are tranquilizer darts instead of bullets. He still dodges them, though, and even grabs one and jams it into Zoom's neck, who was once again telling Bart that he's only trying to help him. The tranquilizer immediately puts Zoom down, and Bart turns to confront his grandma.

At the same time, Captain Cold is trying to get as far away from this scene as possible. Inertia suddenly appears right in front of Snart, teasing him for once again running away from the Flash. Snart angrily calls Thad a freak and says he's fed up with all speedsters. But Inertia explains that he's not technically a speedster now — not without pharmaceutical assistance — and he offers to give Snart the names of the next 10 Super Bowl champions just for listening to his proposal.

We return to Bart and Iris, who is apologizing to her grandson, saying she thought she could catch him by surprise, but should have known he could outrun the darts. Bart starts asking if this is a mind-control thing or if Iris is a shapeshifter, but she insists she's the real Iris. She repeats Zoom's line that they're only trying to help Bart. Iris explains that the darts were designed to take away a speedster's powers for about a week because she wanted to temporarily take Bart away from super-heroing. Naturally, Bart wants to know what Iris wants to keep away from him this week.

We then cut to the Jura Canton Prison in Switzerland, where Abra Kadabra is being held. (Apparently the Swiss authorities managed to track him down.) Inertia has snuck into Kadabra's cell and is trying to convince him that his plan is different from all the previous Rogue plans to take down the Flash, mainly because they're dealing with a different Flash this time. Kadabra isn't too interested on getting revenge on someone he's never heard of before, but Inertia says he's offering him the chance to pull off the biggest trick of all time — something that won't just withstand history, but make history. This finally gets Kadabra's attention, and he asks what the trick is. Inertia comes right out and says they're going to freeze time for everybody except the Rogues.

Back in Keystone, Iris explains to Bart that her knowledge of the future isn't always accurate — for example, she was wrong about Wally's child — but for the most part, things play out the way she had read about. And when she saw Bart become the Flash, she was horrified to realize what's going to happen next. So she took it upon herself to prevent that future. Iris initially refuses to reveal any more information, but Bart presses her, saying the best way to protect him is to tell him what he needs protecting from.

On the other side of Keystone City, the Weather Wizard was trying to rob a bank when Inertia interfered. Thad asks Mark Mardon if he's tired of getting beat by speedsters, clearly demonstrating that in a fair fight, he'll always lose to a speedster. Inertia knocks Mardon down and steals his wand, calling it a crutch. He asks Mardon if he's ever wondered how his son can control the weather without a wand. Inertia says it's because Mardon's son inherited his genes and abilities, yet doesn't have the mental blocks that Mardon does, making him think he needs the wand. Thad snaps the stick in half and offers to share some 30th century psychological therapies to remove those mental blocks.

We return to Bart and Iris, who finally caved in and told Bart how he dies. We don't hear her exact words, but we do see images of Inertia uniting the Rogues and creating a large, ominous-looking device. Iris cries after telling Bart this story, and he hugs her, assuring her that now he'll be able to change this future. He then returns to Los Angeles, realizing he's late for his class at the Police Academy.

Inertia has also traveled to Los Angeles, accompanied by Mirror Master, Captain Cold, Pied Piper, Heat Have and Abra Kadabra. Meeting in an abandoned warehouse, Inertia opens the meeting by mocking the Rogues for routinely losing every battle to the Flash. Thad contests that he's been biding his time, intentionally losing his first few fights like a poker player learning his opponents' tells and weaknesses. And he assures everyone that he is from the future and he knows how this all plays out.

With Abra Kadabra providing the visuals, Inertia launches into his plan. He first shows them a picture of the Getty Center, explaining that it sits atop a seven-story parking garage, which will serve as the perfect foundation for the device they're going to build. Using material Inertia brought from the future, Captain Cold, Heat Wave and Abra Kadabra will handle the construction, while Inertia, Mirror Master and Pied Piper will deal with crowd control. And once more, Inertia promises that this device really will freeze time and enable them to make history.

We cut back to the Police Academy, where Bart has surprisingly run into his old girlfriend, Val. She says she doesn't want him to think of her as a stalker girl (even though she totally is), and that she realized that just one fight isn't enough to end a relationship. So she wants to try it again. Bart is genuinely shocked by this, but he manages to make the mature decision and tells Val that he needs some time and it isn't right for them to get back together right now. Bart then enters his classroom, but is immediately sent to the Parker Center to talk to the robbery/homicide division.

At the Getty Center, we see the Rogues didn't waste any time launching their plan. There's a big commotion, with people being frozen or burned and a green blur everywhere. As the museum is cleared, we see that Weather Wizard has joined the Rogues, creating a large whirlwind without his wand.

Bart, meanwhile, is being interrogated for the Steppenwolf attack. Bart insists the detectives are making a mistake, but they say forensics clearly showed that Steppenwolf's primary target was Bart's locker. All Bart can say is that their forensics must be wrong. The interrogation is suddenly interrupted when the police learn of the Rogues taking over the Getty Center. Bart gets up to leave, but the detectives grab hold of him and even arrest him. So Bart vibrates his wrists through the handcuffs, pops open his Flash ring and says that Steppenwolf attacked because he's the Flash. And he doesn't plan on sticking around for any more questions.




That ending gave me chills. Bart was just barely told exactly how he's going to die, suddenly ran into his old girlfriend and was arrested while trying to protect his secret identity. But he realizes that the priority here is stopping Inertia and the Rogues before they freeze time. So he shoves Val aside, exposes his secret identity and prepares to run head-first into certain death. Bart's had a really rough go at being the Flash, but now he finally is getting a chance to prove just how heroic he can be.

Iris and Zoom working together was an interesting development. Iris apparently has a time-travel device and could theoretically go anywhere and get anyone to help her. It's understandable that she would be desperate to save the boy she initially rescued from a corrupt government not too long ago. But I wonder why she didn't approach any heroes to help prevent Bart's death. It might be because she didn't know exactly when the Rogues would set their plan into motion. Regardless, Zoom wasn't that bad of a choice. His main motivation has always been to make heroes better — albeit in a cruel, sadistic way.

It was fun watching Inertia recruit all the Rogues. Although the Abra Kadabra sequence broke with continuity. When Bart battled him in Switzerland, he tricked Kadabra into teleporting himself to a swamp in America. And then it was Kadabra who told Inertia that there was a new Flash and he had moved to Los Angeles. But that's just a minor nitpick, just like me complaining that this is our 11th different art team on our 11th issue (can you really say you're "introducing" Tony Daniel when there are only three issues left?).

Before Bart dies, let's check out the new ads:

Before you see Spider-Man 3, see the all new extended cut of Spider-Man 2.1 on DVD.

Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus Volume 1.

Dead High. It's a killer school.

Marvel Trading Card Game on PC, PSP and Nintendo DS.

It takes brains to control the mindless. Dreamblade collectable miniatures game.

Batman Black and White statues.

As the end draws near ... the Countdown begins!

Justice League of America by Brad Meltzer in hardcover.

DC Nation is a letter from Dan DiDio admitting that the original purpose of 52 was to fill in the gap between Infinite Crisis and One Year Later for all the major characters, but then the writers of 52 had too much fun with the minor characters. So DC launched the World War III event to try to address some of those missed storylines.

Next time, we'll take a quick look at Countdown #51.

Teen Titans #46

Titans East Part 4

Adam Beechen & Geoff Johns Story
Adam Beechen Script
Al Barrionuevo Pencils
BIT Inks
The Hories Colors
Rob Leigh Letters
Cover by Tony S. Daniel with Moose Baumann
Adam Schlagen Assistant Editor
Eddie Berganza Editor

Our cover shows Match battling Wonder Girl and Robin in an exact replica of the Fortress of Solitude. Of course, we left that room last issue and don't return to it in this issue. Tony S. Daniel also left us a couple of issues ago, but that's another matter. This is a decent cover — the only problem I have with it is the intentional blurring in front of Match's chest. It's as if they couldn't decide whether to give him the Superman shield or reverse it or have it ripped off his shirt, so they just cheated and went with "none of the above."

Our story begins with the reinforcements — Nightwing, Bart and Donna Troy — facing down Deathstroke and talking quite a bit. Bart, however, only seems to care about Inertia, coldly saying that this fight is going to be fun. With all the trash talk out of the way, the fight finally begins with Robin shouting out the cheesy rally cry. (Cassie is also astonished to see how old Bart is, completely forgetting that she saw him at this age a year ago during Infinite Crisis.)

Cyborg takes on Risk, Beast Boy and Duela Dent battle Enigma, Miss Martian fights Sun Girl (while saying she refuses to believe in the future Sun Girl and Inertia told her about) and Raven returns the demon essence from Kid Crusader to Kid Devil. Nightwing, Donna Troy, Jericho, Ravager and Batgirl all try to fight Deathstroke, who easily handles them. Match attacks Wonder Girl and Robin, who are having a hard time because Match reminds them so much of Superboy (even though he looks and acts nothing like him).

Inertia tells Flash he got lucky against him in Las Vegas, and Bart darkly says that Thad will never threaten anyone he loves again. The two speedsters clash in a big explosion, which puts Inertia flat on his back. Before he can get up, Bart breaks both his legs, saying he hopes this will all be over before they heal. Bart then throws Inertia at Match to get him off Wonder Girl, then helps Cassie and Tim take on Conner's clone.

Bart jokes that this wasn't the kind of reunion he wanted. Tim mistakingly calls Bart Kid Flash and starts to give him orders, which makes Bart pretty upset. He demands to be called the Flash and says just because he's here it doesn't mean he wants to be a Titan again. Cassie says she hardly recognizes Bart and laments to Tim that their "old days" are gone forever. They finally manage to damage Match when Wonder Girl reflects a blast of his heat vision off her bracelets and back to Match's chest.

Eventually the only villain left standing is Deathstroke, so everybody charges at him at once. Nightwing has to pull Batgirl back, who says she wants to kill Slade. Deathstroke rams his sword through Cyborg's sonic blast cannon, which he turns on the crowd of heroes, knocking everyone down. Match gets back up and almost blasts Ravager, but Wonder Girl again deflects the heat vision. Jericho then makes contact with Match and takes over his body.

And even though there's a dozen different heroes all around, Slade somehow eludes them all. The wooden tower suddenly collapses for no discernible reason, and once the smoke clears, Deathstroke, Deula, Batgirl and Inertia are all missing. Robin offers to help Bart track Inertia, but Bart refuses, saying he needs to handle Inertia alone. As he runs off across the water, Tim tells Cassie that she's right about the old days being gone forever, and he hopes Bart isn't, as well.

Epilogue

Inertia and Deathstroke are hiding in a dark alley as Flash zooms by. Thad boasts that he created enough fake trails to keep Bart occupied for weeks. Slade thanks him for helping him escape and he promises to make some calls to the Rogues to help with Inertia's grand plan. Thad worries about the Titans, who now have Slade's kids and Sun Girl — Thad's girlfriend, apparently. Slade tells Inertia to forget about Sun Girl and let him worry about the Titans and his kids. After Inertia leaves, Deathstroke indicates that this whole stunt — forming the Titans East, building that wooden tower with the perfectly themed prisons, and killing Bombshell — was merely a "final gift of love" to his children. Slade acknowledges he's a terrible father, so he created this overly elaborate ruse to push Rose and Joey away from him and toward the Titans, who he knows will take them in like the family he couldn't provide for them. Which is tremendously stupid because his kids already hated him and were part of the Titans family before he started this.




I think I see why Geoff Johns abandoned this story. In theory, it sounds awesome. Deathstroke forming a team of all the Titans' villains. Perfect, right? But how do you end that story? You can't let Deathstroke win (obviously) and you can't let him lose because he's just too darn popular. So it just has to fizzle out in a disappointing stalemate. Maybe it didn't have to be that way, but Johns obviously couldn't think of a better ending, and neither could Adam Beechen, who insisted on cramming in as much dialogue as possible on each page. And to fully make this comic as much of a letdown as possible, Al Barrionuevo provided some really clunky, ugly, difficult-to-follow art.

And can we talk for a minute about how much of a jerk Bart was in this issue? Timeline-wise, this story had to take place after Bart's fight against Inertia in Las Vegas but before Robin called him to ask him to return to the Teen Titans. I can see Bart having some pent up aggression against Inertia, and maybe it was just awkward seeing Tim and Cassie again after being apart for so long. But still! Dial it down a little, buddy!

Next time, we'll come one step closer to actually losing Bart in The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #11.

52 Week Fifty-One

Homecoming

Written by Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, Mark Waid
Breakdowns by Keith Giffen
Pencils by Joe Bennett
Inks by Jack Jadson & Belardino Brabo
Colors by David Baron
Letters by Rob Leigh
Cover by J.G. Jones & Alex Sinclair
Assistant Editor – Harvey Richards
Associate Editor – Jeanine Schaefer
Editor – Michael Siglain

Our cove features an old friend — Red Tornado. This is an interesting, symbolic image of the time-traveling adventure Red Tornado is having with Booster Gold. Unfortunately, none of that applies to Bart Allen in any way, so we'll skip it.

We end this series where we began it — a large gathering of superheroes in Metropolis. This time, it's specifically to honor Superboy, who now has his own gold statue right next to Superman's. Wonder Girl is understandably having a hard time, made worse by the fact that Ralph Dibny recently died. Ralph and his deceased wife were unwillingly brought into Cassie's insane attempts to resurrect Conner, and now Cassie wishes she could apologize to Ralph.

I know that doesn't really look like Bart, but it is supposed to be him, talking to Jay Garrick and Wildcat. Sadly, we don't hear Bart say anything, nor do we see him attempt to reconnect with his old friends, Wonder Girl and Robin. Robin is asked by Jimmy Olsen why he changed his costume to just red and black, and Robin sadly looks at the Superboy statue and says, "They were his colors." Robin does try to talk to Wonder Girl, but she flies away before he gets a chance.

And that's it. From here, Bart went to work at a car factory with a jerk of a roommate, the Teen Titans pulled themselves back together, and nobody cared that Wally West has been gone for a year. But it was nice to see Superboy get the recognition he deserves. 52 was actually a really neat series, even if it didn't involve Bart.

Next time, we'll return to the Titans East battle in Teen Titans #46.

The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #10

Full Throttle Part 2: Cold Case

Marc Guggenheim – Writer
Paco Diaz – Penciller
Art Thibert – Inks
Pat Brosseau – Letterer
Lee Loughridge – Colorist
Rachel Gluckstern – Associate Editor
Joan Hilty – Editor
Cover by Ethan Van Sciver

Once again we have a Van Sciver cover that I just can't stand. Why does he insist on drawing Bart so furiously enraged? If Bart were to be arrested (doesn't happen in this issue) you'd think he'd have a look of shock and surprise on his face — not one of seething hatred. At least Zoom does look slightly more evil than Bart. But Zoom presents his own perspective challenges to this cover. Is he supposed to be sitting in the back of the police car with Bart, or is he in the front seat leaning back? I can't tell, and honestly I'm a bit surprised by the sloppiness here.

Our story begins at the Los Angeles Police Department Police Academy, where a couple of detectives are investigating the recent Steppenwolf attack. It doesn't take them long to realize that Steppenwolf went straight to Bart Allen's locker. Bart, meanwhile, is stuck in traffic. He bought a car to help protect his secret identity, but now he wishes he hadn't. While listening to the radio, he learns of a hostage situation nearby. Seeing as how his car is barely moving, Bart decides to slip out, save the hostages, and return to his car before the car in front of him has a chance to move more than five inches.

Bart eventually does make it to the Academy, and his instructor gives the class a five-year-old cold case to work on. A man named Brad Brickley, who had a criminal record, was found dead in the street with his head completely missing. The coroner was unable to determine how the head was removed, but has theorized it was ripped off.

We then head to Rome, Italy, on August 24, A.D. 410. The city is being destroyed by an invading army, and Wally West's old nemesis, Zoom, is enjoying the carnage from underneath a hooded cloak. Another hooded figure approaches Zoom to follow up on a previously discussed proposal. Zoom still isn't sure why he was asked to do this job, so the mysterious person tells him Zoom was selected because of his "nuanced sense of right and wrong" as well as the minimal temporal issues his involvement would raise. Zoom says if he does take this job, it's only because he wants the opportunity for himself. This doesn't bother the cloaked person, who promises knowledge of where their target will be.

Back in the present, Bart heads to the scene of the crime of the cold case. He initially thinks he's the only one smart enough in his class to check out the crime scene, but then he immediately worries that he's the only one stupid enough to go there. Then Bart finally acknowledges that he's the only one who used super speed to run over there right after class. With all those worries out of the way, Bart begins examining the evidence.

There wasn't any blood splattered on the nearby wall, indicating that Brickley's head wasn't ripped off by a villain like Solomon Grundy. There also wasn't any sort of blast mark on the wall behind Brickley, suggesting this wasn't the work of heat vision, an energy blast or even Heat Wave's flamethrower. Bart eventually does find something unusual — little puddles of water on the ground where Brickley's head was supposed to be. Bart quickly checks the weather records and finds it hadn't rained in the 72 hours preceding the murder. So Bart decides to interrogate some ice-themed super villains.

He first visits Icicle in Alcatraz, who says he not only has never heard of Brickley, but he was also in prison at the time of the murder. So Bart goes to Gotham City, where Mr. Freeze is at large and understandably upset to be accused of murder. Fortunately, he is willing to talk to Bart — while trying to blast him with his ice gun. Freeze asks Bart why he hasn't interrogated Captain Cold, and Bart says Cold was reformed when Brickley was killed. But Freeze insists that the murder scene, as described by Bart, could only be the work of Captain Cold's unique tech. Unable to see the flaw in this argument, Bart angrily lets Mr. Freeze go and heads to Keystone City to visit Leonard Snart.

Bart steps into Snart's apartment and opens with a deal — if Snart confesses to the murder, Bart will make sure he's tried in Keystone and not L.A., where he would likely face the death penalty. Snart pleads ignorance, but Bart says he checked Snart's credit card receipts and found he was in Los Angeles the day of the murder. So Snart pulls out a cold gun and blasts it at Bart, who fights back the cold waves with a wall of heated up air in front of himself. Snart admits he was getting payback on Brickley, while Bart grabs and destroys the cold gun. But when Bart grabs Snart, the villain begins smiling, because right behind Bart is Zoom.

Bart is too surprised to react to Zoom's initial attack, which pulls him away from Snart. Bart quickly strikes back, but promptly runs into Zoom's hand, leaving him with painful cuts in his chest. Bart jumps back to his feet, but is unable to land a punch on Zoom, who mocks him for letting his anger make him sloppy. Zoom hits a nerve cluster on the back of Bart's neck, then starts pummeling his face.

Meanwhile, in Central City, Jay Garrick is defeating Heat Wave and putting him in an armored vehicle. After Jay takes off, Heat Wave notices that Inertia is inside the police transport with him. After exchanging some unpleasantries, Inertia tells Heat Wave he needs to start thinking bigger than the computer warehouse robbery he just failed at. Heat Wave says he's not interested in teaming up with Inertia, but Thad promises his plan will change the world and get rid of the Flash as a bonus.

We return to our main fight, where Bart has started asking Zoom why he's acting out of character with this random attack. Zoom says he's doing a favor for someone and that he's actually trying to help Bart. Bart doesn't believe this, and manages to finally gain an upper hand on Zoom when they start moving fast enough to vibrate through objects. Bart tricks Zoom by vibrating into the ground below him and popping back up to hit him with one strong punch. Bart demands to know who Zoom is working for, and Zoom meekly answers, "Her ..." Bart looks up to see his grandma, Iris Allen, pointing a gun at his head.




That ending was the first genuine shock we've had in this series. I'd almost forgotten what it feels like to be surprised. The involvement of Zoom is intriguing, as his main motivation was always to make Wally a better hero. But now Zoom seems to have devolved a bit and is spending his free time witnessing horrific acts of destruction throughout history. So ... anything and everything could be in play here. On a whole, I really enjoyed this issue. It's nice seeing Bart learn how to be a police officer and track down cold cases. And the fight with Zoom was really satisfying. It sure is a shame that this book has to end now that it's finally getting halfway decent.

This issue also gave us our 10th different art team in 10 issues. You'd think they would have accidentally had the same creators work together on at least two issues, but no such luck here. Diaz's art wasn't too bad — it was just very different from what we usually get on this series (although it is somewhat difficult to nail down a certain "style" for this book). I was annoyed with some facial expressions and Diaz's take on Inertia, but his art was otherwise very nice. Now for the new ads:

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Next time, we'll conclude Bart's involvement with 52.