"Angles"
Writer: Si Spurrier
Artist: Mike Deodato Jr.
Colorist: Trish Mulvihill
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhrou
Cover by: Mike Deodato Jr. & Trish Mulvihill
Variant Covers by: Mike Deodato Jr. & Trish Mulvihill, Ramón Pérez, Christian Ward, Matt Taylor
Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.
By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family.
Editor: Chris Rosa
Group Editor: Paul Kaminski
Our cover shows the Flash being unraveled by a nearly-forgotten villain — the Folded Man. It's creepy and mystical, which is a perfect representation of Spurrier's story. Of course, the real question is just how much the Folded Man is involved in all this, or is he merely a red herring? Anyway, as usual, none of the variant covers feature Impulse, so let's get to the story.
We open with the Flash and Mr. Terrific examining an odd rainbow light that appeared over a statue of Barry Allen. They're completely stumped, so Wally calls in Max Mercury, revealing that he's been occasionally becoming "unstuck" from reality. Max matches the resonance of Wally's aura and becomes "unstuck" with him, theorizing that they haven't entered an alternate reality, but are merely viewing their universe from a different angle. Suddenly, a violent explosion begins heading right toward them. Wally guesses (correctly) that this is someone running. Max helps Wally relax and take them back to normal reality, where they find the runner was our lovable Impulse, announcing world-shattering news: pumpkin spice pickles.
From Bart's point of view, Wally and Max suddenly appeared out of nowhere. But he's immediately distracted by the rainbow light and vows to poke it with a stick — despite Max's objections. Wally and Max discuss how much damage Bart caused to the other plane, merely by running up to them, which causes Max to worry about the consequences of using their powers. Wally says he recently met a group of god-like aliens that mentioned The Stillness, which Max has never heard of before. Max also tells Wally about his vision of a wounded bison, which he interpreted as the Speed Force being in distress.
Bart interrupts his stick-hunting to explain his real reason for coming here. While visiting Grandma Iris for her brownies, Iris told him that Barry has fallen into a deep depression and won't even leave his bed. Bart tried to talk to him, but Barry just yelled through the door that Max and Wally were at the statue. Max suggests they become "unstuck" from reality again, ordering Bart to stand watch and not poke anything.
This time, Max and Wally go to a different place, apparently inhabited by dead creatures. They're abducted by the Folded Man, who takes them to a place where several other speedsters seem to be trapped. They warn Wally and Max to leave before their vibrations are frozen, and the whole group is spooked by the arrival of three red, spiky aliens called the Uncoiled. Max and Wally try to run, but they can feel their connection to the Speed Force fading. So Max transfers all his energy to Wally, telling him to send help and let Bart know he's proud of him.
Max's boost sends Wally to a blank, white world with just the Folded Man to talk to. He tells Wally there's nowhere left for him to go, but to his amazement, Wally simply walks away to a new plane of existence. This one is a beautiful garden full of statues of Wally's friends and family. Wally is so overwhelmed by the tranquility of the place that he doesn't notice the statues are moving. In fact, he actually begins to lose his memories. As he sits down to enjoy the peace, the Impulse statue picks up a stick.
A real stick pokes Wally's cheek, catapulting him back into the real world. Bart hastily apologizes for poking the rainbow light, even claiming it was an accident. He then realizes Max is missing. Wally can't bring himself to say anything. Bart puts his face in his hands, while Mr. Terrific consoles him.
Poor Bart just can't catch a break. He was denied his peaceful run into the sunset. And now he has been separated from Max once again. It's just not fair!
It's also not entirely fair with how Bart's been portrayed in this series. He's acting too young and idiotic. It would have been nice had he intentionally put his stick in the rainbow because he could feel something was wrong. It also would have been great to have seen his interaction with Barry. Oh well. I guess there's still time for Bart to do something interesting. The art and story are still engaging and unique. I just hope this mystery actually goes somewhere and doesn't peter off.
Next time, we'll begin the Beast World crossover.
