Bad Moon Rising Part Five
Written by Simon Spurrier
Art by Vasco Georgiev
Colors by Matt Herms
Letters by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
Cover by Davide Paratore
Editor Chris Rosa
Group Editor Paul Kaminski
Our cover shows the Flash posing menacingly in front of images of Eclipso, Captain Cold, and ... somebody. I know I've seen that monstrous face before, but I can't for the life of me place it. It doesn't help that this figure (and Captain Cold, for that matter) is nowhere to be seen in this issue. And that really cuts at the core of my complaints about this story. Spurrier started with an intriguing concept — the Flash family in an all-out war against Eclipso and the Rogues on the Moon — but Georgiev is either unwilling or unable to actually show that war. Anyway, this cover by itself is fine, but not particularly indicative of the story inside. And none of the variants feature Impulse, so we'll omit them.
Impulse actually does get a few more lines this time, although he still doesn't have much to do. We pick up with Bart and the rest of the Flash family apparently surrounded by an unseen horde of enemies. Seriously, we do not see anything. But everyone's worried this is the end, and Max Mercury bizarrely has a grossly optimistic take on the prospect of fighting to the death alongside the ones he loves. However, the crisis is solved by Irey doing ... something.
Don't blame me for not being able to explain this, because the characters in the story can't explain it, either, and the art once again does us no favors. But whatever she did, it both saved our heroes (for the time being) and freaked them out. Avery says it looked like a billion Ireys all fighting at once, but Ace argues it was more like the whole universe was Irey. Judy Garrick (daughter of Jay) comments on how Irey's stunt seemed to take all the power out of her. Bart picks up on this, adding that he's never felt anything so powerful or "freaking scary" in his life.
Wally is quite upset with this kind of talk, since Irey appears to be quite distressed by the whole ordeal. In fact, Wally is so mad that he orders the others to ask the Justice League to help them get Irey home once he expels everyone from the Chronosphere. Yeah, this whole war was taking place in this special bubble outside of normal time, and the only reason the other speedsters could even participate was because Wally had extended his aura around them. But now he's decided he can't risk them or his family being hurt, and he expels them all, intent to take down Eclipso himself.
This was another frustrating and boring and incomprehensible story from Simon Spurrier. Luckily, this is the last time he uses Bart in Bad Moon Rising, so I don't have to attempt to explain how Wally and his kids once again saved the day. Or recount how Wally once again learned to trust and love his children.
The next time we'll visit this series, Mark Waid will have taken over. But first, a quick detour into another Waid project, the New History of the DC Universe.
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