The Flash #85 // Review
Flash’s “Rogues’ Reign” part four, written by Joshua Williamson, with art by Christian Duce, and colors by Luis Guerrero, finally brings some excitement to the story, but it’s a tad too late. Previously, Lex Luthor did some cosmic blabbity blab, and “doomed” the world, essentially turning it over to a bunch of souped-up super villains. The Rogues took the opportunity to take over Central City, and imprison the Flash. To complicate the matter, the Speed Force is a little out of whack, making all speedsters’ powers explosively unreliable. Captain Cold came out smelling like roses in all of this because he had seemingly gotten everything he’d dreamed of, but things went south for him when his own sister, Glider, broke the Flash out of his secret prison. Now, the Flash and Glider must convince the other Rogues to turn against Cold, to salvage Central City, while the speedsters start from ground zero in learning to use their new, amped-up powers.
This issue finally gets to the heart of the story and brings in the rest of the Rogues. Until now, Captain Cold has dominated the arc, leaving the readers wondering why it wasn’t called “Cold’s Reign”. Williamson not only focuses on the other members of Snart’s team, but actually delves into their personalities, and what makes them tick, rather skillfully. The refocus, even being this late in the story, makes for a refreshing change of pace, and breathes new life into the overall arc.
Another positive is seeing the speedsters (Barry, Wallace, and Avery) having to retrain in the use of their powers. It leaves them vulnerable in an already dangerous world ruled by their worst enemies, and ups the danger immensely, considering the Rogues would be relatively easily defeated by the trio of superheroes. Plus, seeing Barry Allen (master of speed) have to admit he knows nothing about his powers anymore, is a nice character bit. Williamson has dabbled with that trope in the past, but it seems to work best in this story. Hopefully, leading to a new understanding of the Speed Force for Barry, as has been hinted at in recent arcs.
Duce continues to improve issue by issue, and he was already a pretty solid artist at the start of his run. Sometimes suffering from static, posed figures, with each new entry of his work, he pushes his ability to give his characters a kinetic charge of energy that is mandatory on this book. Guerrero finally gets a chance to cut loose on the colors this issue, after three chapters of dull, blue, icy landscape, and very few speed battles. The re-entry of color to the book is much welcomed and masterfully handled by the colorist. Hopefully, there will be more to come in the final chapters.
This arc finally shows signs of improvement with part four, but it’s a little too late to make you care about the overall story. This is already a tie-in to another story, so unless you’re heavily invested in Scott Snyder’s neverending Justice League epic, you will probably be rolling your eyes at the power-ups and new looks for the Rogues. This could have been a much better Rogues-centric arc if it wasn’t suffering from crossover-itis, and was allowed to be its own thing, growing organically from Flash’s book. As it is, this issue is a bright spot in a so-so story.
