Comic Book Review: Flash #233

The Revolution has been stunned at just how disappointing Waid and Acuna have been on the Flash with their debut story arc. I find Waid’s story to be completely boring and uninteresting. I’m not really digging “The Incredibles” feel to the general theme of the Flash. John Rogers is coming aboard to co-write the Flash with Mark Waid. Evidently, Rogers will be helping Waid to co-write the back-up stories. Let’s hope for the best and hit this review for Flash #233.

Creative Team
Writers: Mark Waid & John Rogers
Artists: Freddie Williams, II & Doug Braithwaite

Art Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Story Rating: 6 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 6.5 Night Girls out of 10

Synopsis: We begin with Iris saving Flash from the alien invaders. Jai protects his mother as best he can from the alien invaders. Flash and Iris then arrive back on the scene and save Jai and Linda. Flash locks horns with the leader of the alien invaders. The leader tells Flash that a race of filthy air-breathers attacked their world. It wasn’t Earth, but as far as the aliens are concerned all air-breathers are the same.

Flash’s reinforcements arrive in the form of his JLA teammates. Black Lightning, John Stewart and Superman start kicking ass on the alien invaders. The aliens then retreat and leave Earth. The leader tells the Flash that he has won the battle, but not the war. That they will meet again. (God, I hope not.)

We cut to the West’s house. Wally tucks the kids into bed. Linda tells Wally that he has visitors in the basement. Wally goes to the basement and there is Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Red Arrow, Black Lightning and John Stewart waiting for him. Superman says that they have come for Wally’s kids.

The JLA’ers say that they are worried about the safety of Jai and Iris when Wally takes them into battle. Roy tells Wally that life was different back when they were Teen Titans. That it is more dangerous now for kids to fight crime. Batman agrees that it is not acceptable to allow children as young as Iris and Jai into the “family business.”

Wally is pissed off and snaps that he isn’t going to be lectured by a guy who has gone through four Robins. Wally says that they don’t understand. That Iris and Jai’s powers are unstable. That Linda constantly monitors their powers. That they don’t want the kids to grow up ashamed of their powers or to view themselves as sick or handicapped.

Wally also reveals something that they have never said in front of the kids. That Jai and Iris are going through random and rapid growth spurts where they age years overnight. That Wally is afraid one morning his children will be in their twenties or their forties or worse, dead. Wally says that however long his children have that they get to live their lives all-out.

The JLA’ers are sympathetic to Wally’s situation and understand why he allows his children to fight crime. Batman actually says “We’re sorry” which confirms that that must be someone else other than Bruce Wayne in that Batman costume. The JLA’ers and Wally get in a big group hug as Wonder Woman tells Wally that he doesn’t have to go through this alone.

We then see Jai listening to the entire conversation from the top of the basement steps. End of story.

We then get a six page back-up story. It is the first of a four part story focusing on each of the four Flash’s trips to a planet called Savoth. First up is Jay Garrick. We begin with Gorflack using a Plus-Lightspeed machine to pull Jay Garrick to their world for his help. An alien army is killing all the inhabitants of Savoth and Gorflack used the machine as a last ditch effort to save his planet.

Jay agrees to help Gorflack to help defeat the alien invaders. Gorflack says that most of his people have already been defeated and captured. That they are a peaceful race that pursue the arts and science and have no weapons or real fighting abilities. Jay answers that all Gorflack needs is to spread his words of freedom, justice and family to his people.

Jay zips Gorflack around to all the refugee camps and rallies the troops. Jay leads them into battle and they end up defeating the alien invaders.

Gorflack thanks Jay for his help in defeating the alien invaders. Jay asks Gorflack to send him home. Gorflack answers that he can’t. That according to Gorflack’s calculations all Jay has to do is adjust his internal vibrations and he will pierce the wall that separates their worlds and Jay will be home.

Gorflack gives Jay a small lightning bolt shaped piece of metal. It is a fragment of dimensional energy around Jay that actually solidified when Jay arrived at Savoth. Gorflack says that the piece of metal will act as a tuning fork that will allow Jay to return to Savoth whenever he wants to. Jay thanks Gorflack and takes off for home. End of issue.

Comments
The Good: Eeeecch. There isn’t much positive to say about the main story in Flash #233. One big reason that I don’t have much complimentary to say about this issue is that you actually have to have some semblance of a story in which actual plotlines are progressed in order to have something to review in a particular issue. Flash #233 was a seriously anemic and thin read.

However, I can certainly satisfy The Revolution’s Rule of Positivity. I absolutely loved the way Wally called out the Batman during the scene where the JLA appeared to tell Wally to stop taking his kids with him to fight crime. Wally rightly points out the raging hypocrisy on Batman’s part considering he has blazed through four Robins. That was classic! That outburst made me chuckle.

The artwork in the main story of Flash #233 was much better than the previous couple of issues. Freddie Williams, II delivers a much nicer looking comic book than Acuna. Williams has a much cleaner and easier to follow style that doesn’t make reading this title such a chore. Readers who were immediately turned off by Acuna’s distinctive style of artwork will certainly be happy with this switch at the artist position.

The back-up story centering on Jay Garrick kicked ass. I love Jay Garrick. He is such a fantastic character. Jay is a true hero. The original Flash is one of the most inspiring and respectable heroes in the DCU. The only other character in the DCU that approaches Jay’s impressive legendary status is Alan Scott.

It was cool to see a young Jay Garrick kicking some ass. We also got to see Jay learning to vibrate his molecules in order to travel between alternate worlds. Waid and Rogers give us a pretty interesting insight into the Flash mythos with regard to the Flashes connection with this unusual planet of Savoth. I’m glad that we are finally going to get more info about Savoth and what Wally and his family did there during 52.

Doug Braithwaite provides plenty of solid artwork in the back-up story. Braithwaite has a stiff and rather old school look to his art which was a perfect match for a story centered on a young Jay Garrick in all his Golden Age glory.

The Bad: Flash #233 was a very pedestrian read. This has been an incredibly unimpressive and rather dubious beginning to Waid’s run on this title. This entire battle with the invading alien force was extremely short lived and comes across as completely pointless. Honestly, Waid’s opening story arc with this bizarre alien invasion is totally random. And the alien’s motivation for attacking Earth is that some other air-breathers attacked them and that they view all air-breathers as the same? Are you kidding me? How phenomenally lame is that.

There is absolutely nothing about this alien invasion plotline that I find even remotely engaging. I hope that Waid just drops this plotline and lets it die a quiet death. We don’t need to revisit this plotline at a later date.

Waid needs to seriously refocus his view on this title. Waid needs to go back to the drawing board and begin crafting some intriguing plotlines outside of the sole plotline of Wally’s kids aging rapidly. Waid’s run on this title is already beginning to have the wheels come off. Waid kicked off his run on the Flash with a story arc that read like pure filler. I hope that Waid has a few tricks up his sleeves and something interesting in store for the reader. Right now, Waid has nowhere to go but up.

The scene with the JLA about Wally’s kids was flat out idiotic. It was also completely random and out of character. Not for a minute do I believe that the JLA’ers would care at all if Wally let his kids use their powers to fight crime. Wonder Woman has had Donna and Cassie. Superman has had Conner and currently has Christopher. Batman has had his myriad of Robins. So many of the JLA members have brought kids into the “family business.” This entire scene seemed horribly forced. Waid rammed a square peg through a round hole just to have an excuse to create this artificially dramatic showdown between Wally and his teammates.

And was I hallucinating or did Batman apologize to Wally near the end of this issue? That one panel confirms my suspicions that the Batman from this issue must be from one of the alternate Earths in this new Multiverse. One where everything is the reverse of New Earth. The fact is that Batman doesn’t apologize. No matter if he is totally in the wrong. That is what makes him Bat-dick. And that is how I like my Batman. Seriously, who is interested in a wussy touchy feely Batman who runs around apologizing to people?

The alleged “hook” ending that Waid tossed out at us lacked any impact or excitement. The reader already knows that the kids are aging in huge jumps at random intervals. And how are Wally and Linda keeping this a secret from the kids? I’m pretty sure that when I was 5 years old, if I woke up one morning and was suddenly 10 years old, then I’d be pretty cognizant of what just happened to me. There is no way these kids could be having such massive growth spurts and being ignorant about them.

At this point, the two kids bore me to tears and reading about a super hero who is married with kids is totally uninteresting. I hope Waid just lets the kids rapidly age and die and we can move on from the West Family Adventures and get back to stories about the Flash. I can get married with kids in the real world. I don’t need it in my comic books.

Overall: Flash #233 was a dull read. If it weren’t for the fun Jay Garrick back-up story then Flash #233 might have only scored 2 Night Girls out of 10. Waid has thoroughly and totally unimpressed me with his opening story arc on the Flash. I seriously hope that Waid has something better in store for us than what he has given us up to this point. There is no doubt that hard-core Flash fans will enjoy this title. However, I don’t think I would recommend the Flash to anyone outside of that loyal fan base.