Bam Smack Pow
Fansided

The Flash #37 Review – The New Normal

By Nick Tylwalk

facebooktwitterreddit

So now we’ve had an issue or two to get used to the temporary new status quo in The Flash. Barry Allen is stuck in the Speed Force without his powers, attempting to survive long enough to get the lay of the land, and ideally, find his way home. Meanwhile, his murderous future self has set up shop in the present, romancing his girl, doing his job and generally taking over.

More from Comics

The Flash #37 is a nice, logical next step on every front. We learn a lot more about the situation Barry is in, including how the Speed Force is actually laid out (on islands, apparently) and how he might be able to get his speed back (hint: it involves lightning). At the same time, we see the consequences of everything that Future Flash has set into motion in Central City, particularly the scoop he gave to Iris West that seems to have jump-started his career.

It’s possible he might be underestimating someone, though: Patty Spivot. What writers Robert Venditti and Van Jensen so with her here is really interesting, elevating her above the roles of girlfriend and co-worker that she’s filled so far. If anyone is going to get to the bottom of Future Flash’s schemes, it should be Patty, since she’s already accustomed to the weirdness that goes on in Flash’s life on a daily basis. Whether or not she can make the mental leap to believing her boyfriend has been replaced by a twisted future version of himself should be fun to watch.

Brett Booth has to go the whole issue without drawing the cool Future Flash costume, but he still has plenty of action on his plate thanks to the cross-time combat inside the Speed Force. If you’ve ever wanted to see a badass picture of Flash holding a smoking flintlock pistol, you’ll get it here. This issue also highlights an underrated aspect of Booth’s technique, which is his use of diagonal panels to convey a sense of urgency to certain scenes. It’s not something that jumped out at me before, but it did this time.

It all finishes with a reveal of the villain hinted at on the cover, and the “next issue” blurb teases another one, so Future Flash may have his hands full. And that’s just fine for right now.

SPOILERS PAST THIS POINT!

Selkirk takes Barry into the Outpost, the only human settlement in their part of the Speed Force. There he learns that some people have been trapped there for some time, all pulled in through rips in the Speed Force from their various eras. Selkirk hints that he might know a way to get Barry his powers back, but that’s going to have to wait since the Outpost is under attack.

In Central City, we see that Future Flash tipped Iris off to the fact that the city had been keeping the bodies of the citizens killed in the Crime Syndicate’s attack (during Forever Evil) in refrigerated trailers on the outskirts of town. That led to understandable public outrage once it came to light, and all of a sudden, Iris’ career is off and running (no pun intended).

Future Barry generously volunteers to be the one to ID all the bodies, promising to keep a close eye on Iris. He also upsets Patty by telling her he’s not interested in the mysterious death of a college student in a seeming locked room mystery. Patty isn’t the type to let it go, so she joins the autopsy and discovers that the victim was likely killed by someone with super-speed. Since Reverse-Flash is still in Iron Heights and it’s not likely to be Kid Flash from the Teen Titans, who could have done it?

Barry uses his heretofore unseen flintlock shooting skills to help fend off an attack by Paleo-Indians, and the Outpost is saved. He turns down Selkirk’s offer to join the community there, explaining that he wants to find a way home. Selkirk says he has to be Barry’s guide, and that they’ve got to get to the top of a really tall mountain peak to get him closer to the lightning. Makes sense.

Future Barry apologizes to Patty for his dickish behavior over dinner, and as they walk home, an annoying bro who takes a carriage instead of a cab refuses to heed the driver’s request that he not use his cellphone. The driver makes his phone overload and … well, blows his head off, by the looks of it. Overload (since that’s what the cover calls him) promises that he’ll soon silence “all of them,” which I took to mean all people. Good luck with that!

Favorite moment: I’ve already mentioned it twice: definitely Flash standing there with smoke still coming from his old-timey pistol. A bit contrived? Maybe, but an awesome visual in any case, and one that Booth devotes about 80 percent of a page to drawing.

Final thought: It’s a good thing the New 52 Barry doesn’t have the memories of his prior counterpart, because if I recall, there was a moment in Flashpoint where he tried to use lightning to restore his powers. That didn’t go so well …

More from Bam Smack Pow

Home/Comics