Dark Nights Death Metal: Speed Metal #1 – Joshua Williamson, Writer; Eddy Barrows, Penciller; Eber Ferreira, Inker; Adriano Lucas, Colorist
Ray – 9.5/10
Ray: It’s a two-for-one Flash-fest by Josh Williamson this week, as he says goodbye to his extended run on the main book and writes this oversized Death Metal tie-in. So does he have anything else to say on the Flash Family? It turns out the answer is yes, as he hasn’t been able to give Wally West the focus – until now. Wally has been through the wringer since Flashpoint, first being erased from reality, then coming back as a traumatized survivor of the timestream, and finally being the involuntary culprit in Heroes in Crisis. A brief sojourn into the timestream led to him being bonded to the Moebius Chair and the powers of Doctor Manhattan – something that’s now been stolen by the Darkest Knight, aka the latest transformation of the Batman Who Laughs. Now in a twisted new reality, only Wally, Barry, Jay, and Wallace have survived of the
Flashes – which means it’s time for one last epic run to save reality from a horde of multiversal doppelgangers out to eliminate the last heroes.
Eddy Barrows, who has drawn some of DC’s best runs in recent years, is the ideal choice for this widescreen comic. As the four Flashes race through a doomed world, everything from a huge spectre of the Darkest Knight to a mob of Black Flash zombies chases them down. While Jay and Wallace get some good scenes, the heart of this issue is Barry and Wally as they sort out some of their issues since Flash War and Barry finally owns up to his role in Wally’s tragic downfall. It’s an issue that does justice to both characters, and feels like a necessary capper to Williamson’s run. But while all the Flashes get their due, this is truly Wally’s story, and an emotional capper to the issue deep inside the Speed Force feels like the story he’s deserved ever since Barry came back. My only concern – this feels a lot like a series finale, and we don’t know what’s coming next for the DCU as a whole. Whatever it is, I hope it treats the Flash family with as much respect as Williamson did in his hundred-plus issues.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
