The Flash: One-Minute War Special #1 – Jeremy Adams, Writer; Fernando Pasarin/Matt Ryan/Jason Paz, Serg Acuna, Lisandro Estherren, George Kambadais, Artists; Matt Herms, Rebecca Nalty, Patricio Delpeche, Colorists
Ray – 9/10
Ray: The One-Minute War has delivered in its first two chapters, but the action is so big that it can’t be contained in the main series, so writer Jeremy Adams is now giving us this oversized special—with four short stories set in the past, present, and future.
The first story, with Fernando Pasarin on art, gives us the origins of the Fraction and their Admiral, Val Anthro. A peaceful, science-based society that harnessed the Speed Force in an experiment, they were able to advance their society in record time—but they need the energy to keep it flowing, and that leads them to harvest from other planets, including capturing other Speed Force users. It’s an interesting look at how power quickly corrupts, and it’s not clear who’s the true villain here—the masked empress, or her sadistic and lecherous Admiral.
The Present segment is divided into two, with the first drawn by Serg Acuna and focusing on Avery Ho. Back from oblivion in Dark Crisis, Avery is back in China and fighting a magic villain named Dark Wu who manages to steal her soul in a cursed gem—just as the world gets frozen and the Fraction descends from the heavens to start harvesting power. Avery needs her soul back, so she hitches a ride on a Fraction spaceship. This is a fun, kinetic segment that gives a spotlight to one of the less-used members of the Flash family.
It segues directly into the next segment by Lisandro Estherren, as the Fraction come across an old mansion frozen in the middle of a party. They start investigating the place—and then they start dying, one by one. A horror movie where the killer is hunting the villains is an intriguing concept, and the reveal of who the killer is took me by surprise. This is a character who I was not expecting to see again, since they died rather conclusively and were both created and killed off by the same writer, but this is a pleasant surprise.
Finally, we head into the future with George Kambadais on art. Set during the Fraction’s second invasion a decade into the future, it focuses on Jai West as he uses his new control of the Speed Force to fend off the invaders—and teams up with his crush, Gold Beetle, as she arrives from the timestream. The surreal sci-fi art is a great fit for the story, and this whole segment has a lot of fun moments even as it casually drops some major spoilers for the upcoming arcs of Adams’ run.
This is just a blast, all around. All the segments fit together smoothly, and Adams’ unifying voice keeps this a tight story with great action.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
Ray Goldfield
Ray Goldfield is a comics superfan going back almost thirty years. When he's not reading way too many comics a week, he is working on his own writing. The first installment in his young adult fantasy-adventure, "Alex Actonn, Son of Two Seas", is available in Amazon now.
