Tony Black reviews The Flash #5…
“Lightning Strikes Twice” part five! With Central City now protected by dozens of freshly trained Flashes, Barry Allen takes time out to explore a new relationship. Meanwhile, a serial killer targets citizen speedsters as Wally West takes his first steps toward becoming the new Kid Flash…
The culmination it seemed of the opening arc for The Flash fully established, under writer Joshua Williamson, a new super speed status quo – a whole academy of speedsters, gifted by the machinations of Black Hole terrorists in the Speed Force the power of lightning speed, who would aid the Flash in his fight against crime. It allowed for ‘Barry Allen’s Day Off’, and in many respects this is a ‘breather’ issue which allows a break between the continuing story and the development of several crucial character arcs. Don’t be fooled by the opening, lush red panels set in Bali, the story doesn’t really spend the entire time relaxing with Barry in sun kissed climes, but rather allows other characters to step into the limelight – principally Barry’s new lady love Dr Meena Dhawan, aka Fast Track. It again shows the series has confidence in itself.
What Williamson also manages to do here is weave in the other Wally West, Iris’ young black nephew, who we’ve seen briefly across the last few episodes struggling to adjust to his new speedster powers, and having Meena become his mentor not only helps to flesh her out more as a fully rounded character (and not just the Flash’s girlfriend) but also allows the mystery of Wally, certainly to Barry, to permeate a little longer. While a decent chunk of the issue is devoted to Meena & Wally, we do have plenty of other stuff going on around this.
Barry faces a conflict of interest from Director Singh and we get increasing hints that August Heart may not end up being the partner Barry thought he would be, growing more confident in his speedster role by the second – and by the end you may well suspect he’s already turned to the dark side. You also have Barry sharing moments with Iris and August raising the question – didn’t they once have a thing? It’s nice how Williamson feels confident enough in the strong dynamic between Flash & Meena to not have to rely on the romantic crutch that is Iris, and give her other story avenues to explore. Come the end, the pause for breath is over – the bad guy is still out there, and we get an excellent cliffhanger to tee up the real conclusion, presumably, to this opening story arc.
‘Barry Allen’s Day Off’ certainly seems like a feint, a calm before the storm by Joshua Williamson, lulling us into a false sense of security when The Flash still has a dark confrontation to come, but while not quite as impressive as some of the more action packed issues in the last couple of months, it’s great fun and filled with interesting character moments – plus some gorgeous, lush and vivid panels from Felipe Watanabe, who draws the speed and intensity of the comic superbly. It also could well lead in to the darkest issue of this run yet, so roll on the next issue.
Rating: 7/10
Tony Black
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Originally published August 31, 2016. Updated April 14, 2018.
