The Flash: Season Zero #9 Review (Spoilers)

Written by: Andrew Kreisberg
Art by: Marcus To
Cover Price: $.99
Release Date: December 29, 2014

Smoak Signals (Part 1 of 2)

After facing off against Nathan Bliss and his horrifying circus goons, the Scarlet Speedster is back in another adventure. This time we aren't looking at a eight part story, but rather a nice easy two-parter, co-starring Felicity Smoak, who you may recognize from Arrow.

As the story opens, Flash is locked in a brutal battle with Hydro Hunter and Channel 52 news is on the scene. Back at her office, Felicity Smoak is watching the battle on her tablet, worried that her employer Ray Palmer may catch on to what's going on.

This issue was a little tough for me to follow because--brace yourself--I'm not caught up on Arrow or Flash. That being said I plan to rectify that soon.



The story in this issue is co-plotted by Andrew Kreisberg and Marc Guggenheim, though the actually script was penned by Kreisberg alone. The story itself is fantastic once you take the learning curve out of it. There's a scientist who's committed some horrible crimes, an unidentified group comes to make her pay for said crimes, and the hero saves here life, ending the issue on a cliffhanger.

It was really nice to sit down and read an issue of this series that wasn't just circus puns and witty dialog. Kreisberg definitely has a good feel for this story and I can already tell that the next issue will be action packed.

What really stood out to me in this issue wasn't the story so much as the art. For the last 8 issues I've grown accustomed to Phil Hester's art and while I believe he has a great feel on the characters Marcus To was able to put together a much more visually appealing story, with some great color work by Kelsey Shannon.

Towards the end the issue got a lot darker, both visually and in story tone, but the overall package that was put together was quite refreshing.

Bits and Pieces

The Flash: Season Zero #9 is a refreshing change of pace after the overly long saga with Nathan Bliss but the learning curve can be a bit too much. The book is kind enough to give brief descriptions of both Palmer and Smoak, but as soon as Oliver's name came up I officially became dumbfounded--I'm that far behind. That being said there's no reason I can't recommend this issue to anyone looking for an awesome Flash story--I only wish The Hydro Hunter had been in the tale a bit longer.

8/10