Oh For Goodness Sage…
Written By: Joshua Williamson
Art By: Scott Kolins, Luis Guerrero
Letters By: Steve Wands
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: September 26, 2018
*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*
Admittedly the previous issue of this series was lacking in quite a few areas but nevertheless I still really enjoyed it. However, I have to admit that we didn’t really learn anything from our excursion with the Strength Force and the final scenes involved a fairly forced conversation. However, at least the issue had some great art and was emotionally charged. Ultimately though, that story ended without giving us any real answers. Now we are going to be moving forward without having learned anything. Perhaps this issue will give us the answers we seek and will blow us away. So let’s just jump right into this next issue.
It is Halloween in Central City and Barry reminisces about when his mother took him trick-or-treating. His love of the holiday was reignited when he began dating Iris. However, instead of being with her this year, he is with the Justice League Dark fighting off Solomon Grundy. As he trades blows, Iris meets up with Barry’s friends from work at their local bar. They enter the bar even though Barry isn’t there yet. Iris says that he’ll show up eventually. Barry finds the answer when he is fighting with Grundy to vibrate at a certain frequency when Grundy tries to punch him. This destabilizes him and tears him apart. Wonder Woman is surprised that Flash would use such a fatal move but reasons it away because it is Solomon Grundy and he will heal from anything.
Flash races off and dresses on the way to the bar where he meets his friends. They had made bets about when he would show up so one of them had to get the next round. Barry is tasked with picking up the round and he finds that the bartender is none other than Commander Cold. Cold reasons that he needs a job of some sort in order to live in this primitive era. In addition, one of Barry’s cop friends seems to have a bit of thing for Commander Cold. Meanwhile in Iron Heights, Heatwave is being led back to his cell after talking with a therapist. He insults the warden on the way and drops the name James Jesse. The Warden seems taken back by the comment before the entire cell bursts into flames. Back in the bar, Iris is telling the story of how she and Barry met when Barry sees something flash by the windows. Barry follows what he saw but finds nothing. It’s then that he has a sudden vision of a rotten version of the Flash confront him in a mirror. Barry suspects Mirror Master at first but after closing his eyes for a moment, everything returns to normal. It’s at this time Barry’s friends are informed about the incident at Iron Heights. They move out and Barry says goodbye to Iris who says she has her own story to follow and goes to the bar to talk with Commander Cold.
We catch up with the team at Iron Heights where they examine the burned cell. Barry tells the warden that he is going to comb through it and find WHOEVER is responsible. The warden reveals that if he wanted Mick Rory dead, he wouldn’t still be alive. Rory is healing from horrible burns all over his body but he is awake and speaking. He’s going through a vision in his head of a giant woman made of fire. Meanwhile, Iris interviews Cold about his timeline and how they can be related to her own memories from before Flashpoint. Barry calls her but his conversation would get cut short by giant flaming skeletons. Iris yells at Cold to go to Iron Heights to help. Barry saves the warden before rushing off to the infirmary just in time to save Detective Burns from Mick Rory unleashing blue flames. When they come to, the entire prison has been burnt to a crisp and they are confronted by Mick Rory who is now empowered with what we assume is the Sage Force. This is where the issue leaves us.
Instead of giving us new information about these forces, we are introduced to another storyline and another mysterious force. I’ve been a big fan of this series up to this point but this issue was slow paced, and didn’t continue any of our ongoing storylines. Let’s review the new information we got from this issue. We learned that Iris likes Halloween, Cold is working as a bartender, and Iris is going to work with Cold to figure out her visions of the past. We also saw the Sage Force take hold of Heatwave but again, we know nothing about how those forces work at all. It is just a new villain who has gotten an upgrade at this point. At least the art is fine.
Bits and Pieces
Unfortunately, this issue of Flash is a bit of a disappointment. Instead of learning anything new about all these mysterious forces affecting Central City, we got our hero chilling at a bar with her cop friends and Iris. It takes up so much of this issue and doesn’t inform us about nearly anything. The art in this book is pretty good at least and I didn’t hate the issue but this was a major let down from the previous issue and that’s saying something.
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