The Flash #57 Review and *SPOILERS*

But You’ve Got To Have Friends

Written By: Joshua Williamson
Art By: Scott Kolins, Luis Guerrero,
Letters By: Steve Wands

Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: October 24, 2018

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

So the latest issue of The Flash was a bit underwhelming, to say the least. However, this issue is the finale of the current storyline that we find ourselves in. The Flash and Detective Burns are stuck in Heat Wave’s mind and Heat Wave is being manipulated by the Sage Force. Iris is still experiencing things from the previous timeline and Commander Cold has just saved them all from Iron Heights but has found out that the Sage Force threatens the entire city. Honestly, I’m not sure how I feel about this storyline in general but I’m willing to give it a chance. Let’s just jump right into it and see where it takes us.

We start with an inner monologue from The Flash as he races around Heat Wave’s world. He finds that he is trapped in a fire maze that is unending. He is convinced that there must be a way out but Detective Burns reasons with him. Heat Wave wants them to feel trapped like he is. He’s been trapped ever since the fire that destroyed his childhood home and with the Sage Force whispering in his ear, those feelings are only magnified. Flash tries to reason with him but to no avail. Meanwhile in the real world, Commander Cold is attempting to contain the Sage Force  by hitting Heat Wave with his cold guns. However, he is losing ground. Iris then begins to think.

Iris discovers a way to combat the Sage Force because in her past life she studied the forces (we’ll get to that). Iris gets Commander Cold to agree to a new plan. Inside Heat Wave’s world, he begins to go on a rampage. He is suddenly stopped by Captain Cold, in his old outfit nonetheless. Captain Cold uses his past with Heat Wave in order to get him to calm down. As he does, Heat Wave shrinks from the giant that he is into a normal sized man and once he reaches a normal size, he finds himself in his uniform holding his fire gun. Heat Wave realizes his mistake and begins to leave but the Sage Force attacks him to attempt to keep him there. The Flash jumps in front and takes the blow before using his speed to create a vacuum. He feels the fire burning him but he keeps going and stops the Sage Force.

Back in the real world, the explosion has been stopped and Barry finds himself in his old apartment, which is where Commander Cold has been staying. Barry then begins to clean up. First, he takes Heat Wave back to Iron Heights where he finds that he no longer has the burn scars that he had previously. Flash then rejoins with Commander Cold and the two bury the hatchet. Flash admits that he was wrong and the two shake hands. Barry then travels outside of the city and has Iris meet him there. He tells her that he has to go on the Force Quest that the 52 Flashes told him about. Barry is worried about leaving Iris though as he just got her back. She pulls him close and tells him that he is being silly because she is going to be coming with him. Barry dawns his suit and the two race off to the Speed Force. Meanwhile, in the epilogue, we jump to Earth-18 where Johnny Thunder is facing some kind of villain. Just before he is killed, he reveals to the villain that Barry Allen is going on a Force Quest and a new Flash stands on his dead body and reveals that he is Hunter Zoloman. This is where the issue ends.

Okay, so… This was a pretty dull end. It was very predictable how the finale of Heat Wave’s story went down. The only thing that I didn’t see coming was Iris being able to know things about the Sage Force despite it being brand new to the universe. (If someone knows where she studied this, then please tell me but until then it’s pretty dumb.) To be fair, the art is good and I don’t even hate the story, it was just incredibly predictable. Also, the cliffhanger ending with Hunter Zoloman is kind of neat but we literally just dealt with Hunter Zoloman before this storyline. Hopefully, things take a turn for the better but I’m not very enthused about this book right now.

Bits and Pieces

This book goes the way you would expect it to. There aren’t any big twists or turns and while the art is good, a lot of this book just feels dull. The book leads up to the conclusion that most of us were able to come to about 4 issues ago. This story wasn’t new or exciting enough to warrant such a detour. The book wasn’t bad but it wasn’t really good either.

5.5/10