The Flash #59 Review and *SPOILERS*

Fun with Portals

Written By: Joshua Williamson

Art By: Rafa Sandoval, Jordi Tarragona, Scott Hanna, Tomeu Morey
Letters By: Steve Wands
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: November 28, 2018

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

For those of you who haven’t read my previous review, I tore into this book pretty hard. I would argue that I did so with plenty of justification. Nevertheless, despite being so hard on the previous issue, I still consider myself to be a fan of this book. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next. The cover has me a bit perplexed but I’ll allow the book to deliver before I pass judgement on it. Where we left our hero, The Flash and Iris had just ran from Badhnisia to Gorilla City and found the gorillas there to be slaughtered. Now, we dive deeper into the mystery surrounding the city and The Flash continues his force quest. Let’s just jump right into this issue and see what it has in store for us.

We start with a flashback (heh.) of The Flash in Gorilla City for the first time. He speaks with Solovar who thanks him for aiding Gorilla City and offers to help the Flash understand his powers better. However, Flash decides that he is needed in Central City. Due to this, Flash now feels guilty about not being able to save the gorillas that lay in front of him. Flash immediately comes to the conclusion that Grodd is behind this. Barry tries to convince Iris to let him take her home but she refuses and instead finds a secret passageway. Inside Barry and Iris find a mural that proves that Gorilla City has a much deeper connection to the speed force than he realized. It isn’t long until a pair of gorillas attacks the two. The fight is quick and Flash discovers that they are actually robots and destroys them quickly.

Afterwards, the pair is confronted by three gorilla scientists. They had believed that killer had returned and so they sent the robots to attack. The gorillas take them to their lab where they are shown a last message from Solovar. It was intended for Grodd but clearly, that didn’t work out. We go outside of the passage to find that Gemini has followed The Flash all the way here in an effort to try and absorb his power. Now, this is a bit weird considering The Flash literally ran here from Badhnisia which, in the DC Universe, is in a China Sea. This issue begins by saying that Gorilla City is in the Congo. (Please correct me below if I am incorrect about that) Anyway, Solovar reveals that the four forces have been around for centuries and each had an avatar previously but over the years, new avatars haven’t been appearing for the other forces. The message gets cut off and Iris begins to fix the machine as she has seen it in a past life.

The Flash calls Commander Cold and gives him the new information about the forces. Cold is in the middle of a fight with Razer. During the call, Cold informs Flash about force readings from Corto Maltese. The cops there are dealing with some kind of incident that sounds a lot like someone is using the Strength Force. Flash and Iris run off to deal with the incident in Corto Maltese. Afterwards, Gemini attack the scientists and absorb what energy they have. During the fight the scientists think they are the ones that attacked but Gemini denies this. Flash and Iris arrive in Corto Maltese in the middle of a major battle. Flash runs around and saves the local policemen from some falling debris before being knocked down himself. Above him stands someone named Fuerza. She is wearing the outfit from one of the avatars in Solovar’s message. This is where the issue ends.

Am I not paying enough attention to the universe right now? I could have sworn that the new forces just came into being recently due to the wall falling but now Solovar is saying that they’ve been around forever? They’ve just been dormant? Also, we haven’t exactly shown Gemini’s powers but I know they don’t have super speed. How did they get from Badhnisia to the Congo only a few moment after The Flash and Iris? Finally, has Iris just become to deus ex machina of this book? Any time something goes wrong, Iris just mentions that she remembers it from a past life and is able to fix any situation? I really hate to go in on this book again but I’m seriously getting frustrated. I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. I feel like I should just be remembering things that clearly haven’t been brought up. The art is really amazing and I will give a lot of credit for it. The story isn’t even that bad but things just continue to happen without any explanation. I’ll hold complete judgement off on Gemini until their powers are completely explained but I still gotta criticize this book pretty harshly.

Bits and Pieces

Despite being better than the previous issue, this book continues to move forward in the most confusing and frustrating way possible. At least some things happen in this book and we get more information that we’ve been craving for about the new forces. Hopefully it gets better in the next issue.

5.1/10