Counterspell
Written By: Kevin Shinick
Art By: Will Conrad, Hi-Fi
Letters By: Steve Wands
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: November 24, 2020
*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*
What started with a lot of promise took a really bad turn in the previous issue. This series wasn’t the greatest, but I was at least having fun with the book. Frankly, from a Flash title, that’s exactly what I wanted! However, now we have fallen into a dark place where the story has begun doing things for convenience rather than giving proper reason for those things to happen. With the new problems that the book is experiencing, the old problems which seemed rather minor in the previous issues now are weighing it down even more. We could ignore those problems when the rest of the book had some old school fun in it, but now that the fun has left, those issue stick out like a sore thumb. I’m hoping that the most recent face off with the main villain will bring that excitement back into this series and we can get back on track to where we were before the most previous issue. So, lets jump into this newest issue and see what it has in store for us.
As our issue begins we see Barry racing through the speed force and his inner monologue speaks about how new discoveries have been used to negatively affect the world. Much like the discovery of Uranium and Hyrdrogen eventually led to weapons of mass destruction, Barry is worried that the Lightzinium that he created will now be used for the same purpose by Dr. Alchemy. We return to the fight between Barry and Alchemy as Barry reveals that Iris has run off to escape the battle. Barry races up to the villain and begins to pummel him but as the fight continues, Alchemy changes between different alchemists to give himself an upper hand. Barry is eventually caught and Alchemy changes his arms and legs to putty. Desmond is able to regain control of his body and warns Barry about the others. He tells Barry that the only way to stop them is to recreate the Philosopher’s stone. Then Alchemy sends an attack Barry’s way but Desmond is able to redirect it so that it misses The Flash. Frustrated, Alchemy decides to flee the battle rather than continue, but he gives a warning to Flash before he leaves to stay out of his way.
Back at the Hall of Justice, Barry has recovered from the spells Alchemy put on him and thanks to the efforts of Jon Stewart, he has the cameras that are in his pupil removed so Alchemy can’t know everything that he does. Barry then calls up Will Magnus with Iris, who is staying at the Hall of Justice until things become safe in Central City again. Magnus gives his expertise to Flash in regards to recreating the Philosopher’s Stone. However, he recommends that Barry avoid doing it as the stone would most likely affect him as well. However, Barry believes that the added Lightzinium that he added to the stone will protect him from being a part of it as well. They end the call and Iris tries to bring Barry to his senses as what he is planning is incredibly dangerous. She worries that this is all because Barry wants to prove that he is a better Chemist than Dr. Alchemy. Barry eventually races off toward the city and part of him wonders if Iris is right but he has to save the city which has become extremely distorted under the rule of Dr. Alchemy. (Again, I know everyone says this, but Central City has been turned into a hellscape! Where is the Justice League?)
As Barry races through the city, he is eventually stuck with a cloud that has been changed to bronze. Alchemy shows himself and they begin another fight. Barry eventually is able to reach Desmond and tries to convince him to use the new stone but Desmond claims the others won’t let him. Barry has no choice but to use it himself in their battle, after Alchemy turns the entire town into acid and Barry has to save the citizens. This is when it is revealed that Desmond was actually in control the entire time and wanted Barry to use the stone in order to defeat him once and for all. However, Barry had his own plan up his sleeve as he uses the stone with it’s built in Lightzinium to resist the influence of Dr. Alchemy and he begins running around. He uses the stone he made in order to change Dr. Alchemy and slowly the villain becomes stone. With his enemy defeated, Central City goes back to normal. We get a quick scene of Barry standing outside of a jewelry shop and the owner tries to convince him to buy something for his girlfriend. This continues to hint at the possible wedding for the Barry and Iris that they’ve already begun teasing. The issue eventually comes to an end when Flash visits Iron Heights to see the stone statue of Dr. Alchemy. Barry believes that he will be able to find a solution to return him to normal and cut off his power so he is no longer a threat, but until that time, Dr. Alchemy will have to remain a statue. This is where the issue leaves us.
This issue still has some of the lingering issues that carried over from the previous issue. The cliches with Iris are still pretty heavy and Alchemy just abandons his attack at the first sign of trouble without any real resistance. However, aside from these glaring issues, I would have to say that this book made a turn in the right direction. We had exciting fight scenes, character cameos, and some nice (albeit predictable) twists in the story. The things that were bad are still here but they take the backburner and what we have in front of us is of much higher quality. We got back to the fun factor that I mentioned in the introduction. This issue, despite having many problems, was fun and that’s all I’m really looking for. It’s not gonna break into the high ratings but it’ll be a book that I’ll read when I want some dumb fun.
Bits and Pieces
The latest issue of The Flash still holds on to some of the problems that the previous issue brought to us, but rather than linger on those issues for too long, the book decides to give us more of what we want and that is ridiculous fun. It’s not gonna blow anyone away, but the book is a nice read and I’m looking forward to more.
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