The Flash #20 Review

Writer: Simon Spurrier
Artist: Vasco Georgiev
Colorist: Matt Herms
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
Cover Artist: Mike Del Mundo (Cover A)
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: April 23, 2025

Legacy issue #820. Bad Moon Rising, Part One.

Plot Summary

Holy Guacamole, where to start? I thought I'd jump back onboard the crazy train for the beginning of the end of Si Spurrier's run. This isn't official, but I've heard rumours there will be a creative change from September. Spurrier has said he had about 2 years worth of story for Flash, so we will see what happens. I apologise but I had to borrow a snippet from good Old Geek Dad's review of this issue to help me catch up with what has been going on. I haven't read Flash since issue 12.

"Over the last arc, Wally split himself into two Flashes so he could do both JL duty and family time, only for one Flash to become increasingly unstable. That led to Eclipso returning, consuming Speed Force dog Foxy, and becoming a cosmic entity." -Geek Dad

We open with one of Mister Terrific's T-Spheres approaching the Moon. It's having a dialogue with somebody there; probably one of the Wally Wests, but it could be Mr Spoon. (Button Moon anyone?.. No?) Wally is asking if the Justice League is coming to help because there's a war on the Moon and it's been raging for years. The T-Sphere replies "it's been only 15 hours since the current situation developed." Apparently this is because of time dilation due to super speed. Stay with me here, ok?

The T-Sphere arrives above the war-torn surface of the Moon and meets one of the Wally Wests. They proceed to HQ and the sphere asks how many Flashes there are in this war. "Around seven thousand [...] but we don't go by 'Flash' as it gets confusing. Call me F8-3-1459." Okaaay... Then F8 tells the T-Sphere to go and talk to "the Splitter," as F8 "only got sharded a few hours ago, A.R. There might be fresh intel." Look, don't kill me! I'm quoting the dialog directly from the comic. This will give you an idea of the techno-speed-force--babble to be found throughout this story.

At this point, the T-Sphere starts explaining things to us, like the word "sharded. That's Flash's new power, right? Like, divergent timelines, but all held in one universe." The sphere then asks if all the Flashes are copies or the original. F8-Flash replies, "two things can be true." And then we finally meet the real Wally--or one of them--who is dressed in a black Flash costume with no mask. He looks wrecked! Wally tells F8 Flash to go find General Garrick.

So we have the T-Sphere acting as the confused reader asking for confirmation or for the meanings of the many techno-babble terms. I'm reminded of Harrison Ford famously telling George Lucas that "you can type this shit, but you can't say it." But here I am saying it. "Who's the more foolish, the fool or the fool who follows him?" Oh and by the way, I'm only up to page 4 at this point. I can't continue the summary at this level of detail because I fear for my sanity. And yours!

Wally leads the T-Sphere through a room of wounded Flashes and we hear one saying, "Radwave's back... cooked us before we could Newton out." Then we meet Inspector Pilgrim in what appears to be the control room. There's a 3D image of what looks like the Death Star. "Behold the war for the Moon" says Inspector Pilgrim. "That's no moon! It's a space station!" Sorry, couldn't help it. Pilgrim theorizes that the enemy is using Godpeed's powers and that they are trying to steal the Moon. Who is this enemy? asks the T-Sphere. It's the "Heliophage" or "what you get when Eclipso eats my damn dog."

"Um, what?" replies the T-Sphere. And me. And most of the readers at this point.

We get an all-too-brief interlude where Jai, Linda, Iris and Wade appear and ask when Wally is going to avenge Foxy, their dog. Then they're gone and we are back on the battlefield. The shields drop and "the Terrible Two" arrive. It's Avery Ho and Wallace West. Why are they here? Here's one of the Flashes with an explanation:

"They figured they could make disruptive phaseforms. Like, bouncing vibrations off each other so they spike. Like a cluster bomb made of angry space-time."

"What good is that?" asks the poor sanity-slipping T-Sphere. Seriously, I have no idea how it's still functioning. I would have self-destructed ages ago!

General "Judy" Garrick tells the sphere it's to "let the meat get further." Then she orders the Flashes to "die well" and they charge. We are treated to a double-page spread of hundreds of Flashes attacking the enemy. It looks a bit like toy soldiers being viewed from far above. There's not much detail in the art by Vasco Georgiev but at least it's colourful.

The Flashes are charging towards the enemies energy vent when a purple-clothed figure appears from above. It's Magenta or the Purple Piranha. Don't ask me! If you know who this is, more power to you. Following Magenta, we see what one of the Flashes calls "Captain Zero" who blasts them with some kind of ice weapon. Is this Captain Cold?

And then we finally reach the last page and I am lost in space. And in time. And meaning.

Sharp Points!

Hey, at least this story is original. Plus the art while fairly basic is bright and colourful.

Dull Points!

Where to start? I think the biggest problem with this story is that you have to attempt to explain it rather than sit back and enjoy it. It is filled to bursting with Si Spurrier techno-babble that the T-Sphere keeps explaining to you, the reader. If the writer has a character explaining the story to the reader, then something is rotten in the state of Denmark. It is way too complicated and it left me scratching my head at what I had just read. Characters almost all have the same voice and some of them appear randomly and briefly for what feels like the sake of filling story space. Maybe it will all make sense at the end but I doubt it.

Final Thoughts

This issue was a chore to get through. I felt like I had been set a homework assignment to research and work on instead of a superhero comic book story to read and enjoy. The art is hit and miss throughout, unfortunately mostly miss. The figure work and backgrounds lack detail, but the colours look good. As a positive, it is inventive and original. But I don't see this heading anywhere exciting enough to continue with.

5/10

About the reviewer: Wakizashi Gray has a YouTube channel where he reviews comics. It has the rather bizarre name of Wakizashi’s Teahouse. He also keeps a WordPress blog called Wakizashi Teahouse Blog.