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03/11/2004: recent Flash issues
Last night I read the most recent Flash issues, those from #195-207, and I'm kind of torn in my reaction. On the one hand, I really enjoyed the character parts, though of course as usual I was a bit confused by all the people I didn't know. On the other hand the plots make my head ache.
And I don't just mean the ever present time travel stuff, which would be bad enough (I think when I read up on Iris West's background and the whole Reverse-Flash/Zoom stuff to get some idea about what's gone on before, my head just about exploded), though it has some part in it. It's several things, the villains, or rogues as they seem to be called in Flash's corner of the DCU, are just -- I don't know, wacky? -- but not wacky in that creepy and scary psychopathic way I like in the Batman villains (though clearly they aren't sane either). Maybe I have to get to know them better to like them, but still. Then between the time travel, and Hal Jordan (as the Spectre) messing with reality in not really explained ways, I didn't much care about the plot. Although perhaps it might have made more sense if I was familiar with the Spectre's powers, still it seems kind of odd that his choice was to mind-wipe everybody, and alter all records and recollections to "help" Flash, yet apparently doesn't have the power to fix Linda's health to help them. I don't mean fixing the past so that the miscarriage didn't happen (I assume his abilities don't include messing with the past), just heal her, so that she and Wally still could have kids in the future. Since he didn't just alter minds but also physical objects like records, his powers can't just be psychic.
Still I enjoyed to see the Wally West who had forgotten that he is the Flash, and how he rediscovered his identity, and Batman's role in that. I thought the part with Flash and Batman in #205, and how Batman "unlocked" or reversed (or whatever) his real memories before Flash did, because he researched the "missing" Flash, was great. And I see how there is potential in Flash now having a secret identity when he didn't have before.
I think I will at least buy the next Flash issues to see whether I can warm up to the villains Flash fights and the time travel wackiness. That I liked the art teams I've seen so far doesn't hurt either.
Also, it seems like I need to make a general DCU comics icon, since clearly I'm at a point where my Batverse icon and my Superman icon don't cover things anymore. Though what it could show, I have no idea. Possibly my avatar begging for money with a "Will work for food comics." sign, for when I picked up yet another series... Or on a more positive note maybe me being surrounded by heaps and heaps of comics with the text "There's no such thing as 'too many comics'."
