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Posted in: Comics, Marvel Comics | Tagged: aquaman, barbatos, barry allen, Batman, cyborg, dark nights: metal, dc comics, deathstroke, doctor fate, green lantern, Hal Jordan, howard porter, Joshua Williamson, Kendra Saunders, rebirth, red death, Steel, superman, the batman who laughs, the devastator, The Flash, The Justice League, the murder machine, wonder woman
The Flash #33 Review: Loosely Strung Together And Too Fast Moving
*Ties into the Dark Nights: Metal crossover
The Flash and Steel just sent Superman into the Dark Multiverse to search for our Batman. The legions of Barbatos are aware of their actions and send the Devastator and the Murder Machine to attack the two heroes.
Cyborg is struggling to keep in contact with Flash, Steel, and the other teams the Justice League sent out to find the Nth Metal.
The Flash is dragged through a portal back to Central City, where he sees the desiccated bodies of Iris West and Wally West still clinging to life.
Finally, he is brought into the darkness too, where he and his Justice League comrades must face off against their Nightmare Batman counterparts.
Admittedly, I just gave away the entire plot of this comic to you, but, honestly, I don't feel too bad for it. Some of the finer details were left for the read, and this comic doesn't really have much of a coherent plot to it. It's more of a sight-seeing tour through our assailed planet as the armies of Barbatos burn Earth to the ground.
That's not inherently bad, but it does prevent a decent narrative arc from forming. The comic ends up feeling like a prologue for the Justice League tie-in to Metal.
The Flash is more like a tour-guide to all this while repeating some inspirational words to himself which apparently Batman told him, "just run faster Barry." I get the symbolism of that, but it is pretty hokey.
A decent amount of the dialogue is hokey. Whenever another character appears, they always awkwardly work in a character trait. Wonder Woman talks archaically and references the Greek Pantheon. Hal Jordan sounds like a space cowboy. Aquaman mentions water and Atlantis. Deathstroke talks about getting paid. Steel talks about his hammer a lot.
It would be like if Luke Skywalker only talked about moisture farming or Roger Corman only ever talked about giving shoe-string budgets to horrible movies; we get it, you have a motif.
One saving grace is the artwork of Howard Porter. While the faces look a bit odd at times, his work is distinct and holds together pretty well throughout much of the run-time. Hi-Fi's color work is bright and eye-catching too, making for an overall aesthetically pleasing comic.
Flash #33 unfortunately comes out being one of the less cohesive Metal books since the days of the awful prologues of The Forge and The Casting. It's barely held together as a plot, and the writing falls a part in a lot of places. It's not awful, as there are some cool scenes. However, I can't quite recommend it, as it adds nothing to Metal or Flash itself. Give this one a pass unless you must own every piece of Flash material (which I could understand, Barry is awesome).
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