Posted in: Comics, DC Comics | Tagged: action, barry allen, captain cold, dc comics, Godspeed, Golden Glider, howard porter, Joshua Williamson, justice league, Kid Flash, mirror master, Mystery, superhero, The Flash, The Rogues, The Trickster, wally west

The Flash #36 Review: Murder at Iron Heights

ry Allen returns to his job at Iron Heights to find that a murder has been committed. An inmate has been killed by an unknown assailant, and the Central City CSI has taken over the investigation.

Unfortunately, it's Iron Heights, so a majority of the inmates would easily be capable of something like this.

Plus, the mysterious new crime lord in Central City continues their expansion.

With this issue, we get a return of the Rogues, and that is satisfying. The Flash has one of the best rogues' galleries in comic books, so the likes of Captain Cold and Mirror Master making a reappearance is certainly appreciated. Godspeed shows up once more, and he seems to be going through some interesting character changes.

The plan and actions being taken by the Rogues seem out of character for them. It's unusually vicious for this band of honorable thieves.

This issue has managed to pinpoint my running issue with Flash at this point in time, and that is how miserable everyone is. Everyone treats Barry Allen like trash. Singh, Kristen, Iris, and Wally are all regularly awful to Barry at this point. I get their reasonings, but it has been going on for so long now.

Barry himself is often quite dower and downbeat himself, which is something the Flash should rarely be. That's why the last issue, wherein Barry and Wally have some camaraderie, felt like such a breath of fresh air. However, Barry is back to being temperamental and moody here, and it's not enjoyable.

Also, the running narrative about mystery novels which segways into the murder scene is a bit goofy in how oddly self-r

One nice change of pace is the art of Howard Porter. He has a unique style which brings its own flare to the Fastest Man Alive. He's quite good at making the superspeed look quite good, and he plays with shading in an appealing way. Hi-Fi brings his regular bright coloring to contrast that shading, and the two make a good team.

I feel like it's worth mentioning that Barry Allen is my favorite DC hero. I say that, because I keep finding myself beating up current Flash comic. It hasn't hit my sweet spot since the most recent arc with the Reverse-Flash, though the Bloodwork arc was pretty good too. That's not to say that this issue was awful; it was merely mediocre. As such, I can't quite recommend it. Give it a pass.

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