DCU Comic Book Reviews

THE FLASH #232

The Wild Wests, Part Two:  The Deep End

November 2007

Written by Mark Waid

Pencils by Daniel Acuña

Inks by Daniel Acuña

Cover by Daniel Acuña

Synopsis

Alien creatures have emerged from the water and have kidnapped Wally West (aka The Flash) and have Iris and Jai West, Wally’s twin children, completely surrounded.  Unsure what to do, the kids run to find their mother, but they soon get lost in Keystone City.  They locate a police station, but find the people have become water and transformed into the creatures.  They run away again, but this time Wally finds them and runs them back home.  There he tells his wife and family that the aliens, made out of water, are invading Earth.  Wally then gets an idea:  using Captain Cold’s gun, he is able to rig a machine at STAR Labs to completely freeze the city and the water creatures.  It seems to work, but as Wally passes out, he sees the alien creatures coming for him.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

Strangely, the pacing for a story featuring the Flash and his family is moving at far too brisk of a pace and as such sequences seemed to be rushed and don’t feel complete.  Either that or I am enjoying the exploits of the kids much more than Wally to the point that I would like to see more of the kids than him.  Ultimately, what it comes down to is that I like Iris and Jai.  Their inexperience and extreme youth (despite their size) makes them appealing characters. The opening pages with them lost in the city and trying to come up with a solution to the problem was far more interesting that Wally using scientific mumbo jumbo to freeze the city.  This issue could’ve easily been split into two full issues with one being the kids and the second being the family coming up with a solution and then working on it together.  For that reason, the ending also fell flat since it was Wally alone to the rescue.  I suppose Waid is setting up the plot for the twins to come to the rescue, which is fine but frankly I would’ve liked to see the kids help Wally build the freeze machine rather than disappearing off the page. 

I should also mention that the creatures don’t look all that frightening and given the looseness of Acuña’s art, they come across more as blobs that any type of monster.  On top of that, the final monster at the end look too much like Davy Jones from Pirates of Caribbean, but any type of octopus/human hybrid would probably run into that problem. 

The credit page, featuring a recap of the characters and the story to date, appears in a very odd place in the book.  In fact, I initially skipped it thinking it was just an advertisement.  It should’ve been the very first page or perhaps on the inside back cover.