THE FLASH #240

Fast Money, Part Three:  Broken News

July 2008

Written by Tom Peyer

Pencils by Freddie E. Williams II

Inks by Freddie E. Williams II

Cover by Freddie E. Williams II

Synopsis

The Spin summons Gorilla Grodd to Keystone City to spread terror and destroy the Flash.  Grodd, however, is not amused to be taken away from his home.  Meanwhile, Wally West (aka The Flash) has traced the source of Spin’s power back to the local tv station.  Elsewhere, Brothers Think and Drive fear Boss Dark Side because they have not found their prey, but get lucky when they locate the ones they seek at the local tv station.  Suddenly, a drunk driver crashes into the tv station.  Nearby, Spin and Grodd fight each other, causing Spin’s power to spiral out of control.  All around, people begin to reenact the local news.  Wally figures out what is happening and heads out to find Spin, but encounters Grodd instead.  Meanwhile, Brothers Think and Drive capture Jai and Iris.  As they drive away, a bolt of lightning hits Iris, freeing her, but also seemingly aging her in the process.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

After a couple of shaky issues to start this storyline, this issue kicks into gear with a lot of crazy, crazy stuff happening.  There is so much going on, there are parts that made me scratch my head in confusion (like the dialogue of the truck driver), but ultimately everything meshed together (when we finally learned what was happening to Spin’s powers).  I like the fact that Grodd was not amused to be summoned; it fits his egotistic personality.  And I like the fact that Spin would be clueless to what he had done when he did summon Grodd.  But I think the biggest moment is the ending in which Jai and Iris, who had been shuttled off to the side to focus on Wally, suddenly become the center of the book once more.  More importantly, with the apparent aging of Iris, it certainly looks as if there is the potential for something more than what we have seen.  Is it possible that Jai and Iris are Forever People?  Is that why they were introduced in the DC universe?  The cynical side of me thinks this is the vehicle DC will use to get rid of the kids since I get the impression most people don’t like them.  But then the other side of me thinks the kids were set up for this specific reason and were never meant to stay around.  I guess we’ll have to see. 

The appearance of Brothers Think and Drive drove me nuts the first time I read it because nothing they were saying made much sense.  Then I read this issue of Birds of Prey, which happened to be released the same week.  Then, re-reading Flash, it suddenly made sense.  Well, not much more, but at least I understood the references and why they might have been after Jai and Iris. 

It looked as if Grodd had died in Salvation Run (as seen in this issue), so I was curious to see how his appearance here would be explained.  Or not explained, as it happens.  Peyer wisely shies away from trying to to clarify what happened on the Hell Planet (other than to suggest Grodd was near death) and instead offers a vague hint about being healed in Gorilla City.

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