THE FLASH #247

This Was Your Life Wally West, Part Four:  Incubation

February 2009

Written by Alan Burnett

Pencils by Carlo Barbieri, J. Calafiore, and Andre Coelho

Inks by Drew Geraci, Jacob Eguren, and Andre Coelho

Cover by Brian Stelfreeze

Synopsis

With his wife Linda near death, Wally West (aka The Flash) asks the Spectre to save her.  The Spectre refuses, although it is moot point anyway.  Death has already come.  Linda heads towards the light, but when she realizes that Wally needs her, she fights for life.  Wally returns to find his wife okay, but learns that Queen Zazzala has taken his kids.  Elsewhere, Zazzala disguises herself as Linda to convince Jai and Iris to tap into the speed force.  Meanwhile, Wally traces his kids via the speed force.  He finds Jai, but Iris and the Queen are gone.  Jai tells Wally they were going to see him.  Wally finds them at the Hall of Justice.  There, Zazzala is using Iris to trap everyone in a speed warp.  When Wally gets there, Zazzala (still disguised as Linda) convinces Iris that Wally is not her Daddy.  Zazzala then attacks Wally, intent on killing him.  Iris then realizes the truth, because she knows her Mom would never kill anyone.  The moment releases the speed force and Wally is able to defeat Zazzala and rescue his daughter.  Later, Wally and his family are reunited and Wally is happy.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

This issue wraps up the current Flash series and while the story itself is not the greatest in the world, it is at least a better send off than the first time they ended this series.  Burnett (and DC editors) make the best decision possible in that they don’t end Wally’s story, but provide a happy context to what has happened in Wally’s fictional life, thus giving it a feeling of an ending.  And it was a good ending.  The issue itself feels a little rushed, especially the resolution to the plot (although I liked the way Iris was the one to return the speed force (a reversal of events in the previous story), but the ending was handled well and much better than before. 

After going down Wally’s life for the past four issues, we get a recap of the events from the past year or so (since Waid re-launched the book after the death of Bart Allen) and luckily it is short enough not to be intrusive to the rest of the story.  These flashbacks have been the one problem with this story and while I can understand the need for it, given what happens at the end, I still think the flashbacks were not handled in the best way. 

Technically, the Spectre didn’t lie.  Linda really did die, or at least her heart stopped for a little bit of time, which I would define as death.  Anyway, I like the fact that Linda came back for Wally and because of Wally.  For all those times that Wally came back from the speed force for her or succeeded for her, it was a nice reversal, showing how much these two love each other and are meant for each other 

The only thing that bothers me about the ending is that Burnett actually manages to take the characters of Jai and Iris into interesting areas.  There are some themes to explore, with Jai liking the action bit too much and Iris suffering from what she was done while hypnotized.  Sadly, with the book ending, I doubt we will see much of the kids.  Oh, I am sure we will see Wally in Titans and Justice League of America and even in the new Flash series, but I doubt we will see the kids.  And just when things are getting interesting. 

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