THE FLASH:  THE FASTEST MAN ALIVE #6

Lightning In A Bottle, Part Six:  Burning Bridges

January 2007

Written by Danny Bilson & Paul Demeo

Pencils by Ken Lashley and Andy Smith

Inks by Art Thibert

Cover by Art Thibert

Synopsis

The Griffin has Jay Garrick, hoping to extract the speed force to help his slowly decaying body.  However, Jay is no longer connected.  Angry, Griffin zaps him with the green lighting.  Bart Allen (aka the Flash) arrives in time to save Jay and take him to ER.  Meanwhile, Inertia and Mota begin the process of disassembling Mota’s daughter Valerie to rebuild Mota’s body.  In Keystone City, The Griffin decides to destroy the bridge in order to rescue the people and become a hero.  The Flash intervenes and the two fight, eventually falling into the water.  When Griffin breaks the surface, a large piece of the bridge falls on him.  Although the Flash is able to save him, Griffin still dies.  Later, Bart tells Jay and Joan that he remembers what happened when Superboy Prime escaped the Flashes -- Bart took the speed force from the others in order to save Earth.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

And thus ends the first storyline that sees Bart Allen become the new Flash, following in the footsteps of Barry Allen and Wally West.  The best thing that I can say about this arc, and this issue as well, is that it horrible.  It was not good, either.  In fact, the entire new series has just kinda been there, not really good but not really bad.  Some comics, such as the Bruce Jones on Nightwing are so horrible that there is a kind of fascination to watch the crash and burn.  The sad part about this book is that it never sinks to that level (and I hope that makes sense).  Rather, the book is average.  It is not good enough to get me excited about the next issue or to see what will happen next, but nor is so bad that I just gotta read it to see what crap is coming next.  Instead, the book languishes on the bottom of the pile for whatever I bought that week and usually the last one I read. 

Specifically, I think the Griffin character would have been a lot more interesting if more time had been given to him to establish his character.  Unfortunately, the earlier issues tired to shoehorn the history of the Flashes into the narrative while the later issues have the scenes with Inertia.  As a result, we have not had much time to see Griffin other than a clichéd glory hound who goes for hero to zero in a very short time. 

On the positive side, this issue finally sees Bart accept responsibility for his powers and accept his role as the Flash.  Unfortunately, we also knew this was coming so it is not a big surprise.  What did surprise me is that we got a glimpse of Barry and Wally and where they have gone.  It seems they are on some new Earth which I find interesting since the new Justice League of America hints at some new Earth appearing in the sky.  Are they the same?

I am not sure if it was intentional or not, but I liked the fact that writer’s used the bridge for Griffin’s scheme since that bridge was built (in a minute or two) by Wally.  I just happen to like the symmetry of he guy trying to replace the Flash using a symbol of what the Flash can accomplish.  Of course, when the scene was over, I was hoping to see Bart repairing it or even improving upon it, but alas it was not to be.

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