THE FLASH:  THE FASTEST MAN ALIVE #12

Full Throttle, Part 4:  Running Out Of Time

July 2007

Written by March Guggenheim

Pencils by Tony Daniel

Inks by Art Thibert and Jonathan Glapion

Cover by Ethan Van Sciver

Synopsis

Bart Allen (aka the Flash) has just learned that the rogues have orchestrated an attack on the Getty Center in Los Angeles.  Unfortunately, Bart learns this has he is being held for questioning by the police.  In order to stop the rogues, Bart must tell the police who he really is.  At The Getty Center, the Trickster has created a force field around the Getty Center, forcing Flash to find a different way inside.  Meanwhile, Flash reaches the Getty Center and begins to beat up Inertia and then the rest of the rogues.  Elsewhere, Iris Allen locates Valerie Perez and asks for her help.  The two then transport inside the force field and attempt to dismantle Inertia’s machine.  Before they can do anything it begins to power up and once activates it takes away the speed force from Bart.  At that moment Bart sees the Black Flash.  The death of speedster always follows.  Meanwhile, Valerie hypothesizes that the machine was designed to transfer the speed force to Inertia.  Since the speed force was part of Bart, Valerie believes that when it is released, it will explode the equivalent of ten atomic bombs.   

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

Each issue just keeps getting better and better as Guggenheim continues to toss new plot twists into the comic so that the stakes keep getting bigger and bigger.  I mean, really, losing your secret identity just doesn’t compare to losing the speed force or unleashing ten atomic bombs.  Even though everything but the kitchen sink has seemingly been tossed into this issue (time travel, alternate Flashes, rogues fighting each other, pseudo-whacked out science), Guggenheim keeps it all tightly wound into the narrative and manages to keep the pace brisk that you barely notice all the crazy stuff going on.  But it is going on and you just gotta love it. 

I don’t why but I get the feeling that there is an “anything can happen” vibe that makes me worried.  When DC decide to make Bart the Flash, it seemed like an ill-conceived decision, but one has to wonder if that decision was based on the end game to this particular storyline. 

There are a lot of little things in this comic that help to flesh out the bigger picture, such as the identity of the person who is following Bart as he races to the Getty Center.  Or the fact that Bart lost his secret identity and that this fact doesn’t seem to bother him.  And then we have Valerie and Iris getting in on the action.  If Iris wanted to prevent the future, she could’ve blown up the machine before it started, but she waited until the last minute to get there.  Given Valerie’s supposed knowledge on the speed force, this, to me, suggests that Iris doesn’t want to stop the future events, but alter it to a different outcome.  (Somewhere I also saw the suggestion that Valerie might absorb some of the speed force and become the new female speedster that has been missing for a few years.  A nice idea.  She could even become part of the JSA and learn at the feet of Jay Garrick.  If she were younger, I might suggest the Titans.)

There has been some speculation that the next issue will see the return of Barry Allen and I would not all be surprised if this were to happen.  Besides the speedster following Bart (who could be Barry), we also have Iris Allen’s involvement.  We don’t know what she told Bart, only that she told him what happened (or is about the happen). 

PREVIOUS	Main		Page	NEXT