Committing to the cause!
Creative Staff:
Story: Brian Buccellato
Art: Tom Derenick
Colors: Rex Lokus
Letters: Wes Abbott
What They Say:
Flash’s attempts to protect Iris from Superman’s hired criminals puts the speedster at odds with the Man of Steel. Has Flash’s loyalty finally reached its breaking point?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The Injustice series has been pulling things together a lot more in the past dozen or so issues as it’s gotten a fair shade darker and meaner, particularly when it comes to Superman. When you align yourself with a lot of the criminal element of supervillains it’s just about to be expected when you get down to it. We’ve seen some waffling from a few on the side of the regime as they’re beginning to understand more of what’s going on, but their faith in Superman is what drives them to stay, believing that he won’t go as far as some think he will while at the same time becoming oblivious to some of what he’s actually doing. Superman largely snapped a while ago and it’s just been an unravelling ever since. Sometimes it’s more noticeable to those on the outside than the inside, however.
With Barry, he’s in that same conflicted space as Vic at this point as there’s concern but he’s still believing that he’s doing the right thing. So when he comes across Iris with a group of anti-regime folks that were making their own plans and are confronted by King Shark and Girder, he can’t help but to put himself between the two sides. He’s doing his best in the classic sense to de escalate things but it’s not easy as iris is lashing out at him and his choices while King Shark and Girder are just being who they are which means it’s getting tense – and hungry. That it turns into a fight is no surprise, but Barry’s protective nature of Iris has him going too far as he essentially spears King Shark through the neck. It’s a rough moment because he’s horrified by what he did and it just reinforces for Iris how far down the wrong path he’s gone. And that lashing that she gives him, amid a private conversation just afterward, further spirals out of control for him. He wants to do the right thing but it’s all conflicted now.
Interestingly, he ends up doing what the regime wanted here by bringing in Iris and the others and facing Superman himself to deal with the actions that lead to King Shark’s death. For Barry, this is all he can do that he can consider the right thing at this point and it basically puts him as subservient to Superman with all the bells and whistles. It’s almost humiliating for Barry but you get the sense that he’s doing it because he feels it’s his only recourse and that Superman isn’t as far gone as he and others may want to think. Because if he is, how can Barry himself turn things around with what he’s done? He’s seeing more parallels between him and Superman and looking for a way to atone and face the music is there, which unfortunately just will end up adding more stains to his record by staying with Superman.
In Summary:
Injustice gives Barry some good material to work with here as he tries to find a way through the problems at hand but in the end just makes it worse. Which is how it usually goes in reality. Watching what he works with here is definitely fun in its own way though you have to keep feeling bad for King Shark as he seems to get taken down easily in a number of non-mainstream continuities. The book puts Barry into a good position to try and deal with the hand that he’s been dealt and the choices that he’s made with it so seeing it spiraling further out of control rings true in the right kind of ways here. It’s a solid issue with some fun sequences and solid artwork from Derenick, but it’s not the kind of installment that will really challenge an artist for the most part.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: June 28th, 2016
MSRP: $0.99
