Stop doing experiments of scale in the middle of a big city!
Creative Staff:
Story: Jay Baruchel, Josh Trujillo
Art: Sumit Kumar, Andi Tong
Colors: Jordie Bellaire, FCO Plascencia
Letterer: Rob Leigh
What They Say:
Story 1 – With Central City overrun by rodents, the Flash sets out to collar the obvious culprit—but is the Scarlet Speedster’s assumption about the Pied Piper correct? Story 2 – A radioactive beast runs rampant after an explosion at S.T.A.R. Labs. But is it man or monster, and can the Flash calm the creature before it destroys Central City?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The latest installment goes for the two-story approach where each is fairly short overall but are still told pretty well. They’re thinned down structural stories and that’s a fun thing to watch writers grapple with. The team here are solid but I don’t recall reading much from either before with Jay Baruchel and Josh Trujillo handling the scripting side while Sumit Kumar illustrates the first and Ando Tong the second. Everything feels like it hits the right marks in terms of style and design and the differences in how both our leads are presented show the nature of different artists clearly enough with their interpretations. You could easily get into a few more ongoing issues with either of these teams.
The first tale plays into the rogues nicely enough as we get Central City being overrun with rats and it’s causing plenty of chaos. That gets Barry to suit up and do some basic searches but he primarily heads to Iron Heights to check on the Rogues themselves. Knowing that someone will give away something, if not the entire game, just in talking casually he might have a better idea as to what Piper is up to. I’ve long liked Piper from when they first had him come out in the 90s and seeing him here definitely brings back lots of good memories, especially about the dual nature of many of the Rogues. When Barry does find him and goes right on the take, we get the reminder that they operate as more than just criminals and he’s forgotten that, forcing himself to work with him for the greater good for a bit.
With the second tale, we get something a little more frustrating and very narration heavy (which isn’t great with yellow text on red backgrounds) as Barry, missing a flight with Iris that caused her to leave on her own, ends up back in Central City just as an experimental faster-than-light experiment goes awry at STAR Labs. Running that in the middle of Central City ain’t swift in itself but it has Barry trying his best to help the man caught in it, Cade, as he’s filled with a lot of power and destruction that he’s having a hard time controlling. It naturally ties into relationship material a bit but we get some decent action and problem-solving on Barry’s level that works nicely before it segues into the apology side. It’s not bad but the narration elements made it problematic and it just didn’t feel like it had a lot of momentum behind it.
In Summary:
The shorter tales that we get out of Flash for this and the prior installment are decent little bits of fun but aren’t able to really do anything too deep, not that I really expect that out of most of these chapters from the DC Giants. The shorts are fun and enjoyable overall and this one let me have some fun with Piper after not reading the character for years and then embarking on a little story with an original character that helps to smack Barry upside the head. Both are told well, the artwork is solid, and the emotional and action beats are hit smoothly. They’re not hugely memorable but they’re an enjoyable romp.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 12+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology</a | Kindle
Release Date: June 5th, 2020
MSRP: $0.99