The Flash #35 - A Review

Meena Dhawan has escaped from The Speed Force, but this is hardly the blessing both Barry Allen and Wally West thougt it would be. Meena has revealed herself as being in league with The Black Hole - the collective of amoral scientists who seek to harness The Speed Force for their own dark ends.

Meena has also ripped the negative Speed Force energy from Barry's body, leaving him weakened and her newly empowered as The Negative Flash. Even with Wally to help him, can Barry hope to stand against the woman he once loved?


Asked to sum up The Flash #35 in a word, I would have to choose "disappointing." The artwork by Pop Mhan and Ivan Plascencia is some of the best the series has seen to date but that's just pretty paint on an ugly shell. The chief problem is the dialogue, which lacks the usual punch Joshua Williamson puts into his scripts. This leads one to wonder if Williamson merely provided the plot for this issue and Michael Moreci wrote the actual script?

A larger problem, logistically at least, is the book's treatment of its female cast. Here, we see Meena turned into a villain out of nowhere for the sake of quick drama. The end of the issue hints at the death of one of Barry's female co-workers - a revelation which will serve no purpose other than to give Barry further angst about his work-life. It's lazy storytelling and beneath the creators involved.

The Final Analysis: 6 out of 10. Great artwork, but the story leaves a lot to be desired. 

The Flash #34 - A Review

Dr. Meena Dhawan - a.k.a. Fast Track - was once Barry Allen's girlfriend and Wally West's first mentor. She disappeared during a battle with the villain Godspeed, seemingly killed along with two of her students among those granted super-speed by The Speed Force storms that once wrecked Central City.

Now, she's back and Barry and Wally are overjoyed at the news. But Meena has returned with grim news - Barry's new-found connection to the negative charge of The Speed Force is killing him! She offers to help study Barry's new powers and find a cure. Unbeknownst to them, however, Meena is a double agent, working for both STAR Labs and the villainous group of rogue scientists known as The Black Hole...


While I'm displeased to see Meena being turned into a villain (I found her to be a far more interesting love interest than Iris West during her brief time as Barry's girlfriend), at least she's proving to be a competent villain who is giving The Flash a run for his money.  The dialogue is a little flat, however, with a lot of sameness to the characters voices - a problem that may be due to Joshua Williamson co-writing this issue with Michael Moreci.

Whatever reservations I may have about the story, I have none about the artwork. Pop Mhan does his usual fantastic job on the pencils and inks, backed by the always outstanding colors of Ivan Plascencia. This is one of the most consistently well-drawn books on the stands.

The Final Analysis: 8 out of 10. It falters only in the story being inaccessible to new readers.

The Flash #32 - A Review

Thanks to Wally West's positive influence, Barry Allen is starting to adjust to his new negatively-charged Speed Force powers. Unfortunately, there's little Wally can do to help Barry with settling in at his new job as Staff CSI at the maximum security prison Iron Heights under the ruthless Warden Wolfe...


Police brutality is a hot-button issue and tensions are heightened on both sides of the discussion. While it's uncertain just how deeply Joshua Williamson wished to tap into that zeitgeist, his reintroducing Warden Wolfe - who famously tortured his super-villain charges during Geoff Johns' run on The Flash - into the reality of DC Rebirth hints that a topical discussion will be forthcoming. Politics aside, Wolfe is also a great foil for a straight-arrow cop like Barry Allen and it will be interesting to see how the two interact in the future.


The artwork for this issue is fantastic, with Christian Duce adding a level of complexity that hasn't been seen in this series in sometime. Duce's more realistic style suits the darker tone of this issue well and Ivan Plascencia matches that aesthetic with deeper colors that further heighten Duce's inks.

The Final Analysis: 9 out of 10. If you haven't been reading The Flash, now is the time to start!

The Flash #5 - A Review

Thanks to the Speed Force storm stirred up by the criminal gang known as The Black Circle, STAR Labs scientist Meena Dhawan has become The Fastest Woman Alive! She's also become Barry Allen's new girlfriend, what with the two having become quite close as they taught the next generation of speedsters. This teaching - along with her newfound ability to sense the presence of the Speed Force in others - will lead Meena to an unwilling pupil named Wally West, just as the new villain dubbed Godspeed shows himself again.



Joshua Williamson's script for this issue is a real treat, shifting the focus from Barry Allen and giving some much needed development to both Meena and Wally. The artwork proves equally strong, with a uniform look throughout despite two inkers working on this issue. Felipe Watanabe's action scenes look amazing and Ivan Plascencia's colors are well-applied as always.