Reviewer: Tim Stevens
Story Title:
Written by: Geoff Johns
Penciled by: Justiniano
Inked by: Walden Wong and Livesay
Colored by: James Sinclair
Lettered by: Rob Leigh
Editor: Joey Cavalieri
Publisher: DC Comics (in cooperation with Wizard Magazine)
It is, perhaps, (or most likely) unfair to judge what is essentially half a comic by the same standards as a full comic. That having been said, that is pretty much exactly what I am going to do here. I just thought I’d let you know that it is probably an inherently flawed approach.
Disclaimer aside, this is actually one half a comic I feel pretty good about reviewing as a full issue and the big reason for that is it still reads like a full length comic. There is so much story (without it feeling overstuffed or rushed) packed into these pages that it really did read like a normal issue of Flash. And, as you well know, a “normal” issue of Flash scripted by Geoff Johns is a fine book indeed.
On the art side of things, Justiniano’s work is a marked improvement over both his Pied Piper Rogue Profile issue and this week’s Flash issue (a crossover with Wonder Woman). I found both efforts to suffer from a distorted quality to all the figures. Here, however, Justiniano delivers a much cleaner, more anatomy friendly style. Besides just being, in my opinion, better looking, it also allowed the Zoom moment later in the issue pop. The distortion he brings to Zoom is entirely fitting to the character’s state of mind and abilities and because it is not lost in a sea of other distorted art, it is creepily noticeable.
Sadly, not even Justiniano’s more refined style can make James Jesse’s old Trickster costume look good.
On the extras side, there is a pretty in depth walk through of how one of the splash pages came into being from idea to pencils to inks to colors and beyond. Interesting if you are curious about that sort of thing. On the writing side of things, there is a snippet of script provide and the revelation that the original plan was to make this ½ issue a sort of Trickster Rogue Profile. Which I would have loved. That being said, I certainly was not disappointed with this effort, even after that news.
