Flash #8
Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Scott Kolins
For as confusing as time travel can be, and as frustrating as I expected Zoom’s new time changing powers to be once they start showing up in the regular series, this issue was fun. It’s the origin of Eobard Thawne as told in the current continuity, but at the same time, it takes advantage of those time changing abilities. He weaves throughout his own history and makes changes where he thinks them to be needed in an effort to carve out the perfect life for himself, all the while we watch his fluid origin unveil. It’s another Rogue Profile, which means two issues in a row, but this one actually feels important. Sure, I liked last issues profile on Boomerang, but it was just a fun issue. This issue maintains that feel while also having an aura of importance. This isn’t just a retelling of Thawne’s origin, this quite literally is “The Reverse Flash Rebirth.”
Johns takes a lot of flak for retcons, and I’m someone who has sent it his direction for it in the past, and this issue? This issue probably has more retcons than he’s used in all of his other books over the past year. He completely changes the history of Eobard Thawne….but he does it in a way that makes sense. He doesn’t just throw a layer of gloss over the character and revert him back to the silver age, or ignore everything that came before so he can start from scratch. He uses the added ability he granted Thawne during Flash Rebirth and uses that as the vehicle to drive the issue forward and create the retcons he deemed necessary. Not unlike what we saw him do with Barry’s mother, Zoom weaves in and out of his own history as he eliminates those that he deems to have been a detriment to his life. Weeding out the distractions, the people who held him back, the ones who got in his way. No longer was he held back, every opportunity that was open to him is now just his, even if his younger self is completely oblivious to what’s going on.
That’s one of the things about this issue, as Zoom Thawne is able to run through time, creating his negative Speed Force and even traveling through time. He’s the only speedster that has shown themselves able to actually alter history, and with every bolt of red lightning across the page the readers knows that something has happened. But what he does here is give himself what he imagines to be his perfect life, granting his hearts desires by way of removing obstacles. Zoom watches his life change and events unfold differently on a path he preset, all the way until the grand moment where you see where everything has headed. I’ve never really been the biggest authority on the history of the Flash Rogues, to be honest, my primary source of info for the entire group for years was The Life Story of The Flash, and while Thawne was the only Rogue to get more than a simple paragraph, I still never really got it. Even when I read The Return of Barry Allen, I never got a great grasp on just what exactly his motivation was. He’s a guy from the 25th century who gives himself Flash powers? Alright, why? This issue actually does a decent job at examining just how important time is to Thawne.
Everything matters, I like it.
Just like with the last issue, and even with JSA, I like the art here and think that Scott Kolins brings a lot to this book with his pencils. Especially in the face of Eobard Thawne throughout the issue, as we can see every time his optimism breaks through, and every time the rage inside of him builds up. I also like the way Kolin handles an issue set five centuries in the future as he does a great job capturing that this isn’t right around the corner, whereas I’ve seen many classic books in similar settings where I’m surprised that this isn’t just fifty years down the line. The data screens around everyone’s faces, the hover screens for a walk through the park, even the futuristic fashion. Kolins brought his A game to this issue, and it shows in the details.
The last thing to notice about this issue is just how Thawne contrasts with Barry. There are a lot of similarities, but even more differences, and if anything you can see just why these two are bitter rivals just by seeing the world through the eyes of Zoom. An obsession that grows throughout his entire life and culminating in the one moment in time that he can’t erase. Barry has always sought to fix things by using his brain, by finding facts and upholding the law. It’s why he’s a cop. Zoom taught himself somewhere along the line that if something doesn’t go your way, go into history and change it. Barry had his Iris, Thawne had a woman named Rose that would never love him. Barry had parents who loved him, Zoom had parents who saw him as little more than an IQ and a status symbol. It’s not hard to see why this guy became the most dangerous villain the Flash ever had, and even if this origin doesn’t sync up with the classic…well, I still enjoyed it, and am happy to have some sort of story to go by with his origin now.
Overall?
8/10
