The Flash #42 Comic Recap/Review
The Flash #42 Recap/Review – Sins of the father.
The Flash #42 Comic Recap
In the aftermath of the prison breakout, the Central City Police Department is called in to investigate. Barry is panicking, assuming that his father has been kidnapped. But Captain Darryl Frye has been called in to stop Allen from doing anything stupid. He’s too close to work on this case and surveillance footage confirms that Harry Allen was acting with the escapees, and was not their prisoner. Not satisfied with these orders, Barry inspects the prison cell himself in a blink of the eye. Finding nothing, he overhears the warden talking to the corrections officer Elijah. The warden is understanding about all of this, and tells the guard to go home and take care of his wife.
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Barry is then approached by Iris West. He explains the situation to her, and Iris says she can’t help him, as her inside source Patty Spivot left town. Changing the subject away from his ex-girlfriend, he asks how Wally is doing. Iris replies that her nephew is doing well, but she had to lie to him about coming here, as Wally doesn’t even like to think about his uncle Daniel being locked in here even after all the terrible things he has done. But that’s the thing about family, sometimes you have to compromise everything to protect the ones you love. Over in the Central City Distribution Center for Medi-Barn Supplies, Inc., Harry and the gang are stealing some equipment to fulfil a promise they made to escape from prison. After that, Harry says the villains are free to go. But the gang is not alone here…
Suddenly an alarm is pulled, and a security guard bursts in. <MUSIC BREAK> “Oh, Henry. Henry, Henry, Henry. Always a pacifist. So full of good intent. Where did that ever get you? You could have stayed with me. The heights I would have allowed you to reach. Now look at you. You truly are a murderer.” <MUSIC RESUME; Gunfire> While Harry looks on at the dead man laying before him, shocked and confused, Girder is impressed, figuring that his former cellmate didn’t have that in him. With the cops on the way, the men grab as much as they can, split up, and agree to meet at the rendezvous point. From a distance, Professor Zoom watches, promising he’ll see Harry again very soon.
This amuses Girder, who says that Harry really impressed him. He planned the whole escape and is a cold-blooded killer. And thus it is the Flash’s turn to get furious. Barry attacks the villain relentlessly, denying everything that Anthony is saying. But his attacks have little effect on the metallic villain, who is well aware that he only needs one good hit to take the Flash down. Girder chases the Flash to a nearby junkyard, where Barry successfully traps him with a magnetic crane. Victorious, the hero demands that Girder tell him everything. But Anthony says Grams raised him better than to betray his own crew. So Barry asks about the medical equipment he found stashed in Grams’ backyard. Girder says he has no idea what it’s for, and will have to find Harry Allen to learn what that stuff does.
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The next day, Elijah is resting at home. He checks in on his wife, who is dying. As he leaves to get her some food, he finds the Flash waiting for him. Barry has figured out that Elijah helped the prisoners to escape. He assumes the guard was paid off, but Elijah was actually promised something much more valuable from Harry – a cure for his wife. With little to lose, the guard agreed to the deal. He offers to turn himself in, but Barry lets him go. All he asks is that the guard share any information should Harry Allen contact Elijah again. Barry takes off, but finds himself with a fellow speedster in close pursuit.
Recognizing Zoom from the earlier encounter, Barry demands to know who this man in yellow is, only for him to taunt the Flash into attacking. As Barry is about to grab the professor, he disappears, and Barry find himself home… where his mother was killed.
The Flash #42 Comic Review
Hello and welcome to Comic Island! My name is Arden, and this is my recap, and review, of The Flash #42.
You know, between Cyborg #1, Old Man Logan #3, and this, I’ve really had a lovely week in comics. All three were great. And yes, while Old Man Logan was outstanding and really stood, don’t let it discount these two DC comics. Both were really well done, and The Flash #42 winds up being a well rounded comic that was a fun read.
The Reverse Flash, or Professor Zoom, or whatever you want to call him is fantastic here, I love that he set Harry up for murder AGAIN, just for fun. I really liked Girder and his grandmother too, and they go lengths to make these two endearing almost to the point of me rooting for them over Barry. And I liked the part with Elijah, as that added a lot of interesting dimensions to how Harry operates as a person. The only part that felt slow was the scene with Iris, and that’s because it gave the writer an excuse for the two characters to belch exposition at one another. But sometimes that sort of thing is necessary to keep the reader on track with what’s going on in the story, so I can let that slide, especially with a comic as fun as this one. I did enjoy reading this, and I do think that so far this story line has been the best in an overall pretty good series.
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But there is a lingering flaw that has been bugging me for a while in the Flash series. Sometimes these comics really feel like sensory overload. Now what I mean by that is you have this vivid, crazy art, with lightning flying everywhere, panels all askew and spread out over this page. That’s perfectly fine, by the way, as many comics use this sort of art that’s heavy on style very effectively. But in The Flash, every single page looks like this. When coupled with some pretty heavy dialogue that’s going at a rapid pace and is delivering some pretty heavy and well written material, it’s just a bit too much. I do like the Flash as a series more or less, but I’ve always found this to be a bit off-putting.
Maybe that’s just me, and it’s likely that my feeble little mind simply can’t handle too many things going on at once, but here, to me it’s the one flaw of the Flash #42. Do I recommend this comic? Well, yeah, actually. This is a lot of fun, I’m really enjoying the story, and this sensory overload business is a little bit annoying but hardly a deal breaker. Just because something is flawed, doesn’t mean it is bad. It’s not the world’s greatest comic or even the best thing I read this week, but it really benefits from some solid characters, well written dialogue, and great art. They don’t blend well together, but I can appreciate the parts for what they are, and I on the whole enjoyed it. Plus, uh, I’m really curious what happens next here. Are they going to recreate the way this story originally played out? Or will they add their own little twist on the story? I hope for the latter, and expect next issue will be bringing some pretty big surprises. Let me know what you think will happen in the comments section below. And, as always, don’t forget to like, subscribe, and keep reading comics.
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