The Flash #46 Comic Book Recap/Review

The Flash #46 Recap/Review – Zoom vs. The Flash!

 

The Flash #46 Comic Book Recap

Barry Allen finds himself surrounded by the police.  Captain Darryl Frye tells The Flash to surrender.  His reckless behavior nearly led to the deaths of half the Central City Police Department.  He places the Flash under arrest, but Barry can’t let that happen, and escapes.  He says that Thawne is the real enemy here, but Zoom begs to differ.

With his allies in tow, Eobard is ready to make Barry pay for his many sins.  They charge at one another, but Darryl tries to stop them.  Knowing how dangerous Zoom is, Barry pushes the officer out of the way, and begins to flee, goading Eobard and the others to pursue him, away from the police.

Elsewhere, Harry Allen is treating Magli.  The woman is badly injured from Eobard’s betrayal, and her powers are gone.  In spite of being out of practice, the good doctor is able to save the woman’s life.  He explains to her that Zoom forced the man to make the glove that stole her powers.  Magli knows now that Thawne lied.  He claimed the Flash was evil, but the villain is only really interested in his own power.  Knowing that they must stop Zoom, she taps into a remaining scrap of her power, aging the door, until it easily crumbles from a kick by Harry.  Outside, the run into Selkirk.  Magali explains how Thawne has betrayed them, and the shocked speed force expert directs them to some vehicles they can take.  All he wants is for them to protect him from Zoom.

[Related – Click Here For More Dc Comic Book Reviews]

Meanwhile, Barry is fleeing to a bridge when he is cornered by the Folding Man.  Barry may have been bested by this opponent once, but he learns fast.  The others soon join in on the fray, and though Barry is doing well, time suddenly stops for the speedster.  Zoom taunts Allen, saying that the Flash has no idea how long he’s been keeping out of sight, manipulating Barry’s life, playing with it like how a cat toys with a mouse.  But eventually, a cat gets bored.  Eventually… it devours its prey.

Zoom knocks one of his goons back and prepares to steal Barry’s powers, so the Flash tries to punch the villain out.  Eobard catches his fist in midair.  Nobody has ever truly challenged Barry.  Daniel West was an insult to speedsters.  Grodd may think himself a genius, but an ape is still just an ape.  Speed is a function of distance and time.  Barry has the speed, but time is Zoom’s domain.         Suddenly, Magali and Harry appear.  The woman explains to everyone how Thawne is a traitor, and that they have been brought together under false pretenses.  They are shocked at this news, and Folded Man realizes that Thawne murdered his wife under false pretenses.  Zoom hardly reacts to this news, declaring that he will kill every one of them.  At these words, his former underlings turn on the villain without hesitation.  Eobard taught them well.  How to work together.  When Zoom tries to use his glove on the Folded Man, he envelops Block and they are able to shatter his glove’s tech.  Furious, Eobard says he will make them pay for this.  The fight ends when they realize that Magali is fading, and they need to get her to safety, but they promise they will see Thawne very soon.

With the glove broken and the others gone, Barry and Eobard are left to have a showdown.  Zoom is certain he will get revenge on his former minions, but Barry’s death cannot wait.  He has seen the future of the Flash, and he can’t allow it to pass.  But for this fight, for the battle of the ages, they need the right backdrop.  Zoom grabs Harry and launches away, and Barry is quick to follow.  Zoom taunts Harry during this time, saying that the Flash shares the doctor’s senseless altruism.  The doctor cursed the hero with it.  Harry reels from these words, but Eobard confirms what he is saying.  Like father, like son.  Coming to a stop, he welcomes the Allen family home.

The Flash #46 Comic Book Review

Hello and welcome to Comic Island!  My name is Arden, and this is my recap, and review of The Flash #46.

So those who have been following my reviews will know that I remain rather… conflicted about this video.  It’s really hard to peg this series down, even from the simple gradient of good or bad.  I’ll come across one issue and really enjoy Zoom, some of the other characters, or just the atmosphere of the comic as a whole.  Then the next issue will be a cluttered mess, held back by lackluster writing and art.  It’s currently the biggest mystery of Comic Island, as month to month I struggle to come up with a cohesive opinion regarding the Flash.

Sadly, this state of flux remains intact.  On the one hand, I really like a lot of this issue.  There’s some great character moments with the former lackeys of Zoom, there is some awesome moments concerning Zoom himself, and the art is good and conveys action well but I could do without the frankly goofy appearance of Eobard, who looks like a cartoonish monster at times in this issue.  So yeah, The Flash #46 is pretty good and probably even deserves a recommendation, in spite of these flaws.

[Related – Click Here For More Dc Comic Book Reviews]

That being said, I am a little tired of what feels like a retread.  We know Zoom’s relationship with Barry and what the villain did to his mother Nora.  We know, more or less, the direction the next issue will take, and as such, it’s hard to be excited when we have more information than the main characters.  That is a huge flaw in the writing here, and relates to the biggest problem with the New 52.  It’s one thing to have this big reboot and start things off somewhat fresh.  But if you are going to do that, you need to be original.  You need to tell a new and unique story.  This comic, in spite of some updated and more diverse characters, and doing small things different here and there, well it reads more or less exactly as the same old story concerning Flash and Zoom.  I don’t feel challenged by this comic’s material.  I’m not left guessing or all that excited at what comes next, because we should all be at least vaguely familiar with what is going to happen.

So, at the end of the day, there are many better Flash comics out there, and it’s hard to actually recommend this title knowing this.  It’s okay.  Passable.  Adequate, with some strong moments but otherwise nothing special.  But the problem is that there are better stories out there concerning the Flash, so why bother with this one?  The only reason I’m still reading this comic is that I feel obligated to as I have covered the rest of the story up until now.  If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t be interested in this story anymore.  And that really says everything about this comic, and how I feel about this story arc.