It’s confession time…..again! Wally has something he wants to say and we are the ones listening. Confessions are allegedly good for the soul. At this stage in the story, I am not so sure. Wally’s pain has been ignored, practically since Rebirth #1. With his return, he found a world that had forgotten him. He kind of made amends with Barry and the Titans but struggled with Linda. For those not aware, Wally was married to Linda Parks and had two kids. Since his “rebirth”, that family has been missing. True, Wally also went through some stuff in Titans, including having a heart attack. Yet this sense of having lost everything was hardly touched upon. Now, the impacts of these losses is back to haunt him.
Tom King has effectively picked at a lose thread of Wally’s psyche which had been practically ignored. That then explains the reasons for the pace of the book. It has all been smoke and mirrors, serving to distract from the key part. How you feel about that is your prerogative. Personally, I like a little bit of misdirection. The problem is that, if Wally is the culprit, we have had seven issues of it, meaning that drastically more time has been spent on the meandering than on the actual story or actually resolving Wally’s issues. That seems quite a disparity to me. This then has been the concern regarding this series; the pace. Once the whole thing is done, it will interesting to read in one go to see if the pacing feels as sedate as it does in the floppies. In many ways, this story feels like it has been over-written to the point of pretension. Now, after all the chasing, King has only one issue left to help Wally, one issue to practically cover 5 days. To say we are finishing in a hurry is quite an understatement.
Mitch Gerads provides the art for the majority of the book, with Travis Moore adding in four pages. Without Clay Mann there is also a panel structure change with no 9 panel pages. That style had been used to indicate the moments that the character was receiving counselling. Therefore, despite the script, the change should put you on notice that wally is talking to somebody else. Between the two, the art feels heavy handed, with thick lines a huge contrast to Mann’s clean style. Gerads pulls double duty as colorist; I am not sure why Tomeu Morey wasn’t used here, after all his work had been outstanding every issue. As a colorist, Gerads again has a heavy style that in places looks like crayons were used. It is a shame that the penultimate issue looks like a fill-in. Clayton Cowles’ lettering is perfect for a book that is all exposition.
For a book that promised to deliver a meta-textual story, we are now eight issues down, we are down to the last 22 pages. Will it have a happy ending? Will it have any impact on anything at all? As a warning message about how PTSD affects a person, with the amount of time it has taken to get here, I am not sure how effective it is. At this stage, i think I can applaud the idea, even if at times the execution has been a tad wayward.
Writing – 3
Art – 3 Stars
Colors – 3 Stars
[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Written by: Tom King
Art by; Mitch Gerads & Travis Moore
Colors by; Mitch Gerads
Letters by; Clayton Cowles
Published by; DC Comics
Author Profile
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I am a long time comic book fan, being first introduced to Batman in the mid to late 70's. This led to a appreciation of classic artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo. Moving through the decades that followed, I have a working knowledge of a huge raft of characters with a fondness for old school characters like JSA and The Shadow
Currently reading a slew of Bat Books, enjoying a mini Marvel revival, and the host of The Definative Crusade and Outside the Panels whilst also appearing on No-Prize Podcast on the Undercover Capes Podcast Network
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