The Flashes are together, along with the heroic posing “not a team” of Batgirl, Harley, Booster and Blue Beetle. Throw in Ivy doing a Swamp Thing impression and you have the ingredients of the final issue of a series that promised so much; it’s up to you to decide if you think it has delivered.
The “not a team” has caught up with young and old Flash. Alarms have been triggered which means that Batman and the League are on the way. Now is the time, no pun intended, to resolve the what’s happened, has happened and how to get out of it.
Tom King, the recently announced deportee of the Batman book and writer of an upcoming Bat and Cat 12 issue maxi series, continues to try and cover as much art as possible with word balloons. As is the norm, we get some more therapy sessions. By now, they are not as fun or as intriguing as they used to be. I guess that’s what happens when you over use a trope. That said, the various Robin’s perceptions were interesting to see, though including Nightwing is a bit of a stretch considering what is going on in his book. In fact, not to be the continuity police here, but Jason Blood doesn’t have a demon in him anymore, Jessica Cruz is in the Ghost sector, Martian Manhunter is stuck out with the Justice League……do I need to go on? For the most part the dialogue is better than in previous issues, focusing as it does on the Harley and Ivy reunion, the Flashes and Booster being, well time-bonkers Booster. Which leads to one of the big problems in the book. To resolve the problem of the dead body, the body that caused Batman and Barry Allen problems, we get a one panel explanation of going to the future to “fast clone” a body. So the end of a nine issue run, that answer is to time travel to the future to solve a problem. Now that this particular cat is out of the bag, why can’t “travelling to the future” be used to solve every problem? Don’t know how to catch the Joker? Zip ahead to the future, see how you do it, then go back and do it! Don’t know where the hidden hideout of whomever is? Zip to the past and follow him as he’s builds it and then back to your own time to catch him! To all intents and purposes this is a lazy deus ex machina of the very worst kind!
When he has been present on the book, Clay Mann has produced some fantastic art. This issue is no exception. Gorgeous, fluid lines are used to emphasise the characters, both in the aforementioned action poses and in the more sombre Flash with Flash scenes. There is an exuberance to the Harley and Ivy get together that speaks volumes of the love that this pair have for each other. Mann has courted some controversy with how he has depicted the women in this series: I don’t have a problem with it at all, though I am sure something will be said about the Batgirl pose early on in this issue. My final comment on the art, I am glad that someone thought it a good idea to put the names of the characters who were receiving therapy in the panel; I wouldn’t have recognised Spoiler in a million years and I am a huge Spoiler fan! The colors are gorgeous. Tomeu Morey has been spectacular throughout this series, giving the book a very mature look and feel. Letterer Clayton Cowles has also been fantastic, handing the sheer verbosity of the dialogue with sublime skill.
I mentioned above that the “fast clone” was one of my problems with this issue and probably the story as a whole. In my opinion, there is a greater problem and it boils down to the final production of an otherwise well intentioned idea. Heroes in Crisis was billed as “how does a superhero handle PTSD?” This is taken from DC’s own website by the way. We have been given Sanctuary, a place where heroes can get treatment. Though for Wally West, that treatment pretty much failed him, and when he acted out, through the throes of his mental health condition, he gets put in jail!
I am going to just let that sit there.
Wally West has a mental health breakdown and was put in jail!
Is this really the message that Tom King and DC want to put out there to their readers, any of whom could be having a mental health moment. When dealing with real life problems, I find this outcome wholly unsatisfactory and wholly irresponsible. Through comics, in fact all entertainment, you have an opportunity to reach people and change minds. Heroes in Crisis, in the very end, only manages to re-establish the stigma of mental health.
Writing – 0 Stars
Art – 4 Stars
Colors – 5 Stars
[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Written by; Tom King
Art by: Clay Mann
Colors by; Tomeu Morey
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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