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The Flash issue 237 – The thousand year separation

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Oh dear….Iris is being objectified yet again….

Barry Allen, a.k.a. The Flash is secretly being watched by Dr Fate and the Flash of Earth 2 as he tries to find his wife Iris. She’s been missing for two weeks now and so he is off to the 30th century to see if she is with her parents. For those that don’t know, Iris is actually from the 30th century and her real parents are there. Not quite sure why he waited a full 2 weeks, surely it couldn’t of taken him that long to look everywhere else, and plus wouldn’t you check her parents place first??

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Anyway, in a sudden telepathic bit of storytelling, Barry knows that Doctor Fate of Earth-2 saw that Earth-1 was doomed and Iris was the cause. He had Jay kidnap her, explain things and after the whole Justice Society tried to sort out her energy fluxes they decided that the only thing they could do is send her to the 30th century in the hopes that they can cure her. Otherwise they need to separate Iris from Barry forever. Barry suddenly understands and stops just before he can grab Iris, knowing now that if he did then the world would fall apart.

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However he got a little too close and a huge storm starts, destroying everything. Flash tries to save the day but is failing until Zoomy (Eobard Thawne aka Professor Zoom/Reverse Flash), turns up and stops the storm instead. The Flash wants to know what he is doing there and Zoomy confesses that it is because he is going to marry Iris! Flash is understandably pissed off at this and makes threats but Zoomy reminds him that if he doesn’t let his wife go then the world will end.

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Zoomy claims that he alone knows the secret of the destruction and how to stop it. Iris has already agreed to marry him in exchange for him keeping the world safe. Barry is quick to point out that she is already married to him, but according to Zoomy that’s just in the 1970’s and 30th century law is different.  I have to confess that my favourite bit is how Zoomy has sewn a wedding outfit for Iris. I’m not sure if it is just future fashion or Zoomy being lusty but it is rather low cut in the chest and short in the skirt with a corseted waist, rather sexy overall for a wedding dress, it isn’t white either.

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Anyway, Zoomy explains that when he was last impersonating Barry (see my last review, tag zoomy comics) he implanted the seeds of this energy flux in her and thus this whole thing was inevitable. He was also the one who tipped off Dr Fate. So Zoomy picks up Iris and rushes off to the other side of the planet where a minister and legal documents await to authenticate their marriage.

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Suddenly Barry has a eureka moment and realises that Zoomy has been vibrating his hands, something he thought was a distraction, but actually has to do with the whole energy flux thing. Barry rushes after them, grabbing Iris back just as Zoomy is confessing how much he’s been dreaming of marrying Iris. The Flash and Zoomy fight whilst Iris watches. And then in a winning move, Barry throws Zoomy into a cactus! (rofl)

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The world is about to end as Barry and Iris reunite, however Barry starts to vibrate his hands in the same way that Zoomy had been and it neutralizes her energy flux. Apparently after a few treatments the effects would be permanent. They turn round and find that Zoomy is gone and so all go home to have a nice family dinner.

eobeth: Comic page from The Flash issue 46, released last week in the uk. Writers; Venditti & Jensen, Pencils; Brett Booth, Ink; Norm Rapmund and Colour; Andrew Dalhouse.

The Flash issue 233 – The deadly secret of the Flash.

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(Someone’s desperate to get laid…)

So it starts with Iris nagging Barry Allen, a.k.a. The Flash about all the chores he’ll have to do that day. They are looking after Stacy, a dead friend’s 18yr old daughter whilst she attends college in Central, giving her a lift to the dentist.

They are half way down the road when a weather warning says that a group of twisters are going to hit the city. Barry speeds out of the car, grabs a mannequin, places it in the road and pretends it’s an injured person. He thus has to stop the car, gets Iris to drive on to find a phone to call for help. Iris is totally wise to his games though.

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So the Flash runs off to sort out the twisters, but the third is suspicious and he gets sucked into it. Turns out it is a death trap, set up by none other than Zoomy (Eobard Thawne aka Professor Zoom/Reverse Flash). Trapped in the tornado the Flash is barraged by cosma-spurs (whatever the frick they are), but they are draining Flash’s stamina. Zoomy explains that cosma-spurs are a new deadly type of energy that was recently discovered in his time. So obviously the first thing he did was travel back 500 years in time to inflict them on the Flash. And it seems that he succeeded as all that is left is the Flash’s burnt out suit with no Barry in sight!

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The news reports that the Flash is dead and Iris is understandably upset. That is until he appears at her window, apparently fine. He explains everything that happened and how he vibrated out of his suit to escape. However, when Iris suggests he goes and corrects the news about his death, he says no, claiming that pretending to be dead will smoke out Zoomy. So they spend their day as previously planned, but every time Iris needs picking up, Barry is 20 minutes late. She gets more and more annoyed at him. She snaps at him when he compliments her on her new hair style, claiming that Barry is acting strange and that her hair has been like that for months. So she demands to see his watch, finding it to be at the right time. This annoys her further cause she had worked out that Barry was always 25 mins late and set his watch back that amount to make him on time. This lead to her working out the truth; that this isn’t Barry!

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Yes, it is Zoomy, trying to get into Iris’s pants yet again! So as she figured it out, he’s gonna have to kill her. Apparently Zoomy did a mind probe on Barry hence why he knew what their schedule was. Mind powers again…  Iris is confused as to why Zoomy is going to all this trouble and so he explains. Apparently its love, because that is the only thing he can think of as a legitimate reason for wanting to murder Barry and marry Iris which just makes him sound crazy. And it is on those grounds that Iris rejects him again and Zoomy decides to kill her instead. Yeah, true love that is… So he demonstrates how she is going to be sliced to death by him twirling a metal yard stick at speed and cutting up a banana.

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But suddenly out of nowhere something strikes him, knocking him out. Iris can sense that it is Barry, even if she can’t see him. Barry then reappears and explains. He vibrated himself into non-solid invisibility, but the radiation from the cosma-spurs was preventing him from becoming solid again. So he followed Iris around in the hopes that he’d be able to save her, which he does. So with a passed out Zoomy on the floor, Barry and Iris make out as Stacy walks in.

eobeth: I’m just going to leave this here… (I’ve seen and reblogged a few pics so far of Wellsobard with his top off/open so I thought I would give classic Eobard some love instead)

eobeth: Official new Flash banner (Artist credits at top of image) I really like how all the speedsters now look different to each other. Yes there is a red/yellow/black theme across everyone but they’ve mixed it up and made each character more individual. I always … Continue reading

The flash issue 186 – Time times three equals…?

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This issue starts with an exhausted Barry Allen a.k.a. The Flash getting some loving advice from his wife Iris about how he should take a holiday. Iris doesn’t have time to go with him so suggests he takes a holiday in time thus could leave and be back only minutes later. Unfortunately once he gets back he collapses and is rushed to hospital. No-one knows what’s wrong with him but Barry is now in a coma.

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Then we cut to 500 years in the future to see what Zoomy (Eobard Thawne a.k.a. Professor Zoom/Reverse Flash) is up to. It seems that the prison service has finally worked out that he has mind powers as well as super speed and thus are flooding his cell with radiation that saps the will. They’re making him watch day time tv too! Oh the horror! Anyway, Zoomy is just noting how he should emulate the way gangsters talk when he’s interrupted by the disembodied voice of Sargon the sorcerer. He explains how he will break Zoomy out and bring him back to the 20th century. Zoomy obviously agrees and suddenly find himself in Sargon’s creepy lair.

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Sargon somehow has one of Zoomy’s many spare uniforms (ok so it’s later explained that he stole it from the Flash museum which means that Barry did strip Zoomy in that previous comic and kept his suit). So whilst he’s putting that on Sargon explains that he’s studied the occult all his adult life and although the past has taught him many great secrets, he really wants to travel to the future to learn more. However Zoomy says it would take months and he can’t be bothered so he runs off to kill the Flash instead. But Sargon won’t be deterred so easily, so resolves to make Zoomy think that the Flash is already dead so he’ll come back and teach him. Cause obviously that’s what he’d do with his free time, not go on a crime spree or anything else….

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So Sargon dresses a skeleton in a Flash suit and arranges for it to be found. The news reports Flash as dead and Zoomy checks with Iris to see if he really is. She believes so as Barry’s missing from the hospital and the skeletons match. So Zoomy goes back to Sargon who is still bothering him about learning to time travel. Zoomy isn’t having any of it so pretends to teach him whilst tricking Sargon into banishing himself to a remote dimension. Good job too as apparently Zoomy was starting to get freaked out by all the magic.So as predicted Zoomy goes on a crime spree.

But where is Barry? He apparently felt better, skipped out on the hospital and then collapsed in his Flash costume in an alleyway. Eventually getting up he hails a cab but the radio informs him of Zoomy’s current crime spree. The Flash resolves to stop him but disappears on getting out the cab, having been summon to Sargon in the other dimension. Flash then saves him and brings him back. Then whilst Sargon is passed out, he goes off to find Zoomy and stop him.

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Meanwhile Zoomy has stolen all the best loot and shrunk it down to easy carrying size. But upon running into the Flash he resizes it all to attack him, then uses his shrink ray on the Flash himself, putting tiny Flash in a jar. Zoomy then goes on a crime spree across time.The Flash finds that he still has Sargon’s magic gem in his pocket, having torn it off his costume earlier. He uses it to break free, defeat Zoomy and then resizes himself. He deposits Zoomy back in jail, but when he goes to where he left Sargon he has already disappeared. So he nips to the 25th century doctors to get cured of what was making him pass out. Sargon swears he’ll be back for his ruby.

The Flash issue 175 – Race to the end of the universe

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Ok, so this comic is a little light on Zoomy (Eobard Thawne aka Professor Zoom / Reverse Flash) action but he is in there so I’m going to review it anyway.

It starts with Barry Allen on his way home when a bulletin comes in saying that Weather Wizard is going to attack a power station. Wanting to try out a lightning rod he was working on and conveniently carrying with him, Barry as the Flash rushes to the scene.

He’s just fighting with Weather Wizard when Superman turns up to help out. Flash is a bit pissed at Superman muscling in on his territory but Supes claims he was called by Flash. Both leave, rather confused.

Well it seems that Barry has now informed Iris of his secret identity as he busily bitches about how this is all a set up by Supes to prove he’s faster than Barry. Someone has some deep seated insecurities about their speed.

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Next day the same thing happens in Metropolis, in which Barry gets the call and Supes denies it. They both resolve that someone is obviously playing them and so go for a meeting with the whole Justice League. However, the league has no idea who called the meeting.

Turns out it was Rokk and Sorban, rulers of gambler planet Ventura. Apparently they bet on a charity race that Flash and Supes did. Each bet on a different hero, however the result was a draw hence they are there to demand a rematch. This time it is 240,000 trillion miles to the edge of the universe and back. And as an incentive they will blow up the home town of the looser, or both if they don’t take part. They use their mind powers to demonstrate that they can destroy stuff, to make Barry able to run and breathe in space, and to restrain Green Lantern who is pissed that there is a space plot that he isn’t part of.  In fact they capture the whole of the league so that they can’t aid their team mates.

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Flash and Supes start the race, though Flash only has a week’s worth of oxygen. The race starts ok but then it all gets fucked up. Supes has to take a detour due to a red star, happens across Ventura but although it’s got a huge volcano erupting, he doesn’t help cause he sees something that stops him.

Meanwhile Flash finds an old space craft and seeing people inside goes to help. The people are actually fake and the Flash is trapped inside some giant man eating space plant. He manages to vibrate out of it though Sorban, who is meant to be betting on Flash winning the race, is miffed that he survived.
In space, Supes catches up with Flash and is trying to explain to him how something rotten is going on but Flash doesn’t believe him. He gets cut off anyway by kryptonite meteors. Flash gets in trouble with a sticky meteor but Supes saves him.

Back at the watchtower, Martian Manhunter has escaped his bondage and posing as Supes he tries to take on the aliens. However they use yellow kryptonite on him which he turns to lead so they can’t use it on the real Supes. But he gets captured again.

The race continues and Supes and Flash keep getting into trouble and then helping each other out. Though Barry is very distrustful of Supes and keeps on racing even though Supes has said that this is a trap and they should just go back. Just as they are getting to the end of the universe Flash gets tired, realising that Supes has the advantage because he doesn’t. So he stops for a little bit on a planet. Strangely he hears someone calling his name. Whilst this is happening, Supes falls into a trap and only just manages to send a distress signal to Flash. Flash is now all up for helping Supes out and goes to rescue him. They then make it through one final trap with the aid of teamwork and pass the finish line. Oddly enough, it looks like each of them won depending on what screen they looked at.

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Supes goes to confront Rokk, who tries to attack him with magical demon powers. Supes calls him out on this and punches him in the face. Flash confronts Sorban and although he is strangely fast, the Flash is faster and punches him too. Turns out it was Abra Kadabra, a magician from the 64th century and Zoomy all along.  Supes knew something was wrong because when he went passed Ventura he saw that the volcanos were being bet on by the real Rokk and Sorban. And Flash found out cause Green Lantern used the last of his lantern power to inform him through a talking fish on the planet he rested on.

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The Flash issue 165 – One bridegroom too many!

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This issue starts with the Flash, Barry Allen, debating as to if he should tell his soon to be wife, Iris West, that he is the Flash. And he better make his mind up quickly because the wedding is tomorrow.

The next day we see everyone at the church. Both of Barry’s parents, Al Desmond and his now wife Rita, Iris’s dad who is a professor, Wally West and his parents, the curator of the Flash museum and Daphne Dean, a movie star and childhood friend of Barry’s are all there. Anyway, Barry isn’t late for once and they are just about to start the wedding when the Flash turns up and protests, saying that Iris is marrying the wrong man!

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Meanwhile in the future, Zoomy (Eobard Thawne aka Reverse Flash /Professor Zoom) is being held in a cell by radiation. However he has been using that radiation to make himself smarter and enhance his mind powers. Yep, he still has mind powers… And due to those he now knows that Barry is the Flash. Yay for telepathy! So he decides that he is going to switch bodies with the Flash and take his apparently cushy life. He also absorbs all of Barry’s memories as they trade physical places in space-time. Then once in Barry’s house he modifies an electric shaver into a matter distributor to make his face look like Barry’s.

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Having taken over Barry’s life and having found his spare Flash ring he dons the uniform and goes out to be a hero. However despite apprehending the criminals he can’t bring himself to put back the loot so runs off with it resolving to sort it out later. He gets back just in time to make it to Barry’s wedding. Apparently he wasn’t planning on getting married but will take it as a perk of the job.

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So in the future Barry find himself imprisoned in Zoomy’s place. He can’t get out at first but uses his ring to shrink some of the radiation walls, in the same way it shrinks his suit to weaken it. Once out he has to run beyond the speed of light as that will always snap him back to his own era. Really solid and understandable science there…

So he rushes to the church, stops the wedding and literally just carries Zoomy off, dumping him in a nearby woodland. Barry says that they must fight for Iris and Zoomy concurs, suiting up. However Zoomy brought some tricks from the future and fights dirty. But Barry powers through and after a brief running tour of Central city, he manages to catch Zoomy when he falls in a lake, not yet able to use his speed to walk on water like Barry can. Barry spends a moment wondering what to do with the now unconscious Zoomy.

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But it all works out as the future police were watching the whole time and zap him back to them, leaving Barry with his wedding suit. He gets back to the church where no one questions what happened and he finally marries Iris. As they drive off he is still debating if he should tell her or not…

The Flash issue 153 – The mightiest punch of all time

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This comic starts with Zoomy (aka Reverse Flash / Professor Zoom), whose real name is finally revealed as being Eobard Thawne, being released from prison having fooled the cerebral scanner into giving him the green light. I am yet again amazed at how secure future prison is…

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Anyway, back at his hideout Zoomy puts on yet another reverse flash suit, he’s obviously been tailoring in his spare time as the last two suits were confiscated. Whilst in prison he came up with the science of ‘ultra-speed’ and believes he can make nefarious machines based on this. It’s lucky he is also a really gifted engineer as he builds a machine that can bring out a person’s inner evil, not just that but its rays can travel through time. Which is good because his intended victim is Mr Element.

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Meanwhile, in the present day, Al (previously Mr Element) is bemoaning to Barry that he is getting urges to steal stuff again. He asks for the Flash’s help but punches him when he gets it. He then runs off to his cave to suit up. Zoomy’s evil beam can’t seem to penetrate the cave, despite being able to travel through time itself and thus becomes unstable, effecting those around.

Thus the Flash has to waste time securing all these new criminals.
In another fit of genius engineering Zoomy creates his own cosmic treadmill, having looked at the original only once. Also, his new science has granted him speed again. No explanation as to why or how, but ok, whatever.

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Zoomy lands in the present, dropping one of his machines which accidently emits a radiation allowing him to read and control the minds of anyone in the city. I’m pretty sure that radiation doesn’t work that way. Also, mind powers once again, perhaps he needs to think about a rebranding?? Anyway, he spots the Flash carrying Al to a safe house and gets all jealous and uses his mind powers to convince the city council to outlaw speed powers. He then proceeds to torment the Flash who can’t bring himself to break the law, committing crimes in front of him. The Flash has an idea and runs off, at legal speed, using an underground tunnel to take himself outside the city limits, thus being free to use his powers again.

Zoomy tracks him down and they fight as Al watches from the bushes. He witnesses Zoomy knock out the Flash and carry him off. Deciding that he can’t save the Flash as Al, he goes and gears up as Mr Element.

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Zoomy has kept the Flash alive so he can gloat, and then he tracks down Al and sees that he is robbing a bank. Impressed by him being villainous Zoomy astral projects to invite Mr Element to come and kill the Flash.  He turns up, double crosses Zoomy who subsequently gets punched so hard by the Flash that it sends him back to his own time where he is put back in prison.

Unfortunately Mr Element is actually now evil and only helped the Flash as he had put a self-hypnosis suggestion into his own mind before hand to make himself help the Flash when he saw him. Yep, cause this wasn’t all complicated enough. But knowing of the reform programme in the future, the Flash takes Al to it using the cosmic treadmill and thankfully he is fully rehabilitated.