The Flash No. 9: The Road to Flashpoint
After Barry Allen's recent stint with the world's future police, life has slowed down; well, as much as possible for a police-scientist superhero that runs at nearly the speed of light.
Allen's life, however, will quickly shift back into high gear, as the death of Central City's up-and-coming junior superhero, Elastic Kid, will test the police scientist's investigation skills to the max.
With one of comics' most well known authors at the helm of the series, Geoff Johns has, over the past few months, done something amazing for the Scarlet Speedster and reimagined the Flash's existence within the DC universe. Flash's latest adventure serves as a prelude to DC's event of the year, "Flashpoint."
Essentially, the Flash will wake up in an altered timeline with a few familiar faces, a near Mad Max-style Central City, and even more questions than the great Brainiac could compute. As the story arc looms ominously over the Flash's current situation, Barry Allen must figure out the case before his Tron-inspired future self commences his time-altering agenda.
The prelude to DC's main event sets the stage perfectly, and all eyes will be on Barry Allen as he unravels a murder-mystery of cosmic proportions.
Black Panther No. 515
As Daredevil embarks on his soul-searching adventure in the American Midwest, the area that continues to be the center of Marvel's recent story arcs, "Hell's Kitchen" will need some looking after. Thankfully, there's a Wakandian king who will gladly step in for a friend in need.
Without the riches, the technology, or any comforts from his home, T'Challa takes back the roughest streets in Marvel's illustrious history in "Black Panther No. 515."
Black Panther is the ideal candidate to step in after the wake of the Shadowland fiasco, though just as T'Challa begins to enjoy his new urban surroundings, a twisted Romanian, Vlad the Impaler, seeks to ruin the neighborhood Matt Murdock worked so hard to protect.
Artist Francesco Francavilla illustrates the Wakandian royalty in an absolutely stunning way, as deep reds and astonishing blacks prominently engulf the page. Not to mention that the fight scenes between T'Challa and the Eastern European crime lord are done in such a way that the action feels extremely intense, a technique that is often underachieved in the comic book realm.
David Liss writes both a compelling plot while still interweaving humorous dialogue throughout this week's issue. Team Marvel has created two successful story arcs in the wake of last year's Daredevil crisis, and has done an impressive job with both.
With two of Marvel's fiercest heroes occupied in finding themselves, it leaves the rest of the hero community relatively out of the picture, at least for now.
Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Sun No. 2
In the land of the d20, stories are told in the most interactive of ways. Looking to capitalize on D&D's latest campaign setting, writer Alex Irvine has relatively soiled the pages of the latest edition to the franchise.
In a mere 22 pages, Irvine manages to weave a tale so uninteresting and completely irrelevant that even the most hardcore of dungeon masters will wonder how such a confusing comic would even be published.
Thanks to artist Peter Bergting, the fantastic fantasy setting is at least done a bit of justice, though it is still severely lacking compared to the wondrous imagery the franchise has available to it. While the attempt to bring the d20 game to life is applaudable, this issue has rolled a one on all of its skill checks.
Amongst this issue of absolute misery, there is solace for those who spent $4 on a waste-of-time in comic incarnate: the monster stats for the villains in the issue. This addition allows players of the game a chance, for whatever reason, to recreate this tale of absolute mediocrity.
The ink and panel interpretation of the latest D&D setting is one that should probably receive a supreme cleave from publisher IDW, yet, for nothing else, this comic represents a great plot not to use in your weekly roundtable sessions.
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