Flash #751: Time is on My Side

At its heart, “The Flash Age” is about accountability. Paradox has a legitimate beef with the Flash, whose near-constant manipulation of the timestream removed him from reality and cost him his family. Paradox certainly isn’t wrong to be mad about that. His methods, though, are straight-up villainous (what else would you expect from a monster-man with a skull face?), which of course means that no matter what his motive, he’s now squarely on the wrong side of the story. It’s a classic “Do the ends justify the means?” question. The notion of accountability cuts both ways because of it, as Flash in turn must hold Paradox responsible for his deeds no matter how bad he may feel about the pain he’s indirectly caused.

In the real world, we as a civilized society expect accountability from our civil servants, especially those tasked with upholding law and order. How that actually plays out in practice rather than theory is probably a conversation for a different website, but in the realm of comics, who holds superheroes accountable when they mess up, even if inadvertently? Despite Paradox’s current status as a muscle-bound brute with a ridiculous tattered cape, he’s decided the chore of holding the Flash to pay for his actions must fall to him. Of course, it’s personal, but in his mind, he’s speaking for untold countless others who have had their lives ripped apart due to the Flash’s time-travelling shenanigans. He’s an agent of justice, not a villain. And again, he’s not completely in the wrong for feeling the way he does – just like Erik Killmonger in Black Panther, he’s empathetic until he takes everything too far. And that in and of itself is the mark of quality writing. Kudos to Josh Williamson for pulling it off.

Christian Duce brings the thunder with his clean art style, doing superhero punch-’em-up with the best of them. His art has a fantastic kineticism to it, reminiscent of rotating artist Rafa Sandoval’s style while still being his own artist. He brings sufficient visual presence to Paradox as well – readers really believe this guy is capable of stomping the Flash, even if his design is a little underwhelming. (Seriously, I think he bought that aforementioned cape at a small-town local theater’s yard sale of old props and costumes.) And then there’s Godspeed, who in the hands of a lesser artist might look like Flash in a different costume, but in Duce’s hands moves with an agility and body language all his own. Very impressive, indeed!