The Flash #11: This Is All Getting Very Morrisonian

The Flash #11 picks up with Wally’s introduction to the Archangels while Barry and the other speedsters attempt to figure out what is going on and how to save their friend. There is no way to get around this: this is a very weird and confusing series. The Flash #11 exemplifies all of the weirdness and can be seen as a perfect example of the kind of book you are getting into when you look at this run. This series has been unlike any Flash series so far, and for fans who are wondering what it’s like, imagine Grant Morrison from the early 2000s writing a Flash book under the Vertigo imprint. Does that sound bad? To some people, yes; however, this run of The Flash has to be the most thought provoking, interpretive take on the character since Mark Waid introduced the Speed Force, reading like one of those math problems that a college professor will tell you has gone unsolved for decades.

The Flash #11 answers a lot of the questions that have come up thus far, but in some of the most bizarre manners, requiring a lot of the characters to create their own metaphors to help create some kind of sense around everything. In the most Morrisonian kind of way, this book feels like it could be its own, line-wide event, even though it only exists within The Flash series itself, with little books referencing these events. The Flash #11 feels like it is at the cosmic scale of every one of Morrison’s JLA adventures, with the antagonist of the series revealing itself to be something that no fan ever would presume to guess. Si Spurrier truly tapped into all of that energy that he has created while working on Hellblazer and the X-Men line to create one of the most bizarre series that DC has ever put out. Like it or not, there is no question that Spurrier is executing all of this exactly as intended.

While the first arc of this series was drawn by Mike Deodato Jr, this arc was picked up by Ramon Perez, who does his best to capture the craziness and unpredictability of the series, although sometimes at the mercy of some of the more familiar aspects. Specifically, there is one panel in this issue where Linda is carrying her and Wally’s new born baby, Waid, while the heroes discuss how they should proceed. Waid clearly was not the focus of this panel; however, the way his face is drawn feels considerably off, and looks odd compared to the rest of the characters. This creates a weird precedent as  much of this issue sees an interpretive look at Wally speeding through dimensions while he attempts to attack forces that are incomprehensibly complex. Most of Perez’s art works here, it is just the juxtaposition between the bizarre and the familiar that never quite hits the mark, causing the issue with Waid to seem like a bigger deal than it actually is.

The bizarre thing about this issue and the series at large is how it all plays into the events of Absolute Power and the greater DC Universe. The forces at play here are beyond cosmic in scale, and this makes the drama in Absolute Power look small in comparison. The fact is that this series, much like Wonder Woman, Superman, or Batman, are trying to tackle that line between being an individual story and being part of this greater universe. The difference here is how this book will seemingly have complications for the rest of the universe whereas the other books are a lot smaller in scale. With this arc concluding soon, it will be interesting to see where Spurrier takes this series, especially as it does dovetail into the greater DC world.