The Flash #797: An Enjoyable, Yet Jarring Read

Flash #797 is a low-stakes entertaining issue that brings fun to The Flash series after the epic One-Minute War. While it’s a jarring experience, that doesn’t mean fans won’t appreciate a fun story from the Flash family.

The issue starts with Kid Flash begrudgingly agreeing to watch over Jai and Irey. Upon picking them up from school, a mysterious purple ray snatches the kids up, landing them in a secret lair run by Dr. Nightmare. While this might scare a typical kid, the Flash gang doesn’t take Dr. Nightmare seriously, and they joke at his appearance, resulting in a less-than-impressed group of villains joining him. This comedic moment is the tone of the overall issue.

This issue has no dire stakes, and the plot is a little weak as characters join the story quickly. The coincidences make for a clunky action that made me re-read pages because I thought I had missed something.

Minor Spoilers
Written by Jeremy Adams, this issue felt like the goal was to have a team-up of the newer heroes in a kid-friendly story filled with action. While that is not necessarily bad, incorporating Damian Wayne and a younger Jon Kent felt like a “spectacle” to have a Super Sons moment rather than doing something new.

This issue’s art production is probably the most significant criticism of this issue–not because it is terrible, but because there is a shift in creators working on the point that derails the entire experience. Serg Acuna is the artist for pages 1-14, and Tom Derenick is the artist for pages 15-22. Matt Herms is the colorist for pages 1-8, and Peter Pantazis is for pages 9-22. If this sounds like an unnecessary complication, that is because it is. Both groups do a great job at the art; however, when the shift happens in the middle of a story, it reads like the main story stopped and a backup story begins. It would have been better to have maybe the two groups split based on the issue rather than page count.

As long as readers don’t go in expecting a critical moment in the Flash series, this issue is still enjoyable. Having read only a few issues of The Flash, I could still appreciate the characters and follow along despite having limited knowledge of the Flash Family.