Wally West is lost in time, stuck in his cousin’s body and forced to deal with the Gold Beetle. He’s had worse days… Your Major Spoilers review of The Flash #769 from DC Comics awaits!
THE FLASH #769
Writer: Jeremy Adams
Artist: David Lafuente & Brandon Peterson
Colorist: Mike Atiyeh & Luis Guerrero
Letterer: Steve Wands
Editor: Mike Cotton
Publisher: DC Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: April 20, 2021
Previously in The Flash: After an accident pushes Wally West into the time stream, the former Kid Flash lands in the body of his onetime partner, Impulse. Now sprinting through the 30th century side by side with the mysterious (and, yeah, ridiculous) Gold Beetle, Wally must uncover what’s causing the destructive explosions that keep propelling him through time and the bodies of other speedsters.
#TIMETRAVELSHENANIGANS
After somehow being dispersed into the time-stream, Wally West arrives in the 30th Century, finding himself in the body of Impulse, his cousin and former sidekick. Making things even more complicated is the presence of the time-traveling Gold Beetle, who had somehow teamed up with Bart/Impulse to fight The Dominators before Wally arrived. When she finds out that it’s Wally, she even almost leaks some interesting bits of future knowledge, but stops at the last moment, remembering the paradox problem. In the present, Green Arrow, Mister Terrific and The Flash realize that in order to help, they’re going to have to create a time capsule that will survive the next 1000 years, which they stash in the Flash Museum. Bart/Wally and Gold Beetle impulsively break in, use the MacGuffin the trio has created to take down a Dominator-grown-to-giant-size before Wally is sent hurtling through time once more… to land in the body of Jay Garrick during World War II!
I IMMEDIATELY LOVE GOLD BEETLE
Having missed her debut in ‘Future State: Suicide Squad’, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I loved Gold Beetle, a descendant of both Blue Beetle and Booster Gold who is ebullient, upbeat and brain-scrambled from a life of time-travel. She reminds me a bit of Squirrel Girl or Harley Quinn in her fast-paced banter and impulsive nature, and makes a wonderful foil for Wally during his adventures. Seeing the third Flash back in action is also happy for me, both in terms of Adams’ joyful dialogue and in the beautiful art of Lafuente and Peterson. It’s somehow slicker than the Jim Lee-inspired styles that have defined so much of DC for the last decade, but still maintains clear story-telling and human bodies, and the coloring is truly beautiful. Atiyeh and Guerrero use a much broader palette than I’m used to seeing in Big Two books, using lots of earth-tones in the present, a wild palette full of pastels and hyper-colors in the future, and making both work perfectly.
BOTTOM LINE: I REALLY LIKE THIS ONE
In short, The Flash #769 is a fun comic that grabbed my attention, using two different Flashes in different time periods to unravel a Speed Force mystery (with a little help from their friends) and delivering the goods with excellent art and coloring and compelling dialogue and story, earning 4.5 out of 5 stars overall. If you’ve been mad about DC’s use of Wally recently, this issue could go a long way towards reconciliation, assuming they don’t explode him at the end of the arc.
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THE FLASH #769
A really attractive comic with a great story hook and really fun character interactions and dialogue. The Green Arrow/Flash/Mr. Terrific team may be my new favorite trio, and Gold Beetle is a scream. Well worth the price!
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Writing8
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Art9
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Coloring10
Once upon a time, there was a young nerd from the Midwest, who loved Matter-Eater Lad and the McKenzie Brothers... If pop culture were a maze, Matthew would be the Minotaur at its center. Were it a mall, he'd be the Food Court. Were it a parking lot, he’d be the distant Cart Corral where the weird kids gather to smoke, but that’s not important right now... Matthew enjoys body surfing (so long as the bodies are fresh), writing in the third person, and dark-eyed women. Amongst his weaponry are such diverse elements as: Fear! Surprise! Ruthless efficiency! An almost fanatical devotion to pop culture! And a nice red uniform.