"Rogue War, Chapter 4"
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artists: Howard Porter (p), Livesay (i)
Publisher: DC Comics
Plot: As Zoom goes to town on the Rogues who he has come to believe are trying to harm his wife, Wally is busy dealing with the new breed of Rogues. However, while Wally does pretty well against these killers, Captain Cold isn't quite ready to let Wally off, as he brings even more players to the party to give Wally a rough time. Zoom then joins in on the act, as he also brings an unwelcome guest to the party.
Comments: On one hand, one has to admire Geoff Johns's "everything, plus the kitchen sink" approach to his final arc. There's at least a dozen different big ideas fighting for panel time. In fact, this arc might be moving too fast for even the Flash to keep up with, and just when you think the plate already has too much on it, Johns had to go and offer up that final page which is sure to get long time readers of this title excited. Now when I say "long time" I mean the readers who can remember following the adventures of the Flash before Wally West was wearing the costume. Geoff Johns offers up a final page surprise twist that is going to leave newer readers scratching their heads, though I imagine that the opening pages of the next issue will clear up any confusion as Geoff Johns consistently explains continuity issues. On the other side of the equation, I will say there are moments in this issue where I found myself a little frustrated by the way this book jumps from one idea to the next, as there are moments where I find myself interested in an section of the story, and the book is racing off to the next idea. This issue is full of big action and intrigue, and this arc is pretty much the opposite side of the coin to my recent standby complaint of a story being padded so it can fill a trade paperback. This final arc feels a bit like Geoff Johns suddenly realized that this was his final kick at the can, and as such, he took every idea he had left and threw them all into the pot. Still, many of these ideas are cooler than heck, from Wally's battle with the Rogues new breed, to the arrival of Kid Flash who makes an all too rare appearance in the pages of a Geoff Johns written Flash. The issue also makes pretty good use of the ever engaging Zoom as he convincingly takes apart the Rogues. The final page development makes it all too clear that he's doing his absolute best to make Wally's life a never ending tragedy.
Howard Porter is not my favourite artist as I find his ability to detail the action clearly on the page to be a little shaky at times. This issue offers up a very telling example of this problem as his art did a very poor job of selling the impact of that final page surprise. You know there's a problem when the writing offers up such a momentous development and one has to actually go back and study the art to figure out why that last page is so important. I also find myself continually disappointed by the art's ability to convey the speed that these characters are capable of. Speed-lines simply aren't enough, but far too often that's all we get. Now there are some nice moments in this issue, as I did enjoy the credit page sequence where Wally deals with the new breed Rogues, and there's a nice double-page arrival of a surprise Rogue in the latter half of the issue. In the end though, the occasional flashy visual isn't enough to have me overlooking the art's weaker elements when it comes to actually telling the story. Porter does offer up some nice looking cover images though, and this month's issue is a good example of his ability to offer up a visual that conveys the promise of excitement.
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