I didn’t enjoy this issue at all. But I respect it. The plot didn’t interest me much and I found the conflict a bit tedious. Yet I can sense the intense craft that was employed in its writing. Mark Waid has wonderful moments, mostly due to the mixture of his pacing with his clever narration. Although I didn’t read the issue of The Flash that forced the events of this tale, I didn’t need to. Waid was careful to express just enough of the former plot to catch me up, while ensuring I needed to care about what’s happening in the now.

Immediacy. A difficult feeling to capture, and an even harder feeling to instill in a new reader. Also an appropriate descriptor for the Fastest Man Alive, or the end result of this story. But now it’s just that the fastest man has changed… again. Flash fans, say goodbye to Bart Allen and extend your arms for a hug from Wally West. Why is he back? The long answer doesn’t exist. The short answer is that the Speed Force drew him back. Or did it? As Bart’s clone – Inertia – suggested, maybe Wally’s return to the Speed Force simply made it that much easier for Bart to perish. Or maybe Inertia’s a little $#@% that’s full of $#@%. I’ll go with that latter option.

Wally manages to pull a neat trick while solving the Inertia “problem,” not to mention placing him in a personal hell afterwards. It seems like your typical superhero solution, but it’s actually quite morbid upon further thought. Then again I guess morbid is a relative term when time is fluid at the beckon of the Speed Force.

There is a small army of artists responsible for this issue. All I have to say is that Karl Kerschl should be the new artist on The Flash #231 when the series reboots with Wally next month. His artwork is amazing. Fresh, expressive, animated, emotive, unusual, familiar, beautiful, and consistent. I could go on and on. He just knocks it out of the park and leaves it there for the rest of us to enjoy. Alas, he’s not the new ongoing artist. But let me have my dream, okay? The talented colorist from this issue that colored Kerschl is also a master. I’ll assume it’s Stephane Peru. Pat Brosseau letters the issue and does an excellent job connecting the disparate art styles. And even though the art jumps, it works. Most of the cuts between artists fall in transitional moments. Although it is a bit disorienting, it could be worse. It’s actually pretty good for being so artistically diverse.

But Mark Waid deserves the brunt of the praise. If not for his dazzling script, this story would fall apart. Wally is back with his family from an unexplained location and Waid is so good at writing this issue that he can duck the question of “where was Wally?” By use of Aunt Iris, who has been to the future and back again, a foreboding notion of fate mixed with the ability to tempt the delicate balance of time leaves many questions deliciously unanswered. The creepy way which Waid and upcoming Flash artist Daniel Acuna address these dangling ends is by leaving two eerie foreshadowing pages. So maybe this issue is a bit too deus ex machina for some, but it’s obviously a reset button for the Flash franchise. Only it’s been executed with such poise that I don’t mind the reset at all. In fact, just because I didn’t like this issue doesn’t mean I can’t wait to read The Flash #231. In fact, I think DC just gained a new Flash fan with this story: me. In my book, that means this comic book did its job, and did it well.