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RECOMMENDED (*** stars)
FLASH #197,
a DC COMICS ongoing series

CREDITS: Written by Geoff Johns. Art by Scott Kolins.
SYNOPSIS: 'Blitz' begins and promises to change Flash forever. It's also the beginning of the end of Kolins' run so start weeping now.
RELEASED: 04/16/03

COVER PRICE (USA): $2.25
YOUR ALTERNATE REALITY PRICE: $1.91


"...I would hope that Geoff will explain how one thing leads to another since it's screwing with a big part of Flash continuity"

Review by Lawrence Evans

I will admit that after reading the first part of 'Blitz' I am somewhat confused. This first installment is according to the cover the origin of Zoom but the events within seem to contradict themselves because when we see Zoom at the end of the issue it's not the Zoom we knew before or is it?
 
Keystone's profiler, Hunter Zolomon, narrates the entire issue. When we last saw him he was wheelchair bound and asking Flash to allow him to use the Cosmic Treadmill to change his history. It's a pretty crappy history filled with death, more death and overconfidence that left him crippled as well as divorced. His father was a serial killer who made him an orphan before being killed himself which made Hunter's choice in career very simple. He met his girlfriend (later wife) at college and studied (under her father) the art of psycho. On a case he really screwed up badly which put him in Keystone with a permanent limp taking a job nobody else wanted. We get these flashbacks (colored in amber) as he lay in a hospital bed after the treadmill exploded as he tried to use it.
 
Aside from the flashbacks the entire issue happens inside the hospital. The Johns story moves casually towards the shock ending (that got me confused) that to Hunter seems rather logical. I would hope that Geoff will explain how one thing leads to another since like I said, it's screwing with a big part of Flash continuity.
 
Fans are really going to miss Scott Kolins on this book since it was here that he made the transition from 'fill in guy' to major talent. The man replacing him, Alberto Dose, has a more Vertigo like style but if Johns plans on making the character darker then he should work after we get used to him.

FLASH © 2003 DC Comics.
All Rights Reserved.

Review © 2003 Alternate Reality, Inc. 

 

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