Comic Recap/Thoughts: The Flash Vol. 2: Speed of Darkness, Part 1

Hello and welcome to my ongoing mission to read and recap all of the DC comics. Within reason (kind of). That being said I do not know if I will keep moving forward on every line of comics. The Flash is a hero that I plan to keep going with though, so that means it is time for The Flash Vol. 2: Speed of Darkness. This volume includes issues #9-13. If you need or want to read my very long recap of the 9 issue Vol.1 then click this link (here). This post will cover issues #9-11 and I am going to try and keep it briefer this time but still hit the key points. Let's hop into it.


Kid Flash of Two Worlds: Iris, Barry, and Wally are chilling in Iris's office discussing some mystery flowers she gets once a week. But there is a huge fire happening on Central City bridge so they all have to go. (It is cute because they were going to have pizza and a horror movie night.) Wally is narrating as Kid Flash while him and Flash try to get everyone off the bridge, before it blows (these things always blow). Older Wally shows up to help out too and young Wally not knowing who he is assumes he is a bad guy (even though he is dressed exactly like Flash). Barry tries to introduce the two Wally's but has some sort of vision that causes an existential crisis. Then Barry turns into a real jerk attacking both of the Wally's insecurities and fears. It seems like maybe Zoom (an evil speedster who is not the Reverse Flash) is taunting Barry from the speed force. The Wally's try to pull Barry back to reality and it works.

While Barry was being mean he revealed that Reverse Flash is actually young Wally's father. (Wally had thought Reverse Flash was his uncle). Naturally young Wally is upset and runs off. Later we find him wandering around town with his friend Chunk (a nickname I assume). It is Halloween and ironically Wally is the only one not in a costume. Older Wally shows up to have a heart to heart with young Wally. (Fun fact: somehow young Wally does not know that Barry is the Flash, nor does he know who this new speedster is.) They bond over having messed up parent situations (a common problem among heroes.) Older Wally offers to teach younger Wally a trick where he steals speed (really kinetic energy) to slow down explosions. Later Barry and older Wally meet in the park. Barry figured out that OG Wally is the one sending flowers to Iris. He loves and missed his Aunt, but isn't ready to tell her he is back just yet. Wally tells Barry about how Abra Kadabra made the world forget him, but was not the one who stole time from everyone. Barry is sure they will figure it out and he shares with Wally that he saw one more thing in his vision and it is a helmet that most Flash fans will recognize and that of Jay Garrick (another version of The Flash.)


The Speed of Darkness, Part One: The first page sets a spooky tone about a man in darkness who finds hope one day and lives happily ever after. In Central City Barry and Iris are going for a jog. Barry is in his own head, but Iris eventually gets through telling him that Wally is skipping school and his grades are dropping. He assumes asking him for help was why she wanted to jog, but since she is a reporter her real reason is to investigate some weird muggings in the park. Right on queue a guy with a bunch of paper ninja stars demands everyone's wallets. The Rogues are all still out of town so some upstart bad guys are trying to step in. This guy's name is Papercut...so he starts cutting people with his paper. Iris is blocking (aka saving Barry) when Kid Flash shows up and seems to take Papercut down and is pretty proud of himself. Iris is less impressed. Turns out Papercut can actually control anything made out of wood, he just likes paper because it is easier. Papercut uses roots to grab up everyone, giving Barry a chance to change into the Flash. Flash takes out Paper cut and gives Kid Flash some mega disappointed tone.

(Quick note: Iris does know that Kid Flash is her nephew Wally, but also doesn't know that Barry is the Flash.) After dropping off Papercut at jail, the Flash takes Kid Flash to school and lectures him about not being cocky or underestimating any Rogue. Flash knows that Kid Flash has been hanging out with the Teen Titans and makes the mistake of throwing out the trust word. Wally gets real mad talking about how Flash won't even tell him who he is. The fight ends with Wally going into his school. In school Wally's pal Chunk tells him about some walking shadow that has been scaring people. Later at home Iris grounds Wally, he promises to try harder, but once she steps out he decides he just needs to prove himself, aka find out what the shadow is. He finds the shadow-man pretty quickly and it thinks Wally is the Flash. It tells Wally there is no hope and sends a bunch of shadow monsters chasing after him. He cannot outrun the shadows and they overtake him.


The Speed of Darkness, Part Two: Wally finds himself in pitch black, so he uses lightning to try and see, but that only reveals he is surrounded by shadow monsters. Barry pops over to check in on Wally as Barry in hopes that he might listen to him. First there is a fun moment where Barry sees that Iris is writing a Flash horror movie, but no time to unpack that as he goes to check on Wally. Of course Wally is gone. Iris tells Barry to go home, she knows where Wally went (she assumes that he is with the Flash). So Barry has to circle around and pretend to not know that Kid Flash is missing. Iris is pissed that Flash told Kid Flash off, because he is Wally's hero of course he was going to try and prove himself (she gets it). Before they can fight more, the shadow-man shows up and we learn that his name is The Shade. The Shade tells Flash and Iris that Kid Flash is in the shadows. Iris of course just runs in the Shade, disappearing. Flash follows but she isn't there. He does bump into Kid Flash though who tells him that the shadow monsters do not like lightning.

Wally sort of falls over though and thinks that he has been trapped for days, but really it has only been hours. They sort of fight some more and worry about Iris, but a fancy gentleman interrupts them. The man explains they are in the Shadowlands. Flash knows this guy, he is The Shade, but looking much better than the one they met before. We get a Shade back story where he was a bad-ish guy, then he was a hero who fell in love with a woman named Hope. Shade lost control of his shadows and they started doing crime again (it also thinks that he was self-sabotaging). Hope finds out and is pretty pissed but the shadows come and steal her, hoping Shade will be evil again. Shade has been in the Shadowlands looking for her and can no longer leave, but he sent a tiny piece of himself out to find the Flash. Not just for his speed but because Flash is also a sort of beacon of hope. They can all relate to feeling doubt and letting that lead to self sabotage. Shade has a few more bombs to share. The shadows have been building a tower to help them escape into the regular world and they don't need to look for Hope or Iris. They have both been corrupted by shadows and are now the Queens of Shadowlands.


Thoughts: I have a few thoughts. Mostly why the heck doesn't Kid Flash know who Flash is? I find this all dumb. It is super clear that this is going to blow up in Barry's face and everyone is going to be really mad. Moving on, I also think having an evil uncle was bad enough, why does Reverse Flash have to be Wally's evil dad? Also, having two Wally Wests is still confusing when you are typing out a recap. When you are reading the comics it is actually pretty easy because they both look and act very differently. That does lead me to question the whole West family in general. Like is Iris the only good member? Why does she have to keep saving her nephews? I get that they had/wanted a way to have both Wally's and for it to make as much sense as possible, but sometimes it just feels like a lot. I'll share more of my story thoughts in my next post.

The writer of this and the first volume of Flash is Joshua Williamson. Joshua is an award winning comic book author who has been working on DC comics for a long time. In fact he is the writer for just over the first 100 issues of this run of Flash. That is a big deal. I am really looking forward to seeing what he does with Flash and some of the other projects he is working on.

Tune in later this week for part 2 of this Shadowlands story and for my favorite lines and covers. I will likely look at Volume 1 covers too because I didn't before and I really love me some variants! See you all soon.




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