The Flash vol. 3: As Above

Congratulations, Flash Family!  You’ve just saved all of reality from all of the threats facing it!  What’re you going to do now?  If you – the reader – guessed that they were going to take a vacation in the Inner-Earth jungle environment that is Skartaris, then give yourself a gold star.  Wally West felt that his family deserved it, and they actually seem to be enjoying it too.  Except, if Wally’s in Skartaris with his family, who’s the Flash that’s helping out the Justice League as they deal with a worldwide Wave of Hate (Hatewave?) that he seems particularly susceptible to?  At least that’s separate from whatever’s going on in Skartaris which involves a vengeful lizard woman, Flash’s kids exploring the limits of their powers, and the exploits of a DCU supervillain who believes he’s finally moved past all of the usual genre conventions.  OR HAS HE?!

After giving us a thirteen-issue, two-volume story I was expecting writer Simon Spurrier to dial things back for whatever he was going to do next on this title.  That’s not what happens here as the writer plunges ahead for another extended storyline, the first half of which is collected here.  While I can’t say that the writer necessarily makes that a compelling prospect, there’s still a lot to appreciate here.  From the bits of irreverence that the writer sneaks in, to the appealingly versatile art of Vasco Georgiev – adept at being both expressive and depicting superhero action, to the long-form storytelling being set up here, there’s enough to keep me invested in seeing how the writer’s run wraps up in the next volume.  It’s just that what I’m getting here still feels like I’m being asked to ingest another full-course meal after having already been served one over the previous two volumes.