Convergence: Speed Force #1 (DC)

writer: Tony Bedard

artist: Tom Grummett

You have no idea how much I love reading those two sentences in a comic book.  "My name is Wally West.  I'm the fastest man alive."  For me, it's like "My name is Inigo Montoya.  You killed my father.  Prepare to die."

I geek out.  I totally geek out.

So it's great to see them in a comic again.  Context doesn't matter.  Not in the slightest bit.  But as context goes, of course this is Convergence, and the context of Speed Force is the later Mark Waid era, when Wally has his two kids, Iris and Jai. along for the ride, one big superhero family.  Waid had made a name for himself creating a speedster family, the real meaning of the whole Speed Force idea, but when he returned years later he lacked the same edge he'd exhibited so well previously.  If he'd done the family concept before, with the rest of the Speed Force family around Wally, things might have been different.

As it is, Speed Force keeps the focus on Wally and kids.  So, no Max Mercury, say (*sigh*).  This isn't really such a bad thing.  I liked the Wally West family era.  Not as much as the Speed Force era, but if Wally's legacy must be evoked at all, it probably should be, at this point, an era fans feel less nostalgic about, because this is where his story ended, certainly where Waid's ended, and that is kind of the whole point behind Convergence and its spin-offs.  To have Tony Bedard writing it is also appropriate, because Bedard was always an excellent curator, who received far too little credit in that regard.

And seriously, why would you not want to read a Flash comic in a wider story that so closely evokes the famous "Flash of Two Worlds"?  Convergence is also happening because of Flashpoint, remember.

Maybe it would have taken a more clever writer to write those reflections directly into the story, but you can't expect everyone to realize everything that could have been done for this auspicious occasion.  There will always be possibilities.  And that's the whole point, right?

The artist is Tom Grummett, who has long been a favorite of mine, especially in his many adventures with Superboy.  Always nice to see him again.