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Down But Not Out

by Drew Clements westofmiskatonic@gmail.com

This week we'll be jumping back more toward the mainstream with my absolute favorite character, The Flash. You'd think it would be hard to cycle through a ton of Flash back issues to find just one for this column, but actually, it was quite easy. The Flash #73 - "One Perfect Gift" Original Release Date: February 1993 Writer - Mark Waid Penciller - Greg Larocque Inker - Roy Richardson Letterer - Tim Harkins Colorist - Matt Hollingsworth Editor - Brian Augustyn Assistant Editor - Ruben Diaz It's Christmas Eve, the snow is coming down, and our hero, Wally West is taking part in a rather normal activity during the holidays; he's decorating the Christmas tree. Actually, he was done, but his interest in perfecting the tree causes him to go back over the whole thing, replacing the bulbs and candy canes at super speed. Growing tired of his obsessive behavior, Linda Park, his girlfriend, sneaks up from behind and breaks his concentration. She asks him why he can't just sit still and he responds with, "I'm bored." Linda then instructs Wally to go help Joan (Garrick, Jay Garrick the Golden Age Flash's wife) in the kitchen. The next page we get six panels. In the first one we see Joan and Jay preparing dinner with Wally in the background asking if they can open presents yet. In the second panel, Wally has disappeared after being shut down on the present opening. Joan tells Jay that she's glad that Wally and his "little girlfriend" are there because it feels like a real family Christmas. Jay agrees. In the third panel Wally has returned, asking if there's anything he can do to help. Joan tells him there isn't and he has disappeared by the fourth panel. By the fifth panel he's back, asking if Joan is sure he can't help, because things will go faster if he does. In the sixth panel, Joan is fed up, "Get him out of the house before I kill him." Jay agrees. The two suit up for a run through town. There's an excellent shot here of them running side-by-side through town. The two sport completely different, yet iconic costumes. During the first leg of their run, Jay brings up Linda, commenting that he and Joan thought perhaps there's a ring under the tree for her. Wally puts that thought to rest while he and Jay help a woman with her packages. Jay then asks Wally what he wants for Christmas as the two stop at a soup kitchen to lend a hand. Wally responds that he doesn't really know and Jay is a little surprised by the answer. Wally goes on to explain that it's weird getting older. Christmas used to be all about the presents, that special baseball mitt, but now that he's older it's much more about friends and family. By now, the two have finished their work at the soup kitchen. Jay asks him if that isn't the way it should be and Wally, while helping an old man shovel snow on the sidewalk, admits to that there's a bit of him that really misses the whole excitement of the presents and getting that new mitt. The older he becomes, the more he gets away from the idea that Santa's got something special just for him. He pauses to help a woman who is about to get hit by a car. After snatching the pregnant woman, who is clearly delirious, from certain death, she begins ranting and raving about stopping someone named Joey before it's too late. Wally and Jay ask who Joey is and the woman responds that it's her husband. Apparently he works part-time at a department store that hired him on for holiday help. After tonight, Joey's not going to have a job and lately he's had trouble finding other work to replace it. So, her husband got himself wrapped up with some bad people who plan to rob the store after it closes. Joey just wants to provide for his family. While explaining all of this, she goes into labor, so Jay brings a doctor and nurse to help her. Wally tells Jay that he'll take care of Joey. In the blink of an eye, Wally arrives at Boone's Department Store to stop Joey from making a mistake. This being Christmas Eve, there are a ton of last-minute shoppers and Wally has to make his way through them to find the man. He searches high and low, looking at everyone's face, trying to match it up with the picture the wife showed him, before he realizes that the one person's face he hasn't seen is the man who is playing Santa. Wally heads for the Santa booth and finds that Santa has taken off for the night. Mr. Mooney, the store manager announces that a five-year-old is missing, but Wally doesn't hear this as he speeds off to continue searching for Joey. Here we cut away to Joey who breaks into the store office. He asks for forgiveness and tries to reassure himself that "It's all for the best." as he stuffs the deposit into his bag. Upon leaving the building through a rear exit, he is stopped by a small boy who has tracked him down to tell the big red guy what he wanted for Christmas. The boy tells Joey-Santa that he wants him to bring his mother something nice, since she's always so sad. The boy tells Joey-Santa that his mother is sad because her husband/his father is in jail. This shocks Joey since it parallels his own situation. Soon he decides to take the deposit back to the office and then help the boy find his mother, deciding it'd be much better to be out of jail and in the real world with his wife and soon-to-be-born child. A car arrives just as Joey and the boy turn to walk back inside. Out of the car gets three no good niks who ask for the night deposit. Joey tells the kid to run as the hoods open fire on Joey, who refuses to give them the money. In a desperate attempt to save the child, Joey pulls him close, hoping to be able to stop the bullets from hitting the boy by using his own body for a shield. The baddies stop firing when their clips run out. They are horribly confused when they see that Joey and the boy are unharmed. From behind, Wally appears and drops the bullets to the snow, putting their bewilderment to rest. He soon puts them to temporary rest as he beats them silly. After seeing that the goons are down, Joey turns to head back inside, but is stopped by Wally. The Scarlet Speedster asks where he's headed and Joey explains that he has something to return and some apologies to make. Wally explains that he'll take care of all of that, since Joey has a wife and CHILD to attend to. Joey is ecstatic as he makes his way two blocks over to a church where inside he finds his wife and child with Jay looking on. There's an extremely touching page here where we see the Church, with its steeple shining followed by a few silent panels of Joey entering the church and finding and embracing his wife and child. Now we move to the Epilogue where Wally and Jay explain their adventure to Linda and Joan. It looks as though Joey will stay on at the store as a part-time employee until he can find some full-time work. Jay, Joan, and Linda decide to hit the bed early. Wally objects, but Linda puts his non-present-opening fears to rest when she explains they're just joking with him. Linda presents him with a gift, which he promptly opens to find... a baseball mitt! Another nice touch here as it relates back to all his talk of being excited about getting a baseball mitt when he was younger and how Christmas was so much more exciting then. While Wally and Linda kiss under the mistletoe, the doorbell rings. It's late and the four joke that maybe it's the man in red. It turns out to be a man in red, not the one you're expecting though... this one goes by the name of Barry Allen!!!! Okay, so this Barry Allen thing takes a little explaining. Jay Garrick was the Golden Age Flash, while Barry Allen was the Silver Age Flash. Barry died in the Crisis on Infinite Earths story arc of the mid-80s, but in this issue he comes back! Confused? Yeah, don't worry about it (but if you do want more info on this and The Flash in general, check out: http://www.hyperborea.org/flash/ ). The end of this issue leads into a great story arc, which can be found collected in trade paperback that I highly recommend. The art in this issue is adequate. It's nothing spectacular, but it's good enough to not detract from the story that's taking place. And oh what a story it is! There's so much emotion in this issue that I'll freely admit to getting a little misty-eyed (yeah... and I'll kick your ass if you laugh!) the first time I read it. The thing is though, it's just a really simple story. There's nothing here, with the exception of the Epilogue that hurts the issue in terms of accessibility. You can pick this book up without knowing anything about the character and become genuinely invested in the story, which is such a credit to the writer. And speaking of writers... William Messner-Loebs wrote The Flash when it re-launched after the death of Barry Allen. Wally was young, cocky, and despite all of his experience as Kid Flash, he was still a little wet behind the ears. For the time, Messner-Loebs characterization was spot on. Geoff Johns currently writes a Flash that is more adult and mature. Johns has done much more for Wally's enemies, The Rogues, than he's actually done for Wally himself. That's not to say there has been zero development, but the concentration has been more on making The Flash's villains into some top-notch baddies in the DCU. But how did we get from Messner-Loebs brash Wally to the seasoned Flash of today? Mark Waid, that's how. Waid took The Flash to a whole new level when he began writing the title. There's more character development during his run than most characters will ever get the chance to experience. I honestly can't say enough good things about his entire run on the series. There's an excellent mix of fun (you know me, I love the fun!) and drama that never really feels like it leans more toward one side than the other. So, with all that said, it's pretty obvious that I recommend this issue. I found it for $1, but I'm not entirely sure you'll be able to. It's possible that you'll pay a $2-4 for it, but if you're looking for a great story, then it's worth it. And, of course, pick up any other issues of The Flash that has the name "Waid" on it. You won't be disappointed... unless you're the Hypno Hustler... then you'll be dancing AND disappointed... uh yeah...