Writers: Jess Carson, Emily Palizzi
Art: David Lafuente, Pablo M. Collar, Miguel Muerto, and John Kalisz
Publisher: DC comics
Price: $3.99
Release Date: June 7th, 2022
Reviewer: Jamie Robinson
If you’re interested in this comic, series, related trades, or any of the others mentioned, then simply click on the title/link to snag a copy through Amazon as you read the Earth-Prime #5: The Flash Review.
THE SCOOP
The first story in Earth-Prime #5 follows the adventures of the Flash’s children, Nora West-Allen and Bart West-Allen, otherwise known as XS and Impulse, based on the CW series, The Flash. Since this is trying to fit into the continuity of the show, it makes sense that they would want to set in the future, rather than have the main characters, as there are more stories to tell, and less possibility for continuity errors.
That being said, the main story itself seemed rather underwhelming. The villain is essentially a social media star. Couldn’t they have come up with a more interesting story? It was cool to see Kid Flash though. If you read the previous Earth-Prime issue featuring the Legends of Tomorrow, there is a short scene featuring Wally that foreshadows his appearance here. It’s nice to see he has a little bit more of a role in this story beyond just helping Barry’s kids.
The second story is far more interesting. Set in the present-day, we see a look into the A.R.G.U.S. facility. One villain is mentioned who has yet to appear in the Arrowverse: Dr. Polaris. Apparently, some of the other villains were retconned back into their villainous ways, like King Shark (who had reformed on his last Flash TV show appearance) and Girder (who was previously dead) thanks to the Crisis on Infinite Earths TV event. One of the previous big bads on the show escapes and leaves readers wondering how he will tie into the major crossover event next issue.
ART
The artwork for the main story in Earth-Prime #5 is terrible, for the most part. Barry has a cameo and doesn’t look remotely like Grant Gustin. Obviously, he’s supposed to be older, but it should still slightly resemble him. The main problem is that the artwork for the main story is far too exaggerated and cartoony looking, and is a major downgrade from what was seen in previous issues. The art for the second story, on the other hand, is much better and far more realistic looking.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Overall, the Flash portion of this series seemed like a big downgrade compared to the previous issues. This was probably due to the fact that they tried too hard to avoid continuity errors by not having it set in present-day, but ended up making it worse. Earth-Prime #5 did have some intriguing moments to set up for the big crossover, but this issue could have some readers questioning their expectations for the crossover. A series like this should get progressively better, especially if you want to wrap it up with a big crossover story. It could have been better than what was shown. If you like The Flash TV show, you may want to pick this up or skip it, depending on how you feel about a story without the Flash and with his kids instead. What do you think will happen in the crossover issue?