#morillo

[gorogues]

Spoilers for Flash #800!

Evan's back!! Not in a flashback story, he's in the prelude for Si Spurrier's upcoming Flash run! For those who are recent readers, he hasn't been around since Flashpoint (twelve years ago), so for me at least this is a welcome surprise. We know the upcoming run has been described as "cosmic horror", and this prelude fits the bill; Evan's been fixed up by the weird interdimensional tentacle thing, and it's given him some advanced tech and dragged him off to parts unknown to presumably do its bidding. Plus, its malevolent influence has spilled into the real world, or at least in a way that Wally can perceive.

It's a decent bet that the tentacle being rescued Evan from whatever limbo the altered timeline sent him to, but hopefully that'll be addressed once the new book relaunches in September.

McCulloch also appears in the Impulse flashback story, but doesn't really do much. He's just there to set up a problem for Bart to solve.

The story with Hunter is set in the present day, or at least sometime after the big revelation in Joshua Williamson's run that Eobard gave the fateful gun to the Clown. He's feeling vindicated that he had been correct all along: the Clown wouldn't have had the gun without Eobard's interference. Unfortunately it means he's back to his shenanigans about wanting to improve Wally, so he may show up sometime to make Wally's life hell again…or perhaps any other hero who gets in his way. He'll certainly be making Ashley's life more stressful once he makes himself known.

@kenais-posts @waterwindow @ianxfalcon may be interested in some of the crew in this issue! (Evan and Hunter)

[gorogues]

Spoilers for Flash #750!

You can see a few preview pages here, here, and here.  There are so many pages in the issue that it’s tough to choose which ones to include here.

This was definitely worthy of a milestone issue.  There are multiple stories: one set in the present, a Len solo story which is sort of set in the Johns era, a pre-Crisis Sam story, a New 52-esque Speed Mind story, a Golden Age Jay story, and one about Wally's new role.  Plus, of course, a bunch of gorgeous pinups.

To get things out of the way, unfortunately it is definitely confirmed that Commander Cold is dead.  Steadfast and Fuerza are alive but off to do other things, James is locked up in a cell again, and the other Rogues are loose.  David Singh appears and is surprisingly nice to Barry, and it's confirmed that he and Hartley are still together and doing well.  Roy appears briefly and is now 100% confirmed to be in current continuity (technically his previous appearances were in a holiday issue, which are often of dubious canonicity, and he'd seemingly appeared twice in Zandia but at least one of his 'appearances' there was a Psych illusion).  And Iris is working on a story about how the Flash has helped people and inspired them, so we see flashbacks of Barry saving the day from various Rogues and Grodd.

Then Godspeed shows up, and lures Barry to the Flash Museum so Paradox can confront him.  Paradox airs his grievances, and tells Barry to give up being the Flash or see everything he cares about destroyed.  Paradox sics August on Barry, and the story ends in a cliffhanger, undoubtedly to be continued next issue.  It's notable that August is surprised to learn of the future Flash who was killed by Paradox, and perhaps that'll play into him turning on his boss in the story to come...at least if his desire for atonement is real, and he's actually upset to see any version of Barry killed.  It's possible that he thinks he can play along and save Barry from Paradox even if he has to beat him up a bit.

Then we've got the Len solo story by Johns and Kolins, which is shown above.  As always, Kolins is great with the little details which don't even figure into the story but add a lot.  We see the Stanley Cup stashed in Len's filthy apartment, as is tradition.  And Len's got a computer now, which is interesting.  Some of Lisa's stuff is stored in his closet, and he's got a yearbook photo of the Rogues.  And later in the story Jai is wearing a turtle shirt, which must be a nod to the long-rumoured plan that he was supposed to become the new Turtle before Flashpoint (you may recall that he was depowered in Flash: Rebirth and resentful about it, and Eobard claimed that one of Wally's kids would ruin his life).  Jai and Irey's appearance tells us that this isn't quite in proper continuity or is set during the Brightest Day era -- but if it was set during Brightest Day, Wally wouldn't necessarily think Len's actions were directed specifically at him, since Barry would be around too.  And even the yearbook photo fudges things a bit, since we wouldn't have a costumed Lisa and a youthful Roscoe around at the same time, barring a retcon.  Though Johns does love his retcons, so you never know.

The Len story is great and a lot of fun, and shows much of what we love and maybe also dislike about that era of Len.  As always, he over-indulges on the beer even as he otherwise decries drug use (although in fairness, he doesn't say anything about drugs in this story), but that is one of his flaws and probably one of the remnants of an abusive upbringing steeped in booze.  Johns seems to be throwing a little shade at the New 52 Rogues with the line "Guys who can snap their fingers and make a snowstorm because of some meta gene, how do you respect that?  When I hold that gadget in my hand, it means something."  Agree or disagree with that statement -- I don't think it's necessarily right or wrong -- there's no question that the meta Rogues were very much at odds with the Rogues of the Johns era.  And you may recall that Johns depowered New 52 Len as soon as he got a chance to; it's pretty clear he didn't like that development.

Wally's interpretation of Len's actions is very interesting and completely understandable from his POV, but of course he's misread the situation entirely.  Obviously he doesn't know Len as well as he thinks he does.  He'd be correct if it was quite a few other Flash villains (including some of the other Rogues), but he assumes the worst of all of them and we've seen before that sometimes he's wrong.  But the Len of that era deliberately cultivated misperceptions of himself and the other Rogues to get people to underestimate him or keep them off-balance, and ultimately he's probably got himself to blame for Wally's misunderstanding.  I don't think Len would mind Wally misunderstanding him for the reasons mentioned above, but maybe Wally would treat him better if he truly understood Len's motivations.  Food for thought.

It's also nice to see Chyre and Morillo too, who are very much missed.  Chyre's been name-dropped in the Rebirth era, but I'd like to see him and Morillo actually appearing again, even if just occasionally.

The Sam story is pretty cool and has a lot of Silver/Bronze Age simplicity and weirdness to it, and wouldn't be out of place in the published stories of that era.  So I admire that Wolfman and Rossmo were able to capture those aspects in it.  The issue doesn't contain something from every era of the Flash, but this story covers the Silver/Bronze Age era wonderfully.

The Jay story is really interesting; it's otherwise a very Golden Age-inspired story with the Thinker, but then Eobard puts in a surprise appearance, taunting Jay that he'll be forgotten in the future.  It's a very Eobard thing to do, although unusual to see him taking an interest in Jay.  And obviously it foreshadows Jay's disappearance from this Earth/continuity from the New 52 until recently.  I'm very much looking forward to seeing how Jay is used now that he and the JSA seem to be back, and wonder if Eobard will continue bothering him.  Obviously Eobard's primary grudge is with Barry, but of course he's messed with other members of the Flash Family as well.  And messing with the Flash Family in general may become a hobby of his with the [spoilers for comics in May] development that he's creating his own Reverse Flash Family.

The Wally story is partly an epilogue to the Flash Forward series and partly a prologue to the upcoming Generation Zero issue on Free Comic Book Day.  In it, Wally observes different versions of continuity: the pre-Flashpoint history and the post-Flashpoint history, side by side and seemingly both still in continuity.  Or, if not still in continuity, then still existing together.  Presumably he (or someone else) will deal with that to streamline continuity, but the question is, will both versions still remain, get merged into one, or will something else happen entirely?  We may not find out until FCBD and beyond.

So all in all, this was a great issue, and fitting for a milestone.  It was great fun to see the various stories, pinups, and variant covers, and so nice to see a classic Johns-Kolins story about Len, a spotlight on Jay, and an era-appropriate story featuring classic Sam.  It's also good to finally get some answers about lingering questions in current continuity like the fate of James and Commander Cold and the missing Forces users, even if we're not always happy about the developments.  I do think Henry's killing was weirdly abrupt and has been handled as something of an afterthought so I'm not thrilled about that, but it is good to get confirmation and some finality to it.  Hopefully he isn't completely forgotten after this.

[gorogues]

In fact I'd recommend that you not call him sentimental, because he’s very grouchy.

[gorogues]

The look on Morillo and Chyre's faces says it all.

[gorogues]

Cicada (David Hersch)

David Hersch murdered his wife Elizabeth more than a hundred years ago.  He was soon filled with remorse and wanted to die, but was apparently struck by lightning and claimed that it showed a vision of him alive with her, which gave him new meaning and a new goal.  To this end he started a cult called "the children of Cicada", gathering followers and keeping himself alive by fatally stabbing others to harvest their energy and inject it into himself.  His cult was completely obedient to him, and the people in it willingly sacrificed their lives to achieve his objectives.

Eventually he decided that murder is a sin and killing people to sustain himself was wrong, and thus he slightly changed tactics: since the Flash was also "blessed" by lightning, David decreed that Wally West had been given a mission to save people so David could take their lives later.  They had cheated death so it was morally acceptable to kill them, and the Cicada cult set about murdering people the Flash had saved in order to gather the energy to resurrect David's wife.

David recruited Magenta to kidnap Wally, and stabbed him in the chest to acquire enough energy to revive Elizabeth.  She did awaken, but was violently angry at David and his cult and accused them of being murderers.  He claimed that he'd been absolved of her murder, and soon killed her again when she continued resisting.  Furious, Wally asked if he wanted to receive more power and a blessing, and when David enthusiastically agreed, Wally overloaded him with the sheer amount of energy his body accessed through the Speed Force.  David and his cult were defeated, and as the police took him into custody he called out to Wally that the children of Cicada lived for him, and began chanting "Flash be with me".

Cicada was next seen at Iron Heights during the outbreak of the Frenzy virus, praying to Wally inside a cell he'd converted into a Flash shrine.  He was ecstatic when he realized Wally was there, and worshipped him to his face, pleading for help in the midst of a very serious situation.  But he survived the disease and was later seen when Grodd's minions tore apart the prison and set all the villains free.  Again he encountered Wally and eagerly worshipped him, but when Grodd got loose he fled Iron Heights while offering a "Flash be with us" prayer.

David wasn't seen much after escaping prison; he made cameos with the Rogues and other villains occasionally, and was sent to the Salvation Run planet, but never appeared in a major role again.  He had a cameo on the cover of Flash #36 in the Rebirth era, so he probably still exists in current continuity, but hasn't done much since escaping Iron Heights in 2003.

Cicada's powers are mostly unknown.  He was able to extend his life -- and claimed immortality -- when his followers killed people with special lightning-shaped knives and he absorbed that life energy into himself, but he also claimed he'd given the same gift to some of his followers.  He held sway over many people and had cultists willingly sacrifice their lives for him, though it's not clear whether that was due to some kind of psionic ability or was simply charisma.  He slashed Jared Morillo with one of his lightning knives during the battle with the cult, which ultimately gave Morillo an ability to heal any wounds (and this helpfully came into play during later stories, as Morillo was able to heal from otherwise fatal injuries).  There was also some kind of psychic connection created between them and David tried to force Morillo to release him from jail, but fortunately the attempt was unsuccessful.  So the extent of Cicada's abilities is not clear, and it's difficult to say whether he received any powers from the lightning which supposedly struck him.

Ultimately he was a somewhat limited character; keeping him as a religious fanatic meant there wasn't a large range of stories he could be in.  But he did fill an interesting niche as a non-speedster and a non-Rogue villain in the Flashverse, and one who worshipped Wally West in his own twisted way.  Religion doesn't come up often in Flash comics, so introducing a cult leader is fertile ground for exploring those issues.  It's just too bad we didn't see him more often after he escaped Iron Heights, and one wonders what he was up to all that time.

[gorogues]

Same thing they do every night, Wally....some beer, a little poker, maybe a few dirty magazines.

[gorogues]

Does he not have anything better to do than just laugh at the cops?

[gorogues]

Plunder (possibly named Jared Morillo)

Plunder started his existence in a mirror world, which is to say a small pocket dimension with some similarities to the world of the Flash and Rogues.  He worked as a gun-toting assassin for the mirror world’s Thinker, who told Plunder to abduct some strange newcomers to their world.  These newcomers were ‘our’ world’s Flash (Wally West), Captain Cold, and Mirror Master II, and Plunder succeeded at capturing the Rogues. However, they eventually escaped the Thinker’s clutches and returned to their own world, and somehow Plunder secretly hitched a ride with them because he knew his home was doomed.

 He later joined Blacksmith’s Rogues, and in his big story arc with the team we learned a surprising secret: he was a mirrored counterpart of Keystone police detective Jared Morillo. (For those not familiar with Morillo, he was a supporting character in the Flash book at the time, and often worked with the Flash.) Plunder shot Morillo, and impersonated him for a time while Blacksmith put her pieces in place and made her move to conquer the Twin Cities.  Plunder believed he’d killed Morillo and was about to kill his police partner Fred Chyre too, but was unaware that Morillo had incredible new healing abilities due to a recent encounter with another villain.  Morillo unexpectedly recovered and was able to knock out Plunder, and then impersonated the man who’d impersonated him.  Plunder returned to menace Morillo and his allies before the story arc was over, but Morillo managed to help defeat him again thanks to his healing abilities, and the assassin was sent to Iron Heights.

 Plunder escaped prison when Grodd caused a mass breakout, but seems to have been fairly quiet after that.  He was seen shooting at civilians during a parade celebrating the Flash, later attended Captain Boomerang’s funeral, and then showed up in Rogue War.  During the war he was among the “new kids” who were mind-controlled into being the Top’s minions.  They were freed once the Top was killed and then started attacking both the Flash and the Rogues; Plunder suggested that they murder the older Rogues.  But when Zoom decided the Rogues were causing too much trouble, he told Plunder to “go home” to his mirror world and punched him, causing him to break into glass pieces.  It’s not clear if Plunder died or somehow returned to his mirror world, but considering that the mirror world had begun collapsing on itself when the Flash et al escaped, there might not have even been a place for him to return to.  He was seen briefly in a later story, but it was just a cameo and he was miscoloured, so perhaps it shouldn’t be considered canon.  His status is unclear.

 What also isn’t clear is Plunder’s real name.  It may be Jared Morillo, but could be something else entirely (he was called “John Doe” at Iron Heights).  Nor do we know his origin or what inspired him to become a hired assassin.  He was an excellent marksman and very good at his job, but also extremely arrogant and rather lazy in his impersonation of Morillo.  And he had few scruples, meaning he fit in well with Blacksmith’s Rogues but would never have been accepted in Captain Cold’s group.  So he was very much a bellwether of Johns’ run, in that the first half was filled with a lot of edgy new Rogues who then went into the background in the second half.  He’s a fine character and his interactions with Morillo were really interesting, but there’s a reason he doesn’t have the enduring popularity of a Weather Wizard or even Axel Walker.