Black Lantern Black Flash

"Black Lantern Black Flash" may sound like a redundant name, but it's not: there's a character named Black Flash; he became a Black Lantern; it's as simple as that. It's like if Blue Beetle became a Blue Lantern - which, come to think of it, would make a whole hell of a lot more sense than Barry Allen. Reanimated as a member of the Black Lantern Corps, Professor Zoom's corpse becomes the new Black Flash. As many of the Flash's undead Rogues attack Iron Heights prison as Black Lanterns, they find Zoom curiously alive and their rings no longer working, paving the way for their defeat by the ice grenade of Captain Cold. The Black Flash is the aspect of Death that comes for Speedsters, taking them back to the Speed Force. In the execrable Flash Rebirth, Geoff Johns plopped out an even bigger turd than he did during Green Lantern Rebirth, revealing that Eobard Thawne, Professor Zoom, had created a "Reverse Speed Force" (and, more than that, that the real Speed Force was created by Barry every time he runs - somebody needs to tell Geoff Johns that Hal Jordan and Barry Allen aren't real people, and no matter how much he fellates them in print, they will never come over to his house and be his friends). This figure uses the same mold as Blue Lantern Flash, which is fine, but it's a bit ironic since we used that review to praise DC Direct for not reusing bodies this way. Still, considering that part of Zoom's backstory is that he had painful medical treatments to look more like Barry, an identical body isn't outside the realm of possibility. He does get new hands, however - the fingers are long and bony, and they're sculpted in a clutching pose, like he's grasping at his prey. Points for being creepy, but shouldn't the rest of the body be the same? He should look like Kingdom Come Deadman or something. The head gets it right. Like the other (male) Black Lanterns, he's got desiccated gray flesh, so he looks like a zombie - of course, the "real" Black Flash looks like a bare skull, so this is still a step up from his normal appearance. He's got blank white eyes, his nose is missing, and his mouth is open wide enough that you can see he's lost a tooth somewhere along the way. The traditional Black Flash costume has a black body, as does this one, but it is set off by red everywhere that a normal Flash has yellow: the boots, belt, gloves and ears. Since this costume has been Black Lanternized, it lacks the red and instead gets silver: the boots, obviously, and the lightning bolt on the chest, but also the stripes over his shoulders and the inexplicable "thigh triangle" everybody seems to get. Bonus points for making the rings around the legs into lightning bolts, though. It suits the character. Black Lantern Black Flash is slightly more articulated than the standard DCD figure, with a balljointed head, swivel/hinge shoulders, swivel biceps, hinged elbows, swivel wrists, T-crotch, hinged knees, and swivel boots. His only accessory is the typical Corps logo disc base; if you try to use the peg that's on it, he'll stand way off-center. This is probably the only chance you have to get a Black Flash action figure of any sort - we can't even get companies to make a regular Reverse Flash figure, let alone this much-more-obscure villain. This may well be the only time he's ever made in plastic, so let's be glad that even though there are improvements that could be made, this isn't a bad representation. Oh, and if you're wondering how Thawne could be both dead and alive at the same time? Remember he's a time traveller from the future: he dies in a fight with Barry Allen at time point X; his body rests in the ground until a Black Lantern Ring comes to get it at time point X+2; he's resurrected as a White Lantern at X+3; he then travels back to X+1 to cause trouble, and gets thrown in jail, where he stays until X+4. Time travel is tricky stuff, isn't it? -- 05/01/11

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