DC/Marvel: The Flash Fantastic Four

DC Universe Infinite Exclusive

Written By:

Jeremy Adams

Pencils:

Adrian Gutierrez

Inks:

Adrian Gutierrez

Cover By:

Romulo Fajardo, Jr.Adrian Gutierrez

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Seriously, man, I’m made of fire. You’re not going to win this.

I’m not sure that I should call this an Unbagging, given that it’s not like most Unbaggings.

In general, every comic I write about here is a comic that I physically own.

Short Box? Check. Mail Call and Pull List? I mean, obviously.

Paneling posts have been the only exception, as I sometimes don’t own copies of the comics in which the featured panel appears.

But now this Unbagging becomes an exception, too, as I do not own a physical copy of this comic given that a physical copy doesn’t exist.

Still, I felt like it was worth taking a look at this given that the comic itself is something of a novelty.

As part of their ongoing collaboration that started with the recent Deadpool/Batman crossover, DC and Marvel made a surprise announcement of two digital-only crossovers comics available for reading on their respective services. Thor/Shazam on Marvel Unlimited, and this one on DC Universe Infinite.

I don’t have a Marvel Unlimited subscription – though I did get an email offering me a free trial, which I haven’t taken advantage of yet – so I haven’t read Marvel’s offering, but I have, of course, read this one, as I do have a DC Universe Infinite subscription.

The comic is part of the DC GO! webcomic imprint and is designed for vertical scrolling on a phone or tablet.

As such, it was readable in the browser on my PC, which is where I live most of my digital life, but not ideal.

It was also broken on my first readthrough, with a section missing.

It was fine in the app on my phone, and in a later reread in the browser, so evidently it was just a random glitch.

Because I don’t do a lot of reading of comics in digital form, and in particular don’t often do so on my phone, the vertical scroll is considerably less intuitive to someone as old and set in my ways as I am, as it’s not at all like the experience of reading a physical comic, a thing I’ve been doing for nigh onto five decades.

Anyway, on to the story, which is very fast paced, as seems appropriate given the format and who it features.

It starts with Marvel’s First Family playing a game of “Gothamopoly,” which is interrupted by Gorilla Grodd and his nemesis the Flash, who is under Grodd’s mental control.

When he runs face first into an invisible force field provided by Sue, the Flash – Barry, in this instance – comes to his senses, but Grodd decides to take control of Sue instead, which is a sensible move, given that she’s the most powerful person in the room.

Grodd then moves on to taking over Reed’s mind, as the prospect of stealing Reed’s inventions was what led Grodd to launch this attack on the FF in the first place. In so doing, he learns of a device that Reed has called a Mental Amplifier, which is just the sort of invention Grodd is looking for, and is the thing that Reed was hoping to keep Grodd from learning about.

Grodd also has Reed activate a device that sends the Flash and the others into the 25th Century, where they have a run-in (pun kind of intended) with the Reverse Flash, and where Barry figures out a way to get back to where they once belonged by following the tachyon trail through the Speed Force, towing Ben, Johnny, and Sue behind him in Sue-provided invisible sled.

Along the way, they encounter some of the other speedsters connected to the Speed Force, such as Jay Garrick, Bart Allen, and Wally West, as well as some of their rogues.

They return just in time to see Grodd donning the Mental Amplifier, and while I won’t spoil the ending, I will say that if you’ve seen Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, or know anything about reverse psychology or have, you know, ever read a story, you already know how it ends.

It’s a fine little trifle of a story. Nothing groundbreaking, a bit predictable, and rather thin – and not just because of the vertical scroll format – and it would have been nice to see some more Fantastic Four content to balance out all of the Flash lore, but it is a DC comic, so that’s not surprising, but overall, it was fine.

The art from Gutierrez is dynamic and makes some clever use of the format, a format that kind of makes youf eel as if you’re running on a (cosmic) treadmill.

Overall, it’s an interesting experiment that does have me curious to check out Marvel’s offering, and even though it doesn’t meet the usual tacit criteria for an Unbagging I thought it was worth taking a look.

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