Written by Joshua Williamson
Illustrated by Scott Kolins
Published by DC Comics
This was a really cool issue!
It’s the first one since the Batman crossover and it’s really a nice dive back in. Joshua Williamson hits the ground running here with an issue that has some great moments and some excellent character development. It’s also very fast paced as well!
This issue focuses on James Jesse who is otherwise known as the Trickster!
We start off in the present where he’s staring at a bunch of monitors. The Flash is his prey and he has plans for him.
There is one splash page in the beginning tells us that something big is happening here.
We then flashback to James Jesse as a child reading books. His parents are mad at him for reading and not earning his keep. Williamson has decided to give the character a lot more depth here and I like that choice. He also makes a choice to go into some darker storytelling than we have seen in this comic book as late.
We get to see James Jesse being forced to perform at a circus. It’s a particularly brutal scene. From there we cut to see him dressed up as the Trickster and fighting the Flash. The Flash beats him yet again. Then, we get to see something we normally don’t see. We see the aftermath of one of those fights. The Trickster sits bleeding. He sits angrily. And he looks like he’s plotting something evil. Something that maybe he hasn’t thought of before. This sequence by artist Scott Kolins actually gave me chills.
We get to see more about the Trickster’s formation as a villain. He does get beat down a lot in this book. It gets pretty brutal and crazy. By the end of the issue, I saw the character in a new light and as an actual threat to the Flash. Basically, the Trickster learns that in order to get by in life you have to be willing to deceive people. It’s a hell of lesson too.
Williamson and Kolins actually make a great creative team. I hope we get more issues from the two of them. It’s a solid comic book about a villain that you forgot about but who is absolutely viable. The creative team more than does him justice here.
RATING: B+
