After taking on the Weather Wizard in ‘The Flash’ #10, Barry decides that the best way to find out what the Rogues are up to is to work someplace where he can keep his ears open to their movements. Since the world assumes Barry Allen is dead, Barry assumes the name “Al” and tries to get a job at a dive bar where he knowns villains to hang out.

At the bar, “Al” meets an off-duty Captain Cold and uses his chemical expertise to make friends with Snart by making him a drink that won’t freeze when Cold touches it.

Elsewhere in Central City, Patty Spivot gets reamed out by her boss who’s stressed out by all of the recent superpowered incidents in his city. And Barry’s old pal Dr. Elias is claiming credit for saving the city from the Flash and says that he plans to give power back to the people. Elias is smiling as he says this but I still feel like that’s a pretty ominous warning of something to come.

Back at the bar… yep… it’s about to be SPOILER time…

Back at the bar, before Al and Snart/Cold can get too chummy, Heatwave crashes in intent on killing Cold. Heatwave blames Cold for giving him his heat powers, and it’s ice vs fire on the bar floor! In true superhero identity style, Al has to… er… step out for a second. A few seconds later, the Flash comes zooming into the bar to shut the two villains down.

Once the Cold/Heatwave incident is taken care of, the criminals are loaded onto an Iron Heights security vehicle. Inside the vehicle, they are greeted by an old friend and it looks like someone is rounding up the Rogues… but for what?

Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato deliver yet another great Flash issue. As fast as it moves, this one’s actually one of the slower tales with Al and Patty giving a little bit of a rest from the rushing around that this titles been doing for a few issues. With all that’s been going on over the past several issues, it has seemed like a villain-of-the-month comic (in a good way) but, now with the appearances of this new element on the final pages, it looks like something is going on behind the scenes that is sure to come to a head soon.

Art this issue was again by Marcus To. While I like Manapul’s pencils better, To does a wonderful job keeping Flash in that area between cartoon and realistic where the character seems to work best.

Verdict: Buy

THE FLASH #11
Written by Francis Manapul & Brian Buccellato
Art by Marcus To
Cover by Francis Manapul