Tom versus the Flash number 316 or let's all crash at Barry's Place.

Welcome back to the Flash number 316, the December 1988 issue issue, feature cover

pencil by Carmine and Fantino, inked by Rodin Rodriguez.

And it's a very generic cover that could have really gone on any flash comic. The entire issue is

edited by Ernie Cologne. Our story in this issue is Speed kills, written by Carrie Bates, pencil by Carmine and Fantino, inked by Dennis Jensen, colored by Gene D'Angelo, and lettered by Ben Odo. We begin an alleyway and Skid Row. We spend a lot of time there in Central City, Don't We, a lot I think is gone. There's a homeless

looking drunk dude wandering around.

Here's some noise. Goes into an alleyway. And what does he see? The Flash, who just recently been knocked all the way across town by Gold Face, sitting in an alley, garbage all over. I'm a cat licking his head. The Flash shaking his head. The gold face could put the moves on him.

Goldface seems to be impervious not only into bazooka shells, but the flash's sort of vibrational

techniques, you know what I'm saying? Well, the flash is pissed off. We can tell if he can tell from his

extremely gritty and determined look on his face. He runs back to the police station as quickly as he can, knocking the cat to the side, shocking the homeless man, probably killing him, gets back to the police station where Goldface is still just running right, crushing the place, knocking it around. So Flash realizes he's just demoralizing the public. If you were the public and you trusted the police officers to deal with crime and a crook just came right in and smashed all the desks and were knocking Crook's heads together like coconut shells, it's demoralizing to see this happen. Well, Flash gets in just in time to see golf. It's just still knocking cops around. Flash has got a new plan. Runs up the side of the roll, runs across the ceiling at super speed. I, you know, I get running up the wall across the ceiling a little bit more difficult. Lands on the shoulders of Goldface and starts jumping up and down at super speed. Now, Goldface is not impervious to this, but the jumping up and down is jackhammering goldface into the ground. We see go through the basement of the police station, through a layer of rock, through a layer of gravel, through another layer of rock, through a layer of oil, down into the sewers. And the flushes here, because we know in the past, the Flash has refused to go into the sewer to chase somebody. So you know this is a serious situation if he's taking Goldface to the sewer. Gets him down there, delivers a super speed kick to the face, kicks up a whirlwind inside the tunnel, pushing Goldface down the tunnel. He's going to drop him into the sewer system, which is an appropriate place for him.

Flash knows he's got to keep an unrelenting speed barrage on Goldface before he gets to control of the situation. We see Goldface shootout. Apparently, the tunnel that leads all the raw

sewage into the lakes and rivers of Central City. Not pleasant to fall in the water, so Goldface

flies out. Flash about to head out, realizes he's got to make in the water. So Goldface flies out.

Flash about to head out, realize he's got to make another quick move. He usually doesn't hit a guy when he's down, but Goldface is an exception. But when he gets to the tunnel, Goldface is up. Goldface has just been sandbagging the all the time as he was going through the tunnel. So he delivers a mighty, mighty right hook, knocking the Flash for Hoop, hitting the so hard that the vibrations cause a cave in, trapping the flash within the sewer tunnel, along with all the

sewage that usually flows into the lake. Goldface is pretty proud of himself, yelling at the

flash to learn his lesson and not to mess with Goldface again, he struts off. And I have to say,

this, it's not the strongest

art from Infantino. Now, his Infantino style has changed significantly since his first run on

the book. This just seems much more rushed, which leads, there's a lot of weird stuff going on

in this book. The fact that the covers get really generic, almost as if they didn't know what was coming in the book,

and the Eradicator storyline is very strange and stretched out, and there's no need for it to go on for so long,

and gold faces in it, and he's like a sea list, uh, Green Lantern villain.

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