User blog:Xandermcc/The Flash: Climate Changeling review

Now we are at the fourth of these books i have reviewed and this one is the worst one i have read out of the collection. Not to say the others were amazing books, but they had a lot of great moments. Especially the two part crossover and gave a lot of insight into our heroes from both Flash and Arrow. This one... well, you'll see.

In terms of continuity it is set around...

The Flash: In between and

Now let us get into the story of this.

Story
The story of the book starts off with a standard chase by the Flash. Only instead of being after any of his actual rogues like Savitar or even the later shown Mark Mardon, he is instead fighting Snapshot. (Who doesn't seem to be from the comics aside from this minor character with the same name from the Sovereign Seven) He fights alongside Cisco, Caitlin, H.R, and Iris who all help him from S.T.A.R labs. They stop Snapshot, but then Mark Mardon escapes with his dead brother Clyde now back as a ghost. Wishing for Mark to bring him back from the dead. Mark attempts this task on numerous occasions as well as trying his usual tricks of killing Joe West and the Flash. However Joe isn't the only one in danger. Caitlin is also being affected by Mark's new effect on the weather because of Clyde, slowly turning into Killer Frost once more. So after Joe is attacked and kidnapped one more time, they need to figure out how to locate Mardon which they can only do by triggering Killer Frost due to the storm's interference on their sensors. They find out Clyde is just a manifestation of Mark's guilt and the reason he increased in power is because of Iron Heights and their upgrades to include the Wizard's Wand in with him. Barry convinces Mark to let go of his brother in order to get close enough to disable him and Caitlin returns to normal. Wally assures his dad and Iris that he and Barry are not putting themselves in danger, but saving others from it and the book ends there.

Positives
The book establishes some bits of elements that become in play later in the show that i can appreciate them establishing. One element being that Barry learns to phase other objects and people with himself. Something we see him only start doing in Season 3's back half, but they never establish how he can do it. Another thing is Iron Height's corruption shown in Season 4 of the Flash. When they torture Mardon with the Wizard's Wand, it is a clear callback to it. Finally, Mardon having a bit more restraint in his Season 5 appearance kind of indicates that he is still weakened from his massive use of his enhanced power from this book and his realization about his guilt complex also explains his sudden restraint in Season 5.

Killer Frost's arc is executed wonderfully. Caitlin slowly becomes Killer Frost in the book and it is done in such a suspenseful fashion that when it does happen, you really do feel on the edge of your seat. The support her friends give her in this is also very believable. Even Caitlin's own arc as she slowly wonders if she will give up her life to becoming Killer Frost if that means being able to catch Mardon.

Wally's inexperience as Kid Flash is also shown here in a believable way along with showing him growing as a hero. Plus it is cool to read Kid Flash fighting the Weather Wizard as you never got to see him deal with older season elements like that in the show.

Negatives
So there are going to be a lot of these. So brace yourself.

I guess i'll start minor and work my way up starting with pacing. The pacing of this book is very much off. The story drags on after a while and it feels less like Mardon is so powerful at that stage and more that the team isn't that bright. I partially blame the page count being over 400 instead of the last one with the Flash that had around 300. However i also blame the very artificial way of the characters either solving their problems or failing to.

Iris West is also a big flaw about this story. She just seems to be there to worry about Barry not being there for her despite the city nearly being destroyed by the Weather Wizard. She does even worse with Wally who she allows to be in mortal danger only when protecting her dad. It's a very selfish action and even weirder is she isn't selfish when Caitlin is faced with her own problems. In fact she is actually quite nice. Even showing how they were somehow friends in Season 4. (Should have put that last bit in the positives section)

Finally i feel they really didn't follow the bits from the lore. Mostly in the speed and powers department. The explanation for the powers didn't really focus on dark matter, but rather percentages, emotions, and whatever could be conjured out of nothing in the moment. Even contradicting dialogue from the show such as...

"What if i get a whole bunch of mattresses and stack them?" "Barry, this isn't a Roadrunner cartoon."

Barry literally stacks CROPS on top of each other in a large pile to break Wally's fall from being blown away by the Weather Wizard's Clyde Mardon persona. It's breaking the rules the show established which the other books didn't do as much of. Even the one with Barry getting a plasma disease.

Speaking of the Weather Wizard, he is overhyped in this story even with the power increase. Like... 

Lastly want to go over the most minor, but still kinda bad part of this book. The typos. There are a few, and it gets to be a lot towards the end. Might be printing errors, or it could be less care, but bottom line is that it shows it was rushed out a little more than the others. Like this one. 

(I only picked the humorous example)

Overall Opinion
Climate Changeling is a good pass time bit of material when you are waiting in holding as an extra on a TV show. (Totally not a real example, or is it?) However it is nothing you will feel that much for as it ultimately really has no epic conclusion, thrilling story, or great representation of these characters like the last few have. I'd recommend instead checking out Gotham: City of Monsters and my review of it here. 

Anyway, i hope you enjoyed this review. Probably going to review that Arrowverse novel crossover event coming in August, but i'll see how it goes.