Just Imagine: Stan Lee and Kevin Maguire's Flash

Just Imagine Stan Lee with Kevin Maguire Creating the Flash
Writer: Stan Lee
Pencils: Kevin Maguire
Inks: Karl Story
Letterer: Bill Oakley
Colorist: Chris Chuckry
Cover: Maguire and Story, colors by Chuckry

“On the Street”
Plot: Michael Uslan
Dialogue: Lee and Uslan
Pencils and inks: Sergio Aragones
Letterer: Oakley
Colorist: Lee Loughridge
Editor: Mike Carlin
Released: Nov. 28, 2001

My Just Imagine hiatus lasted a little longer than I planned, but with “The Flash” movie now in theaters, maybe I can pass this off as being the plan all along.

The fifth installment, and first in the second trade volume, finds Stan Lee teaming up with Kevin Maguire, who probably draws the most expressive faces in comics, for their take on the fastest woman alive.

But before we meet Mary Maxwell, we're introduced to Lady Andrea Zakara and the agents of S.T.E.A.L.T.H., which stands for Special Team of Espionage Agents Licensed to Target and Hit.* They're trying to crack time travel but the nameless agents Zakara forces into the cyclonic chamber keep dying without the help of the Seeker.

The Seeker is revealed to be Philip Maxwell, the father of Mary, a teenage comic book fan bemoaning her boring, run-of-the-mill life. But when S.T.E.A.L.T.H. and its massive chief enforcer Zargul attempt to capture him, Mary finds out her dad has a whole host of tricks up his sleeve.

S.T.E.A.L.T.H. pursues the father and daughter to Australia, where they escape by boat. But in the process, they run through a bank of green fog and Mary falls overboard. Her father pulls her back into the boat from the green-tinged water and finds Mary's skin has turned green as well. Even after the hue fades, she's constantly tired.

Philip's specialty is DNA manipulation, which S.T.E.A.L.T.H. wanted him to use to allow their agents to survive the time travel process. Back in the States, Los Angeles of course, he mixes Mary up a cocktail of hummingbird DNA to restore her energy, but just as he's injecting it, a pair of S.T.E.A.L.T.H. operatives shoot him, causing him to give her the full dose.

Naturally, Mary develops superspeed and disarms the gunmen. Admonished by her dying father to keep her abilities secret, Mary pledges to use her powers for good. She cobbles together a sleek costume and dubs herself the Flash.

Meanwhile, S.T.E.A.L.T.H. scientists crack the time travel problem, which allows them to... go back in time and steal stuff, then avoid prosecution by returning to the present.** After a successful test run by Zargul, Zakara offers him a romantic reward, which turns out to be a ruse to get the time travel device off his wrist then detonate a bomb to bury him under an avalanche. It doesn't take, and Zargul returns with a vengeance just as Zakara executes the scientists who perfected the time travel process. She convinces him the blast was an accident, then departs to traverse history in search of her next heist.

After defeating some S.T.E.A.L.T.H. stooges searching for her father's notes, the Flash seeks out their hidden HQ in her civilian guise. Zargul locks her up until Zakara can return to decide her fate. But Mary soon escapes as the Flash, discovering superspeed can't do much against Zargul's super strength and durability. Instead, Mary knocks over a bucket of water and uses power cables torn loose in the fight to fatally electrocute the brute.

As her father warned with his long dying breath, the use of her speed leaves her exhausted, just as Zakara returns from her jaunt through time. But the warning she never heeded from her now deceased scientist comes back to bite her – she traveled too much, causing her to age decades in an instant. Mary renews her pledge to make the world a better place and the wrong Rev. Dominic Darrk lurks in the shadows.

Maguire's art is gorgeous, and the costume is an inspired design, both practical and visually appealing with the colorful tassels that leave the Flash trailing a rainbow in her wake.

The visuals make this issue a lot more enjoyable than, though it pains me to say it, the story and often clunky dialogue do. Some of the other stories have felt rushed. Although this one is about someone running at superhuman speeds, it often feels too slow. Mary's origin meanders along, with the green mist unexplained but I'm guessing related to Green Lantern's origin or perhaps Darrk. It feels like we should have gotten a hint of that. And I'm all for Stan's usual bombastic dialogue but a lot of this sounds unnatural and not in an over-the-top, fun way.

And Flash's elimination of Zargul is surprising not because of his death but how casually she dismisses it (“Look at the bright side … you won't have to spend the rest of your life in jail.”) As a die-hard fan who wished her life was more like comics, you'd think she'd be even pickier than me about heroes taking lives.

The backup story features the return of the Fly By Night comics editor, still reeling from his encounter with Lois Lane. But when the Flash arrives on the scene, he's overjoyed because he already copyrighted that name years ago. It turns out the young superheroine is thrilled to be featured in the comics she loves, and her subsequent gratitude causes the editor's heart to grow, maybe not three sizes, but at least a size-and-a-half. It's a fun read.

Up next, the Flash teams with her Just Imagine predecessors to form the all-new, all-different JLA.

* - Though there's no indication as to who licensed them and, as a criminal organization, it doesn't seem like they would be concerned with the proper paperwork and procedures.

** - Is it really that much crazier than causing a massive earthquake just to make money off of new oceanfront property?