The thoughts of Gorillas and the sounds of the Piper!
In the previous issues staring Barry Allen (aka the Flash) we have had two different types of villains. One is usually the less known villain who we only see in reprints and maybe the occasional cameo. The other villain would be one of the more famous rogues who the Flash is known for. In this issue, however, we have not one but two major villains in their first appearances! So lets get down to business!
Gorilla Grodd
How many evil talking gorillas do you know? (please don't answer that! its rhetorical!) Gorilla Grodd is one most famous of all fictional gorillas (well, after King Kong of course) and this is his first appearance! I do actually like his first story. You would think that they would make the story of a talking gorilla...you know, ridiculous, but the writers persisted and did a good job. They made an enjoyable tale, which can be taken seriously. I like how they handled it and I can see why Gorilla Grodd has become such a prominent figure in DC.
The Pied Piper
The other major Flash villain we are introduced to in this comic is the "master of sound". His story wasn't as good as Grodd's (how can you compete with a gorilla? come on!), but it still was pretty good. I must admit I was impressed by the strength of this character. In fact, at some points the pied piper seemed to more of a threat than Grodd was, which is saying something. I wonder how he went from being such a powerful villain to (correct me if I'm wrong) a B-list Flash villain. Just a bit peculiar.
Conclusion
This was a good issue of Flash. I must say I like Grodd's story more than I liked the tale of the Pied Piper of Peril (say that 10 times fast!), but its sort of like music (we all like one genre of music over another, but we can always respect the other genre).
