A tale to melt your cold, cold heart
Captain Cold satisfies here in a way the noble Flash can't. Part of a gang whose members themselves wear non-threatening, silly costumes, Cold works out his disdain for pun-slinging villains at this issue's climax. Not being a fan of the camper side of comics, I found that vicariously gratifying. He also has the opportunity to avenge his younger sister -- a dark daydream, that anyone with a younger sibling, child, or someone they've had to protect can empathise with.
The beaten-as-a-child origin isn't a new or interesting one, but in Cold, it's mixed with regret at having abandoned his sister in an abusive household. Original or not, he has a convincing motive. The origin of his freeze-blasting pistols is less convincing, though: he adapted some advanced technology he found, without any previous inventive skills.
James Sinclair's clever use of cold colors -- washed out, plenty of blue -- is appropriate to a world seen through Cold's goggles (the purpose of which Geoff Johns elucidates). It's a visual metaphor that reminds me of Mirror's Edge -- both use colors to inform the characters' distaste for the worlds they find themselves in.
As a self-contained, excellently presented issue, this is easy to recommend to anyone looking to pick up a few issues from the Flash's extensive back-catalog.
