Ace is babysitting. It’s not anything that he’s really excited about, but he’s agreed to it. It’s kind of a large group, but the number is only a small headache. Granted: they all happen to have superpowers. He’s okay with that. He’s got superpowers too. When super-heroic-types get together in groups, they’re bound to attract super-villain-types. Things are going to be a bit of a challenge for Ace in The Flash #797. Writer Jeremy Adams tells a superhuman babysitting story with the aid of artists Serg Acuña and Tom Derenick. Color comes to the page courtesy of Matt Herms and Peter Pantazis.

Ace is heading off with the kids to go and get pizza when they get sucked through a portal. Ace looks back to see them...gone. He may be in trouble, but nowhere near as much trouble as the kids, who find themselves in the presence of a weird assortment of villains, including Dr. Nightmare, Knives, Reverse Grodd, Mineral Man, Foul Play, and Heat Wave Jr. The assembled villains seem a little less than competent. But given the fact that they’ve kidnapped a bunch of kids, there is potential for real danger. Ace will have to head out before things get dangerous for everyone involved.

Adams tackles a real challenge with an issue that is largely populated by kids. Children’s dialogue is very difficult to write in a way that sounds completely natural. Especially in an action-adventure context where the kids in question have superpowers. To his credit, Adams keeps the action moving in a way that feels brisk and not entirely annoying. Adams embraces the awkwardness of the situation in a reasonably charming way. The plot is strange and convoluted, but he’s managing an interesting story.

Acuña has a firm grasp on the kind of action that needs to hit the page. There’s a lot going on. There are a lot of different elements. A lot of different characters. And a lot of different powers. It’s all really bewildering. It would be really confusing were it not for the fact that Acuña does such a good job of articulating it all. Derenick’s art closes out the issue in a way that embraces some of the more dramatic emotional impact of what’s going on, but the action feels a bit lost in everything that’s running through the page.  Herms’s and Pantazis’s colors are radiant and immersive, which does a great deal to keep the atmosphere resonant from cover to cover.

The journey into a deeper darkness may be coming with the next couple of issues. Granny Goodness always had a potential for greater darkness than what truly managed to hit the page before. Adams appears to be moving things in the direction of some very seriously weighty drama in the issues to come. It may lack the crazy energy of the huge group dynamic of the past several issues, but the story that’s emerging here does seem to be entering into promising territory.

Grade: B