Flash Volume 5

by Williamson Williamson

[Quirky Cat]

3 1/2 Stars

The Flash Vol. 5 is back with a new artist, but they managed to keep the same author. Volume five is more like a collection of three separate plots than one cohesive one, but considering how fast paced the Flash usually is, I’m not really complaining about this. If you haven’t been following the story up until now then you’d probably be pretty confused if you tried to jump in right at this point (which is perhaps fairly obvious).



There are three main plots that take up most of the time in this volume. The first plot continues the one started in volume four; with Barry reacting to the events that occurred and learning to deal with the changes made to him. The second plot introduces and deals with a new antagonist (and no, I’m not going to ruin his introduction for you). And the third plot appears to be setting up Barry for future events (and problems).
Being that the Flash is the fastest man alive (well, one of three now, I guess), it makes sense than when things change for him, they change quickly. In volume four, the powers that Barry uses on a daily (hourly really) basis changes dramatically. Here we see the poor guy still trying to figure out his new powers. Going from using the Speed Force to using the Negative Speed Force would be tricky, so I personally don’t blame him one bit for having some technical difficulties.
It probably doesn’t help that Barry’s life (the mild mannered alter ego one that is) is somewhat in shambles at the moment. He’s lost contact with the other two Flashs (one through anger, the other one likely is just too busy with his own mess), not to mention the whole mess with Iris. Plus his habit of being constantly late to everything (an irony I don’t think I’ll ever get over) isn’t exactly helping his career, work relationships, or friendships. So yeah, juggling both messes at once doesn’t sound like my idea of fun, but then again I’m not a superhero, so what do I know?
I think I probably liked the second plot the best out of this volume. Not so much for the antagonist, but for the workplace politics and investigation that occurs. I’ve always felt that Barry needs to work on grounding himself better, and this plot really does a great job of proving why that’s the case.
The antagonist introduced in this plot isn’t bad – he’s not the best designed villain I’ve seen, but he did force Barry to deal with him in a unique manner, which I appreciate. I do feel like his appearance was a bit too sudden – I think I would have liked a bit more buildup, considering the circumstances of his creation – but that’s more a personal preference than anything.
The last plot is a little more ambiguous. I could have lumped it in with the second plot, but it felt just a little too distinct for that. Basically is continues off of what was started in that plot (the workplace issues, not the villain), but it also is setting up for more. I suspect this will be a major part of the next volume, though obviously I can’t say that for sure.
I’ll admit that I didn’t love the artwork for this volume. Sometimes Barry looked fantastic – but more often than not he and the world around him just ended up looking slightly off. Granted, I’m not the biggest fan of artist changes to begin with, so you may not be able to trust my opinion here.
I’m actually pretty anxious to see what happens next in Flash. Based on the issues I’ve been seeing released I think there’s going to be a Dark Metal tie in happening in the next volume, but I don’t know how heavily it’ll impact Flash or his plot. I can’t wait to see how it goes.


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