Comic Review: DC Rebirth The Flash Volume 6

You know, since The Button reminded me how much I dug Batman and The Flash, I really should try to catch up a bit on those two.  I covered Batman earlier this week, so it must be The Flash‘s turn.

So, I read through volume six, subtitled Cold Day in Hell.

Barry Allen has problems.  Iris isn’t speaking to him because of his lying (still not sure why keeping a secret identity counts as “lying” since no other superhero with one seems to think that way).  His job transferred him to Iron Heights and keeps him out of the crime lab.  The mysterious Black Hole is up to something, there’s a new crime lord in town in the form of a woman named Copperhead, and she has a rival making things potentially worse.  Oh, and due to his new job, he can’t investigate those crimes as Barry Allen.  At least his brief girlfriend Meena appears to have returned from the Speed Force somehow and the younger Wally West appears to have forgiven Barry for the lies.  You know, if they were lies.  I’m still not sure.

But there’s more going on, such as what Meena is really up to, what the Negative Speed Force is doing to Barry’s mind and body, and what Captain Cold and the Rogues are up to in a hidden alcove in the basement of Iron Heights.  Can Barry trust his onetime friend-turned foe and rival August “Godspeed” Heart?  What kind of trap, if any, is Cold setting for the Flash?  And what does Black Hole want?

So, as always, there’s a lot to like about Joshua Williamson’s script.  This trade even includes another story of the original Wally West trying to settle into a world where most people just plain do not remember him.  True, I am not sure any two issues had the same artist working on them, but the art was mostly fine all the same.  The Flash, like Spider-Man, should mostly be lighthearted and fun, and this book is mostly that.  Nothing here feels essential or required.  It just feels right in a breezy kind of way.  Now, if only Barry would stop beating himself up…

8.5 out of 10 unexpected doublecrosses.