Reviews

The Flash, Vol. 6: Out of Time by Van Jensen, Robert Venditti, Brett Booth

uruseibaka's review against another edition

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4.0

Future Flash is scary as hell but yay, the artwork's all good again.

kvreadsandrecs's review

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3.0

Great storyline. Terrible artwork.

gabi15's review

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4.0

3.5/5

pato_myers's review

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4.0

An enjoyable read, good to see Barry fight himself.

tmwebb3's review

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2.0

Too much time stuff, and pretty sure it won't actually matter. Mopey Barry Allen is no fun. Fun art does not match the writing. Wally West had a good introduction, better than his Silver Age one. Too long. Future's End issue tied in well to main story.

caterpie_reading's review

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4.0

This was such a fast-paced, action-packed volume. I found the story to be super interesting and engaging. Everything that happened moved the plot forward and kept me wanting more. On a few occasion I would have liked to get a little bit more of an explanation on why exactly the speed force is unraveling itself and especially on the consequences. I sometimes felt like it was just thrown out there in a side remark, which made it hard to wrap your head around.
However, I liked the take on how Barry would be shaped as a person if he had to endure decades of failings, being to late and losing people because of it. I really fell for Wally as a character and hope we get to see more of him. In general, I felt like present-Barry was written in an authentic way, as were Iris and Patty. I enjoyed all of the dialogue quite a bit.

In general, a very entertaining volume that wants me to pick up the next one immediately.

emily_m_green's review

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adventurous medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Thank you to Multnomah County Library for making Flash: Volume 6 Out of Time by Robert Venditti, Van Jensen, Brett Booth, Norm Rapmund, and Andrew Dalhousie free and readily available to the public. 

In Flash: Out of Time Barry is discovering that there is a tear in the speed force. In the structure of the volume, the story moves back and forth between present Barry and future Barry. Present Barry is dealing with a cleanup of the city after a crime spree left the city significantly damaged. Future Barry is correcting the consequences of the tear in the speed force: all of the rescues that he did not quite make because he lost time when he used his super speed. The stories move to a larger question: what will happen when present Barry meets future Barry?

Amidst all the superhero stuff, Barry also has real life drama: being under appreciated at work, a case that is not just more than it seems but will also ruffle feathers, an angry partner who comes last in the allocation of time, and a boy who needs a positive role model. With all of the different pulls on Barry’s time and attention, he cannot keep up the pace. 

The comic is written so that Barry is a sympathetic character, a guy who is doing his best. The peripheral characters are not round and exist only to fill out the rest of Barry’s existence. 

Overall, entertaining, but mostly I feel for Patty, the long-suffering partner who gets the scraps of Barry’s time and attention. If I could speak to her, I would tell her to run away from her neglectful partner and take care of himself. He might have a lot going on, too much to be a decent partner, but if he doesn’t have time for a partner, he shouldn’t have a partner. 

Would I teach this book? Being that it comes in the middle of a series (this is volume 6), it is unlikely. However, if I did teach it, Out of Time could be used to discuss managing multiple timelines, making superheroes human, and depiction of women and underrepresented groups. It is clear that an effort is being made to show better representation, but simple representation is not enough, it also matters how they are represented—what kinds of characters are BIPOC? What roles do they play? Are they round or flat characters? If they are stereotypes or basically cardboard cutouts, it is not much progress. 

themtj's review

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5.0

Just plain awesome, the future flash storyline is one of my all time favorites

ferrisscottr's review against another edition

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4.0

This was good - it had me pretty confused for a long time with the "losing time" references but they tied it up pretty well.

It would be nice to have Flash fight someone who wasn't connected to the speed force once in a while - I'm getting burnt out on yet more stories involving nothing but the speed force.

But I liked it.

bardicbear's review

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4.0

My only problem with this book was that the story line concerning the crime syndicate comes out of nowhere if you are just reading the Flash comics. This picks up after everything but doesn't really explain what happened or why Flash was unavailable to help the city. I feel like maybe I skipped something somewhere.