The Flash Rebirth Vol. 2: Speed of Darkness (#9-#13)

2/5

Talk about a serious downgrade from the first volume.

Told mostly from Wally West's (a.k.a. Kid Flash) perspective, Speed of Darkness contains 3 stories. The first one is an issue where the Wally you see on the cover meets the Wally from the pre-New 52 era who had recently returned home due to the events in DC's Rebirth. The second story is Speed of Darkness itself and runs for 3 issues, where Wally tries to achieve the Flash's trust by going after a rogue called Shade by himself, leading to scenario that traps him, his aunt Iris, and the Flash himself. The third story, another single issue, has Kid Flash patrolling the streets as Barry and Iris go on a date.

In volume 1, Lightning Strikes Twice, Joshua Williamson wrote an exciting and heartwarming story of Barry Allen training all the citizens who had gained access to the speed force, only to find out that a speedster known as Godspeed is killing them off and stealing their speed. Don't let the cover fool you here because nothing nearly as exciting happens in this volume. Though there are heartwarming moments here sprinkled throughout, a lot of it has been done before and perhaps even done better.

Joshua Williamson seemed distracted when writing this, and that might have been because he was probably writing Justice League vs. Suicide Squad because both fall under the same issues: The ideas are nice but merely half-executed and the dialogue, while maintaining a decent flow, ranges from serviceable to just plain bad (however, this is slight better than Justice League vs. Suicide Squad). This volume seemed to really want to introduce audiences to the new Wally West and though he's new, I wouldn't say he's improved. Both his dialogue and character are extremely flat and follows simple kid-hero tropes you've seen before.

On the plus side, though, the selection of guest artists for this volume were pretty cool, my favorite being Davide Gianfelice in #11 who gave his issue a nice Saturday Morning Cartoon feel that goes well with Flash's more lighthearted stories. However, that's where an issue lies: This whole volume feels a bit juvenile compared to the previous 10 volumes not just because of the art, but from the writing as well.

Hopefully things get kicked up a notch in the next volume and perhaps we'll see Gianfelice's art again because I actually enjoyed his composition and the way he envisioned the action sequences.

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