The start of a new era for the Fastest Man Alive! In the future, The Flash is a broken man. His powers have failed him time and again at great cost to him and the city he has sworn to protect. Now he's coming back to the current time to stop the one event that destroyed his life. Meanwhile, in the present, Barry Allen must contend with thieves trying to capitalize on the devastation of Forever Evil. It's a tale of two timelines that ushers in one of The New 52's most anticipated character debuts! The Flash, Volume 6: Out of Time begins a brand new era for the Scarlet Speedster, from writer Robert Venditti (Green Lantern), Van Jensen (Green Lantern Corps) and artist Brett Booth (Nightwing, Teen Titans).
Robert Venditti is a New York Times bestselling author of more than three hundred comic books and graphic novels. Some of his works include the monthly comic book series Justice League, Superman ’78, Hawkman, and Green Lantern for DC Comics, X-O Manowar, Armor Hunters, and Wrath of the Eternal Warrior for Valiant Entertainment, and the graphic novel Six Days, inspired by the story of his uncle’s participation in D-Day. He has also adapted Rick Riordan’s global bestselling Percy Jackson and the Olympians and The Heroes of Olympus novels, as well as Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia and Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz. His graphic novel The Surrogates was adapted into a feature film by Touchstone Pictures, and his work on The Flash was the basis for season three of the CW television series.
Venditti lives in Atlanta, where he both writes and serves as a storytelling consultant for some of the most recognizable entertainment brands in the world.
Fast-paced & action-packed! Unfortunately, I have no idea what just happened...
Warning: Here Be Spoilers! Ok, I'm going to try not to spoil everything in the story for you, but I'm not making any guarantees. Add in the fact that I'm actually not quite sure what happened in this volume, and I think you're probably safe.
Time-travel stories like this are where Flash loses a lot of mainstream fans. I personally think, when used sparingly, time-travel can be a great plot device for characters like this one. They can be fun! Did you hear me, DC? SPARINGLY. You can use it to correct stories that were totally FUBAR from the get-go, or fix shit that idiot writers may have fucked up. You can also use it to reboot your entire universe, and give everything a glossy new make-over... Sparingly. But just because you have a character who can time-travel, doesn't mean they should. I mean, at some point, it makes the stories you're telling mean nothing, because the readers just assume that none of it is written in stone. We're already dealing with Lazarus pits, magic, and alien tech that can all resurrect the dead. So we're used to the Surprise! It was really my evil twin that died! sort of soap opera mentality that comes with reading comic books. But to have years worth of continuity wiped out by a single issue? Sparingly, please...
So, who's the man in blue? Well, it's Future Flash, of course. He's racing through time to fix shit. Again. Only this time he's a bit unhinged. Something happened when Reverse Flash (Daniel West) plowed through the timeline a while back. In our time, Barry is noticing that he is (still don't understand this totally) losing time when he starts speeding from one place to another. But wouldn't he just sort of make up the time he's losing, since he's gong faster than normal, you ask? Shhhh! Barry is losing time! So the entire volume is filled with our Barry here in the present, plus future Barry going steadily backward in time. Our Barry is still trying to deal with the aftermath of the Crime Syndicate thing, his relationship with not Iris Patty, and a new version of Wally. Meanwhile, future Flash is making stops all along the timeline, to fix all the things he couldn't the first time around.
Ok, in my effort not to spoil everything, I can only say that 'characters' die, get saved, get powers, go back in time, and die...again. Or do they? Are they still alive in this this timeline, but with a changed future? Will they still get powers, or was that a one-time thing caused by future Flash? Is the timeline safe? Did anything really change? And the soap opera goes on...
In the end, I can't say it was a bad story. Great pacing, lovely art, and characters that I really like. It's just the fucking time-travel that rakes my nerves. For the love of God...SPARINGLY!
Thanks to NetGalley & the publishers for a digital review copy.
Well, they have a new team of writes and this is a whole different kind of story from what they were telling. I guess I'm cranky, but I wish they connected more dots so you could understand more of what's going on in this story. oh well. It sure is high energy.
So, there is Flash and there is 20 years from now Future flash who is going back through time fixing the past mistakes in order to heal the Speed force which is broken. I'm not buying into how this thing got broken. It's all silly. If something else can use the speed force, then how is that going to break it. Whatever. See above = I'm cranky about it.
Future flash has many upgrades and he's stronger, faster and he learned some skills. It was still entertaining, but I wish it could have been better at the same time.
The whole Barry losing time didn't make much sense to me either. I'm not a fan of time travel in stories, especially as much as the Flash uses it. It's almost like that's all they use anymore. Can't we have a flash story with no time travel. It's getting old.
I hope this will get better. I have enjoyed the 1st 5 volumes of this run. I'm going to hope the 6th was just a story dip and that it will get better from here.
The Speed Force has broken. Future Flash is lamenting the death of Wally West while Even More Future Flash decides to go back in time, fixing all the problems he couldn’t before (mostly KILLING his rogues!), returning to the present – whenever that is! – and killing himself(!), thus fixing the Speed Force. Present Flash has to solve a murder mystery involving his rogues’ weaponry that has nothing to do with anything and has FILLER written all over it. Also, Barry and Wally go to a ball game.
I’ve yet to read a great Flash comic and that includes Out of Time, which should really be called Out of Ideas!
This is one steaming mess. I remember just a few years ago when Robert Venditti produced amazing work over at Valiant. Read those first four volumes of XO Manowar to see Venditti producing first class comics. Then Valiant decided to go the Marvel/DC route and introduced crossovers and event comics and the quality slid further downwards. Then Venditti joined DC to write Green Lantern and Flash and here we are with Venditti at his lowest ebb.
Hasn’t Venditti just recycled the same idea he used for his Green Lantern series for Flash: the power the hero draws from is broken/decreasing and they have to fix it somehow? I should stop focusing just on Venditti as Van Jensen was the co-writer on this disaster.
I can’t stress how boring this book is – and overlong! This story could’ve been so much shorter. It wouldn’t necessarily be any better but it’d be over sooner! Present Flash plays stepfather to Wally West, a surly, unlikeable brat, for no discernible reason than the two become friends in the future, while his aunt Iris makes the googly eyes at Barry much to Patty’s dismay. Again, not sure why Barry’s giving Patty the run-around but then contrivance is this book’s watchword.
It’s like a bad soap. I could not care less about Barry cheering Wally up. I realise Venditti/Jensen have to focus on it because that’s Future Flash’s main motivation but it’s so unconvincing and boring. Present Flash also has the most half-assed murder mystery subplot ever. It could not be more forgettable or poorly set up and is just there to give him something to do while waiting for Future Flash to show up.
Future Flash (who looks like he hasn’t aged a day despite being supposedly 20 years older!) meanwhile travels back in time – I guess the Speed Force isn’t THAT broken then! – killing rogues/setting things right, as he sees it. His goal of fixing the Speed Force (how did he figure that out again?) also coincides with his deathwish that he doesn’t want to be a superhero anymore – mighty convenient (not to mention uncharacteristically cowardly)! The problems again are that the storyline is written so poorly, it’s hard to understand what he’s doing or why, let alone give a damn about any of it.
What do people see in Flash? He runs real fast and punches people – and that’s his “interesting” side! As Barry Allen, he’s the definition of white bread: a dreary forensics guy with no personality and an equally bland girlfriend in an appropriately un-evocatively-named place called Central City. Every time I pick up a Flash comic I distantly hope that this one will make me realise ahhh, so that’s why he’s so popular! But nope, this one made me actively dislike the character even more instead. Do good Flash comics exist or, as I suspect, does he only work as part of an ensemble?
The Flash, Volume 6: Out of Time is thinly plotted, horribly overwritten superhero garbage. It’s beyond boring – I wish MY future-self came back and told me not to bother with this one!
Well that was a disappointing reread. Robert Venditti tries to do something new, but he fails miserably.
Post-Forever Evil, Barry Allen is hurt, much like Central City. He has the Messiah complex of needing to fix everything and save everyone, and he's breaking and destroying himself in the process.
While I appreciate Venditti taking a darker emotional tone, it can feel shallow and pandering, like he's forcing a grim-dark perspective on an upbeat character. And Barry isn't pure sunshine, believe me. He has a dark origin story and his life contains some very dark moments, particularly if you've read Crisis and Flashpoint. But with all that said, there's a pall cast over this book that just doesn't work for me or the character. Because Flash isn't and has never been grim-dark.
Future Flash is the worst, most uncharacteristic Barry Allen I've ever seen. He's a suicidal killer. That alone tells me that Venditti doesn't understand this character at all. And Present Flash isn't himself either. He's always been late and scatter-brained. But here he's pessimistic, neglectful, and downright one dimensional, stupidly running from one crisis to the next and spouting the standard hero platitudes. That's not Flash. That's not Barry Allen.
Like any Flash comic this involves time travel and fixing mistakes. But here it's totally contrived.
Twenty years into the future another disaster has destroyed Central City and tragedy has befallen the West Family. The blue-suited, white lightning Barry doppelgänger bounces back through time killing people to change the future. The big reveal, which takes over 200 pages, is a cop out and stupid retcon. What a twist!
When Future Flash isn't destroying my faith in DC, the meat of the book deals with Present Barry investigating cold cases. The big mystery is a case of murder and stolen Rogues weaponry. But I just didn't care. It was a droll, vague plot that filled pages. And the whodunnit reveal? Stupid.
Venditti can't write Flash and I'm finished with this series. Present, Past, or Future Flash, they're all uncharacteristic. The dialog is forced. And while pretty, the artwork has that homogenous "in house" feel. DC should hate themselves for ever letting Manapul off this project.["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>
All I can really say about this book is "Meh". It's OK in that new 52 way, but it doesn't have that spark of other great Flash runs I've been spoiled by. Mark Waid, Grant Morrison, Geoff Johns and Francis Manapul have just left too big of shoes to fill. I'm also not a fan of Brett Booth's art. Everyone has toothpick necks and every costume is highlighted in neon. All of his costume designs look like they stepped out of Tron.
Another Dull New52 flash book. I know people are hard on Joshua for his rebirth run but his entire run is much better than almost anything from the New 52 when it comes to flash.
This is just Flash, once again, trying to "fix" his past mistakes. INstead of getting new inseight into Barry and relating to him we are thrown into Future Flash going back to verious moments in his life and "fixing" them as he sees fit. In doing so it alters the future but eventually the future Barry goes back far enough to take care of present day flash by sending him...back in time? Yeah...
It's pretty awful for the most part. Venditti is a solid writer but this is one of his weaker works. The art is good enough but nothing very flashy about it (no pun intended...maybe). The ending is beyond fucking stupid and the reasons the future flash goes back is so overdone I'm sick and tired of it at this point.
Overall a 2 out of 5 at best. But I'm not having it today so a 1.
I can't go higher than 3 stars, because the storyline "The Speed Force is broken!" And "Speed Force user from the future comes back to the Present with news about the end of the world!" Is more recycled than my grocery bags.
There's some good artwork and I like the Future Flash Blue Suit.
Oh and Wally West! Daniel West! Iris West! Let's do everything to push Patty out of the picture! She keeps mentioning he needs to pay her attention, instead of just mentor Wally since Iris asked, and she's hubba hubba to him. Patty is gone soon, I guarantee, and that's a shame, she has potential if they flesh her out, but she worst case ends up as a future villain in the Rogues Gallery.
This is a LONG volume, with tons of filler, like a cop stealing weapons and arming fake Rogues. His reasoning is sound, and Flash comes off as a goody goody after the Crime Syndicate rule.
So Future Flash has to go back in time to fix all the things Barry couldn't over the next/last 20yrs. This involves killing some bad guys, but there's one super sweet moment between him and one of the Rogues...unexpected but a gem. Then 5yrs in the future/15 in the past for FF, someone important dies, which shapes FF and his whole mantra. It also gets revisited, and someone DIFFERENT but equally important dies! This shapes THAT survivors' life and changes the course of events again.
Suffice it to say, there are important death scenes, major characters die, but which versions? The Speed Force was dying, and the death of a speedster with more than one speedster in the same proximity leads to the Rift healing.
Someone ends up stuck in one place, someone stuck in another! I'm interested to see how this will manifest itself, or if we are going to just forget shit and start all over.
For a derivative, overly used time travel story, it's not bad. However, they ALWAYS use the same story in Flash. That's how Flashpoint came about and so New 52 ergo. I should therefore be worried about another reboot....oh wait, there is a new reboot!
This coulda been done much more succinctly.
Doesn't add to the character much. Barry is nearly the same after all of this! However, I think the whole point was to introduce Wally West in some way...after Daniel West ruined, I worried that there was no Wally...but he is here. So is Daniel! So we have at least 6 Flashes here...at various times and points.
Not sure how I feel about this darker version of Barry Allen -- you DO know that he is the Flash, right? Because he is getting really casual about showing up at super speed as Barry Allen, and skipping the whole Secret Identity thing.
Here, Barry and Flash solve a series of crimes committed with stolen tech, and then go toe-to-toe with fallout from the...future?
I received this from the publisher and Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
Now this was AMAZING!
While The Flash has always been one of my favorite superheroes, I haven’t read any of The Flash volumes since Volume 1: Fast Forward, and I wasn’t up to speed on the run up to this latest volume. That did not impact my understanding of the story in the least: the story was written so well that I was able to keep up with the background information provided through normal dialogue. Not an easy task, that.
The writing in this was simply outstanding. Robert Venditti really captured the emotional impact of future-Flash/Barry Allen as well as his desire to set things right, and captured the confusion and “goodness” of current-Flash/Barry Allen. I was truly surprised to see how far future-Flash had fallen because of his guilt at being late to various emergency scenes and remorse of not being able to save everyone all the time. The author really played the emotional parts of this storyline very well.
The artwork in this volume matched the writing, and seeing the various future villains and how they’ve changed. The battle scenes were exceptionally well done, especially towards the end of the book.
Overall, this was the best Flash storyline I’ve read in a long time, and I’m looking forward to see how this all plays out.
Its so epic this whole story as we follow two timelines like Barry 20 years in the future who thinks he has failed things and goes back in time to fix things and along the way fights Mirror master and spends the last moments with Cold together which was such an awesome scene and then fighting off Trickster and in a way he is trying to set things right and I love the way its interlaced with the main timeline Barry.
And then in the present, Barry is trying to find the killer of a former crew and the suspect is believed to have taken the weapons of former criminas and is hunting them down and they have labelled the killer "Mashup" and the whole detective case of who it is and all is just fascinating and the reveal of it was awesome and I love the way the main story deals with the consequences of Forever evil and showing how much the world has changed and how the people blame the heroes aka Flash for disappearing and the drama it leads to is so well written here. Plus stories with Patty and Wally are awesome and I love the whole pacing of it until its Blue Flash vs Present Flash!
And the fight is so epic with cool cameo along the way and a great twist again which makes this volume such a great read and like one of my faves of the whole series, it takes familiar elements of Flash mythos and makes it so much more awesome than it is! The art of Brett Booth is an amazing thing here and makes the whole thing a must must read! It just feels kinetic which is perfect for the flash book and each panel feels *alive* (chefs kiss)!
ALL PICTURES, NO WORDS. I was pissed off, to say the least. Then today I go into my Adobe program to read this Flash comic. Six days left and it's been archived, so I figured, "Anna, time to get off your ass and read something you'll hopefully like anyways." WRONG. NOW THEY ARE JUST F***ING WITH ME. DC HAS GOT TO BE F***ING WITH ME!!! This time, we're playing opposites.
NO FUCKING PICTURES, ALL WORDS (yes, I didn't bleep it out this time, I'm THAT MAD)! At first I thought it was an artistic choice -- no pun intended. That first sentence made me think someone was dying and it was happening in white space. All words, no vision. "Cool, was an interesting choice. I can get behind this," I thought. Then after a few more pages that turned to white hot RAGE as I realized there were just no pictures AT ALL.
I wanted to like this more, but I didn't. It was okay, but it was just another Flash story to me.. The artwork was good. If You're a fan of The flash Villians, a few of them appear here. As I said before it read just like a typical Flash story, Time Travel? check. Berry Allen running around trying to save the day? check. Etc... etc.. I like the Flash. I admit I'm not the biggest Flash fan though. Overall, an okay book. Obviously if You're a Flash fan You should check this out.
I recieved an advanced copy Netgalley.com and the Publisher.
And thus begins writer Robert Venditti's take on The Flash and it is nothing to get too excited about as he introduces a multi-narrative event featuring a brand-new Flash who is none other than Future Flash... And if the dull crime investigation filling in until this grand encounter doesn't kill you, allow this Future Flash to knock you out unconscious with his uncharacteristic self...
Like I’ve said before, I love the Flash. The only superheroes who might be cooler than him are Green Arrow (the tv version) and Superman. I like Arrow because I’ve been a fan of the tv show for three years now. Superman has to be up there, because he is the coolest and best hero in the DC Universe. But right behind those guys is the Flash. Sure, I prefer the tv Barry Allen, but the comic is cool too. And so, whenever I read a new Flash comic, I think a lot about the story, making sure everything fits with what has happened before and “makes sense” like my dad always says. And that is why this comic disappointed me.
This book is about the Flash’s future self coming backwards through time to fix things Barry has and will do that haunt him. Meanwhile, this time period’s Barry is dealing with problems left over after the Crime Syndicate took over and some personal things like his feelings for Patty and the new Wally. But the time traveling is the main story here.
Okay, the big reason why I was disappointed in this book was the actually story. Maybe, other books in the series have been better, and it was hard for this one to compete with them. Maybe, I’m getting sick of time-traveling stories. Or it could be that I don’t like time traveling stories where I have no idea if anything has really changed. Or, maybe, this time traveling story just confused me too much. I don’t really know, but I didn’t love the time traveling story in Out of Time, which meant I thought the book was okay at best and average at worst.
What was good about this book was the art and characters, who I really liked. Plus, I mean, if the Flash is in the story it can’t be too bad, right?
Well, I hope you liked this review, and friend me any time to talk about my reviews or comic books.
Once we get into Volume #'s: 4,5 and 6 of many of the new 52 books, even the ones that started off strong, there is a definite lack in quality. In some cases, the original creator, who attracted people to the book, is gone, replaced by a creator who does a somewhat decent job. Less than a handful of new 52 books have maintained a solid presence since the line began. Batman, by Scott Snyder, might be the only example. We see this drop in quality with the flash by Robert Venditti. I think Venditti is great, when he is working on X-o Manowar, but just doesn't seem to hit the mark with either Green Lantern or Flash. There is a half way intriguing plot point in this volume- Why is the Barry Allen from the future going back in time to kill his younger self. I would be lying if I said I did not enjoy the scenes where future Barry jumped through time and stopped each of his rogues from going too far. Unfortunately, that is all this book really has going for it.
I am new to the world of comics, so what I thought of this vol. and what you might think of this vol. will probably be different I was reading an e-copy of this and I couldn’t help, but notice how great the colors looked. I don’t know how that will translate to the paper, but I hope that it will look the same. It might seem a little silly to you, but the books I read have only words and it was nice to read something in color. I started the comics because of the show, but I am staying in the story. Things might have started slow but after a while things got very interesting. The cliffhanger in the end makes me to want to read the next volume, which I guess is the reason it ends in that way. I will make sure to add this comic to my library.
Another new writer and illustrator bring Flash into a new story arc, one that sees him traveling the speed force. A lot of things are happening plotwise which gets a bit confusing especially when we add in time travel. The book starts five years in the future, zips back to the present and continues in that manner, at one point reaching as far as twenty years in the future. Some old characters briefly return (Gorilla Grodd) and some characters we haven't seen in this series make an entry (Wally West) bringing an exciting Flash read but the story was a bit all over the place for me to actually firmly hang my hat on. We'll see where it goes from here.
Por fin es introducido Wally West en los Nuevos 52. En este volumen ocurren 2 historias simultáneamente. Primero, el Barry del futuro está muy dolido por la muerte de Wally en su línea temporal y decide que la única forma de evitar que cosas como esta sucedan de nuevo es viajando al pasado y acabar, de una vez por todas a los villanos, sin embargo tiene un objetivo principal: ¡Asesinar a Barry Allen del presente! Mientras tanto en el presente, luego de los hechos de Forever Evil en donde un grupo de villanos dejaron casi destruida a Central City, se descubre que alguien, aprovechando el caos causado por los villanos, robó armas de supervillanos que se encontraban guardadas en el cuarto de evidencias de la estación de policía de la ciudad y que además, ese alguien está asesinando a villanos que escaparon de la cárcel durante Forever Evil. Es misión de Flash detener al o a los ladrones de armas y evitar que este siga haciendo de las suyas.
Me gusto mucho y le pongo 4,5 con aproximación a 5. Que bien va esta serie!
What a disappointment. I didn't particularly care for the main plot, but I also thoroughly hated the Iris and Wally story line. I've never been an Iris fan and it seems like they went out of their way in this volume to make her even more unlikable. For example, at the same time as she asks Barry for help with Wally she is using him to confirm things for a story. I really don't understand why she has to be so horrible, but I've yet to find a version of her that I can tolerate. Wally was an obnoxious brat that did not deserve any of the help he was given. I've always preferred Patty and that continues here, even if the writers are clearly trying to push her out of the picture.
This was a gigantic let down of a volume, especially on the heels of volume 5, which I enjoyed. I hope quality does not continue to deteriorate but with new people at the helm, I fear it is possible.
It's better than any previous story arc spawned from The Flash (the new 52 era). I liked the way Venditti evolved Barry into a mature person and how he explored the relationship with Patty (she grew a lot on me). Also, it's the most adult story arc until now, we have more drama, more action, more battles and even blood. I'm not giving 5 stars though, because of its artwork. Booth's pencils aren't anything suitable for the Flash's atmosphere, it lacks concept and looks amateur, it's miles away from the genuine amazing work Manapul gave the magazine years ago. So that's it, 4 stars because of the incredible writing!
I'm not really sure what happened, but there were like, three or four versions of the Flash, the Gorilla Grodd also travelled in time, and there were problems with the Speed Force, dirty cops...
I don't think it all makes sense, but it was actually a lot of fun. If you're able to suspend your disbelief, which is a bit of a requirement when reading The Flash, you will enjoy this time-traveling, high-speed, gorilla-punching adventure.
this was a stricly average volume. abosolutely nothing more than that.
the main story is very small. it can be described in two issues. but why they tried to lengthen the plot so-so-so much, i don't know.
the art was also not upto the mark. after francis manapul's absolutely awesome run in volume 1-4, I'm afraid, it is not as awesome as it was supposed to be.
still, the future flash was pretty cool. I'll read more of him, definitely!!
ARC from Netgalley in exchange for review. First off I love The Flash and Barry Allen. I have been reading so may Of Geoff Johns The Flash i was a tiny bit skeptical . However I still love him in Venditti's hands as well. Fast paced dynamite story . this one ends on a huge cliff hanger. Ready for Volume 7
I'm a big fan of my man Manapul, but this volume keeps his high standard going for the most part with a good slow reveal of the Big Bad and depressed-future-Barry's journey backward in time to fix the things he had missed was trippy and, at times, heart-wrenching.
This left me feeling tepid, which is weird, because I love The Flash and time travel. I think Venditti has spread his schmear of "bleh"-ness over the title.
While having Wally West reintroduced into the current DC timeline gave me a total nerdgasm, the lacklustre, reaching-for-it storyline made me want to roll over and snore myself to sleep.