Review: The Flash Vol. 11- The Greatest Trick of All

Quick Summary

Pros: The opening chapter contains an emotional tie-in to the Heroes in Crisis event. The book’s main narrative contains a classic battle between good and evil that starts out great and gets even better as it progresses. The volume’s artwork is appealing and suits the storytelling.

Cons: Aspects of the opening rely too heavily on other stories to work well on their own.

Overall: This volume changes the flow of the series and ends up producing a fun and engaging Flash story arc. The main storyline here revolves around a simple yet well-executed battle between the Flash and one of the Rogues. It contains interesting origin stories, compelling twists, a worthwhile finale, and good-looking artwork to back it all up. Fans looking for a Flash story with a “classic” feel to it should consider checking out this volume.

Story

The Flash Vol. 11: The Greatest Trick of All, by Joshua Williamson, feels like a well-executed “classic” volume of The Flash. It temporarily eschews the world-ending stakes and global scope of previous volumes in favor of a tighter narrative bound by a single conflict between a hero and a villain. This conflict pulls the reader in from the start, with a creepy mystery and a great supervillain origin. Then, it builds suspense and executes some entertaining action as it works toward the finale. There are pieces of the volume’s opening chapter that end up feeling like a commercial for other comics, rather that solid stories on their own, but, for the most part, the narrative in this book plays out well.

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The Greatest Trick of All starts with a chapter that is half tie-in to Heroes in Crisis (Review) and half prelude to a future story arc. The way these stories tie in to other stories is great, it helps build excitement for the Young Justice series, introduces some plot threads for this series to pick up later, and provides an emotional reaction to the Heroes in Crisis event. However, all of these stories require another volume in order to reach their potential. This is particularly true in the case of Impluse’s story, which asks the reader to follow him to a different series, and the Heroes in Crisis tie-in, which really needs the entire “The Price” crossover storyline to emphasize what Barry is going through. This causes the volume’s first chapter to feel more like a commercial than a decently worthwhile addition to this book.

The rest of The Greatest Trick of All focuses on a battle between the Flash and the original Trickster. This starts out strong right from the beginning. The Flash returns home to find that the city has been brainwashed and that the original Trickster is running the show. Readers get a chance to learn the Trickster’s origin story and discover how he has obtained the high position he now has. The entire opening does this in a way that is entertaining and that grabs attention from the start.

Then, the rest of the collection details the Flash’s efforts at stopping the Trickster. There is a betrayal from Captain Cold, a twist in the form of an upsetting illusion, and a last-second rescue that saves the day. The finale plays out well and ends up being very fun.

(spoilers end here)

Art

The artwork in The Greatest Trick of All looks good and suits the story being told here. Scott Kolins produces work that is engaging in a way that matches the battles taking place here. It makes the Flash’s powers look as energetic as possible while giving the Trickster’s gadgets a creative flair. It also properly captures the specific emotions required from characters’ faces. This can be seen near the beginning, where one look at Flash’s allies instantly clues the readers into the fact that something is wrong, and near the end, where emotions run high and the pain present in the villain’s origin story comes to fruition. All in all, the visuals here look nice and make this a better book.

Continuity

The Flash Vol. 11: The Greatest Trick of All continues the story from The Flash Vol. 10: Force Quest (Review). The events of Heroes in Crisis: The Price (Review) takes place between The Flash Annual #2 and The Flash #66.

The story here continues in The Flash: Year One.

This volume also references other comic books, detailed below:

• The first chapter in this collection is a tie-in to the Heroes in Crisis (Review) event.
• Trickster’s reference to faking his death may be a reference to his role in the Countdown To Final Crisis series.