Review: The Flash Vol. 5- Negative
Quick Summary
Pros: The book’s main conflict is tense and the villains are great. The focus on Barry as a human is emotional and well-executed. The book’s conclusion grabs attention for the next story arc. The artwork is positive.
Cons: The book’s main mystery isn’t that great.
Overall: This volume successfully hits many of the same positive notes that were present in the previous one. It continues the use of darker storytelling to highlight tense battles and emotionally charged personal struggles. It also contains good-looking artwork and a conclusion that leaves the reader wanting more. Anyone invested in this series should absolutely continue reading with this collection.
Story
The Flash Vol. 5: Negative, by Joshua Williamson, maintains the same dark but alluring trajectory established by the previous collection. It tells an exciting story that has the Flash struggle to deal with the physical fallout from the previous volume. This leads to tense altercations and a final showdown against a sick, new villain. While this is happening, the Flash also struggles to deal with the emotional fallout from the previous volume. This leads to a well-written, character-driven arc that is full of emotion. Together, these create a great reading experience that helps build even more excitement for the next volume.
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Negative mostly follows the case of a mysterious new villain who has been stealing blood from Central City’s police department. The actual mystery ends up being pretty lackluster, as the mysterious villain ends up being one of the few new characters introduced in this story, a pretty obvious pick. However, the action surrounding the mystery is great. It is exciting to see Barry deal with the uncertainty of his new powers and Bloodwork’s terrifying powers instantly add a bit of horror to his final appearances.
Outside of this focus on action, Negative also places a wonderful level of focus on a character-driven narrative. This volume takes the darkness and depression derived from Barry’s battle with Thawne to further explore Barry’s outlook on life. Readers watch him continue to push others away until finally realizing that his fear of his own self-destructive tendencies is perpetuating further self-destructive tendencies. He still isn’t fully out of the woods yet but this volume indicates that there may be some redemption for Barry in the not-to-distant future.
Finally, Negative also hints that there is also more action and drama in store for the future. The last chapter positions Barry right next to a variety of his enemies and suggests an altercation with them is on the horizon. Plus, the situation with Iris is still unresolved. By the end of this book, I was already ready to start the next one.
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Art
Though not as overwhelmingly impressive as other volumes in this series, the artwork in Negative still stands out as something worth taking note of. Neil Googe, who provides the majority of this collection’s visuals, offers a stylized take on the Flash that feels distinct from previous volumes but not so different that it introduces a visual disconnect. The visuals here are appealing and have a unique capacity for shifting from bright and lighthearted to dark and sinister, something Ivan Plascencia’s colors helps further establish. This ability to shift tone on a dime is important to this volume’s story and is a big part of what makes the art so complementary here. Overall, the visuals here look nice and lead to a satisfying reading experience.
Continuity
The Flash Vol. 5: Negative continues the story from The Flash Vol. 4: Running Scared (Review).
The story here continues in The Flash Vol. 6: Cold Day in Hell (Review).
This volume also references other comic books, detailed below:
- Wally mentions recently going through some hard times and also mentions that Damian Wayne did something to the other Wally. Both of these events refer to Titans: The Lazarus Contract (Review) (Reading Order).