Review: The Flash Vol. 9- Full Stop
Quick Summary
Pros: Moments between Barry and his father are great to see.
Cons: The book’s core concept is weakly justified and does not get better as the volume progresses. The book’s action is lackluster. The narrative is mostly uninteresting.
Overall: The final volume in the Flash’s New 52 era series may also be one of the least appealing. Almost nothing about this collection stands out as something memorable or positive. Meanwhile, there are plenty of small negatives to bring the collection down. This mix leads to a book that fails to truly entertain and is hard to recommend to any Flash fans out there.
Story
The past three volumes of The Flash suffered because entertaining stories were damaged by poor conclusions. Readers were able to make their way through some high points but had to trudge through some low points near the end.
In The Flash Vol. 9: Full Stop, by Van Jensen and Robert Venditti, the low points are not as significant but the high points are nearly nonexistent. Instead, the book is lackluster all around, with weak concepts, forgettable action, and an uninteresting narrative. There are some sweet moments between Barry and his father but these few bright points are simply not enough to illuminate the rest of the collection.
(spoilers start here)
Right from the start, it is really hard to get behind Full Stop‘s central concept. This book has the police going after the Flash based on some very weak motivation. Then, this same police force ends up teaming up with the Rogues and continually insisting that these actual criminals are better than the Flash. As a concept, Flash as a “villain” and the Rogues as “heroes” could work but the way it is presented here simply doesn’t allow it to.
The rest of the comic doesn’t help this concept either. The Flash “redeems” himself in the eyes of the police by saving them from a disaster. It is something the Flash has done time and time again yet, this time, it is viewed differently for no adequately explained reason. Meanwhile, the work-for-hire status of the Rogues pretty much goes unaddressed and the status of their flighty relationship with justice remains nebulous. Essentially, the crux of the comic is weakly backed up from beginning to end.
Full Stop also fails to really generate significant levels of interest from the narrative or from the action. Flash’s status as a villain appears temporary from the start and leaves the readers wondering when his situation will be resolved, rather than if it will be resolved. In addition, the Riddler is a poor villain, especially considering how weak his motivation is throughout this arc.
The only significant redeeming quality in Full Stop is that it finally shows Barry Allen with his father again. Their time as father and son is written in a way that feels normal but is always full of emotion. Especially after the past volumes of trouble for the Allen family, it is nice to see them finally back together again.
(spoilers end here)
Art
The artwork in Full Stop starts out alright but gets worse as it progresses. The first few chapters look fine, they don’t do anything that special, but they also don’t look bad. Then, character depictions become less crisp and the action is less appealing. There are also a few places where images flow poorly from one panel to the next. In addition, the constant shifting between artists makes the collection feel less like a cohesive unit, especially when small visual inconsistencies pop up between chapters. In the end, the visuals here aren’t terrible but they also fail to rise above average at any point.
Continuity
The Flash Vol. 9: Full Stop continues the story from The Flash Vol. 8:Zoom (Review).
The story here continues in The Flash Vol. 1: Lightning Strikes Twice (Review).
This volume also makes references to other comic books, detailed below:
- Captain Cold’s criminal record was pardoned after the events of Forever Evil (Review) (Reading Order). He worked with the Justice League (Reading Order) starting in Justice League #30, collected in Justice League Vol. 6: Injustice League (Review), and stopped working with them sometime around Justice League #41, collected in Justice League Vol. 7: Darkseid War Part 1 (Review) (Reading Order).
- Heat Wave was seriously injured back in Forever Evil: Rogues Rebellion (Review).