Review: The Flash Vol. 9- Reckoning of the Forces

Quick Summary

Pros: The book has some moderate thrills and excitement. The collection works as a bridge between the previous volume and the next one.

Cons: The forces encountered in this book aren’t as interesting as they were hyped up to be. This book’s conflicts pass by rather quickly and, thus, feel pretty hollow.

Overall: This is a collection that doesn’t quite manage to live up to its potential. The concepts and encounters seen here are interesting but are passed by too quickly and do not receive enough focus. This creates a narrative that feels like it should be epic and important yet ends up just being average. Fans interested in the aftermath of the Flash War and interested in seeing how this impacts the comic going forward may enjoy parts of this read but newer fans might want to jump in somewhere else.

Story

The Flash Vol. 9: Reckoning of the Forces, by Joshua Williamson, is one of the most mediocre volumes in this Flash series thus far. The previous volume unleashed new forces on the Flash’s world and suggested that these forces would have massive consequences on the Flash’s life. However, the confrontations that play out in this story are decidedly average. The forces encountered here are mostly uninteresting and the thin explanations surrounding them weaken the narrative’s impact. The volume still has a few engaging conflicts at its core but the negatives end up slightly outweighing the positives. This isn’t a downright bad book but, considering the high quality of previous volumes, it is a bit disappointing to see a volume as lackluster as this one.

(spoilers start here)

The central narrative in Reckoning of the Forces has the Flash deal with two members of the Rogues suddenly manifesting incredible power due to mysterious new forces. Both confrontations are engaging and moderately exciting, as they deal with high-stakes scenarios where a single mistake could spell disaster. I also enjoyed that both required some ingenuity from the Flash and his allies, instead of just relying on their powers or their ability to deal out punches.

However, in the end, both confrontations also felt a bit hollow. These stories introduce the world to forces that are supposedly on par with the Speed Force when it comes to their capabilities. Yet neither the Trickster nor Heat Wave present much more of a threat than the Flash’s villains typically do. It is pretty disappointing that something that was made out to be a fundamental and revolutionary change to the power structure in the DC Universe has, thus far, felt like a common threat. Hopefully the glimpses of the forces seen here are just preliminary to a more grandiose presentation in the future.

It is also a bit frustrating how thin of an explanation both forces receive before their respective stories end. The narrative just begins to touch on the Strength Force’s ability to alter gravity before the Trickster is put away. Then, the Sage Force received an even less clear explanation, as, when the story concluded, I was still unsure what the Sage Force was and what effect it was actually having on Heat Wave. The uncertainty surrounding the Sage Force also had a negative impact on the appeal of the story,

(spoilers end here)

Art

The artwork in Reckoning of the Forces is good but, like the story, is not as good as it was in previous collections. The first half of the book contains artwork from Christian Duce. This portion of the read features bold and detailed visuals, with inking that helps the action-packed sequences pop. However, there are places where characters’ faces look weird and where their emotions look a little too over-the-top. The second half of the book contains artwork from Scott Kolins. This portion of the read features creative designs and a unique blend of styles that work really well with the story being told. There are some places in this half of the book where background details feel a bit static but, as a whole, they work out. Overall, this collection contains some nice visuals but ultimately feels like a slight downgrade from previous collections.

Continuity

The Flash Vol. 9: Reckoning of the Forces continues the story from The Flash Vol. 8: Flash War (Review).

The story here continues in The Flash Vol. 10: Force Quest (Review).

This volume also references other comic books, detailed below:

• The map from this collection’s first chapter is the map from Multiversity.
• A number of references are made to the universe-altering effects of the Flashpoint (Review) (Reading Order) event.
• A hallucination in The Flash #55 alludes to events taking place in Heroes in Crisis (Review).