Finished reading The Flash: Out of Time, this begins writers Robert Venditti and Van Jensen's run on the series as Barry Allen deals with the aftermath of the events of Forever Evil and the effects it's had on Central City. The book opens up five years into the future as the Flash gets to a crime scene too late as it flashes back to the present as Central deals with the aftermath of the Crime Syndicate's arrival during the events of Forever Evil. With the city rebuilding Barry meets with a local psychologist about getting back his old job in the crime lab of the CCPD. On Barry's first day back he comes across a young boy graffitiing a nearby building who turns out to be Wally West, the nephew of Barry's friend Iris when he sees her at the police station as she asks Barry to help Wally to stay out of trouble. While agreeing to help Iris with Wally, Barry is on the case of a team of former criminals who have been turning up dead by the weapons of their former teammates that were stolen from police lockup during the events of Forever Evil. The side story that runs concurrently to each other has the Flash from twenty years in the future finding it hard dealing with the loss of Wally fifteen years prior as he's been constantly losing time when he taps into the speed force and plans to go back to different points of time to right the wrongs he missed and hopes to fix the problem with the speed force along the way. Overall this was a great book as it is able to cut between the stories of the Flash in present day and the time traveling Flash from the future greatly with the final confrontation between the two being a great payoff that also includes a nice surprising twist. The interactions between the future Flash and his villains during the different time periods is great especially when he's with Captain Cold in is last moments as it allows the writers to let Barry open up and be there for Leonard at the same time. While the relationship between present day Barry and Wally is played out brilliantly as an almost surrogate father for Wally with the scene at the baseball game being used to help the two form a friendship with the commentator's description of the game almost mirroring the interactions between Barry and Wally. While the story of present day Barry Allen is great as writers Robert Venditti and Van Jensen plot out a great detective story that plays to the strength of Barry's character as a forensic scientist which makes the mystery all that more captivating. 8.5/10.
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