The Flash, Vol. 16: Wally West Returns

This collection consists of two separate stories, one of which is much better than the other. The first is based around Barry's ring, which contains his costume, but turns out to have a significant background as well. The story is basically a series of fights against (mainly) Doctor Alchemy, mixed in with some rather dodgy comic-book chemistry. Yes, there's some link to Barry's backstory in here, which helps to raise it above the mediocre, but the writing is rather flat, the villain's powers don't make much sense, and the result is not one of the greatest. We then get a brief segment from the middle of an entirely different story arc that's otherwise not included here, which makes absolutely no sense to include.

Fortunately, the second story is not only the better of the two, but the longer. This sees Wally West considering retiring from the superhero business and then being catapulted through the timestream and the multiverse popping up in the bodies of various other speedsters. It's a good mix of styles - and new time-travelling superhero Gold Beetle is a fun addition to the canon - showing us (and Wally) different elements of what being the Flash is about. At least in collected form, it zips along at an appropriately fast pace, and there's a good conclusion that feeds back into some of the more recently developed mythology of the character.