YMMV / The Flash (Dawn of DC)

• Older Than They Think:
  • The Flash indulging in Cosmic Horror isn't actually anything new; putting aside Barry's many sci-fi adventures in the Silver Age that could sometimes touch on this, but Wally himself faced similar elements back during Grant Morrison and Mark Millar's well-regarded run, which among other things introduced the Black Flash.
  • Even aside from that, the depiction of the Speed Force being more than just a "font of extradimensional energy" and being more complex than simply a scientific anomaly is pretty much how it was always depicted, at least prior to Barry's return. In fact this was why Wally initially had a hard time believing it existed at all. Even the previous run mentioned it was more like a living organism then simply an energy source, so its not as if this is a long forgotten element of the Speed Force.
• Tainted by the Preview: Some Flash fans were not excited about having cosmic horror as part of The Flash, or the seemingly darker tone in general. The fact that the run cut short the beloved Jeremy Adams run doesn't help its case, either.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: A lot of criticism from fans of the previous run, and long-term Flash fans in general, has been this. Besides the sudden tone shift, criticism includes Wally and Linda's relationship suddenly getting needless tension, their kids getting unnecessary Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome to 13 year olds ^note (especially as DC still refuses to let the Young Justice generation, including Bart, age forward, leading to the twins being almost the same age as Bart, who has continued to be aged backwards, despite being about 16 when Wally and Linda announced their pregnancy with the twins), and the cosmic horror elements coming at the expense of anything actually recognisably Flash. Noticeably, reception to Jai West and Maxine Baker's story in the Beast World tie-in was better than the main series, which had Jai's angst be less overt.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Linda Park; in the first few issues she gets barely any focus outside of a brief bit on angst about being the only non-speedster in her family and hints she might be experiencing Post-Partum Depression. This is not remotely explored afterwards.
  • Issue 4 brings Jesse Quick back in, and gives her the unique hook among the family of being the speedster who looks into "socially sensitive" cases such as Velocity 9 addicts, while Wally and Barry focus on end-of-the-world crises. This is actually a pretty great hook that fits her character. Too bad instead of getting any focus on her following these cases, she ends up playing sidekick to Irey, then leaves without any further follow-up on the addict case she's working on.