The Reverse Flash is one of my favorite villains so I really enjoyed this origin story for him. The whole comic was well written and had important life lessons throughout. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Already a fan of Joshua Williamson, and liked the take he has on the Flash. This was action packed just as any Flash book should be and definitely was a page turner for me. Can't wait to see what's coming next from this series!

ARC from Netgalley.
Opening after the events of last Volume and beginning at Barry's birthday party, our hero is very mentally lost, not even remembering his own birthday and stumbling on the party by accident. Hal Jordan arrives to give his wishes, but when Flash and Green Lantern are together, monsters are bound to show up.... and they do. Kid Flash grabs Iris to get her to safety and the monsters are defeated. However, while Hal tries to counsel Barry on why he should tell Iris he is The Flash, Eobard Thawne, thought dead by the events of "The Button", wakes up in his time (25th Century) and travels back to now, intent to cause Barry harm.

Barry comes home to find Wally severely beaten, and a message from Thawne indicating that he has taken Iris "home", making Barry run off to the 25th Century. Flash and Reverse-Flash begin to battle, and Thawne reveals his origin...
Growing up as a huge fan of the Flash, Eobard becomes the curator of the Flash Museum. Finding part of Barry's DNA, he manipulates it to gain access to the Speed Force, desiring to become Flash in the 25th Century. Barry, visiting the future, comes across Thawne and decides to train him, seeing possibility to develop him as a superhero. Thawne, however, is found to be creating the situations that he then rescues people from. Barry does not approve and stops training him. Barry returns to the present and Thawne continues to train himself.
Switching to a yellow outfit (because that's what all the Flash sidekicks wear), Thawne runs back to present day to join Flash, thinking himself proven to be fast enough to help. He comes across Barry giving Wally (the red headed currently adult version on the Titans, see old continuity) praise and asking him to be Kid Flash. ABSOLUTE JEALOUSY arises in Eobard's heart, and he vows to be Flash's enemy.... his Reverse...

Origin told, Thawne overpowers Barry and removes his mask, showing Iris Barry's identity as The Flash. When Barry tries to outsmart him, Thawne throws him into the Negative Speed Force, seemingly losing him forever. Just as Reverse-Flash is about to kill Iris, a darker Flash emerges and the fight renews. Barry easily now has the upper hand, even removing Thawne's connection to the Speed Force from him, but he can't end it between. BLAST from a laser shot by Iris, and Eobard Thawne is dead again.
But what does this mean for Barry and Iris? Too many secrets and lies create too strong of a divide, and Iris tells Barry to leave her alone.

This title is excellent, and this Volume even more so. High recommend. DC is really establishing him as a flagship character again.

A bit of a tired story as the reverse flash features yet again, everything is good apart from this lazy villain casting and ironically barry's and iris's relationship which seems too orchestrated.

'The Flash, Vol. 4: Running Scared' by Joshua Williamson has Flash in a bind. It's also a bit of a follow up to Batman/The Flash: The Button, so it's better to start there.

Eobard Thawne is a fan of the Flash from the future. He's such a fan that he's made a museum, and even wanted to be the Flash. In the Flashpoint storyline, his weird fandom led him to kill Barry Allen's mother. Now, he is back. Along with that, Barry is confronted with lying to the woman he loves about his life as the Flash. Everything starts to come apart as Eobard seeks to destroy Barry's life and everyone around him.

The volume begins with a pretty good story with Hal Jordan and the Flash battling a villain called Multiplex.

I enjoyed the story, but I wish the art had been a bit better. This character is going through the wringer, and this story is maybe the culmination of it, with Barry standing in the tatters of his life. I've enjoyed reading this version of the Flash.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from DC Entertainment and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

Beware that your lies will come to life. Not just lies of commission, but also ones of omission! Flash finds that out the hard way when Kid Flash is injured by Reverse Flash who then takes Iris to the Flash Museum in the 25th Century and reveals that Barry is The Flash. How can Barry out run this Oops moment?

As with the review I posted for WONDER WOMAN VOL. 4 I found myself lost in the story here. I hadn’t thought I’d been out of the loop that much and often look towards web sites to keep up on storylines. Apparently I don’t frequent them often enough.

I will say that at least the storyline here moves in a steady path one direction rather than leap from one area of the Flash world to another. Eobard Thawne is back and wreaking havoc on Barry Allen. In this reboot of the Flash story Barry has retained his memories of the past along with a few others but for the most part everyone else is lost.

The biggest example is Iris West who is no longer married to Barry or even dating him. A part of the storyline here is his trying to decide if he should tell her what he knows or not. When Thawne takes her into the future along with Barry things progress faster and in a direction he’s not ready for nor comfortable with. In addition to that the children that he and Iris had in the past storylines are now villains rather than heroes.

I understand that comic companies fear the loss of readers due to stale material but the rebooting of timelines and worlds does little to prevent that from happening. Go back to the reason we had Crisis on Infinite Earths and remember the problems held prior to that. After creating so many different universes DC tried to clean up the mess that was the multiverse and did an admirable job of it. So why defeat the purpose of that by going back and doing the same thing that happened before that event and creating a convoluted mess where past readers long for days gone by and new readers aren’t getting the same quality they were in the past?

The artwork here isn’t bad but nowhere near as exceptional as that done with the character by Scott Kollins. Perhaps I’m just far too deep into the comics of the past or even the fantastic job that was done in the last few decades to enjoy the current lineup. Comparison will always happen when it comes to comics. Nothing I’m seeing here would make me rush out to start buying the same pile I once did though. I wish that were not true.

Umm
I did not
love this book.
I did not hate it
but it certainly is not the
greatest Flash story
ever.
Can we PLEASE
stop 1) focusing on the Reverse Flash.
I know he is big with
the TV audience
but just stop already.
AAANNNNNDDDD
2) stop retconning
his origin.
For fucks sake
just let him be evil.

First, we get a team-up with Hal Jordan. Yay! This leads directly into the Reverse Flash returning from the dead (which could have been explained better). He kidnaps Iris and takes her to the future where we get a new origin for Thawne. He's all Single White Female for the Flash. The idea behind a negative speed force doesn't really make a lot of sense. Wouldn't a negative speed zone be just an inert zone, so Reverse Flash would basically be a statue. That ending really surprised me.

I found it interesting that there was fallout from Barry lying about his secret identity. Typically that is glossed over in comics. Barry's very whiny and fearful in this volume, a little too spineless for me.

It is always fun to see Flash Barry Allen face off against his arch-nemesis, Reverse-Flash Eobard Thawne. One of the book's best sequences is where writer Joshua Williamson really does something unexpected and shows a potential future where Barry and Iris's children, the "Tornado Twins" Dawn and Don Allen, have gone rogue and are trying to destroy Central City, drawn with gusto by Howard Porter. The Allen children are saintly figures in DC lore, killed off as young adults, and so to see them as villains is the kind of new ground Williamson ought be breaking, especially facing off against a troubled-but-resolute Barry with Iris at his side.

Ooh. There's some drama in this TPB for sure. The Flash is still ruminating over stuff from the previous TPB (Rogues Reloaded), and also trying to figure out if/when he should tell Iris about his double identity.

Of course, there are some bad guys involved in the story line, a guy who can multiply himself that we've seen before, and then the big bad of the TPB, Reverse-Flash.

It's also a TPB that spans time to the 25th Century, and there are some heady truths that are revealed in it as well, and everything is changing for Barry again.

Oh, and there was a cool guest spot by Hal Jordan too, this is how I like my Hal Jordan, in small packages and in someone else's TPB.

I was given this ARC by Netgalley on behalf of DC Entertainment.

Barry has screwed up again. Is it just me or does every ‘Flash’ story revolve around Barry doing something stupid or not telling someone the full story. For the first few times I found this okay to cope with as it shows Barry’s inability to realise that he creates all his own mistakes, but now it just seems like there is nothing more to The Flash.

In Volume 4, we find Barry facing the Reverse Flash again but this time Eobard Thawne raises the stakes by involving the people who are closest to Barry. Whilst the pacing of what occurs worked, what actually occurred just did not make much sense.

The art style for the previous 3 volumes was not very pleasant and did not suit the story or just The Flash. Unfortunately more of the same continues for volume 4.

If you have enjoyed the previous 3 volumes of The Flash, then volume 4 is very much along the same lines.

In a way I'm glad Eobard Thawne is so keen on knowing all the ins and outs of The Flash's histories, because it's books like these that make me less and less keen to do the same. Fugly artwork, with ridiculous proportions for even standard things like faces in part three, and just a mess of a narrative mean this can't be recommended. The help of a Green Lantern for two episodes is about as good as it gets.

Okay so first off I've never been a huge the flash fan when it comes to the comic books, shows on the other hand and movie role I'm all for. So it came to my surprise when I gave rebirth flash a chance and was actually very in love where the story was/is going. Now vol 4 is here and I'm presented with that same similar feeling of loving where the flash comic is headed except there were a bit of slow moments that didn't harm the story too bad but kind of slowed it down.

For starters, the iris storyline of him telling her felt at some points fun and interesting and considerate of what the flash and iris storyline is like if the reverse flash felt it important to ruin all of the flashes relationships on the other hand it slowed the story down a bit and even the short mention of the kids being villains in the future felt like an unnecessary point in the story. I also felt that the switch between past flash and future flash had moments where it was sort of confusing and didn't blend/mesh as flawlessly as I would have liked.

Next I would like to mention what I loved about the story starting with the actual story I loved the idea of what if the flash had to deal with the future and also how the past changes/influences the future for reverse flash. The interaction between the two characters was both fun and interesting to read, also enjoyable was the writers interpretation of how the reverse flash became apart of the rogues gallery. I love the art style and although at moments the faces are pretty goofy looking/odd I still found myself engaged in where the flash is going as a character and as a hero.

In short, it's not perfect but it's great for getting fans who are either not big on flash storywise or just want to give the guy a chance and understand the lore from a perspective.

I received an advanced copy of The Flash Vol. 4: Running Scared from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The Flash is back for volume four – he’s still facing many challenges, including one of his worst enemies: Eobard Thwane. The artwork was on par with what I would expect for the Flash – bright colors and slightly jagged lines (which I personally love, because it reads as additional movement, an idea thing to include with the Flash).

Running Scared spends much more time in the future, though obviously there are events occurring in the present as well. I’ll admit the quick back and forth (with changes being made in the present affecting the future) was a bit disorienting.
Hal Jordan (AKA Green Lantern from Sector 2814) makes a guest appearance. As usual with Hal though, he doesn’t stay very long; just enough to say happy birthday to Barry, help him kick an enemy’s butt, and then off he goes! Though I’ll admit it was nice to see him. I love seeing superheroes interact with each other, so I can never get enough of it. Hal did leave Barry with some parting advice: consider telling Iris the truth, as lying to her for so long isn’t going to help anybody.
There’s a lot more focus on Eobard Thawne and his backstory than I’ve previously seen. We’re allowed to witness how he became the Reverse Flash, which was actually pretty interesting. The jumping back and forth between reality and what I presume were his fantasies, as well as some alternate history events (hanging out with Barry, etc) made things a bit confusing. It was hard to tell which was which at times, which may have been intentional (giving us a glimpse at Thawne’s insanity).
A couple of events that occur in volume four are going to have some pretty heavy and long-term effects on Barry Allen’s personal life. Will Iris ever forgive him for the deception? (For that matter, will Kid Flash ever be ok with it?). Were the two Flashes we saw in the future truly who Thawne claimed they were? If so, has that future been erased, because of current events? So many questions and most of them are deeply personal and painful for Barry. I just can’t help but feel bad for the guy.
I’m finding myself becoming very invested in the characters introduced, even if I don’t agree with their choices all the time. So naturally the emotional cliffhanger we’re left with at the end of four is killing me. I can’t wait to see what happens next in volume five (I’m assuming four isn’t the end here) and beyond.

Barry Allen is here again protecting the streets of Central City as the speedster The Flash, but as he enjoys a party with all his closest around him how much longer can everything stay calm before one of his villains decides to strike.

This volume of The Flash is worth the read for any fan as along side the usual great stories in the Flash universe it focuses on the life and story of Eobard Thawne and how he came to be the reverse flash and what is the basis to his hatred of Barry Allen.

I felt the addition of Hal Jordan in this story made for a great team up and sent him away at the right moment as not to make things to easy in the conclusion so there was some struggle for Barry to fight. The artwork by Carmine Di Giandomenico and Howard Porter is spot on and keeps you captivated by each page as the storey unfolds.

"The Flash" will definitely be a hit in our Media Center.
The Flash is a superhero that young readers look to for adventure and parents can rest assured that this superhero leaves its readers with positive and important messages. Volume 4 certainly reinforces that concept with its excitement and action. A sure winner!