Comics! Flash #4

Flash #4

story by Francis Manapul & Brian Buccellato
art and cover by Francis Manapul

The Comic
I'm going to go into this the same way that I do with Batwoman: It will look pretty, but the story will be lacking a little. And when I do that, I enjoy the issue.

This is probably one of the more on target stories. It focuses on the origin of the villain for the first arc, Mob Rule. I'm liking it. It reminded me of when Johns used to write Flash and have an entire issue focus on the back story for one of the Rogues. This comic does a nice job of making Mob Rule's origin work well, and also balance it out with a couple of other subplots. This is done much more strongly than previous issues that seemed to jump around without focus and juggle a bunch of them at once.

One minor thing that bugs me is the idea that Barry is dead. Wasn't this done before in the first issue? The Barry death scares will get old really quick.

I really want to go back and get the earlier books I have with Manapul as the artist and see how much he has progressed since. I think it would give me a good idea of the growth he has had in storytelling. He has taken a page out of the J.H. Williams book and started to make some fantastic looking double page spreads. They work quite well in the monthly format, and my only concern is that if the binding isn't right on the collected edition of the comic then some of the artwork will be missed.f

The Cover
Nice stuff going on here. Clearly defines the different plots of the story. This would work well as a recap page, but works even better as a cover. This was definitely a cover that jumped out at me on the comic shelf.

Grades
Words: 7/10 - much better than previous issues.
Pictures: 8/10
Recommend: If this was the first issue that you read, you will be missing a few plot points and may wonder where the Flash is at, but if you have been with the comic since #1, then you will enjoy it.
Buy Next Issue: Let's see where this leads to!

Previous Issues
Three Issue Trial
Flash #3
Flash #2
Flash #1