The Flash #4 – Review

by Geoff Johns (writer), Francis Manapul (art), Brian Buccellato (colors), and Sal Cipriano (letters)

The Story: The Flash battles Captain Boomerang in downtown Central City and learns the secrets behind his future murder of Mirror Monarch.

What’s Good: I think part of what marks out this issue is the sense of wonder that is present in the depictions of the Flash’s powers.  It shows Johns’ love for the character and it’s creative in a way that evidences that Johns has thought quite a lot about the Flash’s super-speed.  Johns and Manapul, together, are masters at depicting the Flash’s powers, putting Barry in positions that allow for cool feats and ridiculously awesome demonstrations of his speed.  The result is truly awe-inspiring, at one point resulting in a double-page spread that got an audible “holy shit” from me.

The battle between Captain Boomerang and the Flash feels every bit like the classic duel between old foes that it is.  Johns is doing a great job at building the character back up.  I also enjoyed Boomerang’s feeling out of sync with current events, always trying to catch up after being out of the loop; this only makes him a more appropriate nemesis for Barry, given Barry’s own recent struggles.