Scarily I first talked about the solicit for this issue back in June last year.  EVS has since revealed that health issues were behind the delays to this series, which is entirely understandable, although I do think DC could’ve done more to get it back on track.  Instead the book is currently well known for its delays, and I hope that hasn’t damaged the relaunch of the Flash too badly.

The delays have been discussed to death, but instead I thought I’d mention the original solicit for the issue:

“In a battle along the outskirts of time, the secrets of the Speed Force have been revealed! The new archnemesis of those who ride the lightning is coming for Iris Allen. And the Barry Allen you knew is gone forever…or is he? What change does Wally West face? What destiny will Kid Flash choose? Prepare to meet a Flash Family that’s both familiar and different…and get to the starting line for the next epic adventures of the Speed Force!”

New archnemesis?  Well, nope.  Just the same old Reverse Flash who was revealed as the villain in #3.  Barry Allen we knew is gone forever?  No idea what that’s talking about.  What change does Wally West face?  None that I could see in this issue.  Unless they’re counting Thawne’s hints about his future.  What destiny will Kid Flash choose?  Nope.  Never happened.

I’m used to hyperbole and misdirection in the solicits, but this solicit seems pretty far off the issue we got.  Did something change?

As a final moan, I have to say I really am not a fan of the final cover.  Barry’s pose looks awkward, and as a fanboy gripe, Jay’s helmet is drawn wrong.  Its a pity that the series has ended with what I think is probably the weakest of the covers.

However, that aside, I actually really enjoyed this issue.   Without the need for a last-minute new villain, we get a neat wrap up to the menace of Thawne.  The fight to save Iris is well done, played against Thawne’s lightning bolt staff falling to the ground to underline how fast its all happening.  Also welcome was the way that Wally was key to the solution, helping Barry follow Thawne back in time using his knowledge and experience of the Speed Force.  Its not the first time in this series that Geoff’s played on the fact that Wally’s actually more knowledgeable on the nature of speed than Barry, and it helps to balance out the fact that Wally’s losing his place as the main Flash to Barry.  While Barry is undoubtedly going to learn more in his main series, at the moment its a good way to help differentiate the heroes and give both their strengths and weaknesses.   The fact that Thawne’s eventual defeat is using the booth from Rebirth #3 was a nice solution, using what was already in place.   And here, for the first time I actually liked an aspect of Johns’ Speedforce retcons, allowing them to depower Thawne, while acknowledging that as the source of the Negative Speedforce, its only temporary for as long as they can keep him immobile.   While I generally dislike the “Barry is the origin of the Speedforce” aspect to the story its an interesting idea that the main character can never be de-powered.

With Thawne locked up, the second half of the story shifts more towards teasing future events.  Its perhaps a shame that half of the issue is donated towards teases that don’t actually relate to the main story, but as I’m intending to pick up the monthly anyway, it didn’t really bother me that much.  I wonder if its a reflection of the original 5-issue solicitation of this series, or if its just down to Johns’ usual habit of building up his storylines and laying the groundwork for them well ahead of time.

I found Thawne’s comment to Wally about one of his children destroying his life interesting.  The obvious candidate is the de-powered Jai who will doubtlessly not be happy to have had his powers snatched away, while his sister is enjoying life as a full speedster.  But I wonder if this couldn’t be a misdirect.  Iris is very young so I have to wonder if she might not be responsible, doing something through inexperience or the like.  After all, Thawne never said one of Wally’s kids would become a villain.

The other big hint is towards multiple Zooms.  While locked up in Iron Heights, its revealed Thawne’s cell is next to Hunter Zolomon.  After Hunter had his powers stripped from him in Rogue’s Revenge, this was a great moment.  It’d really felt at the time that Hunter was being moved out of the way to make room for Thawne’s return, so for Geoff to pick up the character again so soon was welcome indeed.  I imagine that’s a reaction to the fact that Hunter was such a successful character and villain and so Geoff must’ve been keen to address his status as quickly as possible.  Between this scene and Abra Kadabra having dolls of both Zooms, it seems like a given that Hunter will be returning as Zoom at somepoint in the Flash’s future.  And now that’s been teased, Geoff can happily sit it to one side while he focuses on other plots, without worry about fanboy “what about Zooooooooom??????” questions every 5 minutes. (In fairness, I’d have been one of them asking it )

Something I’m less keen on, is the previously unrevealed second cave painting in Gorilla City that shows Thawne powering other speedsters in the same was as the painting Barry found in Blackest Night Flash (although that painting showed Barry and his family).  The hint of a “Zoom Corps” leaves me a little worried.  Professor Zoom returning and being the villain in Rebirth had been assumed after Geoff did the same thing with Sinestro in GL: Rebirth.  The yellow spectrum was introduced in much the same way as the negative Speed Force, and now a Zoom Corps just seems much too derivative of the Sinestro Corps War.   I don’t doubt that Geoff will probably have something planned that will greatly differentiate the stories, so I’ll wait and see what happens, but I worry that if Geoff does go down this route, he’ll just be seen as copying his own previous work.

A bit like Blackest Night Flash, I found this series to be a bit of a mixed bag.  It was certainly not helped by all the delays, and I really didn’t like the retcons about the nature of the speed force, which bogged down some of the middle issues.  That said, the emotional beats of the story worked well, especially Max’s return.  I’d still like to see more time given to the Barry/Bart relationship which keeps getting approached but doesn’t feel like its really being explored yet.  I’d love the monthly to have a whole issue given to the two characters getting to know each other.  With Geoff having had such a successful run on Wally’s series, I’m also hoping we’ll see Barry and Wally teaming up in the monthly, as opposed to Green Lantern where the book has remained almost completely focused on Hal (although I’d imagine Wally team ups will be shied away from for a while in order to establish Barry on his own properly, which I don’t have a problem with.  But with a plot thread surrounding Jai and Iris now hinted at directly, I’d presume Wally will have to feature in the book to some degree).

What was very effective was the re-introduction of Eobard Thawne as the Reverse Flash.  Very fond of the sound of his own voice, and very threatening in the scenes where he targeted Wally’s family.  Out of the two I still prefer the Hunter Zolomon Zoom but Thawne is been established as a key threat, and someone to be feared, and I look forward to the story that sees the return of both Zooms.

Now with everything setup for the monthly, I’m really hoping that this new direction for the Flash clicks into place.  The Flash has long been one of my favourite DC characters along with Green Lantern, so I really hope Geoff can enjoy the same kind of success with Barry Allen as his Wally West run had.

I’ll say it now, I think this is the best issue of Rebirth so far.  The pace finally felt right to me, and it built on the Zoom stuff from issue 4 well, and resolved some of the lingering subplots.

Most of the issue is taken up with the fight against Zoom and the subsequent revelations.  Professor Zoom takes great pleasure in telling Barry how he’s been time travelling back and changing the past, affecting Barry’s personal history, and explaining things like Barry’s mother’s death (prior to Rebirth, Barry’s parents had both been alive).  It also explains why Barry’s mood has been so affected since the start of the series, as its explained as nothing to do with Barry struggling to adapt to being back, but infact his mood was a side affect of Zoom’s continual changing of Barry’s history (which was presumably happening off panel during the first few issues).

We also get the Flash family re-established for the franchise going forward.  Max, of course, returned last issue but this issue also brought the much-heralded revamp to Wally’s outfit (to solve the issue of Wally and Barry’s outfits being so similar visually).

I must admit, I was slightly dreading the revamp, half-expecting it to be some modification of his old Kid Flash outfit that a lot of fans have such affection for.  Thankfully though, this wasn’t the case, with the costume only receiving slight tweaks, and still recognisably being a “Flash” costume.  The changes work well, and it reminds me of the Return of Barry Allen storyline, which never ran into the issue of the characters looking similar, due to the dark red used in Wally’s “shiney” outfit he was wearing at the time.  Its also interesting to note the lifts from Wally’s outfit as seen in the JLU cartoon, with his belt and chest logo (possibly the only part of the update I’m not sure on.  I prefer the normal lightning bolt) being from that variation of the costume.  I’m definitely pleased with this updated look for Wally.

The other development I was very pleased with, was Iris West’s transformation into the new Impulse.  Its a move that had been signposted throughout the series, with her hero-worship of Bart and Zoom’s comments about the twins’ connection to the speedforce last issue, and I for one am really pleased to see not only Iris turned into a proper speedster, but also that she’s adopted Bart’s old identity.  It adds another nice link to the chain of the Flash legacy.

It also nicely places the characters for the upcoming monthlies.  Presumably Iris will be in Wally’s co-feature, but also sets her up for appearances in Bart’s Kid Flash book.  I think it’ll be quite interesting to see how Bart deals with her following in his footsteps and it could be quite amusing  And you have to assume it’ll not be long before Jai starts to resent the fact that he’s been left powerless by Iris taking on their previously-shared Speedforce connection.

Speaking of Bart, it was interesting watching his interactions with Max.  Bart’s grown a lot since Max was trapped in the Speedforce, and it was interesting to see how sometimes he was ahead of what Max was telling him, with Max attempting to guide him as he did when he was Impulse.  It was a nice way of showing that not only has Max been out of the loop for a while, but also how much Bart’s developed as a hero.  It does promise that their relationship in the upcoming Kid Flash monthly will have evolved beyond their relationship in Bart’s original Impulse book, and it’ll be interesting to see what direction the writer takes there.

Overall, this was a great issue.  I’m glad to see that the second half of this series has improved a lot over the first.  I’m still not entirely sure this series has been a success for me overall, but these later issues are at least ticking the right boxes.  I look forward to the last issue, and I really hope it doesn’t suffer the crippling delays this issue did.  Interestingly, the solicit mentions some new threat to the Speedsters, which I’d really expected to get some hint of here.  Throwing in a new villain in the last issue seems a little Final Crisis to me, which suddenly had Mandrak turn up and felt a bit forced (even if you had read Superman: Beyond), so I’m intrigued to see what this actually means.

There’s very obvious parallels with Green Lantern: Rebirth here.  In that series, Sinestro was revealed as the villain at the end of issue 3, who then spent issue 4 explaining the plot.  Much the same happens here, and like issue 4 of GL: Rebirth ended with Hal’s restoration, this issue similarly ends with Barry back and with a renewed sense of who he is.

Also like issue 4 of Rebirth, there’s retcons aplenty here.  The “giant yellow space bug” came under a lot of flack when Parallax’s true nature was revealed in Green Lantern, and while that change has since been accepted and become a major part of how the GL universe is shaped (with the emotional spectrum and its avatars) I must admit, I’m finding the revelations in this issue a little harder to swallow.  Barry as the source of the Speed Force just seems to open up questions and problems that previously didn’t exist.  If Barry powers the Speed Force, what powers Barry?  And what was powering it while he was dead?  If Barry’s accident created the Speed Force, and Zoom’s recreation of that accident created his, why doesn’t Wally have his own?  Unless that’s something that’ll be revealed in Flash #25…

The existance of the Negative Speed Force (surely that should be the Reverse Speed Force to keep the theme?) is something I’m torn on.  I could see it as a counterpoint to the Speed Force we’re familiar with.  A hell for Speedsters versus the heaven we’ve previously seen.   That could at least tie into Savitar being incredibly glad to be out of the Speed Force in issue 1.  However I can’t help but think that Zoom having his own evil speed force makes him a bit too much like Sinestro.  I’m also not keen on the changes to Barry’s return in Final Crisis or Barry’s turning into the Black Flash being a sign of the negative speed force’s infection.  Heck, if this was always the plan for Barry’s return, couldn’t the reasons for him coming back just have been left a mystery in Final Crisis?  It seems a bit strange that they’re already retconning a series less than a year later.

However, while I’m unsure about the retcons in this issue, I can still say I really enjoyed it.  There’s a load of great “Flash Family” moments here, and Professor Zoom is reestablished as a real threat, and a chilling villain.  The scene where he turns up at Wally’s house and threatens Linda and the kids was genuinely scary.  Which only made the appearance of Jay and Bart a real punch-the-air moment.

This is one area where Ethan’s art really excells in this issue.  Here he gets the chance to do some brilliant splash pages.  Be it Bart and Jay turning up to take on Zoom or Wally running into the Speed Force, determined to bring everyone back out of it, Ethan renders these moments beautifully.

And the return of Max.  What can I say?  A moment that had been well telegraphed from the first issue of this series, and a loose plot thread that had fans crying out for resolution.  Max has always been a really popular character.   I loved his use in Waid’s Flash run as the Zen Master of Speed, and this popularity was only reinforced when he became Bart’s mentor in the Impulse series.   The splash page when he returns to Earth, having been persuaded by Barry that he’s the closest thing Bart has to a father (especially powerful when you consider Barry is Bart’s actual grandfather) brought a huge grin to my face.

This issue was definitely a big improvement over the first three.  Although improvement is probably being a bit unfair in that I think the whole thing (like Final Crisis) will read better all together in trade form.  But as a standalone issue in a monthly series there was definitely a more satisfying read than the previous issues.  The series is probably still not up there with Green Lantern Rebirth for me, but its definitely starting to tick the right boxes, especially with the way the whole Flash family was showcased here.

The one thing that’s been leaping out from Rebirth so far has been that its been a struggle to care about Barry being back, however I did also say that I hoped issue 3 would be a big turning point.  From the solicit for issue 6, I’m now feeling a lot happier that it will be.

The solicit hints at big changes in store for the Flash family.  Obviously we know that Wally is due a new Ethan Van Sciver-designed costume, but what’ll happen to his family, and will he be making a bigger change to his life to accomodate them other than a change of outfit?  The stuff about Kid Flash’s destiny is also interesting.  I wonder what exactly that means.  What choice will he be facing?

There’s also the talk of a new archnemesis for the Flash family.  In my Rebirth #3 post I’d speculated that the Reverse Flash may be revealed as working for someone else, and it sounds like that may be the case afterall.   I’m very glad this is the case (unless they’re just referring to Reverse Flash being redefined for the new series, but it does sound like its an original villain being introduced).

But most important is the picture of Barry on the cover.  He’s smiling at last.  Whatever happens in the second half obviously refocuses his outlook on life (specifically his own).  Of course, its not a surprise that Barry will be sorted out, character-wise.  Obviously Geoff Johns wasn’t going to leave us with a moping Barry Allen at the end of this, that people were going to struggle to like, and most importantly, it wouldn’t really jibe with Barry’s appearance in Blackest Night #0, which I really enjoyed, and has probably convinced me more about Barry’s return than issues 1-3 of Rebirth have so far.

This solicit has been perfectly pitched to me.  It raises a lot of interest in me in terms of where this series is going to go over the next 3 issues, as well as leaving me optimistic about the second half of Rebirth.   I said it in my Rebirth #3 post, but I’ll repeat it here.  I suspect this series will read better as a whole, and I imagine that by the end of the run, I’ll be excited for the direction of the Flash going forward.

Barry has been revealed as the new Black Flash, and the JLA have been called in, quick time.  Jay’s already on the scene with Wally and explains they’re going to try and separate Barry from the Speedforce.  This way, he’ll no longer have his speed, but he’ll be alive and normal once again.

It quickly gets out of control though, Barry’s still not convinced he should be back, and breaks free.  Superman tries to catch him, but Barry easily out runs him (in a scene very reminisent of Impulse’s first appearance in Smallville).  Barry attempts to return to the speedforce, hoping to use Iris as an anchor so he’ll be able to escape again, cleared of the Black Flash possession.  However as he enters the speedforce, he is stripped of his memories until Max Mercury and Johnny Quick appear to help him, and the villain of the piece stands revealed as Professor Zoom, the Reverse Flash.

As I mentioned above, the pace is quicked into high gear in this issue.  Despite a short flashback, this issue ditches the solemn introspection of the first two, and gets on with the reveals.

The main one, isn’t really a surprise.  And in some ways I’m glad Professor Zoom’s been revealed here rather than dragged out much longer.  It definitely feels a bit too much like a repeat of the Sinestro reveal in Green Lantern Rebirth though, and I think that’s a bit of a shame.  Thawne’s return had been widely predicted from the moment the words “Johns”, “Van Sciver”, “Flash” and “Rebirth” were said together, and after Hunter Zolomon was depowered in Rogue’s Revenge it was taken as a lock.   I certainly understand the desire to bring him back alongside Barry, but given the obvious Green Lantern Rebirth parallels, I can’t help but wonder if it might’ve been better left until the new Flash ongoing, allowing for more of a surprise villain in this series.  Saying that, we still don’t know how he returned to life, and the series is only halfway through, so there’s scope for a big twist or surprise mastermind yet.

Its a bit of a shame for Johnny Quick to appear just to get immediately dusted by Barry.  Max looks to be in trouble as well, but unlike Johnny we don’t actually see him die (if that’s even the right word, since they’re essentially speedforce ghosts anyway).  The heavy name-dropping of Max throughout this series does make me wonder if there’s not a bigger plan for this character.  In this issue, Jay specifically mentions how Max was the speedforce guru, so it leaves me wondering if Max isn’t yet to provide the solution to Barry’s Black Flash problems.

And regarding Barry as the Black Flash, I was very glad to see Ethan Van Sciver didn’t pull his punches here and just draw Barry in a black and red costume.  There’s various panels throughout where we see Barry taking on a more monstrous form as he fights against his transformation, and I found them very effective.  With regards the art, I’ve still got the slight peeve that Kid Flash’s boots are wrong, but Ethan has said that’s deliberate, so there’s not much to be said about it.  Other than that silly fanboy complaint, Ethan is continuing to do his usual great job on the art

So overall?  I’m glad to see things pick up pace over the slow first two issues, and I’m definitely feeling a bit more into the storyline this issue than last.  The only way I’d say this series is failing is that its still not selling me on having Barry back as a character.   When Hal’s spirit was led back to Earth by Ganthet, and he stood up from his coffin in his new outfit to take on Sinestro, it was a real punch-the-air moment.   I’ve yet to actually have anything in this series to convince me to care that Barry’s back and will be taking over from Wally.   Now that Professor Zoom has been revealed as the true threat, I’m really looking for Barry to kick things into gear, stop moping, and show us how he, and he alone is the man for the job (and yes, I’m aware I said something very similar last month).  I’ve got confidence that Geoff Johns will pull this out of the bag with the last three issues.   This issue very much strikes me as a turning point for the series, with the introspection covering Barry’s history well during the first two issues, and here almost non-existant, it occurs to me that this could well be structured as a series of two halves, with the first half interested in establishing the character of Barry, and the second dealing with the actual threat.   It’ll be interesting to see if I’m right.

Buying the Final Crisis Hardcover (which I’m very much looking forward to reading) has made me wonder something about this series as well.  Especially with its slower first two issues.  I’ll be very interested to see how this series plays out when read back-to-back in one sitting.   I suspect it’ll flow a lot better, and my complaints about pacing etc will vanish.

Geoff Johns continues to build on the mystery from last issue, although the killer from issue 1 is all but ignored this issue in favour of flashbacks to Barry’s past, and re-establishing Barry in the current DCU. Using Wonder Woman’s Government connections to fake Barry’s witness protection was a good move, and neatly gets rid of the issue of where Barry’s been. Likewise using last issue’s murders to provide the reason Barry gets his old job back works great.

Its always nice to see Wally and Barry together again, and here its nice to see them team up the minute there’s problems with the speedsters.  Of course, Barry’s quick to realise that the surge experienced by Wally, Jay and the rest not only didn’t affect him, but also occurred at the same time Savitar died.   They travel to Barry’s original hometown, which we find was the place the Black Flash was discovered last issue.

Here we get a nice nod to Final Crisis with them mentioning how the last time they saw the Black Flash was when they used him against Darkseid (nicely addressing my concerns that the Black Flash/Black Racer connection was being ignored), and again there’s a big nod to Max Mercury.  With Max’s name continually cropping up, and the surprise release of an Impulse Trade (Mercury Falling) this week, surely this is hinting the Barry and Bart won’t be the only resurrected Speedsters by the end of this story?  Certainly, in light of events at the end of the issue, having the Zen Master of Speed around could only help.

Furious over Savitar’s death last issue and empowered by the speed from his followers, Christina attacks Barry and Wally.  Here, Ethan and Geoff make the nice trick of having her initial attack rip apart Wally’s costume, making Wally and Barry easy to differentiate in the action scenes.  There’s also the really nice line where Christina is boasting how she’s now got the speed of 100 speedsters and Barry catches her with a simple “We’re faster”.

Of course, on being touched by Barry, Christina suffers the same fate as Savitar, immediately crumbling to dust.  However this time, it has a more lasting affect on Barry, as Wally finds Barry turning into the new Black Flash.

The end revelation was widely speculated last issue, but it’ll be interesting to see how it plays out over the course of the series, as I think it ties into one of my key problems at the moment with this series.

Barry Allen.

He’s coming across as a very plodding character here.   While I love the CSI side to him Geoff’s embracing, at the moment he’s so introspective and gloomy, its hard to get excited for his return.   Bart also picked up that something was wrong with him last issue (I wonder if Bart’s recent death and run-in with the Black Flash is why he could sense something wrong with Barry?), so hopefully now that its revealed, the Flashes can get about the business of how to restore Barry.   There’s a heck of a lot of emphasis on how Barry is the slowest man alive, and out of place with the world, and I’m hoping that over the course of this series Barry will find himself settling into his role as the Flash once again, and picking up some enthusiasm towards it. 

Its here where I think the comparisons to Green Lantern Rebirth probably hurt the book. Geoff is writing a very different story here. Back in Green Lantern Rebirth, Hal coming back as Green Lantern was a punch-the-air moment, and you then had him revelling in being back while he fought Sinestro. I think I was probably expecting the same feeling of celebration in Flash: Rebirth, but that’s been shot dead really with Johns going for this much more introspective take. In that regard, I think re-reading the series as a whole once more issues are released will probably serve the series better, in much the same way as I think Final Crisis (which also started much slower) will work much better read back-to-back.

I also found the art in this issue not quite working for me.  While Ethan’s art is as detailed as ever, I found something a bit muted about it all, which I’m putting down to the colouring.   The whole book and art seem to really come alive whenever Barry’s in his Flash costume however, but for the scenes where he’s standing still or in plain clothes, it doesn’t quite click and, as I say, comes across muted.  Possibly that’s deliberate though, tying in thematically to Barry’s introspection, in which case I can appreciate what they’re doing.

I’m aware I’m sounding very down on the series here, and I don’t really mean to.  While there are aspects that aren’t quite clicking in this issue, I’m still excited for the series as a whole, and events in this issue are key to the rest of the series, with Barry revealed as the new Black Flash, and his role as a CSI in Central City restored.  Yes, there’s a slow pace here, but I think that’s largely due to the amount of setup going on, and now everything’s in place, we’ll have the Speedsters investigating Barry’s condition, while Barry is also going to be investigating the murders from issue 1.  I’m enjoying the mystery very much, and if the book just cheers up a bit (Kid Flash needs to be in more than 1 or 2 pages) it’ll be really cracking.

Its nice to see Mark Waid’s Savitar story being so heavily referenced so far in this series.  I’d figured his appearance in issue 1 would be more  a throwaway nod, however here we return to Savitar’s citadel, and see his accolytes and Lady Savitar reacting to his death.   It looks like his accolytes were killed off, but I wonder if this means Christina is going to come gunning for Barry?  Also I wonder if it means we’ll be seeing Johnny Quick turn up, since that was the story he was killed in.

Again, we see Geoff laying on the CSI aspects of Barry’s character, an aspect I’m very much enjoying, and something I think will be key towards making Barry interesting and bring something different to the Flash title.