For more reviews and bookish posts please visit: http://www.ManOfLaBook.com

The Flash, Vol. 4: Running Scared by Joshua Williamson (illustrated by Carmine Di Giandomenico, and Pop Mhan) finds Barry Allen, the title hero, at a breaking point where he is about to lose everything and everyone close to him. This graphic novel collects issues of The Flash #23 – 38.

Barry Allen’s attempts to protect those he loves by lying to them about being The Flash is coming back to bite him in the … back. To add to his problems, Eobard Thawne, the Reverse Flash, is back to give him a hard time.

This graphic novel start with Barry Allen’s secretive persona, the one where he hides his superhuman abilities from close friends, start to catch up with him. This is the kind of stories I like, those that have personal, not necessarily world shattering events even though The Flash, Vol. 4: Running Scared by Joshua Williamson (illustrated by Carmine Di GIandomenico and Pop Mhan) combines them both pretty well.

Barry Allen keeps doubting himself, he can’t decide if he wants to tell the truth to his friends and put them in danger, or keep up the lies which mount up. Lucky for him the Reverse Flash wants some good ol’ fashioned revenge and saves him from his tortured self… maybe.

I really enjoyed the art, it’s not as refined as other graphic novels, it’s almost like a finished sketch you’d pay a lot of money for in a comic book convention. But it works great. The Reverse Flash is a cross between a tragic figure, and a comedian with god like powers who seems to be the only one on the joke. And, of course, there is an appearance by Green Lantern, and not just a panel or two but a personal story-line of two friends.

The ending, though, left me somewhat bewildered. It’s bland and came out of left field, while I’m always looking for a surprise, this one was just strange. From years reading graphic novels I can only assume it ties in to volume 5, but it still left me bewildered.
I’m complaining so much I feel like Barry Allen.

This graphic novel is a wild ride involving time travel, murders and new powers. It gets a bit repetitive, but is still overall enjoyable. ( )

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. ( )