Flash: Rebirth #4 has been out for a week. You know what that means, right? Yep: It’s time for a review round-up!

Here are a bunch of reviews I’ve found around the web:

Rokk’s Comic Book Revolution – “Finally! Johns delivered in Flash: Rebirth #4 what I have been waiting for from this title since the first issue.”

Weekly Crisis – “I rarely drop miniseries or events midway through, but I came in looking for more of the Barry Allen from Final Crisis, not the grimdark Saint Barry version…”

Comic Book Legacy – “Flash: Rebirth #4 was the strongest of this mini-series and is what saved this series from being classified as one of the worse stories of the year. Hopefully Geoff Johns can carry the momentum from this issue…”

The Homeworld – “I’ve been a Flash fan ever since I was a kid, and seeing this book finally turn around really makes me happy. Hopefully, the book can salvage itself from it’s previous issues and finish out as a new, true Flash classic.”

Matt Gray is Too Dangerous for a Girl – “Ethan Van Sciver’s art, coloured by Brian Miller, is the best it’s been so far – sharp, not over-cluttered and always serving the story; there are no pin-ups for the sake of it, but several big moments that deserve their full-page splash status”

Pulp Tone – “Unlike LOST, I got the answers in this issue and then some. If the answers or explanations are new I wouldn’t even know and they’re just set as truth at this point.”

Bureau 42 – “The characterization is there. We see what motivates the DC speedsters, good or evil, and get a front row seat while events conspire to put Barry’s head right back in the game..”

Comicgasm – “The only gripe I had with this issue is that they could’ve done this earlier. Instead of going through 3 issues where practically nothing happened, Johns could’ve saved us from a lot of trouble by cutting out a lot of crap and getting to the retcon-explanations sooner.”

Comix 411 – “I’ve liked this series so far, but this issue was very confusing. … I just hope Geoff can continue to juggle all of these speedsters and make things interesting and not have them seem redundant.”

Multiversity Comics – “The best part of the issue is, though, is just as Johns went and redefined the very mythos that defined Green Lantern, he is completely redefining the way we look at Flash and the speedsters.”

IGN Comics – “the issue is consumed by two of my least favorite things in comics– time-travel and in-story retcons. I needed an aspirin after I finished reading this comic.”

Tpull’s Weekly DC Comics Review – “Van Sciver tries hard to do different effects and distinguish the various speedsters, but I actually wonder if he’s trying a little too hard. Still, the art is great.”

The Comic Addiction – “Ethan Van Sciver did a tremendous job on this issue. After seeing his variant cover with Professor Zoom and the energy flowing behind him I knew the art was going to be fantastic.”

Attentiondeficitdisorderly Too Flat – “I suppose the main reason I’m not letting my problems with Johns’s solution to the Flash equation is that I’m not convinced we’ve seen the end of it.”

Weekly Comic Book Review – “Hell yeah! THIS is what I signed up for with Flash: Rebirth. A great issue that totally rewards you for sticking around, as long as you don’t mind the change of what’s been established in the Flash folklore.”

ComicNews.Info – “Despite my inability to instantly adapt to the writing, I admit that Rebirth is a fun book. Issue #4 specifically has stuck with me, and it has more to do with the art than anything else.”

Creative Loafing – “Flash: Rebirth finally gets going….this week’s edition ties together some story elements, revs up the action and includes some really cool character moments.”

Read/Rant – “Honestly, these kinds of stories annoy me. I don’t need a 6-part story to justify continuity “fixes”. Johns’ retcons don’t feel any more natural just because he wrote a story where Professor Zoom “explained” it all.”

MONDOcomics – “It feels like [Geoff Johns] finally convinced DC to bring back Barry Allen, and then realized there was no need to. As a result, every issue is buried in exposition and unnecessary retcons.”

The Buy Pile puts the book in its “No, just…no” category, saying that it “introduces science that makes Smallville’s Lanastronomy seem like a graduate dissertation. Really? Wow. There’s just too many speedsters running around here, and ignoring that pesky death inconvenience.”

Conociendo el Universo DC (in Spanish) – “#4 es otra muestra del guionista de su capacidad para conciliar distintas versiones de un mismo hecho o elemento de la continuidad del DCU, y a la vez crear la propia para dar juego a nuevas historias.” — roughly, “#4 is another example of the writer’s ability to reconcile different versions of the same work or elements of DC continuity, and at the same time create the foundation for new stories.”

Every Day is Like Wednesday – “Ethan Van Sciver continues to do a whole lot of neat things with with his art to suggest super-speed, and Johns’ descriptions often match up with those images quite nicely.”

SciFiPulse – “The issue is also full of fast-paced action, with old friends we’ve known for years in peril as well as newer characters. And Professor Zoom has never been so dangerous.”

Adventures of a Comic Book Girl – “Yes, I got this. You know why? One word: MAX. … And now the whole Flash family is fighting together! I love it. Awesome.”

The Comic Book Bin – “While this mini-series has been exciting and amusing, it isn’t quite the tour-de-force that “GREEN LANTERN: REBIRTH” was.”

ComiXtreme – “A fantastic issue, with a very solid script that’s a great read. But the artwork just completely overshadows even the script, as I could have just looked at the pictures and still enjoyed it, in total awe of Van Sciver’s artistic talent.”

Comic Collector Live – “Flash: Rebirth #4 reminds me VERY much of Green Lantern: Rebirth at this point, which is both good and bad. It’s GOOD because Green Lantern: Rebirth was terrific, but BAD because, well, it’s just like Green Lantern: Rebirth. ”

Mania – “The series has gone from being good to great and then down to pretty good and then pretty late, so finally getting an issue that blew the doors down like this one did made it feel like it was worth the wait.”

iFanboy – “Why purport to tell the story of his return to the world and then take him out of it to literally run around in circles? It is ultimately just frustrating to watch a man that can do so much running and not get anywhere.”

Comics Bulletin – “With reveals that will have you gasping and art that will keep you on your toes, Flash: Rebirth has the potential to be a home run. The only drawback is that some of the underlying story elements are somewhat of a stretch, making it feel like the creative team was reaching a bit in order to try and keep up the same quality as last time.”

Added: Pai – “A lot of the issue is about the things that draw the speedsters home when they’re stuck in the speed force. Max claims he doesn’t have anyone like that. Barry tells him he’s a father to Bart, and brings him home. Oh I welled up reading this.”

Added: El Jacone’s Comic Book Bunker – “Some big time “OH NO THEY DINNIT!” moments mixed with some wonderfully loopy Silver Age science produces one heck of a ride. ”

And of course there’s my own review here.

Audio

iFanboy Podcast – haven’t had time to listen to it, but the show notes say that “Ron and Conor, two old time Flash fans, really loved The Flash: Rebirth #4.”

Half Hour Wasted – haven’t had time to listen to this one either, and there’s no summary, so I don’t know if they liked it or not.

Overall

One theme that keeps recurring in these reviews is the feeling that the story has finally started moving. There are plenty of people who have loved the series from the beginning, and plenty of people who still dislike it (I’ll need to run a round-up of interesting Twitter posts on the subject), but this seems to be the make-or-break issue for a lot of readers who, like myself, were previously on the fence.

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