The writing of Geoff Johns has been given good reviews, especially when it comes to his storytelling for the Flash. He has his good points and his bad in this book. As many others have written, and I will reiterate, Johns is specifically good at scripting both an interesting and diverse selection of rogues. We see a plethora of amazing villains in this issue, each with his/her own feel and individual style. For all the good character design and ideas thrown into the crooks in this story I feel that not enough time is given to delving deeper into the main characters. As I stated saying at the beginning of this review, I have been reading the Flash for plus minus the last eight to ten months, but yet I feel as close to the lead character and his supporting cast as the day I started reading. This distance and the fact that the only personal involvement Johns has bought into the book lately has been the pregnancy bombshell he dropped a few issues ago, has forced me to enjoy it in one dimension only. I never even saw any real interaction between Wally and his wife for issues on end and then suddenly, wham!, they’re pregnant, it just seemed a bit false to me. Action adventure is what I think of when it comes to the Flash. This area of Johns writing is great and continues to shine in this issue, action packed from the first page to the last.

Johns seems to promise the return of one of the Flashes most infamous enemies, and Gorilla Grodd certainly does return, it’s just that at first the confusion as to what or who Grodd really is seems to take away from his punch as a character. Again as mentioned before I have never come across the character before and so the hype of this arc got me geared for something quite different from what I ended up reading. Grodd was at first very confusing to me due to the multiple gorillas on the scene at the beginning of the story. This is explained, but not soon enough in the story for me. The explanation seems somewhat corny/campy, the monkey king returns to rule the world as his own, and left me thinking it was lacking any depth.

The artwork on this title has been great throughout Kolins’ run. He seems to be able to create a special finish to his work with a great inking job by Doug Hazlewood to cap this off. Kolins’ unique cross-hatched style of sketching onto his thick-lined characters are the things which seem to set his style apart from other artists out there. If you haven’t yet read the Flash and are looking for some superhero art with a bit of a individual twist then this is sure to satisfy.

My love for Kolins’ art just went upwards once I opened this issue. He manages to highlight this story with awesome double-paged spreads dotted throughout the story. Run riot opens up on the second page with a spread of an army of giant Gorrillas falling from the sky and crashing into the guard towers surrounding the prison where Grodd is being held. With a start like this I was gripped and ready for more, and trust me there is more to come, great art in this issue really upped the score for me. Unfortunately the writing sent the score back down, although action packed and filled with great villains, I still feel detached from the primary characters in the story and feeling that the main villain has been rushed by in terms of any true explanation of his character.

Score 6/10
Reviewed By:Iain Duncan