Simon Spurrier’s Flash Vol. 4: Bad Moon Rising, his final volume, starts well enough that I thought that this run might be ending on a high note. We start in the middle of things, with the Flash fighting a super-speed war against Eclipso on the moon, moving too fast for anyone else to intercede, and with Flash Wally West throwing hundreds of his time-split duplicates at the enemy, cannon fodder to hold Eclipso at bay. It’s dark and gritty and gripping, with Flash allies and enemies militarized on both sides.

What happens is, the story goes on a bit too long, and the interesting supporting cast never amounts to anything, and the art seems increasingly hurried, and there’s no consequences for an ever-compounding series of bad decisions on Wally’s part. I do appreciate Spurrier’s attempt to do something different with this run, whether the deep sci-fi of the first two volumes or the “nary a punch thrown” ending, but ultimately this just never rose to the level of something truly compelling.