Two weeks ago I was pleasantly surprised by the clever Wonder Woman relaunch. This week brings the new Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #1, and with it the mystery of just who will be DC’s Scarlet Speedster for the long term.
(I was tempted to say “until the next Crisis,” since DC’s 75th Anniversary in 2010 is only 3 1/2 years away, and goodness knows we shouldn’t expect a Flash to make it out of one of those.)
Anyway, SPOILERS FOLLOW, so beware.
We’ve been warned not to “get too attached” to the first Flash we see, but depending on how you look at the issue, and how you define “Flash,” that could apply to either Jay Garrick or Bart Allen. The plot, near as I could figure, revolves around an attack on Keystone Motors’ super high-tech automobile factory. Its new automated systems have taken away older workers’ pensions and forced them onto picket lines. One of said workers, Thatcher, plants a bomb in the factory. Bart and his extremely unappealing roommate, Griffin, work at the factory, so when the bomb goes off, Griffin is trapped under the wreckage. Bart’s been telling everyone he’s lost the Speed Force, but to save Griffin, he channels it again, even though using it could now kill him. To Be Continued….
If we take DC’s admonition at face value, the “first Flash we see” is Jay, and obviously he’s not going to be the star of this book, because duh, he’s old, and who wants an old Flash? No, all signs point to Bart in the red spandex — and that’s when my nose started twitching. If Jay is a red herring (so to speak), and Bart is the Flash to whom attachment would be unwise, could this set the stage for Wally West to return?
Maybe — but I’m also of the opinion that Donna Troy will only get a 5-issue stint as Wonder Woman before Diana reclaims the title; and I’m not confident that DC would pull two such baits-and-switch. I will be sorry to see Wally go, as I grew up with him not just in Flash and Teen Titans, but also guest-starring in titles like Secret Society of Super-Villains. I thought New Teen Titans railroaded him into retirement, and was happy to see him succeed Barry. According to 52, he’s “taking time off” to be with Linda and the twins, so there’s some good news. Still, he’s conspicuously absent from this issue, appearing only in memories.
Speaking of Barry, though, the new Flash:TFMA hints, perhaps obliquely, that he could return to active duty. Jay and Bart both get first-person narration, and so does Barry. Now, that could just be Bart “hearing” his grandpa as he dreams, but Barry was still spry enough to help subdue Superboy-Prime, at least for a while. If the Speed Force is gone for everyone except Bart, that may well mean that Barry’s essence, katra, whatever, could be channeled through Bart — and if the problem is Bart’s body being too weak to handle it, maybe Bart will be sacrificed so Barry could live?
Eh, probably not. In fact, I daresay it would be the opposite, since Bart appears to be set up not just to be the new Flash, but also to have a ready-made love interest in the form of Valerie Perez, STAR Labs intern. You remember that Bart’s now 20 years old (at least physically), same as Wally when he got his own series.
In the final analysis, I don’t dislike Bart, but I don’t like much about this series’ implications. DC may consider Wally-to-Bart comparable to Barry-to-Wally, but neither Infinite Crisis nor the final issues of Wally’s own book made the case to retire him. In fact, Wally under Geoff Johns was arguably at the height of his popularity. By contrast, Barry’s book was cancelled after years of the “Trial of the Flash” storyline, when all concerned were ready for a change.
It also disturbs me that DC apparently wants to turn back the clock, via Bart, to the 20-year-old Wally that Mike Baron inherited after Crisis on Infinite Earths. Maybe it’s just me being (I don’t know) grumpy, but can’t Jason Todd or somebody be the sower of wild oats, while Wally and Linda struggle to balance superheroics and domesticity? Wally has shown that he can grow into different roles, having taken many opportunities to mature throughout his career. Now he could be a working superhero father, something relatively rare in the DC Universe (Animal Man is the only other one which comes to mind). That sounds more intriguing than revisiting the slacker speedster, especially since Bart’s maturations have been accomplished by fiat.
Another intriguing departure would be Ms. Perez’ ascendancy to Flashhood at the expense of Bart’s speed, but odds are DC’s too invested in the “Fastest Man Alive” subtitle. There’s also the allure of the “Flash legacy,” which sounds like keeping the line of succession within the West/Allen family, so that excludes her too.
I suppose it could be worse: Bart could be the fake-out, and that idiot Griffin could be the new Flash….
June 22nd, 2006 at 12:13 pm
DC is taking the Marvel road of Not Really Dead, w/c IMO is a bad move.
Green Arrow. Green Lantern. Jason Todd. Once they resurrect Barry it won’t be long ’til they bring Blue Beetle back.
June 22nd, 2006 at 12:24 pm
Anybody read the recent ‘Legion of Super-Heroes’ #15? There’s room there for Barry Allen to still be alive, if DC wants to use it…
June 22nd, 2006 at 12:56 pm
I would consider Batman a working father. Just not a very good one.
Oh, and I’m not so sure LSH #15 should be taken as gospel. They were stories of the past, but as told by kids.
That said, there’s always wiggle room for Barry to return, and deliberately so. But as I understood it, Wally is reportedly “somewhere else,” that is, he didn’t go into the speed force with Bart and the others. So he may or may not be able to return…
It’s a whole series of MAYBEs right now…
June 22nd, 2006 at 1:11 pm
Oh, I wasn’t taking it as gospel. I’m just saying, it’s there if DC wants to use it.
June 22nd, 2006 at 1:13 pm
Was it just me or was Bart’s pal Griff covered in chemicals as the speed force was jumping around all over the place near him. Is Griff the new Flash?
June 22nd, 2006 at 1:15 pm
Maybe the “somewhere else” is the future … Wally and family could be living with Barry and Iris there. It’s like a Flash retirement village!
June 22nd, 2006 at 1:24 pm
I dunno. As soon as chemicals fell all over the selfish lout, I was pretty certain a new Flash rogue was being born. That was my immediate take, anyhow.
June 22nd, 2006 at 1:55 pm
Wait- I thought nobody knew where Wally went at the end of IC??
June 22nd, 2006 at 2:32 pm
Interesting isssue… hope it’s NOT Griff. Was it just me or was the art just plain awful? For a “main” title, DC needs to get some top talent on it.
June 22nd, 2006 at 2:54 pm
I seem to recall Bart saying Wally didn’t go with the rest of the speedsters into the speed force (I don’t have the issue to check right now…). We saw Wally go home (either in IC or some book) to Linda and the kids and they all went “somewhere” together as lightning.
I don’t think we know where they went, but since the future is the new Florida, I won’t be surprised…
June 22nd, 2006 at 3:08 pm
Here’s what I remember, since the books aren’t in front of me:
In Infinite Crisis, “on the way” into the Speed Force, Wally appears to Linda and the kids at the West home. They all transform into lightning and disappear.
When Bart reappears in Barry’s costume, he says something about being the only one who could make the journey back, I think.
Later, at the big Metropolis gathering in 52 #1, Bart mentions to Jay and a few others that Wally is fine, just taking some time off to be with Linda and the kids. At least, I got the impression from Bart’s dialogue that Wally was OK. A lot can change in a year, I know.
June 22nd, 2006 at 4:00 pm
Not only was the art bad, but the whole thing was quite amateurish. The dialouge was hackneyed, and the characters all seemed flat to me. I really get the sense this was DC’s “Plan C” for the title.
Otherwise, I agree that a bratty young Flash is the least interesting possibility. I’m not sure if that’s what they intend Bart to be, though.
June 22nd, 2006 at 6:23 pm
Whatever DC’s plans might be for the Flash, I’m not at all excited or intrigued. They did a wonderful job building the character of Wally West. We has Mark Waid prove his mettle on the character, and then Geoff Johns made his reputation on Wally. We’ve had years of passionate storylines that fleshed out the character of Wally West and his world. To abandon Wally West now seems ridiculous at best and incompetent at worst.
As my Dad would say, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
June 25th, 2006 at 10:02 pm
[...] Tom took a look this week at the cover to JLA #2 and first issue of the new Flash series … “I suppose it could be worse: Bart could be the fake-out, and that idiot Griffin could be the new Flash…. ” Um, let’s not give anyone any ideas, Tom … [...]
June 26th, 2006 at 9:23 am
Doesnt Arsenel in the Outsiders series have a kid.
Cant remember dont read the series
June 16th, 2007 at 11:54 am
[...] I do feel compelled to point out an October 2005 Lying In The Gutters column, interesting in retrospect, which had Waid returning to Flash … to write Bart. The timeline doesn’t quite match yesterday’s Newsarama interview, where Waid says the plan had been “in the works for nearly a year,” and Waid is no fan of Rich Johnston anyway, so just because one part matches doesn’t mean the other one does. There’s also DC’s admonition not to “get too attached” to the first Flash we saw, post-Infinite Crisis, which now looks like it refers to Bart. [...]
April 23rd, 2008 at 5:49 am
Adderall withdrawal….
Adderall without a prescription. Adderall 7.5 image. Adderall….