In 2004’s Green Lantern: Rebirth, Geoff Johns had some pretty difficult challenges to wrestle with. Not only did he need to bring the late and outdated Hal Jordan character back to life—no easy feat given the nature of his death and afterlife at the time—and convince readers there was any point to doing so at all, he also had to come up with a solution to the contentious Green Lantern fan issue of which of the many characters to have the name should be the Green Lantern, and what to do with the rest of ‘em.

I thought Johns’ “Everyone wins!” solution was rather elegant. He simply made all the possible contenders Green Lanterns, and DC found books for all of them to appear in, even if the main Green Lantern monthly could only star one of ‘em. It was a solution facilitated by the fact that the Green Lantern concept has so long included an army of Green Lantern characters all over outer space—if there were going to be at least 3600 Green Lanterns, surely there was room for four or five Earth men among them, right?

Johns’ current Rebirth series, in which he’s again working with artist Ethan Van Sciver, faces similar problems, although they’re magnified.

Once again Johns has to convince readers that a late and outdated character needs to be brought back to life, but Barry Allen had been dead far, far longer than Jordan, and his replacement Wally West “took” better than Jordan’s replacement Kyle Rayner.

And once again, he has to figure out what to do with the other possible contenders for the name, if Barry Allen were to come back. Unlike Green Lantern, The Flash doesn’t have a built-in army/team component to the concept though, so pluralizing The Flash won’t come quite as naturally, if that is what Johns is intending.

The Flash: Rebirth is only five-sixths over at this point, but it seems as if the final status of all the Flashes was revealed in this week’s issue (additionally, several big DC storylines, most notably Blackest Night, are set after the conclusion of Flash: Rebirth, and have thus offered pretty strong hints). Also, we got a look at what they may be wearing from now on.

So after the jump, a badly-scanned image of a two-page Van Sciver-drawn spread, and some thoughts about the characters on it…and the clothes they’re wearing. (And, um, “spoilers,” obviously).

I apologize for the poor quality…the scanner I use can’t accommodate a full two-page spread. Anyway, let’s go left-to-right.

Jesse Chambers/Jesse Quick/Liberty Belle II: Jesse Chambers is the daughter of Golden Age speedster Johnny Quick and Liberty Belle, and spent most of the ‘90s going by the name “Jesse Quick” and wearing a variety of terrible costumes.

Perhaps the worst was the one she started wearing during the time she was on the Titans (during the volume of the series launched by Devin Grayson and Mark Buckingham in 1999). That was essentially a one-piece red bathing suit, with her right breast encircled by a stylized letter Q.

She got a new haircut and a nice new costume as part of the “One Year Later” relaunch of Justice Society of America, when she started wearing a version of her mom’s old costume and going by the name Liberty Belle (even though super-speed isn’t really a bell-like power, it still looks pretty cool).

Here she’s shown wearing what appears to be the sexy Halloween costume version of her dad’s old duds. The costume is made out of pure speed force, and was donned as part of Wally West’s plan to give the Flash family their second wind in their battle against their foe.

It is therefore possibly just a temporary costume, or maybe one that she’ll wear when doing Flash stuff with the Flashes, while sticking to her Liberty Belle name and costume in the JSA books.

If she is going to insist on wearing this costume, I hope she’ll at least alter the neckline a bit and get a jog bra or something at some point. That costume doesn’t look like a terribly comfortable one to run in.

Max Mercury: Even though the series isn’t called Max Mercury: Rebirth, he came back to life too, although I suppose it’s still possible that he may not stick around at the end of the series. His costume doesn’t seem to have changed at all.

Bart Allen/Kid Flash: Former Impulse-turned-Kid Flash-turned Flash-turned-Kid Flash again is still wearing his Kid Flash costume, and seems to still be the same age he was after returning to life in Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds—a slightly older teenager than he was during his time as Impulse. I was sort of hoping he’d return as Impulse at some point, as Johns’ attempts to mature the character in Teen Titans and elsewhere seem to have rendered him unrecognizable as the character he originally was, but that no longer seems a possibility.

Barry Allen/The Flash: Barry’s costume remains his classic one, although it looks Van Sciver and colorist Brian Miller have made the lightning designs glow and stream like real lightning (as has been done throughout the series). There’s no improving on a classic.

Wally West/The Flash: What would become of Wally has been one of the more persistent questions I’ve had about Barry Allen’s return. Wally and Barry had the exact same codename, the exact same costume, and the exact same power set and level (Jay Garrick may have also always been known as “The Flash,” but he looked so different and did so little in the DC Universe that it didn’t seem so redundant).

Put another way, I wasn’t sure if the DC Universe was big enough for both Barry Allen and Wally West. Based on this issue, it seems like Wally isn’t going anywhere, but will also be sticking around and also still be going by “The Flash.”

Editor’s Note: As noted in the comments, the status of Wally West was announced at Long Beach Comic-Con. The new Flash series beginning in 2010 will feature a lead story starring Barry Allen, The Flash, and a co-feature starring Wally West, The Flash. After the initial announcement, Dan DiDio reiterated their commitment to both of these Flashes in his 10 Questions feature here on Newsarama.

To help keep the two non-Golden Age Flashes straight, Wally’s costume got a pretty radical redesign here. It essentially looks like the one he used to wear (opaque, white eyes, lightning bolts-belt pointing at his crotch instead of forming a ring around his waist, etc), but now it looks a shade or two darker.

That definitely solves the problem of the two Flashes looking too much alike, although it remains to be seen how they’ll both fit into DC’s publishing line. Will Barry get an eventual Flash ongoing, and Wally be appearing in a Justice League comic? Will there be a Wally “second feature” in the back of Barry’s Flash? Will Wally be stuck with appearing in Titans while Barry gets JLoA? Will Wally, Kyle Rayner and Connor Hawke get a reality show?

Iris West/Impulse II: This was, for me at least, by far the biggest surprise of the issue. Impulse wasn’t exactly a character that seemed in need of a legacy, you know? How permanent this ends up being, and where DC will find a place for the new Impulse will remain to be seen obviously, but, in the meantime, Wally West’s daughter Iris absorbed some power from her twin brother and got fast enough to join the fight, and, when the heroes donned speed force-generated costumes, her sturned into Impulse’s old one, and she announced herself as the new Impulse.

That could prove interesting, particularly since Bart has been rapidly aged out of the childish character he had when he was going by the name (and starring in a title with the name).

Jay Garrick/The Flash: I totally cut him off when I was trying to get this on the scanner, but rest assured he’s wearing the exact same thing. Again, you can’t improve upon a classic, and he’s still rocking the best Flash costume of ‘em all.

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