Flash #112

Future Perfect

Mark Waid, Story
Anthony Castrillo, Guest Pencils
Hanibal Rodriguez, Inks
Tom McCraw, Colorist
Gaspar & Kevin Cunningham, Letters
Alisande Morales, Assistant Editor
Brian Augustyn, Editor

Even though we have a guest art team for this issue, the cover is still done by the usual crew of Oscar Jimenez and José Marzan Jr. It shows the future Flash we saw at the end of The Flash #111, running out from the Flash Museum. Turns out, this guy is John Fox from the 27th century, who claims to just be visiting the good year of 1996.

Our story begins with John Fox rescuing Linda Park from another villain taking the Chillblaine name. Linda is kind enough to let John stay with her, but she has also asked Hartley Rathaway, aka the Pied Piper, to stay at her house until Wally comes home.

We then head to the funeral of Johnny Quick. Even though Mark Waid's text says the Justice Society attended, Anthony Castrillo didn't draw any of them. He did, however, draw Jay Garrick, Jesse Quick, Max Mercury, Jenni Ognats, and Bart Allen, who suddenly looks 10 years old.

Johnny's ex-wife, the former Liberty Bell, is there, and she bitterly tells Jesse that she always knew playing a "costumed adventurer" would get him killed. John Fox comforts Jesse by telling her Johnny Quick will be remembered in the future, although Max infers he might be lying. But it was a nice gesture all the same. Jenni then asks John if he can help her return to the 30th century. He explains that his time travel equipment is built into his suit, but he asks for a couple of days to figure something out.

Jenni then spends the next couple of days playing video games with Bart and helping him save the school dance (in Impulse #12). When she's all done with that, she returns to Keystone City, where Jay has borrowed Barry Allen's old cosmic treadmill for John to modify. John rigs it to take Jenni back home, and although she's hesitant at first, she does run on it and vanishes into the future. Both Jay and John hope she'll return soon since she got along so well with Bart.

And that's the end of Bart's involvement in this chapter of the Flash's life. Don't worry about Wally — he didn't die, but just ended up in a future where the Flash is worshipped. And he'll be back just in time to fix the mess that John Fox has brought with him.

I only have a digital copy of this comic, so there's no letters or ads this time. Next time, we'll join Impulse in a quick cameo in Sovereign Seven #10.