The Flash #225

Rogue War Conclusion

Geoff Johns – Writer
Howard Porter – Penciller
Livesay – Inker
Rob Leigh – Letterer
James Sinclair – Colorist
Michael Wright – Assoc. Editor
Joey Cavalieri – Editor

Our cover by Howard Porter shows the Flash running straight at us, in front of his symbol, in front of almost every Rogue imaginable. This story is still called Rogue War, but it became primarily a Reverse-Flash conflict about three issues ago. As such, most of these Rogues have nothing to do with this issue. But it is a good representation of Geoff Johns' run on the title, which concludes this issue. Mark Waid built up the Flash family, but Johns built up Wally's rogues gallery. This is a pretty decent cover. I'm glad Porter drew each Rogue's neck and shoulders. It's not uncommon for a comic book to display a similar image, but only draw the characters' heads, which I think always looks horribly unnatural. The only thing I don't like about this cover is Wally's face. He looks like a 5-year-old pouting at a birthday party.

Our story picks up with Hunter Zolomon forcing Wally to repeatedly re-watch his wife, Linda, have a miscarriage. Eobard Thawne is at the controls of the Cosmic Treadmill, making all this possible, when Barry Allen suddenly shows up alongside them on his own treadmill. Barry saves Wally, then grabs Thawne and takes him back to the time from whence he came.

Wally is left to battle Hunter, who decides to kill Linda before his past-self can give her a miscarriage by snapping his fingers at super-speed. But as Hunter and Wally race toward this traumatic scene, Wally pushes the present Hunter in-between the past Hunter and Linda, causing him to absorb the brunt of the blow from the super-speed snap. The present Hunter tries to escape on the Cosmic Treadmill, but since he's not connected to the Speed Force, he's unable to control the machine and disappears in a flash of pink light, with Wally hanging on to a piece of the treadmill.

Back in the present, Bart and Jay wonder where Wally went, as they can only sit around and watch dumbfounded as Mirror Master takes away all the Rogues involved in the recent war. Wally suddenly arrives with the piece of the treadmill he was holding onto, and he tells Bart and Jay he has a headache, but is otherwise fine. Pied Piper shows up and tells Wally that Linda has been taken to the hospital.

Everybody rushes over to Keystone General Hospital in their civilian clothes, and Ashley Zolomon tells Wally the doctors believe the wounds Linda sustained from Zoom's attack have reopened. Wally holds Linda's hand, and for a moment, it seems like she's going to die. But then there's a big rumbling, Linda sits up and starts screaming. To the doctors' horror, they witness Linda live through a full nine-month pregnancy in just a few seconds. Jay and Bart watch from the window as Linda gives birth to healthy twins — a boy and a girl.

The next evening, Ashley stays late at the Keystone City precinct to update some files. On the Flash's file, she writes "Unknown" for his real name. On the file for Captain Boomerang II, aka Owen Harkness, she lists his mother as Meloni Thawne. (Don't ask me how she knows this.) The Rogues all decide to go check out the mysterious society that ties in to Infinite Crisis, and Wally and Linda happily take home their healthy infants. We then end with a splash page to celebrate the conclusion of Geoff Johns' work, complete with a note to Howard, Scott, Angel, Alberto and Joey "for the ride of a lifetime."

Toward the end of Mark Waid's run, he teased us with a Wally wedding, then yanked it away, only to actually give it to us in the end. Johns did the same thing with Wally and Linda having twins. Except it kind of feels like he cheated to actually give us these twins. I mean, if Wally changed the past to prevent the miscarriage, then he'd come back to a new reality where Linda had carried and delivered the twins like normal, right? I don't see the point of having her go through nine months of pregnancy in a few seconds. That would destroy her body, possibly killing her and the babies. Maybe I'm thinking too much about this.

Personally, I'm glad to see the Johns run come to an end. While he did do some fun stuff with Wally's rogues gallery, the police department and Iron Heights Prison, all that stuff came at the expense of the Flash family Waid had built up so much. Particularly Bart. Johns had little to no respect for Impulse, and even only used Kid Flash when it was absolutely necessary. After Bart's own title got canceled, you'd think Johns would have wanted to provide the occasional update on the character for all his fans. You know, show us a little bit of Bart's life with the Garricks or remind us that the super villain Rival has stolen Max Mercury's body and a time machine. Was it too much of me to ask for that?

Sadly, I know the future, and it isn't too pretty for The Flash. Instead of following the Waid and Johns runs with another legendary run, we're going to watch Infinite Crisis take this series through a long, winding path of confusion, complications and disappointment. But hey, we will get to see more Bart along the way, so ... yay?

Next time, we'll wrap up October 2005 with Teen Titans #27.