The Lightning Saga Final Chapter: The Villain is the Hero in His Own Story
Brad Meltzer Writer
Ed Benes Penciller
Sandra Hope Inker
Rob Leigh Letterer
Alex Sinclair Colorist
Michael Turner & Peter Steigerwald, Phil Jimenez & Rod Reis Covers
Adam Schlagman Asst. Editor
Eddie Berganza Editor
The main cover by Turner is the final piece of a connected image showing all the major characters involved in this crossover with the Justice Society of America. And Turner ended this image by drawing what he loves most — boobs, boobs and more boobs. I wish I could say the variant cover by Jimenez is much better ... but I really can't.
I got this image from DC.wikia.com. Both Turner and Jimenez are great artists, but I don't get the fascination with breasts. Turner especially went nuts on Power Girl. I mean, there's a difference between having big boobs and having two beach balls taped to your chest.
It's kind of hard jumping right into the ending of a major crossover, but, suffice it to say, our story opens on the JLA and JSA having a hard time with a handful of time-traveling members of the Legion of Super-Heroes. These Legionnaires aren't being entirely truthful with our heroes of the present day, and have mysteriously scattered themselves all around the world — to Tokyo, Central City, Smallville, San Francisco, Gotham City and Keystone City. Jay Garrick confronts Dreamgirl in Keystone, and after a quick discussion on time travel and visions of the future, Dreamgirl suggests to Jay her job was just to distract the one person fast enough to stop the Legionnaires. Jay laughs at this, reminding her that he's not the fastest member on these teams. And as he speaks, Power Girl, Green Lantern, Red Tornado and Superman have caught up with other Legionnaires.
Superman quickly figures out that the Legionnaires are attempting to re-create a ritual to bring someone back from the dead. The ritual requires a group of people to wield lightning rods, but unfortunately one of those people will be struck by lightning and killed in the process. So Superman spreads the word, which leads to brief debate between Batman and Mr. Terrific on whether they should stop someone from trying to commit suicide. But everyone else is committed to stopping these heroes from the future.
Batman tracks down the Legionnaire in Gotham, and is shocked to see he's in a very familiar place. At the beginning of Crisis on Infinite Earths, a dying Barry Allen appeared before Batman to warn him of the upcoming threat. And now Batman is back in that same room. At the same time, Hal Jordan realizes that the Legionnaire he tracked down in Central City is in the same room where Barry was initially struck by lightning and doused in chemicals, turning him into the Flash.
Meanwhile, all the Legionnaires have activated forcefields around themselves to keep the well-meaning heroes away from them. Jay can't vibrate through them, and Black Canary's attempt to remotely deactivate the forcefields is thwarted by Brainiac 5's self-repairing design. We then see the final Legionnaire, the Karate Kid, is in Blue Valley. And he happens to be the lucky one struck by lightning — although he does survive.
All the Legionnaires immediately begin to teleport away, and our heroes learn of the blast in Blue Valley. Superman, Flash and Power Girl quickly race to the scene, finding a huge crater waiting for them. Green Lantern pieces things together, saying all the locations the Legionnaires were at — the lab, Titans Tower, Blue Valley, all had links to the person they were trying to bring back.
And we see lying at the bottom of the crater in Blue Valley are Wally West and his family. The twins, Jai and Irey, appear about 12 to 13 years old, with Irey having hit puberty before her brother and standing a few inches taller than him. The twins both have red hair and are wearing purple jumpsuits, matching their mom, Linda. Jay asks Wally if he's OK, and Wally struggles to spit out his catchphrase, "M-m-my name is Wally West. I-I'm the f- — I'm the fa- — I'm the fast- — I'm faster than anyone."
We see the Legionnaires all teleported to Superman's Fortress of Solitude to take a portal back to the future — all except for Karate Kid, who is forced to stay back in the present ... because Countdown. And Starman, who chose to stay back because he's insane.
Jay tells Wally they all knew he'd be back and they didn't have a funeral for him, even though he'd been missing for more than a year. With tears in his eyes, Wally says he held on. It was so hard, but he held on. Green Lantern and Red Arrow teleport to Blue Valley and reunite with their old friend and immediately offer him a spot on the JLA. Batman, however, is a bit disappointed, saying he was expecting someone else. And Starman wildly proclaims, "Flash is back. Worlds will die again!"
In the future, Brainiac 5 is surprised to learn that Wally West returned. But he doesn't really care. The important thing was that they got who they wanted. And we can just barely make out a face of someone inside the lightning rod.
I know Bart didn't bother asking for help during his last stand, but if he did, he would have found out that the JLA and JSA were much more concerned with a handful of Legionnaires potentially committing suicide than stopping the Rogues. I don't know if you call it irony or poetic justice, but at literally the same moment one Flash was dying, another Flash was returning to Earth. And this story is really interesting because even though it was ostensibly about bringing back Wally, it did briefly tease the possibility of bringing back Barry. But at the very end, we find out that Wally's return was just a coincidence, and the real target won't be revealed for about a year. (Spoiler: It was Bart!) I don't know if that was always the intention of this issue, but that's how it turned out, and I think it actually works — in a strange, comic book way. So how about that for poetic justice? The same day Bart was killed in one comic, the seed was planted for his return in another comic.
Next time, we'll see what Wally did immediately upon his return in All Flash #1.
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