The Flash #762

Finish Line

Story by Joshua Williamson & Howard Porter

Hi-Fi Colors

Steve Wands Letters

Howard Porter & Hi-Fi Cover

InHyuk Lee Variant Cover

Marquis Draper Assistant Editor

Mike Cotton Editor

Alex R. Carr Group Editor

Our cover is a haunting image of Barry dragging a bloody, battered Eobard across a blank background. This is an evocative — and dare I say, even terrifying — cover that once again has absolutely nothing in common with the story inside. It continues to baffle me how Porter consistently draws covers that are almost the polar opposites of the comics they accompany.

This issue does tell the story of how Barry finally defeats Eobard. But it’s not a violent confrontation. Instead, Barry chooses to forgive his greatest enemy. And then he does something odd and vague with his powers. Barry vibrates in a way that imparts some of his Speed Force to Eobard. This basically resets him, just as Bart reset his father, sending him back to his own time without any memory of what happened. Barry even sneaks into the 25th century to make sure his plan worked, and, sure enough, Eobard Thawne is now a friendly tour guide at the Flash Museum, with the true identity of the Reverse-Flash lost to time.

Barry returns home to host a massive barbecue in his backyard with just about everyone. Everyone, except for Wally West.

Barry vows to find Wally one day, then skips the party early to join the Justice League on some unspecified mission. And all Bart got to do in this issue was sip on a soda next to Wallace, Jai and Irey.

This is the end of Joshua Williamson’s run on The Flash. It lasted four years, which feels like an eternity these days. There may have been some good moments during it, but overall I think it was mostly hampered by forces outside of his control, especially when it came to Wally and Bart. Granted, a couple of dropped lines at this party regarding Bart’s housing situation would have gone a long way. And I don’t think there was anything preventing Williamson from explaining some of those basic details. He just didn’t want to.

Ultimately, Williamson’s legacy will always be marred in my mind for his disastrous decision to blame Eobard for every little bad thing any speedster ever did. And Williamson didn’t just hurt the legacy of his own stories, but also stories written by others. And that’s not fair. I’d like to praise Williamson for the rather innovative, nonviolent solution to defeating the Reverse-Flash, but I can’t stop thinking about how he eliminated free will from Barry, Wally, Wallace and even Bart. And that just puts a bad taste in my mouth that will never go away.

Howard Porter was probably Williamson’s best, most consistent artist during his run. Porter wasn’t always my favorite — especially when it came to his covers — but he did a fairly decent job with massive crowd scenes. And he always made sure to include as many Easter Eggs as possible every time he drew the Flash Museum. But most importantly, Porter was able to portray pure joy when the story called for it. Let’s close with the new house ads:

The story that rewrote the past, present, and future of DC! Doomsday Clock by Geoff Johns.

Can a hero from today save tomorrow? Legion of Super-Heroes: Millennium by Brian Michael Bendis.

DC Nation interview with Jason Fabok, artist of Batman: Three Jokers.

Next time, we’ll take a quick peek at that long-promised Barry/Wally reunion in the obnoxiously titled Dark Nights: Death Metal Speed Metal #1.

The Flash #761

Finish Line Part Three

Joshua Williamson Writer

Howard Porter Artist

Hi-Fi Colors

Steve Wands Letters

Howard Porter and Hi-Fi Cover

InHyuk Lee Variant Cover

Marquis Draper Assistant Editor

Mike Cotton Editor

Alex R. Carr Group Editor

Our main cover is once again something that I can’t fully embrace. I don’t know what it is about Howard Porter’s covers, but they always seem a bit off. This is the classic pose of the villain standing triumphant over the fallen heroes, but it’s laid out in a very strange way. All the heroes are laying down, but Professor Zoom and the Flash are standing up — but it makes you think they might be laying down on top of everybody. And are they having a tickle fight? Seriously, what is Eobard doing here? But hey, Impulse was included, which is always a nice thing.

Our variant cover (courtesy of dc.fandom.com) is a brilliant, sharp image of Barry racing along with two of the Kid Flashes. Bart’s costume is a mix of the old and the new, but he looks great, regardless. And I especially appreciate how InHyuk Lee followed Patrick Gleason’s standard of not showing Impulse in a traditional running pose.

Our story begins on the planet Mercury in the 853rd century, where John Fox has taken his new Kid Flash (a green-skinned girl) to the Flash Museum to teach her about a day that “changed the Flash forever.” And that day happens to be where our story takes place. We return to Central City to see that the massive fight has spilled out of the cemetery and onto a street named for legendary Flash artist Carmine Infantino. Barry has Wallace take Iris to safety, while also noting how Eobard’s massive Legion of Zoom doesn’t include any other speedsters. Jesse and Jay comment on the disparity of numbers in this battle, which gives Max and idea.

Max sits down to meditate, telling Impulse to cover him. Bart’s shocked by this, but he obeys, beginning his work by punching Abra Kadabra while yelling, “I hate magic!” He subsequently fights off five more villains before conceding to Max that they’re now out of time. Luckily, Max has finished work of summoning 16 other heroes (mostly speedsters) from alternate times and worlds.

Leading the way are Wally West’s children, Jai and Irey, who both have super speed. Irey, who is now as tall as Bart, accuses him of stealing her costume. Bart reminds her that he had the costume first, as they work on evacuating the city. There is now an overwhelming number of heroes and villains running around and fighting each other, but the only fight that matters is between Barry and Eobard.

Eobard explains to Barry that he has dedicated his life to traveling back and forth through time to make Barry’s life miserable. Every single bad thing that ever happened to Barry can now be attributed to Eobard using a new power — whispering to people at a hypnotic frequency. Seriously. Eobard explains that he turned Hunter Zolomon into Zoom by creating the tragedy of the clown with a gun. He turned August Heart into Godspeed by killing his brother and planting Black Hole evidence.

Eobard hypnotized Barry and Batman to conceal their investigation of the Watchmen button. He hypnotized Bart to stay away from his family and friends after he first escaped from the Speed Force. He hypnotized Wallace, Wally and Barry to get into a big fight, which ultimately broke open the Force Barrier and released Bart. And, most significantly, Eobard hypnotized Wally to cover up the tragedy he caused during Heroes in Crisis.

But speaking of Wally, he somehow interrupts this fight with a bolt of blue lightning and a faint plea for Barry to come find him. Eobard is shocked that the timeline has changed under him, and he immediately takes off, followed close behind by Barry.

Meanwhile, this massive battle is apparently destroying Central City. Irey wonders if there’s a way to send all the villains back to their own times quick. Jesse reports that when Eobard was in Barry’s body, she learned that none of the villains are on the correct vibrational frequency. Bart realizes what happened with the Tornado Twins — he reset their frequency, which reverted them to state before Thawne’s influence, fixing their history. For some unknown reason, Wallace brings Iris back to the heart of the battle, and she asks her grandson if he has a plan. “Yes. No. Maybe,” is Bart’s reply. 

Bart, Wallace and Avery begin discussing how the Flash usually travels through time by controlling his vibrations. Jay begins to chime in, but Max and Jesse obnoxiously cut him off, telling him to let the kids figure it out. And so, even though they’re in the middle of a very destructive battle, the adult speedsters let their younger companions have a “learning opportunity” and come up with a plan to race around the bad guys in a way that creates a shock wave at just the right frequency to send them all home and reset their histories so they don’t remember this event happened.

Sounds convenient, right? Well, it is. Bart, Avery, Jai, Irey and Wallace begin racing around everyone, while Jay, Max and Jesse provide cover. All the other guest heroes are to focus on keeping the villains in a contained area. But before they begin, Iris tells Bart to not do this, since it could send him back to the 30th century, but Bart insists this is worth that risk. So they get to work running and vibrating, having just enough time for Bart to say goodbye to his cousin, XS.

There’s a big explosion, and everybody that was inside the circle vanishes away. To Iris’ surprise, Bart didn’t disappear, so she treats him to a big, crushing hug. Bart lamely reasons that the Speed Force knows this is their home. Bart then notices Barry is missing, as we cut back to John Fox, who ominously tells his new sidekick that this is the story of the final race between Barry and Eobard.

It might surprise some people to hear me say this, but I hated this issue. I absolutely hated it. Williamson has removed the ability for any heroes to have any flaws, to make any mistakes, to have any negative emotions whatsoever. Every single time they may have acted selfishly or irrationally or merely didn’t think things through all the way can now be blamed on the Reverse-Flash’s hypnotic whispers. Williamson is telling all Flash fans that anything they didn’t like about his run (or even before it) was all Eobard’s fault. “Don’t worry,” Williamson comfortingly assures us. “Barry, Wally and all the rest were always perfect all along!” This is revisionism. This is coddling. And this is stupid.

Hunter Zolomon’s origin was intriguing because he legitimately made an honest mistake that turned deadly. And what made him a twisted villain was his inability to move past that mistake. But now he was merely the victim of an elaborate scheme set up by a villain from the future. Williamson robbed that story of all its emotional resonance. 

Heroes in Crisis is a very controversial story that many Flash fans hate. I enjoyed it, however, because Tom King discussed depression and anxiety in a way that hit me on a deep, personal level. And I didn’t mind the idea of Wally having an uncontrollable panic attack. Yes, he acted out of character, but that’s the whole point. When someone is truly depressed or undergoing some sort of mental health crisis, they essentially become a completely different person. They act out of character. Heroes in Crisis is a tough, brutal, yet beautiful and illuminating story. And Williamson knee-capped it in a single panel. “It’s OK! It’s OK!” he soothingly tells the angry internet mob. “Wally’s panic attack wasn’t that bad! It wasn’t his idea to cover it all up!”

But I still don’t know how to feel about Bart. So the official story now is that because Eobard hypnotized Barry to act selfishly, and he hypnotized Wally to be angered by that selfish behavior, they got into a big fight that broke the Force Barrier and freed Bart. But before he could reunite with the Flash family, Eobard hypnotized Bart to stay away from them ... until now. The real reason why it took Bart so long to reunite with everyone was because Brian Michael Bendis was holding him hostage. Williamson’s comic book explanation isn’t that bad. For a boy who moved heaven and earth to find his Young Justice friends, it makes no sense for Bart to have not expended any effort into finding the Flash family, unless something was actively keeping him away. The problem, though, is the setup, the so-called Flash War, which is now a direct result of Eobard’s hypnotism, thus robbing Barry and Wally of the ability to feel any genuine emotions or make choices on their own. Even Bart loses the ability to choose in this explanation. All speedsters are now just puppets of the Reverse-Flash. Every Flash story you’ve read over the past few years was just the result of his manipulations. And that leaves me with such a hollow feeling.

Howard Porter’s art was fine. Not great, but fine. He got to draw tons and tons of cameos, but they might as well have just been statues in the Flash Museum. None of them made an impact on the story. And, sadly, I think I may have lost the ability to get excited by cameos anymore. I guess that’s because I’ve been forced to subsist on a diet of nothing but sporadic Impulse cameos for far too long. Or maybe it’s just because I don’t like this story anymore. It’s how I felt after watching The CW’s big Crisis crossover. Thirty seconds of Burt Ward did not redeem a flawed story. The sight of Jenni Ognats did not absolve Eobard’s revelation.

Next time, we’ll wrap up this story in The Flash #762.

Young Justice #18

“Spoilers”

Brian Michael Bendis and David Walker Writers

Scott Godlewski (p. 2-3, 10-22) and Michael Avon Oeming (p. 4-9) Art

Gabe Eltaeb Colors

Wes Abbott Letters

John Timms and Gabe Eltaeb Cover

Derrick Chew Variant Cover

Bixie Mathieu Assistant Editor

Brittany Holzherr Editor

Jamie S. Rich Group Editor

Superbly created by Jerry Siegel.

By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family.

Our main cover is a rather generic image of Drake and Spoiler, racing off to face a run-of-the-mill adventure. It’s perfectly fine, but rather boring. I’ve never cared about Spoiler before, and I certainly don’t now. In fact, it kind of bugs me that we’re devoting an entire issue to her this close to the end of the series. She has had no impact on Young Justice in the previous 17 issues, so why should she get the spotlight now?

Our variant cover from dc.fandom.com is another winner. It’s bright, colorful and fun — everything that this series used to be at the beginning. Everybody looks great, except for Drake, who appears to be in his late 20s now. There is some glove confusion — both Impulse and Teen Lantern have mismatching gloves. And the inclusion of Amethyst gives me a sad chuckle. Isn’t it ironic how she was the one who brought Young Justice back together, only to be promptly forgotten — relegated to the background until gradually fading away altogether.

As our cover stated, this is a Spoiler issue. Stephanie Brown and Tim Drake team up to take down her father, Cluemaster, once and for all. Tim’s worried about what they might be facing, so he decides to call in Young Justice. We see Naomi back at home in Oregon, Jinny Hex out on the open road (somewhere) and Superboy has apparently moved into the Kents’ farm in Smallville. Sadly, we don’t see where Bart is living, but he and Teen Lantern both answer the call all the same.

However, by the time our heroes show up, the fight is already over. Superboy was worried Spoiler might kill her dad, but there was little indication this was going to happen. With the battle won, everybody heads out for burgers and fries to celebrate — as soon as Tim changes out of his stupid Drake outfit and back into his classic Robin outfit. According to Superboy, Batman and Spoiler insisted that Tim change back. Conner also claims that he had been planning an intervention of his own to kill the “Drake” identity.

Just as Naomi begins to ask where Wonder Girl is, Cassie comes crashing down from the sky. As soon as she picks herself up from the street, Cassie pleads for help, saying her grandfather, Zeus, has gone mad.

I was going to say this issue was a complete waste of time. But Drake going back to Robin makes up for some of that waste. I’d like to think that DC was responding to the fans on this, but most likely it was DC editorial telling Bendis, “Hey look, Young Justice is going to be canceled and nobody else wants to call him Drake. You’ve had your fun, but now it’s time to set things right.” Other than that, I did not care for one aspect of this comic. Even the “shocking” ending. Why are we supposed to care about Wonder Girl and Zeus? Well, I do know why. Bendis had (sort of) set up something big with Zeus, but now he has to hastily wrap up that plot thread. It’s so sad to watch this series limp along toward its conclusion.

Next time, we’ll return to a series where Bart actually gets to do something in The Flash #761.

The Flash #760

Finish Line Part Two

Joshua Williamson Writer

Christian Duce (pp. 2-6, 9-12, 14, 16-20) Scott Kolins (pp. 1, 7-8, 13, 15) Artists

Luis Guerrero (pp. 2-6, 9-12, 14, 16-20) Colors

Steve Wands Letters

Rafa Sandoval and Jordi Tarragona Cover

InHyuk Lee Variant Cover

Marquis Draper Assistant Editor

Mike Cotton Editor

Alex R. Carr Group Editor

Once again, we get a cover that doesn't actually show what happens in this issue. True, Eobard Thawne is still in control of Barry Allen's body, which he is using to threaten Iris West, Wallace West, Avery Ho and our beloved Bart Allen. But none of them are nearly this terrified — more confused, than anything. And this encounter isn't happening in the dead of night. Although, I will grant this this is a pretty cool, atmospheric cover. Everybody's face looks odd, but the evil Flash is great. And, most importantly, Impulse got to be on the cover! It's been a long time since we could say that!

Our story begins with Max Mercury coining a term to describe where he, Jesse Quick and Barry are currently located: The Starting Line. That is to say, they're sort of in the Speed Force, but not technically. Jesse and Max have been trapped her for years, unable to escape because of changes to the timeline on the outside world. But they believe Barry can escape by reclaiming control of his body. So Max begins to lead him through some meditation exercises.

We return to the outside world, where Jay Garrick has begun his battle with Eobard. Iris tells him that's not the real Barry, although Jay already figured that out. Wallace is constantly perplexed by all these revelations, and Avery wonders who this guy in the helmet is. Bart gleefully explains that Jay is the first Flash, and he offers their help. But Jay tells Impulse to get as far away as possible, while Eobard begins to gain the upper hand in the fight, even going as far as to mock Jay's "hard water" origin story. Luckily, Barry begins to reassert control before Eobard can do any serious harm. This causes Eobard to immediately retreat, saying he needs to accelerate his plans. 

Bart helps Jay up, who forbids Wallace from following Eobard until he can make sure they're all safe. Wallace protests, saying Eobard is currently working with Captain Cold, the Golden Glider, the Turtle, the Trickster and Gorilla Grodd. Jay wonders why Eobard didn't recruit any speedsters, such as Rival, but Bart interrupts him by asking how he found them. Jay says his memories have been fuzzy for a while, but a whole bunch of memories suddenly came flooding back. So he sought out Barry through the Speed Force to talk to him. Wallace suggests they track down the Legion of Zoom to learn what Eobard's plans are, but Iris says she just received a tip through her newspaper's email account.

Meanwhile, the Legion of Zoom (including the Tornado Twins, whom Wallace failed to mention) easily acquire all the components on Eobard's list by robbing various S.T.A.R. Laboratories across the nation. However, the final item Eobard requested gives all the villains pause: Nora Allen's body. Cold, Glider and Trickster all object to desecrating the woman's grave, especially since they don't even know who she is. Bart's dad, Don, urges them to trust Eobard, but it seems like even he and his twin sister don't realize that Nora is their grandmother.

Eobard arrives and explains that he needs Nora's body to help him gain permanent control over Barry's body. (That was a very weird sentence to type out, but it's true.) Eobard says he'd take care of this himself, but he's actively fighting off Barry right now. And as he speaks, Barry happily reports to Max and Jesse that he can feel himself regaining control. But suddenly, and most inexplicably, Barry is attacked by Impulse's long-lost evil clone Inertia!

Inertia conveniently explains that Eobard promised to help him gain control of "brother Bart's body" so he could be Eobard's Kid Flash. Barry naturally has no idea who this kid is, so Max quickly fills him in, speculating that Eobard must have done something to trap Thaddeus Thawne in the Startling Line. Jesse refers to him as "Tad" and correctly points out that he actually died (back when he was Kid Zoom) and wasn't merely lost to the Speed Force like she and Max were. Barry can see the teen is obviously in pain, so he refuses to fight him, letting all of Inertia's blows to pass right through him.

Back in the real world, Eobard has just about convinced Grodd to dig up Nora Allen's grave, when our heroes arrive in the nick of time. Eobard suspects they followed their connection through the Speed Force to locate him, but Wallace says they actually just followed a tip someone gave them. The Trickster readily admits that he betrayed Eobard, who promptly vibrates the laughing Trickster away into thin air. Avery worries Eobard has just killed Trickster, but Bart thinks he merely sent him back in time.

At Eobard's command, the Tornado Twins attack, blowing everybody away with two whirlwinds — everybody except Bart, who actually recognizes the father he never knew. Bart says he knows what it's like to grow up without a dad, but he says he was lucky enough to find a family to fill that role. Bart tells his dad that he never gave up hope that he'd be with him someday, and as he reaches out, Don stops the whirlwind, takes Bart's hand, and miraculously recognizes him as the son he never met.

But as soon as this happens, Don and Dawn begin to fade away. They seem to awaken from a dream, speculating that Eobard used some power from the Negative Speed Force to control them. Dawn asks Bart to apologize to their mom for her — she saw Iris, but was too afraid to tell her herself. Don tells Bart that he's proud of him for saving them, then says they're going home. And with that, the Tornado Twins are gone. Bart naturally wanted to keep talking to them, but he believes he'll catch up with them soon.

Meanwhile, Inertia is still failing to get Barry to fight him. He threatens to snap his fingers at super speed and blast Barry's mind to pieces, but Barry calls his bluff. He tells the troubled teen that he reminds him of Wally, Wallace and Bart, but not Eobard. Barry urges Thad to not play Eobard's game and instead make his own path. Inertia becomes a bit uncomfortable by this and chooses to run away, saying he'd be out in the real world helping Eobard and his army if they weren't in the "wrong vibrational frequency." Jesse mulls over Inertia's choice of words, while Barry deduces that Inertia's appearance must have meant he's getting close to escaping, so he decides to push harder now. Barry tells Jesse and Max to come with him, but they sadly say they don't think they can escape. Barry refuses to accept this, and grabs hold of his fellow speedsters as he makes one final push.

Eobard on the outside is immobilized by this effort, reduced to impotently shouting, "NO, NO, NO, NO!" Grodd tells the other villains that they should kill Eobard now before Barry regains control, but Jay, Bart, Wallace and Avery quickly stand between the Flash and the Legion of Zoom. Eobard keeps screaming, until there's finally an explosion of lightning, leaving a separate Eobard Thawne in his yellow costume, and Barry Allen in his red. Eobard insanely accuses Barry of refusing to share the mantel of the Flash, to which Barry points to all the speedsters around him — including Max and Jesse — and says, "We're the Flash."

Bart makes a very strange face when he sees Max, but the Zen Master of Speed says reunions can wait. Iris warns Wallace not to underestimate Eobard, and the Reverse-Flash agrees, as he begins to run around back and forth real quick, somehow summoning the rest of the Legion of Zoom. When all's said and done, Eobard has assembled 20 villains (with a surprisingly high number from Wally's unique rogues gallery). And the issue ends with the entire Legion of Zoom facing off against our seven speedsters in the cemetery.

That was another massive, monumental issue. I'm still trying to take it all in. Max is back! Bart got to meet his dad! And Inertia is back?! Unfortunately, all these things were thrown at us in a whirlwind, and each moment ended as soon as it began, with little to no explanation. Seriously, why did the Tornado Twins disappear so quickly? Was their presence in this time period directly connected to the "brainwashing" Eobard did to them? How did Eobard bring Inertia back? Why did he bring him back? And I have dozens of more questions along those lines that most likely won't be answered.

One of the good things about Flash: Rebirth by Geoff Johns was how he made Eobard Thawne Professor Zoom and played up his role as a teacher. He explained everything he did in gloating detail. Yeah, it was all goofy comic book science, but at least it followed a certain logic. Joshua Williamson is sprinting to the end of his long Flash run, and he isn't slowing down to explain anything. He just has the Reverse-Flash doing things. I know it's a tough balance, because you don't want to overburden your story with too much explanation, but in this case, I could have used some answers to the how's and why's.

Williamson also isn't slowing down to put any emotion in these massive reunions he keeps throwing at us. Bart hasn't seen his dad since he was possessed with Bedlam's magic way back in Impulse #86. And all we got was a quick 10-second conversation. At the very least, Bart should have had to work hard to overwrite Eobard's manipulations. And, sadly, Bart's reunion with Max was even worse. We just got a poorly drawn Bart saying Max's name. As frustrated I was with Williamson's super-compressed story, I was much more disappointed by the art in this issue. In some places, it was just downright bad. And you really hate to see that in what should be a monumental, standout issue of The Flash.

Let's close out with the new house ads:

Supergroup of Sin! Darkseid! Anti-Monitor! Superboy Prime! Dark Night: Death Metal Trinity Crisis.

Endless Winter. (This subdued ad implies that this was going to be DC's next Big Deal, but the company got cold feet — pun intended — at the last minute and scaled the event down.)

DC Nation spotlight on Batman: Three Jokers with an interview with Geoff Johns.

Next time, we will return to Young Justice #18.