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.