The Flash: Rebirth #6

Fastest Man Alive

Geoff Johns Writer
Ethan Van Sciver Artist & Covers
Scott Hanna Additional Inks
Brian Miller of Hi-Fi & Alex Sinclair Colorists
Rob Leigh Letterer

Our main cover shows the updated Flash family that sadly won't do much of anything after this issue. Front and center is beefed-up Barry, who almost has a smile on his face. On the left, the new Impulse, who barely looks like a human; Kid Flash, who remarkably looks fine; and Jesse Quick, with a bland expression and lots of cleavage. On the right, we have Max Mercury, with the largest, most grotesque neck muscles in the world; Jay Garrick, who also looks remarkably fine; and Wally West, who is now older than Jay and Max for some reason. Yes, I am quite tired with Van Sciver's art.

Our variant cover is a nice closeup of Barry running straight toward us. But because this is a Van Sciver image, Barry looks pure evil. Because Van Sciver's idea of strength is ruthlessness. Oh, I can't wait to be done with him.

Our story picks up with Barry trying to follow Eobard Thawne to the past to prevent him from killing Iris before her first date with Barry. As he struggles to keep up, Wally finally catches up to Barry. He says the other speedsters are carrying out a secret plan Barry told them off-page. Barry fills Wally in on Eobard's plan and reveals that Eobard killed his mother. He also explains that Eobard needs Barry alive because his Negative Speed Force can't exist without Barry's Positive Speed Force. So Eobard has resorted to torturing his arch enemy.

Barry and Wally catch up to Eobard and chase him away from Iris before she even had a chance to see them. Eobard tells Barry that he's only delaying the inevitable, then turns to Wally and says one of his children will destroy his life in the future (as prophesied in The Life Story of the Flash). Barry grabs ahold of Eobard and starts shoving him back to the present, pointing out that unlike Barry and Wally, Eobard never loved anyone and never had a real lightning rod, which is why he had to use that little stick. But now Eobard has dropped the rod and can't prevent Barry from pushing him forward through time. As they run, for some reason, we're shown a glimpse of Eobard as a Black Lantern.

When Barry, Eobard and Wally return to the present, we see the other speedsters — along with several members of the JLA, JSA and even Conner and Cassie — are rebuilding the containment pod that Barry was in not too long ago when he was the Black Flash. But a few modifications have been made just for Eobard. Barry shoves him in the glass tube and Jay pulls a lever that causes a large bolt of red lightning to strike Eobard. Max says Eobard has now been cut off from the Negative Speed Force, but Barry warns the others that if Eobard starts running again, he'll "spark back up." So our speedsters quickly wrap Eobard up in chains and end the battle.

We then see the new Flash family riding on a float during Central City's second take at a Flash parade. Everyone is happy, except for Jai West, who was not allowed to ride on the float and is angrily focusing on his Game Boy amid the festivities.

Eobard, meanwhile, has been placed in a cell in Iron Heights, hanging upside down in a special restraint. For some reason, he's still wearing his Reverse-Flash uniform. And for an equally perplexing reason, his cell is next to Hunter Zolomon's cell. Hunter is still confined to a wheelchair, but he is able to speak to Eobard, plotting a way for the both of them to "be better." But none of the guards notice this, because they're too busy trying to figure out how Doctor Alchemy escaped.

In Gorilla City, a gorilla finishes painting a large mural of the Reverse-Flash, with red lightning reaching out to a dozen other smaller figures. The gorilla turns to the shrieking crowd, saying it's worse than they imagined — Eobard has done something unnatural to their jungles. And we see that Abra Kadabra survived his attack, suggesting that the mysterious attacker was Eobard. In response, Kadabra has created several Professor Zoom puppets, plotting his revenge.

Barry then returns to his job in the crime lab at the Central City Police Precinct. He's stationed in the cold case room, vowing to work on all the unsolved cases he missed during his prolonged absence. But to the shock of his coworkers, Barry closes the case of his mother's murder, simply saying he needs to move forward. The Rogues, meanwhile, are preparing for Barry's return. Captain Cold says the original Mirror Master had prepared a contingency plan for this very event — "In case the Flash returns: Break glass."

That night, Barry and Iris share a tender moment, slowly unpacking his belongings in their home, and talking about how much they love each other. And our story finally ends with Barry arriving fashionably late at the second take of his welcome back party at the Justice League of America headquarters.




Well, it's finally over. DC broke down and brought in another inker to help Van Sciver finish, but this issue still missed its deadline. Missed deadlines aside, I am thankful to be done with Van Sciver for a while. There's no joy in his art. And most of the figures he draws are extraordinarily stiff and hampered by anatomy mistakes. I'll admit I thought the art in this series was great when I first read it years ago. But today, it simply does not hold up.

The ending of this story is rather depressing for me. And that's because I know what happens next. Most of the seeds Johns planted in this story did not grow to fruition. Wally and his family were essentially shoved under the rug until literally wiped from existence in Flashpoint. Max Mercury essentially vanished. And Bart returned to being a minor character in Teen Titans. In hindsight, it's clear that Johns never wanted the Flash family that Mark Waid excelled with. Johns just wanted things to go back to the way they were when he was a boy. Barry as the Flash, fighting the classic Rogues, and mostly keeping Kid Flash at arm's length. So Bart was brought back to fill that Kid Flash role with the Teen Titans, and Barry and Iris have been brought back to the prime of their lives. And where does that leave Wally? Out in the cold.

To be fair, it does seem like Johns did take a stab at the concept of a larger Flash family. He did reference the prophecy of Wally's kid turning against him. But then he never got around to telling that story. And at this point in Johns' career, I can't imagine DC refusing to let Johns tell any story he wanted. Just one year after this, Johns and Jim Lee would be the chief architects of the largest reboot in DC history, the New 52. So I'd imagine that if Johns really wanted to explore that story of Jai and Irey, then he would have been able to. But he didn't, and I find that telling.

So that brings me to the big impact of this story. Unlike Green Lantern: Rebirth, which set the stage for an explosion of stories in the Green Lantern universe, Flash: Rebirth actually shrank the Flash universe. Instead of expanding upon the existing characters in this world, Johns buried them all beneath Barry Allen, giving him the most tragic backstory and the strongest powers. Johns didn't just make Barry the fastest Flash, he made him the literal source of the Speed Force itself. And Barry's story was the only one that continued after this event. And seeing the once thriving Flash title reduced so much like this, leads me to proclaim Flash: Rebirth a failure.

Next time, we'll take a quick look at Titans #22, which, for some reason, also takes place before Blackest Night.