The Flash #45

After the Storm

Joshua Williamson Writer
Christian Duce Art
Luis Guerrero Colors
Steve Wands Letters
Barry Kitson & Hi-Fi Cover
David Finch & Tomeu Morey Variant Cover
Andrew Marino Assistant Editor
Rebecca Taylor Editor
Marie Javins Group Editor
Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.
By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family.

Our cover shows Iris West apparently ripping off Wally's mask. It's kind of strange how angry she is, how shocked Wally is, and how worried Barry is. Last issue, Barry was strongly pushing Wally to reveal himself to Iris. So none of this makes sense. And the grand revealing scene at the end of this issue doesn't go down like this at all.

Our variant cover honors Superman's 80th anniversary. It portrays Superman and the Flash locked in another one of their iconic races, but unfortunately, both of them look pure evil because David Finch can only draw characters to look evil. The Superman/Flash race is supposed to be a joyful event — not intense and angry.

The timing of this issue is rather weird. It's after the annual issue, which was the prelude to the Flash War, but the Flash War hasn't started yet. This is an epilogue to the previous Flash event. (This was common problem of Williamson's writing — constantly overlapping his stories.) Anyway, the bulk of the issue involves the complex, huge cast of speedsters Williamson has been growing over the past two years — Wallace, Avery, Meena and August. It's a mess.

Anyway, all we care about is Wally, who has finally decided to come talk to his aunt Iris. He awkwardly brings her some tulips, and before he can say anything, Iris identifies him as the other Flash, due to his red hair. Wally starts to walk away, apologizing to Barry. But Iris grabs his arm, looks into his eyes, and shocks Wally by saying his name. He begins to weep to see she remembers him and they share a tender embrace.

But after they hug, Iris shocks Wally again, by asking where everyone else is. Barry is also stumped by this, and when Wally starts to think, blue lightning begins to spark from his eyes. Memories start flooding into Wally's mind, and he painfully yells out that he now remembers everything.

Wally finally remembers Impulse! This raises the stakes quite a bit. Now, instead of merely bemoaning the fact that no one remembers him, Wally now knows there are others who are lost and forgotten. It makes sense for Iris to know this, since she visited the Flash Museum in the future. But I don't know why Barry is ignorant of this crucial fact. He was also at the museum. Did all the displays of Bart, Max and the rest just escape his notice? Yeah, I know he was busy fighting the Reverse-Flash, but Barry's a police scientist — he's supposed to pay attention to details.

Regardless, this is a slow build toward Bart's return, and it'll be fun when we get there. But first, the new ads:

A Save the Date for the wedding of Catwoman and Batman, accompanied with a checklist for the ensuing crossover. It's a really clever ad ... unfortunately, DC didn't have the guts to actually go through with the marriage, but that's a complaint for a different blog.

Dark Nights: Metal was just the beginning. Justice League: No Justice.

The DC All Access interview is with Andy Kubert, artist of New Challengers.

Next: The road to Flash War! (Even though we just had the Prelude to Flash War ... whatever.)