The Flash #47

Flash War Part 1

Joshua Williamson Writer
Howard Porter Artist
Hi-Fi Colorist
Steve Wands Letterer
Porter & Hi-Fi Cover
Francesco Mattina 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 main cover shows the Flash War in full throttle — Wally vs. Barry! To the death? Probably not. But they sure are mad at each other, which is odd, considering how happy they were after Barry's cheesy, I mean, uplifting speech at the end of last issue. Anyway, this is a decent enough cover to kick off this storyline (which has already had two and a half prologue issues).

Our variant by Mattina is a disappointing mess. Barry, Wally and Wallace are surrounded by various enemy speedsters, but they all look terrible. Wally looks like an idiot and Wallace and Barry look like they just smelled a really nasty fart. It's quite a shame after last issue's inspiring variant.

Our story begins with Barry angrily trying to talk Wally down from apparently attempting to journey through time. Wally shouts that if Barry doesn't help him save "them," then he'll make sure Barry never runs again.

We then cut back in time 47 minutes and 18 seconds. Barry and Wally happily visit Wallace and Iris after stopping a tidal wave. Iris asks Wally how his memory problems are going, and Wally says he actually wants the memories to come back, believing they might hold the key to figuring out what's happening. Suddenly, the Renegades from the 25th century arrive. They place Iris under arrest for murdering Eobard Thawne, prompting a brief fight — despite Barry's desire to talk. The Renegades all have the powers of the Rogues, except for the Golden Glider type, who's actually a Yellow Lantern.

The fight comes to an abrupt end when Wally collapses in pain under a new memory. The Renegades recognize this as a "temporal seizure" and the source of the time changes they witnessed in the Flash Museum in the future. Iris agrees to surrender to the Renegades as long as they promise to help Wally. Barry demands to accompany her, so he can testify that Iris only acted in self defense. And Wallace says he's coming, too ... just 'cause.

So they all teleport to the Temporal Courts in the 25th century, but to everyone's surprise, Wally isn't with them. He somehow ended up in the Flash Museum by himself, plunked right in front of displays of Max Mercury, Impulse, Jesse Quick and ... his children. Wally's been remembering quite a few things lately, but this is the first time he's remembered Jai and Irey.

And the mysterious voice, who claims the only way to save Wally's family is to destroy the Speed Force, belongs to none other than Hunter Zolomon, aka Zoom. He emerges from the shadows and vows to help Wally save his children.




It's finally happening! It's still too slow, and it took way too long to get here, and Wallace West really has no business being involved in any of this, but we're finally here. Wally has remembered his children. And he knows they no longer exist. This is such a massive, heart-wrenching idea, there has to be serious consequences. We'll see some of those consequences in Flash War, but, frankly, nothing will be as monumental as Heroes in Crisis — with the exception of the return of Bart Allen, naturally! And we'll get there ... eventually. But first, the ads:

You need justice ... to fight doom! Justice League.

Keeping the streets safe can stretch you pretty thin! Plastic Man.

DC Nation tells us to pick up The Flash #47 to start the Flash War. Which we already did. I hate it when the ads are for the very comic you're reading.

Next time, we'll take a quick break from this long-building war for the completely unexpected return of Bar Torr in The Flash/Speed Buggy #1.