The Flash #75

Year One Chapter Six: Future Flash

Joshua Williamson & Howard Porter Storytellers
Hi-Fi Colorist
Steve Wands Lettering
Porter & Hi-Fi Cover
Francis Manapul Variant Cover
Andrew Marino Associate Editor
Paul Kaminski Editor
Jamie S. Rich Group Editor

Our cover shows Flash stupidly saying "Bring it!" while being surrounded by Captain Cold, Heat Wave and ... I'm not sure. Maybe the Turtle? Anyway, it's a decent enough cover, although it does represent some of the difficulties of publishing in a shared universe. Williamson wanted to make the 75th issue an extra-sized finale of his retelling of Flash's origin. But DC also wanted to start their Year of the Villain event. So what we ended up with was an issue with one main story and two short stories — one of which actually had something to do with Year of the Villain.

The variant cover is just a closeup on Captain Cold. Since it has nothing to do with Impulse and he has nothing to do with Year of the Villain, we'll skip it. (It is rather strange knowing that Bart is back in the main DC continuity, but not fully. In the past, he'd always play some sort of role in the big DC events from Zero Hour to Blackest Night. But now? Nothing.)

Our main story features Flash defeating the Turtle. And Williamson engaging in some revisionist history that kind of makes everything stupider (Wally and Wallace have now always known each other and used to hang out all the time as kids). Oh, and there's also tons of melodramatic speeches about hope. But we don't care about any of that. All we're here for is the concluding two-page spread of all the major speedsters — many of whom have not been seen for years, decades even.

It's really nice to see Impulse running alongside XS, Jay Garrick and Max Mercury. But what does it mean? It seems like Williamson is dying to use these characters — but when? And our second story doesn't help provide any clues, either.

Today

Joshua Williamson Writer
Scott Kolins Artist
Luis Guerrero Colorist
Steve Wands Lettering
Rob Levin Associate Editor
Paul Kaminski Editor
Jamie S. Rich Group Editor

This short story mainly features on Barry rebuilding the Flash Museum (while giving a long, melodramatic soliloquy about hope or something like that). He places a statue of Bart next to statues of Wally, Wallace and Avery. I find this a bit odd, since Bart hasn't interacted with any members of the Flash family since before Flashpoint. But I guess some part of Barry does remember his grandson. It'll only be a matter of time before we resolve these lingering threads.

Next time, we'll return to Young Justice: Outsiders.