The Flash #768

 Blink of An Eye Chapter One

Jeremy Adams Writer

Brandon Peterson, Marco Santucci, David Lafuente Artists

Mike Atiyeh, Arif Prianto, Luis Guerrero Colorists

Steve Wands Letterer

Peterson & Atiyeh Cover

Ian MacDonald Variant Cover

Nixie Mathieu Assistant Editor

Mike Cotton Editor

Jamie S. Rich Group Editor

Superman created by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster.

By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family.

Our cover is a very busy, perplexing, almost horrifying image of Wally, Jay, Bart and some random caveman screaming in terror. Behind them are glimpses of the prehistoric age, World War II and the future. It’s not a bad cover, but not an enjoyable one. And, strictly speaking, the elements with Jay here don’t play out for a couple of issues. I guess they were planning ahead to the collected trade with this cover. Also, we are now officially in the “Infinite Frontier” world, which, as far as I can tell, doesn’t seem to have changed anything.

Our story begins with Wally West giving Barry Allen a rather unusual request: to take away his super speed. Wally is exhausted from all the trauma he’s had to endure over the past few years and is ready to retire. But he knows if he still has his powers, he’ll never fully quit. Barry is initially hesitant, but Green Arrow talks him into granting Wally’s wishes.

The two Flashes begin to race around the world so Barry can do to Wally what he had previously done to Eobard Thawne. But when it comes time to separate Wally from the Speed Force, something odd happens. Wally disappears in a big explosion, and Barry wakes up powerless in France. And off panel, Wallace, Max and Jay all report losing their speed, too.

With the help of Mr. Terrific and Green Arrow, Barry is able to communicate with Wally, who has somehow traveled back in time millions of years and is now inhabiting the body of a caveman. And to complicate things, he seems to have somehow inadvertently “infected” a nearby raptor with super speed, launching him on a high-speed chase over volcanoes and through jungles, all while he and Barry try to unravel this mystery. Their best theory so far is that the Speed Force is somehow damaged and it decided to pull Wally back into itself to heal. And the random caveman just happened to be susceptible to super speed.

This doesn’t explain the raptor, which suddenly begins to shake and erupt in a huge explosion of lightning. Wally tries to outrace the blast, but he’s eventually engulfed in the light. When he comes to, he finds himself in the future and in the body of our lovable Bart Allen.

Oddly, Wally still sees himself as Wally (just dressed as Impulse), while his reflection shows the normal 14-year-old Bart, which may have inspired Wally’s joke about Bart’s costume being so snug. Barry urges Wally to find a time-travel device, but before he can, he’s joined by Gold Beetle — a girl inspired by Booster Gold and the Blue Beetle. She urges Impulse to run, as a gigantic Dominator alien looms over them.

This is our first Flash issue after the departure of Joshua Williamson, and I have to admit I’m rather intrigued. Williamson had sought to redeem Wally by insisting he had been manipulated by an outside force (the Reverse-Flash). Scott Lobdell tried to redeem Wally by making him the most powerful being in the universe (via the Mobius Chair). Jeremy Adams, so far, seems to want to redeem Wally by sending him on a journey through time that will show him just how important he is to the Speed Force. And this approach is by far my favorite. I’m not a fan of the art in this issue, but the story does show promise.

However, I do have to ask why Impulse is in the future. His appearance there was so jarring, I was convinced that I must have missed an issue that sent him there. But I didn’t. Adams wanted to send Wally to the future and instead of using John Fox or XS (a bold choice) or any of the other countless futuristic speedsters we’ve met, he chose Bart. Now, Williamson had hinted at the possibility of Bart being sent back to the future during the big confrontation against the Reverse-Flash. And that could have been a really cool sacrifice. But that didn’t happen. And Bart stayed around to have a celebratory barbecue and even participate in the big Death Metal fight (sort of).

The really sad thing here is that since Adams has unceremoniously stashed Bart away in the future, that means nobody will touch him. Young Justice has been canceled. The Legion of Super-Heroes can’t save him. And Adams has refused to use Bart beyond this issue and the next. If it wasn’t for the CW Flash show, I’d have absolutely no Impulse content to look forward to in 2021. In the meantime, let’s look at the house ads:

The Dark Knight must face Fortnite’s greatest heroes in a battle to solve reality’s most dangerous mystery. Zero point.

Robin #1. The kid gloves are off! Written by Joshua Williamson. Art by Gleb Melnikov.

DC Nation spotlight on Green Lantern #1.

Next time, we’ll wrap up Bart’s involvement with this story in The Flash #769.