Ultimately I think this might be the vehicle upon which they’ll establish Flash as a “continuum corps.” If in fact it is rectified in the timestream and not a fullblown retcon we’ve seen Flash retain knowledge of a previous reality. It still serves the same purpose having happened to him even if only in a reality he changed. He’ll still be the TV crime drama cop personality we’re just now meeting.

It does look too much like Chunk not to be him – and if I’m not mistaken Geoff really liked Chunk. I think you’re spot on with the Al doing in Patty thing.

@Dario: Absolutely agree on witness protection. It’s simple, it fits with Barry’s life, and it provides a reason for him to be able to return, all without going to elaborate lengths.

@Yrani Gami: I still say Cobalt Blue is less of a change to Barry’s past than this is. Secret twin he never knew about vs. retroactively killing one parent and locking the other in prison for life (as opposed to growing up with both)? Huge difference.

@Jason: I wondered if that was supposed to be Chunk also, but I think someone called him Forrest. Besides, he should be doing physics research, not forensic anthropology. Good call on Al Desmond – I’ll have to re-check the pages, but if that IS him, that’s a neat way to tie him and Barry closer together, given that they were friends when his good personality was in control. I just hope they’re not going to retroactively fridge Patty, too (with Dr. Alchemy’s line about what he did to “her” in issue #1).

his staff at CC CSI looks like:
Captain Frye
Barry Allen
Al Desmond!!!
Patty Spivot(?)
and…Chunk?

the shot of Sam Scudder made this issue for me! seriously! it was a brilliant piece of art by EVS!

can’t wait to read #3 of 5?/6? (how many issues are there? they’ve said 5 and 6. i dunno…)

.-= Jason West’s latest blog post: Life, the Universe, and Everything… =-.

A lot better than issue #1: there’s more pace, more captivating scenes, a wonderful cliffhanger in the end, and Ethan’s art is on a higher level (#1 had very good art, but this one’s awesome).

And now the retcon on Barry’s parents is SO huge that I’m even more convinced it will be undone before the end of the series. As it is, it contradicts too many past stories, even written by Johns himself – I’d be surprised if he’d do such a thing, being the kind of guy that loves to build on old stories rather than simply scrap them.

The witness protection thing is brilliant.

Oh, and the fact that Barry’s being such an ass now makes a lot more sense, considering that he’s transforming into the embodiment of death and everything.

Now bring Max back, give me an awesome Wally costume (with assurance that he won’t be completely sidelined) and I’ll be a happy speedster!

I didn’t see the bow tie thing as taking up a page and a half just to explain his wearing them – to me it felt more incidental in the set up to him eventually meeting Iris. What did feel unnatural was that he would just so happen to “earn the bow tie,” convict Sam Scudder, meet Iris, and get his first date with her in those few pages. It’s good to be an efficient writer and hit touchstones – but we already had plenty of Barry-centric stuff going on both within and outside of the flashback.

I honestly thought that Barry was Black Flash when he was originally introduced – or some manifestation thereof so it didn’t surprise me where they went with this.

The thing that still doesn’t feel right about the comic so far for me is the portrayal of Barry Allen. Among many other things, I can’t see him expressing regret about going to the future and starting a family with Iris… saying he ran away from his life. Barry and Iris actually made the decision to have children the night she died in issue 275. It also seems laughable that he would call Savitar a “perp.” I really do like the idea of pushing the forensics side of his storyline – but making him a hard edged, all work no play type character feels less like a rebirth than it does rubber stamping his personality with formula.

The art was great! I don’t think the busy looking lightning adds anything to the feeling of motion.

I’m curious as to what in the world happened to Cap Frye! If Barry has only been gone 5 years in DC time – Frye has gone from Captain Invincible to Captain Double-chin in no time!