UP TO SPEED:  Trapped aboard a runaway time-machine with the murderous Professor Zoom, Flash has chosen to take on the flow of time himself in a desperate attempt to avoid certain doom…

Here is this issue’s corresponding Tom vs. The Flash post!

COVER:  This would be the last Andru/Giordano cover until Flash #291.

PG 1:  A time-lost Flash.  Bates riffs on the Twilight Zone TV series intro.  Most notably, this climatic issue is edited not by Ross Andru, but by Len Wein.  According to Bates, Andru was a driving force behind the many tonal changes witnessed in this story.  In all, Wein edited 20 issues of this volume of Flash.  Andru continued editing on books like Jonah Hex, Weird Western Tales and Warlord after his time on Flash.

PG 2:  This scene is the sequence from the end of issue #283, except played out in reverse.  Last issue, Flash overtakes Zoom aboard the time sphere, disables him and tries to pilot the time-sphere himself.  Here, Zoom subdues Flash and deliberately sets the time-sphere to go “…all the way back to the beginning of time…and before!”  There are major changes in momentum and intent on both sides here, and this is likely the first casualty of the editor change…or, a quick way of showing Flash literally “reversing” his course through time.  One thing does remain consistent: Flash makes the decision to leave Zoom to die.

PG 3 & 4: Flash falls uncontrollably through the time-steam, unable to control his molecular vibrations, and is pulled into a dimensional vortex.  He finds himself on a barren world, without his super-speed.  Flash claims he can now move “…no faster than the average track runner…20 miles per hour tops!”  World and Olympic champion Usain Bolt has an average speed of just under 24 MPH.

PG 5 & 6:  Flash continues to test his speed.  A land bridge appears, with Barry Allen’s hometown of Fallville at the other side.

PG 7:  As he attempts to cross the bridge into Fallville, Flash finds his path blocked by the Lord of Limbo.  Forced to bow, Flash learns that limbo is “…the most mystic kingdom of all…a land beyond all other lands…beyond the very stream of time itself!”

This limbo appears to be a different land than the one introduced in Keith Giffen’s Ambush Bug, and seen later in the work of Grant Morrison in Animal Man and Final Crisis: Superman Beyond.  An explanation could be that this is limbo for displaced, unfortunate time-travelers, while the Giffen/Morrison version is, as advertised, the final destination of forgotten characters.  As for the Lord of Limbo, he and this limbo-world would appear once again in Flash #305.

PG 8 & 9:  The Lord of Limbo continues to taunt Flash with the nature of the limbo-world, even subjecting him to a normally-fatal fall from the land bridge.

PG 10:  Flash recovers, and meets his fellow captives.  They describe themselves as time-travelers, like Flash, who encountered the dimensional vortex that brought Flash here.  It’s easy to think of this Limbo as a Bermuda Triangle of time travel in the DC Universe. 

Flash’s fellow prisoners also reveal a key aspect of Limbo:  “Many of us even possessed extraordinary powers equal to your own super-speed…but not here!”  Flash’s lost speed, and the lost powers of his fellow limbo-mates, are the result of “mental jamming waves” courtesy of the Lord of Limbo.

PG 11 & 12:  The glimpses of Fallville are also part of the Limbo Lord’s taunts.  Though unable to muster the will to use their own powers, the prisoners of Limbo focus their combined will onto the Flash, allowing him to access his super-speed.  Flash and his benefactors consider their circumstances as the speedster escapes via the images of Fallville.  Their thoughts appear separate…until one of the travelers responds to Flash’s thoughts in their own bubble.  Thought and word bubble errors are not so unusual, even today (see: Batman & Robin #7).  However, the decision to use either thoughts or words appears to change mid-page here.

PG 13:  This sequence is one of those pre-Speed Force curiosities that were neatly explained away by that concept.  As Flash enters Fallville, he comes across his own birth, and realizes he is still an out-of-sync wraith.  To restore his form, he concludes he must “…put on the speed…and run the most important race ever — through time and space, literally racing after my own life!”

PG 14 & 15:  Flash makes his way through the events of his origin.  The recreation of panels from Showcase #4 is interrupted by the Lord of Limbo, who claims Flash is still under his jurisdiction due to his tenuous relationship with the time-stream.  But Flash has his speed once again, and the two battle it out in the background of scenes from Flash #123 and Flash #165.

This is very similar to the journey Wally West would take in 1994, from Zero Hour back into his own title (and Terminal Velocity) via Flash #0.  In that story, however, Wally is able to break through and interact with his own past.  I have to think that this issue was a major influence on Waid and the genesis of the Speed Force concept.

PG 16 & 17:  Flash hilariously calls his time with Iris “the marriage years,” as the pass through a scene from Iris’ funeral, circa Flash #277.  As he races toward the present, Flash notes once again that he is leaving Zoom “…to face the doom he so richly deserves!”  This echoes, almost verbatim, Flash’s comments in the last issue.  Therein, he planned on taking Zoom back to his home century, to face “…the execution you so richly deserve!”

As Flash overtakes his physical form, the Limbo Lord latches on.  Fighting both the Lord and the dimensional vortex to Limbo, Flash ejects some spare molecules at super-speed.  Accelerating with the vortex, Flash escapes both his captor and the Limbo realm, but not before predicting his own eventual return (in #305, see above) to help the stranded time-travelers.

In his own time, Barry visits Iris’ grave and vows to move on with his life and as Flash, “…because I know your beautiful spirit will be with me forever.”

THE END

Thanks to everyone who read along with us!  We’ll be checking out some related Flash issues in the coming weeks, leading up to the August 9th release of Showcase Presents: The Trial of the Flash.  Once that volume hits stores, we’ll start breaking down the contents.

See you next “time”!

Annotations: Flash #284, “Run, Flash…Run for Your Life!” is a post from Speed Force.

Comic-book futures are constantly changing. We’ve seen four* major versions of the Legion of Super-Heroes, many different “true” versions of the near future, and a half-dozen variations on the eras that brought us villains like Abra Kadabra and the Reverse-Flash. Given the latter’s newfound obsession with changing history in Flash: Rebirth, it seems highly appropriate that his origin tale rewrites itself repeatedly over the course of the issue. It’s fascinating to watch the twists and turns as his life starts down one path, then stops, backs up, and takes another.

Strangely enough, the creepiest history rewrite is the one in which he doesn’t actually kill anyone.

The story makes him into a truly scary threat, far beyond anyone else in the Flash’s stable of enemies, because he can (and does) literally defeat anyone he wants before actually fighting them. (Well, anyone except Barry Allen.) That makes him more interesting than the simple obsessive stalker he’s often portrayed as, but it also makes him incredibly overpowered. It also downplays his role as a speedster in favor of his role as a time traveler. Super-speed is really unnecessary for the power that makes him most dangerous.

Literary Thoughts

Two of the themes Geoff Johns has woven through this relaunch are very much present here: First, the speed of modern life, in which everyone is trying to do five things at once, is already exaggerated in present-day Central City, but taken to an extreme in the future shown here, where the worst thing anyone can do is waste your time. Today people keep in constant touch with each other and the internet with mobile phones and smartphones, but in the future, everyone constantly has a floating screen near his or her head. Some people, like Thawne, have several, showing how many ways their attention is split. Multitasking isn’t simply a feature on your computer. It’s a critical life skill.

Second: a character explicitly states the admonition against dwelling on the past and to move forward instead. The key symbol here is Barry’s inability to let go of his mother’s murder case, and the theme was excellently described by Bizarro98 on Comic Bloc. (The message is kind of undermined by the fact that the series has been focused on re-establishing old versions of various characters and dynamics at the expense of newer versions, though.)

Long-Term Reader Thoughts

It seems like the Thawne/Allen feud should have come into play in a story about Eobard Thawne studying the historical Barry Allen. Its absence, and the fact that the Flash legacy apparently stopped sometime before the 25th century, make me wonder if Chain Lightning is being removed from canon (though Thawne did refer to it briefly during Flash: Rebirth. On the other hand, the conclusion of the main section of the story connects very nicely with The Return of Barry Allen.

The Flash #8: “Reverse-Flash: Rebirth”
Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Scott Kolins
Colors by Brian Buccellato

*I’m counting the Five-Years-Later Legion separately from the classic version, since I get the impression that the current series ignores the FYL run.

Review: The Flash #8 – “Reverse-Flash: Rebirth” is a post from Speed Force.

Waid decided to answer the question.

Possible spoilers in the event that he ever writes the full story.

I would like eventually to tell it. You know what? Here’s the story: I always wanted to tell the story of the moment Wally learns from Barry Allen he can travel through time. What I wanted to set up was a week before, one of his classmates is killed in a freak accident. So Wally seizes on this as an opportunity to go fix the past. So he goes back and he fails. And he goes back again and he fails. And he goes back again and he fails. And then you’ve got a bunch of different Kid Flashes running around, stumbling over each other to try and fix this. He finally realizes, “I can’t fix this.” There are some things you can’t change. He accepts that, but he hates time travel after that. If you’d like to read that someday, you don’t have to buy it anymore now that I’ve told you. [Audience laughs]

Be sure to check out the whole interview. Waid talks about a lot of his work at BOOM!, of course, since that’s what’s current, as well as other BOOM! Studios projects, but he also talks a lot about his work at DC Comics, since there’s so much of it.

I really should have asked about The Unknown.

Mark Waid’s Unwritten Kid Flash Time Travel Story is a post from Speed Force.

That said, there are quite a few others that are either low-quality scans or scans of badly deteriorated comics. If you have any copies of Flash Comics or All-Flash in decent condition, I’m sure they’d appreciate it if you’d help them out by improving their cover database!

Most of my own Golden Age collection is coverless, or in poor enough condition that it wouldn’t be worth contributing, though I was able to submit a few of the later All-Flash covers.

I actually have a copy of that Flash Comics Miniature Edition, and considered sending a scan, until I pulled it out of the box and saw what condition it was in:

As you can see, it’s in worse shape than the one they’ve got! This isn’t terribly surprising. One of the previous owners of this copy wrote a note on the back of the board:

Wheaties giveaway, 1946. All known copies were taped to Wheaties boxes and are never found in mint condition.

Yeah, that might cause a problem…

It makes me wonder what the print run was on books like this. How many copies were taped to cereal boxes and shipped to markets nationwide? How many were removed carefully, and how many were summarily ripped from the packaging? How many were treasured, and how many discarded?

Oh, yeah, you’re probably wondering: Who’s that pointy-headed guy on the cover? That’s Dmane, a one-shot villain (as so many of them were those days) billed as “The Criminal From Tomorrow,” who used futuristic technology to perform miraculous feats in the present day. (Sound familiar?) It’s also an early case in which Jay Garrick travels through time under his own power with perfect accuracy.

Help Wanted: Golden-Age Flash Collectors! is a post from Speed Force.

Yes he could.

The speed of sound is roughly 340 meters per second (varying with humidity, altitude, etc.)

Earth revolves around the sun at roughly 30 kilometers per second.

So in that panel he was running at least 88 times as fast as the Flash: Rebirth promo claims was his top speed before he met Barry Allen.

Source: Flash Comics Miniature Edition (promo book taped to boxes of Wheaties in 1946), in which the Flash goes up against the one-off “Criminal From Tomorrow!” Dmane. And yes, that looks like the same stunt Superman pulled in the 1978 movie with Christopher Reeve.

I seem to remember that Jay reached the same levels of insanely impractical speeds that Barry did on a regular basis — this was just the first place I thought to look, since I remembered the time travel element.

Beyond the Speed of Sound is a post from Speed Force.