The race is on – literally! The Legion of Darkseid is out to stop Barry Allen from ever becoming the Flash. If they succeed, that may end the line of speedsters for good, along with the Speed Force itself! Wally is on the way to stop the Legion of Darkseid, but will he be in time? What happens to Bart if Wally doesn’t make it? This is a powerful story that potentially rewrites one of the most crucial events of the Silver Age and beyond! Wanna know more? Follow us after the jump!
SPOILERS AHEAD!
Wally is flying to the lab…flying? Yes! He has one of the flight rings from his fight with the Legion of Darkseid, and he is hoping that the boost he gives it from his Speed Force connection will get him there on time.
Wally makes it there to meet with a very confused Barry Allen. As they talk, Dream Girl arrives – that should be trouble, but it appears she is breaking away from Darkseid’s influence. She proves to be critically important in bringing someone else out of Darkseid’s control during the upcoming fight. But let’s go to the Legion first…
The Legion of Darkseid arrives, and they have a plan. Let that famous lightning bolt filter through Lightning Lad before it hits Barry. That would cause the lightning to kill Barry instead of connecting him to the Speed Force. And that plan almost works!
Wally intervenes to save Barry, but at the cost of his own speed. Meanwhile, Bart steals a car and makes it to the lab just in time to…die?
Bart meets up with Jay – could both be dead at this point? Jay reveals something none of us could have expected.
HUGE SPOILER AHEAD! DON’T SCROLL UNLESS YOU’VE ALREADY READ THIS ISSUE!
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The Speed Force is not only IN Bart. At least for the moment, Bart IS the Speed Force!
Bart creates a new lightning bolt that passes into Barry…and through Barry to Wally, restoring all to their Speed Force connection!
They win the fight…but the evil version of Saturn Girl says something that sends Bart off in a VERY wrong direction! And, if Bart succeeds, EVERYTHING will be lost! That’s where we end this issue.
NOTES:
- Okay, let’s take a moment to look at the origin story here. When Barry wakes up from the battle, he will likely only remember that he was hit with a bolt of lightning and gained super-speed, preserving (at least in his mind) the original Silver Age origin of the Flash.
- But, now we see that Wally is NOT just a carbon copy of Barry – he never really was, but this clarifies that in canon.
- And now, Bart is the source that gave all of them their speed!
- Just a note, the lightning bolt that gave Barry his powers passed THROUGH Barry and THEN into Wally. If you really want to keep the head canon that Wally got his powers through Barry, you still have that option.
SUMMARY:
This is a major change in how we view the origin of the Barry Allen Flash, though it leaves Barry able to believe the original story without a problem. And, it ties our speedsters together in a new way that, if anything, brings them closer together. If anyone other than Mark Waid had been part of this, I don’t know how fans would have reacted. But putting Waid and Christopher Cantwell together on this story makes this a story for the ages. I’m hoping the conclusion to DC KO does not take this issue away from continuity – and that’s speaking as a fan of the Flash who has been reading his adventures for over 60 years. I’ll give this one a 10/10 – of course, that’s just my opinion – what do YOU think? Leave your comments below!