Newsarama interviews the Flash creative team about the upcoming Flash #0, which will update Barry Allen’s origin, and what’s coming in the second year of the New 52 Flash.
Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato have been re-introducing the Rogues one at a time through Flash #6-12, building toward a major event in Flash Annual #1 in August. After that, Flash #0 will retell the Flash’s origin. Together, the Annual and the #0 issue will answer a number of readers’ questions, like: How did the Rogues get internal powers? Who raised Barry after his mother was killed and his father framed?
Manapul: In issue #0, people are finally going to see what happened after he lost his parents, and what happened right after he got hit by lightning. The Barry Allen we’ve been writing since we took over the book last year has a past that hasn’t been revealed, and it’s an important part of why he does what he does. So we’ve addressed a lot of those things head-on in the #0 issue.
They also make the point that the New 52 Barry Allen is very different in personality from the pre-Flashpoint Barry Allen, and one of their goals with the new origin story is to solidly ground him in this timeline.
Manapul: Well, we’ve created a lot more emotional ties to this particular timeline for Barry Allen. There’s no way he could ever see himself going back in time to screw up time or to save his mom or anything like that. So we’re giving him a very strong emotional anchor in this timeline to hold that line, to never go back to the past.
Again and again they return to the theme of moving forward, rather than backward, including in the way they look, well, back at the Flash’s origin.
Buccellato: … I know the story of his mother was told in Flash: Rebirth, and that’s a valid reason for his choice to become a hero. But we felt like we needed to go a little bit deeper.
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Like Francis said, our Barry is more forward-moving and less reflective and looking back. So we needed to show why he’s that way and why we did this subtle shift in Barry’s personality and motivation.
Francis Manapul confirms that he’s back on art for #12, #0, and beyond, and Brian Buccellato confirms that amidst all the creative changes of the New 52, they’re sticking around. “We have a big plan for what we’re doing on the Flash…”
So what does come next? All we know is it will spin out of the Flash Annual, and one hint: “War is coming to Central City.”
Read the full interview at Newsarama.
