DC Comics Relaunch: One Of The Oldest Relationships Comes To An End

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Lois and Clark splitting up hit some fans in the gut pretty hard when it was announced, with not everyone being too pleased at a suddenly single Man of Steel. The thing is, the couple had only actually been married since 1996, and while the pairing was iconic, it never really seemed to lead to stories that couldn’t be told if they weren’t married. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that their marriage isn’t even among the top five in DC.

You know who’s number one though?

Barry Allen and Iris West. Maybe it’s just because I love the Flash, or maybe it’s because I love the characters that wouldn’t exist without that pairing. Wally West and Bart Allen.

So I felt like I got smashed in the gut today when I was surfing DC’s Source Blog and found this.

 

The Flash is a single man. He’s a bachelor who has never been married.

I’ll give you all a few seconds to take that in and digest it.

Yes, folks — in the post-FLASHPOINT world, Barry Allen has not only never dated Iris West, but he’s dating someone else entirely in issue #1! And that someone is…his longtime coworker Patty Spivot!

If that upsets you, sorry about that. But I make no apologies for opening up a traditional storytelling avenue with our hero’s romantic life, something that’s been shut closed for a very long time now. This is no indictment of marriage. I’m a married man and wouldn’t trade it for anything. But in the realm of fiction, I feel strongly that this change to Barry opens up fresh, new creative directions and exciting new storylines.

But don’t fret—Iris West remains an active supporting cast member. And a wonderfully entertaining one, at that! Who else could possibly hit up Barry for anonymous crime-story tips to fill her blog on the Central City Citizen’s website? No one but the go-getter Iris could consume so much caffeine and live to tell about it.

And who knows, maybe someday we’ll have the opportunity to see why Barry and Iris fell in love in the first place. Or maybe not! Stay tuned — I can assure you Barry’s love life will never, ever be boring!

The life and times of Barry Allen are as familiar today as they were yesterday, but his love life is one of the things that have been freshened up for 2011. New fans will fall in love with the fastest man alive for the first time, and I guarantee that longtime Flash fans will not only still recognize the world of Barry Allen, they will be hooked like they were the first time.

 

I’ll be honest and say that I had to sit a few hours on this before I could write about it, and I’m kinda glad that I did. When I first read this I had a rant about how this gets rid of Wally by making his origin a lot harder to work into things. Then I’d throw in how Barry and Iris’s grandson from the future is harder to pull off without telling new readers “Hey look, they have to get married”, when you bring up that Kid Flash is supposed to be Bart. I’d mention how I spent months tearing apart Patty every time I did a review of Flash due to my incredible dislike of her being, as I felt, shoehorned in to the series to give Barry a non-speedster supporting cast. Then I’d make obvious mentions to DC destroying one of the hallmark relationships of their company.

But alas, I waited a few hours, and my rage subsided. Patty was brought back in so that her sudden appearance in the new Flash title wouldn’t catch people completely off guard. Wally is a different rant for a different day, and I agree with them saying that his pre-Flashpoint status quo would be incredibly hard to keep up in a younger DCU (Barry’s original sidekick being a married adult with two preteen kids). Bart, through the magic of time travel, can be made to work…after all, Barry’s grandson was created at a time when Barry had been dead for nearly a decade, and the Tornado Twins (Bart’s dad Don Allen and X-S’s mom Dawn Allen) were hardly on anybody’s radar.

So what’s the big plus to me here? I get to see the beginnings of their relationship instead of just accepting that it’s there. I also get to see Barry with a chance to build a new supporting cast instead of dropping back into where he was before I was born. Sure, those people will be there, but it’s all new to me.

Maybe this is what it will take to make me like Barry Allen. This and Francis Manapul’s gorgeous art.

A lifelong reader and self proclaimed continuity guru, Grey is the Editor in Chief of Comics Nexus. Known for his love of Booster Gold, Spider-Girl (the real one), Stephanie Brown, and The Boys. Don't miss The Gold Standard.