Big things are afoot as the new Flash series creative team takes over. That includes the introduction of the Future Flash and Wally West. Are they the same person? I’ll get to that in a moment as we go through The Flash #30 that hits stands today.
What you need to know heading into Flash #30.
- We have known for quite some time that we would be seeing Wally West in April 2014’s Flash Annual #3.
- The blue Flash speedster on the cover of that annual is not Wally West, which was confirmed when DC started talking about its May 2014 comics.
- That blue speedster is the Future Flash as first reported here at Comics Nexus.
- It was speculated that this new Future Flash could be John Fox who was the Flash of DC One Million’s Justice League several years ago pre-New 52.
SPOILERS follow for The Flash #30.
The book opens with five years into the future with The Flash arriving too late to save a teen from death. Could that African-American teen by DC Comics New 52’s Wally West?
Five years later? That sounds familiar. Could this tie into DC Comics weekly event The New 52: Futures End that already was kicked off in the pages of Aquaman and The Others #1? A few more factoids on New 52: Futures before get back to The Flash #30:
Before we get to DC’s newest teaser puzzle, let’s get you caught up with what we know so far about The New 52 Futures End year-long weekly series:
- The New 52 Futures End appears to have been seeded in cancelled series Legion of Super-Heroes and Legion Lost years before its launch.
- DC Comics has a Top 10 high-profile time anomalies that cannot be coincidentally at play with Futures End set to launch.
- We learned that Forever Evil #7 appears to bridge to The New 52 Futures End despite Forever Evil #7 now being solicited the same month as the launch of Futures End.
- Futures End is so important to DC Comics that it will be the focus of September 2014’s 3D cover event.
- Lastly, the pre-Flashpoint timeline cop Booster Gold who had a stealth return to the New 52 timeline appears to be a key part of DC’s intricate teaser image for Futures End.
- Are all of DC’s weeklies and Grant Morrison’s Multiversity, since they all end in March 2015, building to a April/May FCBD 2015 event from DC Comics?
Anyhow, while The Flash #30 opens five years into the future, the meat in the middle of the issue is a modern-day Barry Allen coming to terms with recent traumatic events in his life including Forever Evil.
The book ends, interestingly, twenty years into the future. We learn who is behind the Future Flash’ blue mask!
It is isn’t Wally West. It isn’t John Fox. It is an older Barry Allen!
Why is this Future Flash a big part of the Flash series going forward? Well future Barry Allen is avenging or trying to undo the death of that African-American teenager from fifteen years in his past, but five years into our future. That black teenager has a first name; it is Wally. It sure looks like that DC is working to make Wally West an African-American as the West family will be in the live-action CW TV series The Flash.
Writers Robert Venditti and Van Jensen did a superb kick-off issue of their The Flash series with issue #30. It sets up their building blocks well and gets us primed for The Flash Annual #3 that will feature the blue Future Flash. Penciller Brett Booth and inker Norm Rapmund do some amazing job on art as the energy just leaps off the page. This Flash is fun, folks.
Thanks for reading. All feedback welcome.
