Here we are with Part 3 of the Button cross-over with the Flash! This follows part 1 in Batman #21 (spoilers here) and part 2 in The Flash #21 (spoilers here). Part 4 will follow in a few weeks in the Flash #22.
DC Comics Rebirth and The Button Part 3 Spoilers and Review follow for Batman #22.
We saw from the end of Part 2 as well as the teaser pages from Batman #22 (spoilers here), that the Flashpoint alternate timeline still exists somehow.
Thomas Wayne, Bruce Wayne’s dad and the Batman of Flashpoint, initially doubts seeing an adult Bruce and the Flash Barry Allen is real, but it is.
Despite Hypertime existing in the DC Rebirth era (spoilers here) that doesn’t appear to be the “force” keeping Flashpoint alive. It’s a timeline, not an alternate Earth, and therefore shouldn’t have existed after Flashpoint begat the New 52.
Barry Allen needs time to fix the Cosmic Treadmill, and both Batman will give it to him as the Batcave is attacked by the combined forces of King Aquaman and Queen Wonder Woman who may or may not still be at war, but have a common enemy to destroy in the Thomas Wayne Batman.
The Batmen defeat the forces of King Aquaman and Queen Wonder Woman, but now whomever was keeping the Flashpoint timeline alive has simply let go and the timeline starts to disintegrate. Add to that the fact the fixed Cosmic Treadmill will leave without as its fully charged even without the Flash running on it! Barry and Bruce need to go so they don’t perish in the collapsing Flashpoint.
Bruce wants his dad to come, but Thomas pushes him onto the treadmill…
…implores him to retire from being Batman and be the father his son, Damian, needs.
As the Flashpoint distingerates, we learn that Waynes never stay down…
…they rise!
So, Thomas Wayne “appears” to die with the Flashpoint despite the “resurrection / rise” language.
Bruce Wayne Batman and Barry Allen Flash are back in the timestream as…
….it has folded back to when Eobard Thawne the Reverse Flash in Batman #21 entered it with the Watchmen Button; before the Reverse Flash seemingly died.
Thawne knows, or believes he knows, who the power of the Button belongs to and is heading to it…
…it sure looks like Batman and the flash will join Eobard Thawne in Flash #22 to take on Doctor Manhattan of the Watchmen unless another inexplicable force is behind this.
We also know that the Justice Society / JSA Rebirth will also be included in the concluding Part 4 of the Button as it has…
…or seems to have Jay Garrick, the Golden Age Flash of the Justice Society of America, on the cover. Or perhaps it could be…
…the Rival, essentially Jay Garrick’s foil his Reverse Flash?
So…
Another fast-paced action-packed issue of the Button. Despite seeing a Legion of Super-Heroes Rebirth tease in Part 1 and the upcoming Justice Society of America Rebirth tease coming in Part 4, we have yet to see the Watchmen or Doctor Manhattan on panel despite all the hints. I have a suspicion that the Button will set up more future DC Comics Rebirth events or happenings than it explains, but we’ll see when the Flash #22 lands on shelves a two weeks later than expected on May 17, 2017. Solid art and lots of emotional story telling, with the comic book science baffle gab thrown in, so I’d say a 7.5 out of 10.
