Though I don’t follow DC books regularly, I’ve been reading “Infinite Crisis” with very little problems. However, that whole “eight Flashes” part at the end of issue #4 really confused me, since I don’t have a doctorate in DC history.
What’s going on there, in general?
You can feel free to ask questions like this in our comic discussion threads, you know.
That said - 8? I count 6.
We have our three living Flashes - Jay Garrick, Wally West, Bart Allen; as their foe is accelerated and they approach lightspeed, they begin to come into contact with “the Speed Force” - which is like an extradimensional space, a kind of “heaven” for DCU Speedsters. Their “proximity” to the Speed Force allows the runners who’ve gone on before to help out - Johnny Quick, Max Mercury, Barry Allen.
However, knowing all that, having been a Flash fan since the early 80s…
I’m still asking the same question. Makes no sense, except as editorial direction to make all the Flashes vanish in one swell foomp.
Based on the OP, I didn’t think he was asking “What the hell was DC thinking?”
I’m waiting to see how it plays out.
Explain? No. I never liked the “speed force” thing.
Okay, by pushing their opponent into the center of the speed force, they removed him from the time stream. The backlash of their effort pushed Wally somewhere beyond the speed force, but his family was able to grab on and follow. (Something interesting is going to happen with the twins, but I’ve been disappointed before.) Jay was the first to drop in the push, so when he fell out of the speed force stream he was severed from it. The nature of the speed force has been altered by the time-like loops formed by the return of the deceased speedsters around the strength of their opponent. Their opponent’s strength has caused the speed force to turn in onto itself, much like the gravitational strength of a black hole causes light to turn in on itself… (How’s that sound?)
But if they have dropped Bart completely, I’ll stop reading DC again. And this time I mean it!
To clarify on the Speed Force a bit further, it’s the source of the powers of all of DC’s speedsters. When you run too fast, you risk being merged with it, which is a one-way trip, but since it’s pretty much speedster Valhalla, that’s okay. This is what actually happened to Barry back in CoIE.
Barry, along with Johnny Quick (a Golden Age speedster, who gave it up saving hsi daughter from Savitar, and evil Speedster) and Max Mercury (the “Zen Master of Speed”, and former mentor to Bart) are the other Speed Force residents who turn up to give Bart a hand.
Wally is the only speedster to enter the Speed Force and return. Drawn back by his love for Linda. That wasn’t enough this time, so Linda and his twins went with him. They’ll probably be back, along with Bart, after bouncing off the speed force and having wacky adventures through time, space, and other dimensions. They’ve done it before.
It’s too soon to say what to make out of Jay’s comments that the Speed Force is gone. Will it return? Is it actually gone, or has Jay’s connection to it just been severed? Will he get it back?
I dare to predict!
The Speed Force will return and with it, a new Flash! Bart Allen, aged to adulthood! Through time travel shennanigans, he’s lived fifteen years in the one year he’s been gone. With a middle-aged Wally lending advice, and the twins alternately aiding and hindering him, Bart will usher in a brave new area for the Flash!
But didn’t a supervillian show up and hijack Max’s body? The Rival, I think? (A great name for a villian, btw).
Yes. The Rival was in the Speed Force. Max, being a Zen Master, was able to talk to people in the Speed Force. But that meant leaving his body, and Rival yoinked it while it was unoccupied, leaving Max in the Speed Force. Hopefully, we’ll get him back someday.
I really hope they don’t age Bart. He’s already technically a toddler in a teenage body.
BTW, we’ve been told (by Johns, I think) that
Bart and Wally aren’t dead.