Flash's current power levels

Can he do the “vibrate through walls” thing? If so, has he been shown to be able to allow concussive force to pass through him by vibrating though the shock wave?

The last writer (Mark Waid) gave him all sorts of other powers (IIRC, vibrating through walls blew them up) like lending his speed to others or absorbing speed FROM others, in addition to the standard run across water/up walls stuff.

The current writer (Geoff Jones, who’s better, IMO) is generally ignoring the extra powers and primarily focusing on the “fast” aspect (that said, he just did a story using the speed absorb/pass on power–but it’s the exception, not the rule)

And I don’t think the current Flash (Wally) has vibrated through shock-waves, but I’m mostly certain that the previous Flash (Barry) has.

Actually, Wally can’t vibrate through anything solid right now without it blowing up. It is more of a limitation than a power, although he has found it useful now and then.

Wally’s the one that used to be known as “Kid Flash”, right?

And Barry (Allen) won’t be getting raised from the dead because he was killed by antimatter in Crisis on Infinite Earths, right?

Yes, Wally used to be Kid Flash. He grew up. :smiley:

Barry will stay dead, but he has shown up a few times since he died, both alive and dead.

Lok

Remember the first rule of comics: Only Bucky stays dead.

('Course, they violated that rule when they tried to get Rob Liefeld to Re-Do Cap’n 'Merica, but that sucked goat cheese, so we’ll ignore it.)

No, that rule has been amended to “Only Barry Allen and Bucky stay dead.” One from each of the big 2. But Barry has that whole time travel thing going, so he can still take part in the occasional storyline. And he has shown up dead a couple of times also, thanks to the Spectre. (When one of your best friends becomes a near omnipotent being with an in to the Presence, you can visit the real world on occasion.)

Lok

I’ve seen references to that rule many times in comic discussions, but as a non-comic-reader, I don’t get it. The only thing I’ve ever heard of about Bucky is that he stays dead (which is, admittedly, a rather impressive power in the comics world). Who the heck is he, and why is his death significant?

Oh, and when a character is motivated to become a crimefighter by the death of a parent or parent figure, doesn’t that parent figure stay dead, too? I’m thinking specifically of Parker’s Uncle Ben and the Waynes, here.

Bucky is Captain America’s sidekick.

In the main universe, he was killed in action after Cap got frozen. His death was a significant blow to Cap. He’s still dead.

In the Ultimate universe, he lived, and married Cap’s fiancee after he disappeared. He’s still not dead.

Uncle Ben has never been brought back. The Waynes stay dead, except in Elseworlds where they never died.

A lot of characters have stayed dead at both companies, actually. Although the Crisis or Zero Hour negated a lot of the deaths at DC, they stayed dead until their timeline ceased to exist. (Also, on the topic of reboots negating deaths…Damn You John Byrne.)

That ain’t gonna last. Sort of.

Marvel is bringing back the What If…? series in December as seven one shots.

  1. Spidey’s Aunt May dies instead of Ben.
  2. Magneto & Professor X form the X-Men
  3. Karen Smith (Daredevil’s girlfriend) lives
  4. Jessica Jones joins the Avengers
  5. Dr. Doom becomes the Thing
  6. General Ross becomes the Hulk
  7. An all-humor issue w/Brian Michael Bendis, Stan Lee, Mark Millar, J. Michael Straczynski, & Garth Ennis as the writers.