Letters to The Flash: EotL #1

I’ve been planning writing The Flash since August 2015. That’s when Justice League #46 landed, and that’s the issue where Barry Allen took a leave from the World’s Greatest Heroes.

I’ve said previously that I’m not particularly good at writing the character, which is evidenced by the fact that I was the writer on the character’s book when the site launched… and I flubbed it. After a handful of issues, I gave up and we had to have fill-in writers-- perhaps the first of the site?-- and then I came back to wrap up my stupidly convoluted storyline and that was that.

(Interestingly though, the villain of my story, which was going to run for nine issues up to the book’s chapter of The Apokolips Imperative, was a speedster in a yellow costume, whose identity would have remained a mystery until the final instalment of the arc…)

I’ve had a hand in the book off and on since… co-wrote and wrote some issues here and there-- not enough to do damage! I was also the editor in the later years of the book, most proudly through one of the most seminal DC2 arcs, “Legacy of the Lightning”, which had Professor Zoom deliver one of his most decisive defeats to Barry Allen.

So, yes. I’ve been planning on writing The Flash since August 2015. We’d just met Cobalt Blue, a silent and sinister speedster with Barry Allen’s face, who’d sided with Lord Naga in Kobra’s war against the forces of good. He was imprisoned beneath Iron Heights, in the dreaded Pipeline, still silent, still sinister, but now under the watchful wardenship of the then newly debuted Harrison Wells.

Aaaaand that was-- chronologically-- the last we saw of Barry Allen, but not the last we saw of The Flash. He played a role in Most Wanted but that was set before his disappearance. He’s a player in Young Justice but that’s again, set before his disappearance.

But after Barry’s supposed disappearance, a Flash has turned up in recent Christmas specials, annuals… and no one knows who he is beneath the mask… not even Jay Garrick! And when the elder statesman speedster kinda / sorta remembers, the memories are quickly overwritten by something… but who knows what? And that’s not all. The Titans got together a Christmas or so ago, but no one remembers who Kid Flash was under the mask! Even though they’re more family than superteam. How odd…

I've written the first issue (just posted) and part of the second one. I have the remaining issues loosely plotted. I have the first issue of the follow-up series written as well, as well as a cover ready to go. I know where that book is going to. The problem is, when will I write the rest of the issues? I don't want to get anyone's hopes up, but some of the more esoteric, non-Justice League content, is harder for me to write than not. But I don't want to sit on stories! I have an issue of New Outsiders ready to go that'll come out soon, I have loads of stories planned... it's just writing them that's the struggle right now.

Regardless, before we can find out who the new Flash is, we need to find out what happened to the old one.

It’s the end of the line for Barry Allen.

To be continued.

Thanks, Roy! This issue was very much about setting the stage for what's to come, and I have a big chunk of the second chapter done that continues the theme. I wanted to show the lives of these characters before, because I think that'll make the shape of the Flash legacy all the more sadder when we see the after.

And yes, it's really hard to figure out an original superhero name if your powers are super speed, as Wally and Linda can attest.