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Spoilers for Flash #75!
You can see the preview pages here.
So the pages I’ve posted are from the Len backup story, though of course there’s lots in the main story with the Turtle as well. I’ll talk a bit about the Turtle story and then get to the Len piece.
Barry defeats the Turtle by rediscovering his sense of hope, which gives him that extra something the Turtle can’t reach. He then creates a time paradox that sends the future Turtle and future Flash back where they came from, and leaves the present-day Turtle alone and defeated. However, in civilian garb as Barry Allen, he shows compassion to the Turtle and offers to help him rather than simply beating him up and leaving him for the authorities. That’s the Barry I love, so I’m really glad to see it, though one wonders what happens to Turtle afterwards. We know he continues to be a foe, so the kindness perhaps didn’t help as Barry thought it would – but it shows that his hope continues to shine through. The story started out with him very pessimistic about life and the future, so he has indeed grown over the course of it and demonstrates more of the traits which led to him becoming a Blue Lantern in past continuity.
Barry also meets young Wally and Wallace, giving us an updated version of the first meeting between Barry and Wally in the Silver Age. Wally’s still the president of his local Flash fan club and there are hints of the later troubled origin with his parents, so this scene melds several continuities into a cohesive whole. (There’s also an acknowledgement of the weirdness of two cousins named Wally and Wallace, but I once met a guy at a wedding who had a son named Logan – after Wolverine – and six months later the baby had a cousin born who was also named Logan after Wolverine. So the Wally and Wallace thing isn’t as unlikely as it might seem. That wedding sure was an odd experience, though.)
We also get a glimpse of the Flash Family in a representative montage, including Jenni Ognats, Johnny and Jesse Quick, and Jay Garrick! So nice to see, and it’s good to know that Jenni is still in continuity somewhere and hasn’t been erased. Maybe she’ll appear in the upcoming Legion reboot.
When the story returns to the present, Barry learns that Steadfast is the current avatar of the Still Force and wants to tell him about his past that’s been hidden and the coming threat to the Multiverse. Steadfast notes that Barry’s speed has been decreasing and he’ll need to be in peak form to face the threat, so he needs Barry to remember his past. Perhaps that knowledge will unlock his missing speed, just as tapping into his hope helped him defeat the Turtle. It’s curious that Turtle isn’t the current Still Force avatar, though I guess he’s just a baby at the moment in the Justice League book…he can still manipulate the Still Force there, however.
The final scene with Barry in the present has him rebuilding the Flash Museum and talking to Commander Cold, who reveals that the story with the Tricksters happened only the day before (Henry’s looking pretty good for a guy who was recently beaten by James). Barry says that he could use Henry’s help upgrading the museum, and then the story looks back/forward to past and future events in Rebirth continuity.
Then we get to the Len story, which shows that he’s been with Suicide Squad all this time and it’s really been tough on him. He’s defeated and fatalistic, and as is noted, has become dead inside. That’s distressing, but it’s quite interesting to see a more realistic take on what it must be like to be on the Squad for more than a mission or two. He describes himself as “a survivor” and that’s how he’s gotten by for so long while the others died, though eventually he’s had enough of the bullshit to demand that one of the guards kill him; it’s clear that realizing the similarities he’s developed with his hated father is the last straw. And then Lex Luthor offers him an escape from Belle Reve and the path to improvement. The tech that Lex uses – and Len presumably will use in his upgrade – is an evolved version of Len’s own technology, which is interesting. I like that it’s still based on Len’s own work instead of just magically granted by someone else, so this is somewhat different from the Underworld Unleashed storyline. Len agrees to the offer but only if the other Rogues get the same upgrades, because he wants to take care of his “family” (unlike his father), and that obviously sets the stage for the upcoming Year Of The Villain story arc.
So the Len story is a great lead-in to the next arc: it shows us where he’s been all this time and how it’s affected him, and indicates why he’d accept Lex’s offer. He’s been at the end of his rope for a while now. I’m honestly not sure if he would have accepted Lex’s offer had he been free and doing his own thing, because in the past Len has found that kind of stuff to be ridiculous, but we know Rebirth-era Len has been more aggressively ambitious. It seems likely that his time with the Squad might give us the more world-weary Len we know from the Johns era, as he’s certainly been through a lot of hell now and is even looking old and grizzled (I doubt the Santa beard will last, though). It’s a pretty clever use of Len’s absence from the book to develop his character further.
On a semi-related note, I wonder if Lawrence ‘Larry’ Snart is dead in Rebirth continuity, or if he’s still around somewhere. The flashbacks show the tattoo he’s always got, which is a nice bit of continued history – and Len had it too in a New 52 flashback, although it was missing during his bare-armed look. Are we ever going to find out what it means, or will it always be a mystery? Part of me likes the mystery of it.
This was a great issue, a good conclusion to the Year One arc, and I really liked seeing the separate Len story. It’d be good to see more of these features if they can’t be fit into the main story; Johns was really good at interweaving the Rogues’ adventures amidst Wally’s tale, though it can be tough to do so without seeming like it’s interrupting the main story. I hope we see more of it, because we know the Rogues can carry their own supporting story and it helps to flesh them out further. Hint hint, DC.
Some images of the tattoo behind the cut to save you from an ultra-long post.
Keep reading
*concurs on the hinting at DC*
*reblogs for generally sensible commentary*
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peppersandcats Any ideas?
