The Flash Futures End #1 Review: A Tie-In Done Right

I don’t have the time or money to read all of the Futures End one-shots this month, but I’d be shocked if any of them were as good as this one.

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Actually, good is a subjective term (though I think it applies here too), so let’s go with meaningful. The Flash Futures End #1 is able to take advantage of the time jump five years into the future in ways that other books can’t because writers Robert Venditti and Van Jensen have already been telling a story in the regular series about the Flash racing back to the past to undo some of his greatest mistakes.

That Flash — we’ll call him Future Flash — is a major player in this story, as he finally meets up with himself. It’s Barry versus Barry, with the lives of Wally and Iris West hanging in the balance. Oh, and there’s another appearance by the Reverse-Flash, Daniel West, and a moment that fans have been waiting for since 2011.

Even better, the story continues back into the present next issue in a completely logical way, though maybe not one that will prevent the headaches that generally come with time travel. Again, most DC series didn’t have the luxury of telling stories that could springboard off the event like this one could, but whether this was especially savvy planning by Venditti and Jensen or simply serendipity really doesn’t matter. It came together in excellent fashion, and that’s what counts.

Now if you’ll excuse me, there’s a matter of …

SPOILERS PAST THIS POINT!

Five years from now, the Speed Force is still messed up. Boo scientist Barry Allen!

Just kidding. Flash risks losing some time to speed back to Central City, where Reverse-Flash has returned. Only Future Flash has beaten him there, arriving from even further in the future. Trust me, if you’ve been reading the series regularly, this makes perfect sense.

Future Flash handles Daniel West pretty easily and decides to end him once and for all, taking his head clean off. This doesn’t exactly endear him to Iris and Wally, even after saving their lives, and really doesn’t make regular Flash too pleased once he arrives.

There’s a fight, naturally, and some talk about the Speed Force and how it got so bad. Future Flash says that the only way to stop it is to go back to our present and fix the wound in the Speed Force while it’s still manageable. He sort of loses, getting thrown back into the timestream, but the resulting explosion costs regular Flash his life — and grants super-speed to Wally West.

With his dying breath, Barry makes Wally promise to train himself, then run back to our present to stop Future Flash. So it appears we’re going to have a three-way dance between Flash (Barry), Semi-Future Flash (Wally) and Future Flash (Old Barry) next issue. And the blurb makes it appear only one may walk out of it. Got all that?

This is probably a good point to mention that regular series artist Brett Booth was also on this. Has there been a New 52 book that has had better overall art since the continuity restart than The Flash? First Francis Manapul, then Booth. Good stuff, and very appropriate styles for the character.

Favorite moment: I mean, if it was anything but Wally getting his speed … No, that’s it.

Final thought: I’m a big wrestling fan, and if Venditti and Jensen have turned Wally into the Flash just to have him killed off next issue, that’ll be a great swerve worthy of sports entertainment. Also, they might not want to go on the internet ever again.