It takes two Barry Allens to escape the Turtle in The Flash No. 71

Barry Allen meets his future and his future self in the second issue of The Flash: Year One, and it is as dystopian as one can expect.

The Flash: Year One arc began in issue No. 70 with a quick-fire retelling of the scarlet speedster’s origin story. As young Barry Allen still tried to come to grips with his newfound powers, he accidentally ran into a devastating future where Barry met… himself. In The Flash No. 71, storytellers Joshua Williamson and Howard Porter lay bare the truth of this dystopian future that older Barry Allen inhabits.

Future Barry Allen is “a few years closer to the finish line,” but still fights as the Flash against the Turtle and his Turtle guards. Admittedly, the Turtle is one of the more laughable of the speedster’s rogues’ gallery, which is what makes his ascension to power in the future that much more compelling. We see the Turtle’s abilities up close in this installment and how he has spread his wings – or rather, his shell – to ensure that speedsters aren’t able to operate in his city.

The Flash No. 71 (Credit: DC Comics)

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How this glimpse of an apocalyptic future will affect young Barry remains to be seen. He’s witnessed what happens when the Flash loses as a superhero, so does that impact his decisions in the present? Given the denouement of The Flash No. 71, one can assume that the answer is, “yes.”

The choice of employing the Turtle as a tyrannical overload is an interesting one, but suggests that he will play an integral role in this initial arc of the story and leading up to “The Death of the Speed Force” event taking place in August. The Turtle is able to drain people’s speed and energy, which makes him especially dangerous to The Flash. If all of the Flash’s villains combine their powers, destroying the Speed Force could very well be their number one priority.

Seeing an uncertain and insecure Barry Allen in The Flash No. 71 take strength from Iris West’s determination in a crisis, even though the two of them are not intimately acquainted yet, is an important change of pace (pardon the pun) for a universe built on machismo. But did we really need a reboot for the character at this stage in the “Rebirth” arc? Arguably no but, with two issues into the new arc, The Flash: Year One is already looking to be a vivid and innovative take on the character, one that could retroactively explain Barry’s characterization so far in the series and set up the many crossover events that DC has already set in motion for this year.