WARNING: This article contains SPOILERS for The Flash #52
The Speed Force is broken in the DC Universe, and it’s up to The Flash (and speedsters across the multiverse) to save it. Following the events of Flash War, the life of a DC speedster has gotten a LOT more complicated. In fact, the lives of every DC speedster.
The Flash can no longer time travel, Wally West’s children are still missing, and three new strange powers - the Sage Force, the Still Force and the Strength Force - have popped up and in the hands of the speedster’s enemies. It’s because of the Sage and Strength force that Barry Allen has been driven to extraordinary measures: gathering all the speedsters across all the universes in DC canon.
They’ve been brought together with one purpose: fix everything that’s wrong in the world of Speed.
The Flash #52 opens with Barry Allen calling to order the first meeting of yet-to-be-named order of multiversal speedsters. The Flash has gathered his speedy brethren at the House of Heroes, the DC Universe’s new meeting place for inter-dimensional adventures. And all things considered, the turnout is more than plentiful for the inaugural meet and greet.
The get together is brief, but full of cameos for diehard DC comics fans. Bizarro Flash, the super-fast anthropomorphic turtle Fastback, and even a Flash who looks he comes from Mark Waid’s Elseword universe of Kingdom Come are all present. Despite the incredible brain trust and power level that The Flash has gathered, none of his doppelgangers can help him. It turns out that the Sage, Still and Strength Force problems are specific to Earth Prime alone. The Flash, for the first time ever, is alone in the multiverse.
That doesn’t mean that the speedsters don’t have options for Barry. Fastback, in particular, is full of advice for The Flash. Fastback argues that Barry is looking at his current crises too personally. Barry Allen might’ve created the Speed Force, but he’s not the center of the multiverse.
According to Fastback, whatever is happening to the Speed Force on his Earth isn’t all about Barry and his Flash family. There’s more going on, and to understand it all, Barry will need to go on “a Force Quest” all by himself.
Barry brushes off Fastback’s concerns, believing that he’s too busy (and too scientific-minded) to take the words of a talking turtle seriously. The Flash #52 does leave the door open for Fastback and the other speedsters to return and ultimately be proven right. A council of speedsters trying to solve The Flash’s problems is frankly too big (and cool) an idea to be thrown away casually after a single comic book issue. The hall of speedsters will be back, to get an official name if nothing else.
The Flash TV series introduced the Council of Wells in season 4, which was a small group of doppelgangers of scientist Harrison Wells gathered across the multiverse. Barry’s move in The Flash #52 is the natural and, let’s be honest, much more impressive progression.
More: The Flash Will Die in DC’s Next Comic Event
The Flash #52 is available now from DC Comics.
