I rant about the "Shocking Surprise Ending" of Flash #13.

I get my books at the end of the month, so I have yet read Flash #13. But I did have it spoiled on the interweb, and, while I'm okay with people spoiling things for me, some people aren't. So consider this a...

SPOILER WARNING!!!!

Okay? I give you enough space? Good!

This whole thing really irks me. Let me talk it out and see if I can make sense of it.

So, the Wally West Flash has had a long and successful run. 230 issues, an amazing number nowadays. It had featured some of the best runs and best writing work of any DC comic. 75% of the "big guns" that wrote 52, Johns, Morrison, and Waid, put time in on the title. As a matter of fact, their tenure on the Flash is what helped make them big guns in the first place. On top of that, the title was home to some of the best writing Mike Baron and William Messner Loebs ever did.

It seemed like the Wally West Flash had boundless potential. So DC decided to end it.

Infinite Crisis rolls around and they start talking about how you can't a Crisis without a dead Flash. The writing is on the wall. Bye bye, Wally.

Yes, a character that is so rich that at least five of the best writers in comics were able to have long and successful runs with him, a character who makes good writers great and great writers superstars, DC is going to kill. I remember thinking that this was incredibly stupid.

So, in Crisis Wally doesn't die, per se. He "disappears into the speed force". Yes, he disappears into the speed force. So, technically he wasn't killed so there is hope that he could come back. A cynical man would call this a copout and a callous toying with the Wally fans emotions. But he didn't die, exactly, and that is what's important.

A few months after, The announce Flash: The Fastest Man Alive, a new Flash series starting with number one. And the announce that it will be written by Danny Bilson and Paul DeMeo, the two guys responsible for the Flash TV show. I guess DC thought that this was enough to get the fans buzzing. "Hey! It's the guys who wrote the Flash TV show! That was kinda okay!  But it was the Flash!"

I reserved judgment because I read their treatment for a DC themed Unlimited Powers TV series. Horrible!

So speculation began as to who the new Flash would be: Barry, Wally or Bart.

Bart wins. Bart was pulled into the speed force the same time as Wally but was able to make his way out, but with a twist. He came out as a twenty-something instead of the teenager he was.

I didn't really follow Impulse that much, only what I saw in Flash and Teen Titans, but the essential part of his character was that he was raised in the future by an advanced computer program, a video game really. So he knew a lot of stuff but didn't know how to apply it. He never developed common sense. So much of the appeal of the character in my limited exposure to him was that he was constantly making mistakes and learning from them. He'd act first, and if we were lucky he'd think some time in the future. This is what made him interesting.

So for the new book, they decided to say "You know the fundamental aspect of Bart's personality? Well, forget it. We took care of that off panel while he was in the speed force. He is all grown up now. A fully developed adult. But we've given him a new and exciting character trait--he doesn't want to be the Flash and is thinks that if he uses the speed force it just might kill him!" 

This is what I remember of the early issues of the series. I could have misremembered. But I recall thinking that giving Bart the same "powers may kill me" gimmick that Wally had in the 80s was lame. So, I think I'm right about that.

So essentially, Bart was a blank slate. It was like they took a completely new character and made him the Flash. So, right off the bat, it was hard for Bart fans to get into the book, because this Bart wasn't at all like the one they remember. And new fans weren't given enough character development because the creators thought that it being Bart was enough.

And, if I may be blunt, Bilson and DeMeo's writing was bad. It was generic, fill-in level stuff. Boring even. You'd expect with all the fuss and fanfare that there would be more of a pop to the stories of the relaunch. But there wasn't.

When Marc Guggenheim took over writing, I was happy. I respected his writing on Wolverine and Blade. And his first few books were a vast improvement over the previous team. But it turns out that he was just a place holder.

News hit last week that Mark Waid was taking over the Flash. Not only that, there would be a one-shot special and the regular series would go back to it's original numbering. And Waid would be writing a different Flash, not Bart.

Of course, the "Yay! Waid is back!" sentiment was tempered with the "Who's it going to be? And what happens to Bart?"

Issue 13 answered that last one. Bart dies. Killed by the Rouges Gallery, apparently.

There is a quote I remember from the Clint Eastwood movie "Unforgiven". I goes something like this: "When you kill a man, you take away everything he ever was and everything he was going to be." This sort of applies to comic book characters. Not the first part, because what they were lives on in back issues and trade paperbacks. But when you kill a character (and if he stays dead), you take away every thing he COULD be.

DC made a decision. Their Flash revamp wasn't working. Should they blame the character or the creators in charge of it? They chose the character.

They made the decison that Bart was damaged goods. No, it wasn't Bilson and DeMeo's lackluster writing! They're from Hollywood! They wrote the Flash TV show! The fans just didn't get Bart as Flash! Because they don't like Bart! That makes Bart expendable!

DC is, of course, wrong. But they have been boneheaded all along in their treatment of the Flash. They took something that was working fine and "fixed" it in way so it didn't work as well anymore.

What irks me about death in comics is A) It's meaningless, B) it is reversible, and C) in the off chance that that it is permanent, it takes a player off the board, a character who might have inspired great stories from different creators somewhere down the line.

Bart Allen had potential. As Impulse, he was popular enough to man 89 issues of his own series and was a popular member of teh Young Justice book (fans of which are joining JLI fans in accusing DiDio of killing off the members of their favorite team. First Superboy, now Bart? Robin better buy some insurance). And as Kid Flash, he was an interesting part of Teen Titans. Now, thanks to clumsy manhandling by two underwhelming authors, the character is dead, to remain that way unless DC clumsily brings him back to life (which we know is something DC woudl NEVER do, bring characters back to life in an awkward fashion.)

I would prefer that it be Barry that comes back. Because if Wally comes back, that this whole specticle would be an even bigger waste of time and a larger fiasco.

These are just my opinions. Feel free to disagree.

Bill