Web hosting Custom Email SiteBuilder

DC's Speedster Pogrom

It has begun to seem like an age in which we can only depend upon dead speedsters and taxes, at least in the more constant territories created and owned by DC Comics. What began in 1985 with the death of the Silver Age Flash ("DC's first saint," says Mark Waid) may have become, in these days, a perennial event. With enough deaths, this series of events could begin to resemble a fictional pogrom against those characters who allow their feet to fly too much.

DC has sacrificed several of its burning-sneaker crowd on very similar terms, and it becomes very easy to suspect them of forming a very bad habit here. It also risks the inevitable weight of the Law of Diminishing Marginal returns; how many super-speed characters can DC create, then kill my the same mechanism, and still get away with such stories?

Too Many Speedsters

After decades of acquisition, DC could count to its credit the Flash of Earth-1 (Barry Allen), the Flash of Earth-2 (Jay Garrick), the Johnny Quick of Earth-2 (Johnny Chambers), the Johnny Quick of Earth-3, a dubious Quicksilver parody sometimes called "Jack B. Quick,", Professor Zoom, the original, non-super Quicksilver (who DC would recast as a speedster), and doubtless some others from the combined inheritance of DC Golden Age characters and acquisitions of failed comics companies. Even so, DC keeps manufacturing more of these characters, such as Impulse (Bart Allen), XS of the Legion of Super-Heroes, Jesse Quick, and the Kingdom Come Kid Flash.

One would think DC would do something about this proliferation. Marvel learned to make do with one Quicksilver, two Whizzers (one now deceased), and one "Speed Demon" who used to also call himself "The Whizzer" (perhaps he changed his name when he stopped drinking so much beer).

In any case, DC had so many of them that it could plant a number of them in the soil without seriously affecting the balance of power of superheroes or villains: the Barry Allen Flash, the Tornado Twins, Professor Zoom, and some others all ended up in the comics equivalent of Boot Hill. This poses no problem per se, but since the nineties, DC seems inclined to print nearly-annual speedster-sacrifices, where the latest casualty gives his or her life to the metaphysical power behind superhuman speed in another heroic attempt to save someone, something, or somewhere.

Barry Allen Dies

Though the comics claim that Barry Allen vanished into the "speed force," the villain low sales really did him in. His title had stagnated and sales did not justify continuing it. It probably sold only five times or fifteen times as well as an average title does circa 1999.

However, this dangerous power, variously recorded as "speed force" and "speed field," would become something around which the talented Mark Waid would, in later comics canon, center a number of storylines. For those who have not read the fundamental material about it, the speed force presents a mortal risk when its users attempt to push their powers to the absolute, evidently because this power does not itself have limits.

During the inevitable deaths of redundant or poorly-performing (sales-wise) characters, this Flash had to outrace a ray-beam that threatened to destroy some of the little that the bad guys had failed to destroy in a rampage that had covered almost every universe so far. At this point, Flash stretched his efforts into the terminally dangerous range, and he vanished into the speed force, not to return, although a later story would infuse his consciousness into the lightning bolt that gave his successor his powers.

The Domain of Silliness presents no fears to persons experienced with years of comics. After one examines the dress codes in comics, very little remains that seems really and truly silly. Nonetheless, we must recognize that the details of this event, however well portrayed by the seasoned hands of Marv Wolfman and George Perez, did wander into such terrain.

It need disgrace no one to depict a story containing very improbable elements. Humor and science fiction do this all the time (with exceptions like "hard" science fiction). To tell a silly tale, and then tell it again, however, invests a tale with two strikes against it; one must tell such a story extremely well to get away with it among a readership likely to remember the last time the story appeared.

Despite what common sense suggests, however, the Flash's successor, Wally West, would return at least once, to this tale. Regardless of the revocability of events in time-travel tales, this retelling foreshadowed what would possibly evolve into a habit in future stories.

Wally West Dies (but Not Really....)

In Zero Hour: Crisis in Time, Wally West / Flash attempted to stop the oncoming wave of nonbeing by a stunt in which he planned to achieve "ultimate speed" then double back on himself like cracking a whip at tachyonic speeds. It failed, he got absorbed by the "speed force," and his ally Waverider carried his empty uniform back to surviving heroes to show what had happened to him. Somehow this seems to remind me of something.

If I needed a visual cue to cut through my amnesia, the next scene, where Flash's companion Waverider holds up his empty uniform, would easily restore my memory. The death worked the same way, and the grieving-superhero-clutching-the-uniform scene would have infringed every copyright law on the planet had not the same publisher printed it. So here we enjoyed a replaying of the Crisis, though played in time rather than extradimensional space; and we enjoyed a replaying of the death of the Flash, starring his successor; and we enjoyed a replaying of the aftermath. To bring this scene any closer to its prototype would require a light table or a photocopier.

The example to the right summarizes the revocable passing of Wally West. One might note that it differs in a few particulars from the passing of Barry Allen; Wally attempted to create a defensive shock-wave rather than outrace a ray-beam; he expressed his persistent self-doubt about his worth as heir to the name of "Flash," and he travelled in different company than had his namesake in the story printed nine years previously. To these differences, I recall that a hamburger remains a hamburger, whether one remembers the pickles, lettuce, onion, and mustard in the proper combinations. So, too, this story recalls the significant particulars of its antecedant.

However, Wally got better. Fortunately, this story centered around so many time paradoxes that the writers never really had to commit to anything they said in the whole thousand-issue gigacrossover, and, even if they had, The Kingdom would erase any such obligation with the "Hypertime" concept. Therefore, although the entire scene played itself out again, writers did not bind themselves to repeat it like a stuttered syllable.

With this repetition, readers could surmise DC's intent to repeat this event, though. In some ways one might look upon the latest Flash sacrifice like the old annual team-ups between the Justice League and Justice Society or the summer mega-crossover. Could DC's editorial calendars include a "to do" list including the latest speedster death?

Johnny Quick Dies

Some years after the death of the Barry Allen Flash, said Flash seemed to reappear in his hometown, but somehow became vindictive and evil, going on a rampage that required all available hands to contain. The battle royale that ensued involved the Flash (Jay Garrick), the Flash (Wally West), Quicksilver/Max Mercury, and Johnny Quick. The latter two would become supporting characters in later issues of Flash, and in this tale helped to defeat the returned Barry Allen (really the inevitable Professor Zoom).

Unfortunately, in recasting the non-super Golden Age Quicksilver as another speedster and designated "sensei of speed," the writers made the "speed force" a metaphysical entity that became increasingly important in subsequent Flash tales.

Johnny remained the one character throughout who saw this "speed force" nonsense as hoakum, and frequently said so. Throughout his career, he had activated his own powers by reciting his formula, and saw Max Mercury's rantings as so much California-style ad hoc theology.

Around issue #109 of Flash, all of the active super-speed characters that graced the pages of Flash and Impulse found themselves in a long running war over rights to the speed force. Max Mercury / Quicksilver alluded to it cryptically during in-between moments within Impulse plots, and eventually the Flash-titles revealed that Max, the guardian for the speed force and mentor to its new users, had an old rival to play Darth Vader to his Obi-Wan Kenobi, a character named Savitar who vied for the rights, if not the title, of "sensei of speed."

Said Savitar realized that he had a source of potentially limitless power; that the increasing number of supersonic heroes cut into his ability to exploit said potential; and that now seemed a good time to rid himself of his old nemesis Max. He therefore captured Max and put him in a cage while he sent out legions of ninjas to dispose of the other users of the speed force, including Golden Age characters like Johnny Quick and the Jay Garrick Flash, plus youngsters like the Wally West Flash, Impulse, and Jessie Quick. Just to cut the odds better for his own success, he also managed to close off the speed force from most of his rivals and infuse it into his assassins; this left most of the heroes powerless, but also tended to kill the unfortunate underlings into he had poured this power.

To get back to Johnny Quick, recall that he activated his powers with his speed formula, a simple algabraic expression (and not even an equation, since it only contained a string of variables and no relation). Johnny smirked at Max's metaphysics, and further argued the point as he visited an injured Max Mercury in the hospital; yet Johnny's own faithful powers failed on him, in spite of Johnny's accurate recitation of the mantra.

Soon after, Johnny realized that Max had told the truth all along; and as an attack force composed of at least half a dozen of DC's speedsters set against Savitar's stronghold, Johnny saved his daughter, Jessie, from almost certain destruction by pushing himself so far that the speed force gobbled him up. Max attempted to pull him out of it, but reports suggest that Johnny somewhat liked becoming a component of said field; his last words dwelt upon passing on heroic responsibilities and how shiny he found the speed force, not how much he regretted dying.

If comics scribe Mark Waid had less going for him, one could become downright cranky considering the way he inflated the concept of the speed force to nuisance levels within the DC Universe, and furthermore used it something like a walking hit squad for characters who ignore the speed limits of conventional physics. Unfortunately, Waid's stories read so well that devices like this get lost in the meatiness of his situations and portrayals, and leave those with pretentions to criticism left grumbling without a target.

However, we can hold him accountable if we see one more story with a superhero holding up an empty uniform from which the speed field has snatched a superhero, never to return. Part of tough love involves setting limits, and this seems like an excellent place to draw the line.

Wally West Dies Again?

Waid's stories hinted at something ominous coming with the speed field, and we can glean hints from other specimens from Waid's pen or mouth. For instance, in Kingdom Come, Waid included a future Flash that, although answering to the name Wally, seemed to represent a fusion of a human being with the speed force; this Flash also wore a Jay Garrick-style winged helmet, suggesting either an homage to a deceased superhero or Jay's inevitable absorption into said field. Also, the future characters, such as Iris West, Wally's aunt, who spent many years in the thirtieth century, tend to hint apocalyptically about some amazine future fate for either/both Wally and Impulse.

To add to the surmise one may build from seeds Waid plants in stories, consider that Jay Garrick and Impulse did not appear in Kingdom Come and a comment Waid made in an interview he gave to Fanzing. When an interviewer asked Waid if he planned a special event to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of Wally West's first appearance as "Kid Flash" in 1960, Waid suggested that one might not count on celebrating the event.

We can suspect, from all these pieces, that Waid may intend to join Wally with the speed force sometime in 2000. If this happens, this ongoing tale of vanishing Flashes may indeed win a special place here at the Recycling Bin, beginning to form a DC intramural rival to the comics-wide recycled concept of Evil Future Selves.

Of course, those who don't want to see Wally turn transluscent, red, and nude, as Alex Ross depicted him in Kingdom Come might regret this development; Waid almost certainly meant to hint this with his comments, whether the editors at DC allow (or compel) him or another writer to go through with the tale. The story itself seems pretty innocuous out of context, however; DC has heroes like heads of the hydra, and spawns more than two for each one it severs.

We should, however, regret the way this story tends to stick in the groove. Before the tone arm clicks out "...and the Flash died, absorbed in the speed force..." one more time, perhaps someone should turn the record over.