Hot on the heels of Absolute Flash #1, which sold over 180,000 copies, making it the best-selling comic book featuring The Flash since 1987, writer Jeff Lemire and artist Nick Robles continue their reinvention of the Scarlet Speedster. DC Comics’ critically acclaimed Absolute Universe also includes notable reimaginings of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and Martian Manhunter, with more series and an eventual crossover with the regular DC Universe on the horizon.
Absolute Flash #2 features The Flash’s classic Rogues gallery on the cover, at least most of the main ones, such as Captain Cold, Golden Glider, Captain Boomerang, and The Trickster, who were sent by Rudy West and Project Olympus to retrieve Rudy’s son Wally West after he was exposed to a top-secret experiment that endowed him with super-speed, and the ability to jump around time, seemingly at random. Wally is only starting to figure out what has happened to him.
Hunted And Trapped By The Rogues
Project Olympus Wants To Capture Wally West
The experiment which gifted Wally with his powers also resulted in the death of his mentor and friend, Barry Allen, who was a scientist at Project Olympus. Wally discovers Barry’s skeletal remains in the laboratory wreckage after the experiment resulted in a massive explosion, but he has no time to mourn.
The Rogues close in, using the Boomerang drone to map the caves and find Wally. Captain Cold blocks the exits in an attempt to flush Wally out of the cavern.
Although Wally’s super speed allows him to dodge a trap that was set by the Golden Glider, a finely timed blast from Captain Cold freezes Wally’s feet in place. The Rogues intend to bring Wally back to Fort Fox, but Wally erupts in a blast of lightning, no longer able to stay still and control himself. Wally’s super-speed anxiety is displayed in overlapping panels, which effectively creates the sense of a panic attack, just like what Wally himself is enduring at the present moment.
But the present doesn’t last as Wally is thrust into the past. He sees Barry Allen again, alive and well. Wally reaches out in an attempt to make contact, but he is unable to stay tethered to their time. Rudy West barges into Barry’s lab, angry that he involved Wally in his work, when Wally suddenly reappears. He looks like a ghost floating in the air and surrounded by red electricity. When they ask him to focus, Wally yells to stay away and disappears back to the present with the Rogues.
Wally West Is Unstuck In Time
Jump Around Between The Past, Present And Future
Once Wally is oriented again, he finds himself at the mercy of the Rogues. Jesse, aka The Trickster, traps Wally in one of his yo-yo ball spheres. The character has been reinvented to come across as much more of a creep, even by his fellow Rogues, somewhat in-line with the depiction of Superman’s villain The Toyman. The Trickster shares that when they return to Fort Fox, they will pick Wally apart to see what makes him tick, just like they did with Mick Rory and «the Raymond kid.»
These are references to another of The Flash’s villains, Heatwave, and half of the superhero Firestorm, respectively.
However, Wally breaks free of his entrapment and flees on foot into the desert. Golden Glider chases after him, and while she is confident of her own speed, Wally easily outruns her, and his mind breaks out of the present moment once again. Wally is now most certainly «unstuck in time,» to borrow a term from Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse-Five. His consciousness jumps between the present, past and future, so he experiences events in a non-linear fashion.
Even though Wally is clearly there in the desert, outrunning the Rogues, he is also in the past while his mom is still alive, and in Barry’s lab before the lab explosion, and even in the future where he sees two paths forward for himself: one as a hero, wearing the same jumpsuit as Barry Allen during his experiment, and another where Wally is barely human anymore, simply a dark entity made of lightning, much more of a monster, which must be a new take on the Dark Flash, usually a version of Wally West from a dystopian future. The Flash feature film from 2023 also put its own spin on the concept.
But as the Rogues grow desperate, they agree to unleash Grodd to get results. Gorilla Grodd is typically one of The Flash’s most powerful enemies, a telepathic intelligent ape from the technologically advanced Gorilla City, who led various iterations of the Legion of Doom over the years. However, Grodd is no longer an ape, but a little blue and green monkey. His brain is slightly exposed, so it’s likely that he retains similar powers from experiments that occurred at Project Olympus.
Absolute Flash #2 leaves plenty of room to speculate about the future. Clearly, some time must pass before Barry succumbs to his ultimate fate. Mick Rory may be revealed to be the fire monster teased at the end of the first issue, but that could just as easily be Firestorm, who was featured in backup stories within The Flash comic book in the early 1980s. The existence of Grodd begs the question of whether or not Gorilla City still exists since Grodd is no longer a gorilla. But the biggest question of all is whether Wally will become the hero we know and love or if he is doomed to be a monster.
One thing that is for certain is that Jeff Lemire and Nick Robles crafted an excellent book for a fan-favorite superhero. Lemire is clearly only getting started with his return to DC Comics, as he also writes the ongoing JSA series and soon, a sequel to the DC Black Label series Robin & Batman with artist Dustin Nguyen. Lemire also has several creator-owned books on the shelves: Minor Arcana, where he is writer and artist, the ever-evolving superhero universe of Black Hammer, and the puzzle-box horror series Phantom Road. No matter what the future holds, the journey will be worth it with such capable storytellers at the helm of Absolute Flash. Let’s hope they take their time rather than race to the finish line.
