The Ages of the Flash by Joseph J. Darowski

Author:Joseph J. Darowski
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Published: 2019-05-01T16:00:00+00:00

Another appropriate title to Eco’s article, if it had not been already taken, might have been “The Myth of Sisyphus”: like the Greek hero of old Superman is bound to relive the same life unto eternity. When Superman first made the transition to the silver screen in the form of animated shorts his adventures began with the apt tagline “fighting a never-ending battle for truth and justice.”

The problem of allowing change within a fictional structure that is antithetical to the concept of growth is exactly the subject of “The Return of Barry Allen”—a six issue storyline, taking up issues #74–79 of The Flash Volume 2, by writer Mark Waid, penciler Greg La Rocque and Inker Roy Richardson. It is a work which was highly regarded at the time and now, in retrospect, is seminal. Waid and La Rocque’s story set the tone and theme for much of the content of late 1990s and early 2000s DC Comics. Without “The Return of Barry Allen” storyline there is no Starman, Hourman, Stars and STRIPE, JSA and many other revivals of long forgotten characters—revivals that put new names and faces behind old masks and mantles.

After an encounter with the recently resurrected Barry Allen, Wally West laments, “He accused me of usurping his legacy… replacing him in the hearts and minds of the public. I tried to reassure him. I told him we were a team. He spat in my face… and left me to die” (Waid, “The Once…”). West, the third man to carry the identity of “The Flash” idolizes Barry, but Barry seems to hate West, and also hates the idea that someone would try and replace him.

There’s a metafictional quality to the line, the “hearts and minds of the public.” The people West is talking about are the fictional citizens of the DC Comics Universe, but he might as well be talking about the very real readers of The Flash comics series who were still grappling with Wally West starring in the title. After all, Barry Allen carried the Flash name and costume for almost thirty years; generations of comics readers grew up on his adventures. Putting Wally West in the crimson tights, even though he served as Allen’s sidekick Kid-Flash for decades beforehand, must have felt wrong somehow. So when issue #73 hit the stands it seemed like an attempt to fix an obvious misstep. In a Christmas story dubbed “One Perfect Gift” readers got what they begged for: Barry Allen was back, entering through the front door with a warm smile and the light of the moon giving his head a near-halo effect, a resurrection worthy of Christ. Breaking from the ever present first person caption boxes, an omnipresent narrator informs the readers “Sometimes you do get what you wish for!” (Waid, “One Perfect…”).

It’s an interesting assumption that even after 73 issues with Wally West as the lead most readers still harbored a secret (or even not-so-secret) desire to see Barry Allen back in the book. Many of the

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