After Heroes In Crisis finished, there were plenty of questions that needed to be addressed, but the biggest was about the fate of Wally West. Flash Forward follows Wally as he attempts to deal with everything that has occurred in his recent history, from being pulled into existence to killing several heroes.
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The series has a few moments that inform readers how the multiverse has gotten to the state it is in now and how it can be fixed. At the center of it all is the speedster finding his elementand himselfwhile saving the universe, one Earth at a time.
When Heroes In Crisis was announced, fans were excited for a story that looked deep into the psyche of well-known and lesser-known heroes. By the end of the series, fans were split between enjoying the story and being disappointed.
While the series was supposed to be about fractures of hero life, it turned into a time-travel based crime series, as all those at Sanctuary were dead except for Harley Quinn and Booster Gold, and the later was revealed to be the murderer of Wally West. Those events shaped the character for Flash Forward.
Introduced in Sideways, Tempus is a cosmic being known as a Fuginaut who oversees the separation of the multiverse. For Flash Forward, he has taken on a much more involved role as Wally Wests overseer. Tempus routinely check in with Wally, sometimes even getting into tiffs with the speedster.
It is noted several times that, as a cosmic being, he can see everything in existence. He uses this ability to manipulate Wally into becoming a hero again, though he keeps his secrets close. Tempus also notes that he is just doing what he is told, but he never mentions who is in charge.
As the worlds of Earth-2 and Earth-8 began to share space during the events of the second issue, the difference between the heroes was clear. The heroes of Earth-2, including President Superman, saw the distress of their world and worked with Wally to stop the anti-matter.
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The heroes of Earth-8, who are themselves essentially a parody of the Avengers named the Retaliators, found themselves on a new world and immediately attack. Even after knock-off Jean Grey finds out hes on their side, they continue to attack, proving themselves not as protectors, but as scared fighters.
Throughout the end of Heroes In Crisis and the events of Flash Forward, Wally is fraught with guilt over everything that happened with all of the dead heroes. Roy Harpers death is the most crucial to Wallys story and is the only truly high-profile death of the series since Poison Ivy is reborn.
Since the series is about the deaths he caused, there are times that didnt necessarily make sense to dwell on the past, such as when fighting the vampire Barry Allen. Wallys journey in the story, up until the last issue, is plagued by a woe-is-me sentiment that doesnt fit the progression of events and is utterly dropped by the finale.
One of the most important things learned in Flash Forward is that Wally just doesnt learn from his time traveling the multiverse. His conversations with Roy and Barry Allen of Earth 43 show at least some semblance of acknowledgment that the Earths are different.
Linda Park shows up as the hero Lightspeed, and that goes right out the window. It should be noted that this is the third multiverse Linda Wally has met, and the second to try and put sense into him. It proves that Wally forgets how things work when exposed to Linda Park.
Both Doomsday Clock and Flash Forward have now taken some small claim over what happened to the Earths when the reboot was canonized. Doomsday Clock shows that Doctor Manhattan was playing around with time and space to test the idea of Superman, which ended up failing since Superman proved himself.
The Dark Matter took part in shifting Wally out of his previous world and into the newly created Earth, as well as playing a part in the breakdown of barriers between universes. Without the Dark Matter, Wally wouldnt have ended up where he did.
Wally West has always been an incredible powerhouse in DC comics. While some stories have made him out to be the least powerful Flash, others prove that he is the strongestin terms of both power and speed. Flash Forward is a story that proves the latter.
Throughout the series, Wally fights multiple Supermen, the entire Retaliators team, Vampire Batman and Flash, and a few dozen other heroes and villains. Barry and Bart are strong, but not take down all of these people in a week strong.
By the end of the series, it is revealed that the scourge of the universes, the Dark Matter, is directly tied to Wally. The final mission of Wally West in Flash Forward is to destroy the world of Dark Matter that he accidentally created with his emotional turmoil, the planet which happens to also be housing his children, Jai and Iris.
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The world created this way was leaking into other worlds and was set to eventually take over the multiverse. Since it was tied to Wally, the state of the multiverse is technically his fault.
The end of the series sees a happy moment as Jai and Iris are returned from the Dark Matter planet to Linda Park of Earth 0. The siblings have been seen on and off as memories of Wally West, but they have not made an appearance, since they no longer exist. Additionally, Linda did not know of Wally West since that canon was rewritten, as well.
Linda, Jai, and Iris now all know that not only was Wally West an important figure in their lives but that they exist as a family once again. However, Linda does have to deal with two brand-new children she didnt have before.
In the final moments of Flash Forward, Wally West sits in the Mobius Chair becoming the new owner. As he slowly loses his sense of self, the chair takes over, making him just an extension. Wallys outfit shifts from his traditional red and yellow into a blue suit, complete with a marking reflecting that of Doctor Manhattans on his forehead.
The combination of the two indicates something more, as the Mobius Chair notes. The chair is infinite knowledge, and, by this point, Wally has become the ultimate power.
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Nicholas is a freelance journalist who spends his time reading comics, playing video games and watching television, then writing about them in the hopes that he can work in those industries later in life. When he is not working with start-ups or performing improv around the country, he hosts the How Will I Die Podcast, which explores the multiverse of himself through many deaths and goofs.
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