DC Comics
Grant Morrison and Mark Millar, writers
Paul Ryan and John Nyberg, artists
I am NOT a Flash aficionado; let's be clear on that right from the start. I like Barry (Allen) and Wally (West) and Jay (Garrick), but I've just never followed any of their solo adventures on a regular basis. Mostly I've read of their heroics in conjunction with the various teams they belong to — the Justice Society, the Titans, the Justice League. But I know the basics.
Jay was granted his speed in the golden-age of comics by hard-water fumes, then Barry, and later Wally, were each doused in a combination of chemicals charged by a bolt of lightning in the silver age. Barry sacrificed himself to save a small number of alternate earths during Crisis On Infinite Earths, prompting Wally to end his career as Kid Flash, and take on the mantle of the Flash in his uncle's memory.
At first, if memory serves, Wally actually wore Barry's old costume as the Flash, but later he adopted his own with a few design tweaks here and there. Still later, Wally was able to generate a costume out of pure Speed Force, the energy the various speedsters tap into for their special abilities. This was around the time he started wearing a more shiny, almost metallic looking version of his costume with opaque white eye coverings — or so I thought.
Apparently, the shiny version of the costume pre-dates the Speed Force generated version by a few years. I know this now because I have just finished reading "Emergency Stop," the three part story that introduces the Speed Force costume.
Fan-favorite writers Mark Waid and Brian Augustyn had a very successful run on The Flash just prior to these issues, taking a break after issue No. 129 to focus on other projects. Following them was the writing team of Grant Morrison and Mark Millar, who started their short run with a bang, creating an imaginative, gripping and fun story that pushed Wally's Flash in new directions. In the course of a story I highly recommend, they first kill and then cripple Wally, leading to his creation of the Speed Force costume as seen above.
They quickly follow that three-parter with a done-in-one tale pitting the Flash against one of the Rogues, the Mirror Master. During their battles, Mirror Master splits Flash into seven rainbow-colored aspects of himself with a prism. Once Wally figures out how to reintegrate his seven personalities, the recombined Speed Force costume takes on the more familiar red and gold color scheme.
Now I've just spoiled all of the details about how the Flash really got his Speed Force costume, but there is much, much more going on in both of these two story arcs than just the wardrobe drama. I heartily recommend these books for anyone who is a fan of the Flash, be it one of the various comics versions of the character or even the currently popular and quite fun Flash television series. The threats feel very real for our hero in these tales and the challenges he faces daunting, but Morrison and Millar remember that key ingredient to any great comic story — fun. These are enjoyable reads!
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Quick peak behind the curtain: Still very busy so forgive me if this post maybe isn't quite as polished as usual. I wanted to get something posted after missing a couple weeks, but I'm writing this just a few hours before it goes up if I am to make this week's deadline. Hopefully I'll be back with more next week!
