DC Comics has been on a tear since 2024’s DC All-In #1. The issue not only set up stories in Justice League Unlimited, the various Justice League one-shots and miniseries of the last year, and Superman, but also DC K.O. and the Absolute family of books. Absolute Batman, Absolute Superman, and Absolute Wonder Woman are all hits, and DC expanded the line with three more books, including Absolute Flash, which introduced readers to a new version of Wally West. While he has most of the same powers as he does in the mainline universe, DC announced that he wasn’t actually using the Speed Force as the source of his power. Fans have been trying to figure out what the source of his powers was, which brings up to The Flash #26.
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The Flash #26 is a DC K.O. tie-in issue that follows Impulse and Wally as the younger speedster decides to go back in time to fight Darkseid, who has been frozen in time by the Quantum Quora. It’s co-written by Mark Waid, who is a co-creator of Impulse, and is a fantastic issue, but the most important part is that it may have given readers a clue to what is powering Absolute Wally West.
Darkseid Is the Speed Force’s End
The key to the mystery comes from two clues. The first is that Darkseid says that the Speed Force will be his, and the other is when he throws Wally and Impulse into dark versions of their past. These panels are connected with red energy, the same color of energy as the energy used by Wally West in Absolute Flash. In Absolute Flash, we’ve gotten glimpses of darker versions of the past and future, like what the two speedsters are put through, which perhaps means that the red energy is connected to this power in Absolute Flash.
Darkseid has changed himself into Omega energy, lacing himself through both the Absolute and Prime universes. Because of the nature of his power, he’s always been a part of the universe, meaning that he’s had billions of years to figure out how to replicate the Speed Force with his Omega energy. Darkseid has seemingly been able to use Omega energy to do what the Speed Force does, and this is almost certainly the power source for Absolute Wally West.
Darkseid has had all the time in creation to figure out how to use his energies to replace that of basically everything in the DC Multiverse (which is why the stakes for DC K.O. are so high — he’s become the fabric of the universe). This makes the whole situation of Absolute Flash — how Wally’s powers work and how we’ve been seeing the dark glimpses of past and future — make sense. Darkseid has become the Speed Force.
What do you think about the source of Absolute Flash’s powers? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
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