Forget the Trinity, This Justice Leaguer Needs to Headline the Next Event

DC’s newest event, DC K.O., is in full swing, with the entire hero and villain community all competing for the chance to become the next King Omega and battle Darkseid for the fate of everything. Not only is this event a ton of fun and a love letter to the complex history of all of its combatants, but the final chapter in a three-part series. Legendary writer and scribe of DC K.O. Scott Snyder also previously headlined the Dark Knights: Metal and Dark Nights: Death Metal events. These events focused on Batman and Wonder Woman, respectively, and K.O. is firmly a Superman story.

These three characters are DC’s Trinity. Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman are three of DC’s most popular and storied characters, having defined what heroism looks like more than anyone else. However, after this event wraps up, the next event should have a different character taking the reins and leading the DC Universe to victory. That character is none other than the Flash. The Scarlet Speedster is practically the fourth most important character in DC after the Trinity, and after the stellar performances he put on in so many Crises before this, he deserves to show us how he’d handle one of his own.

The Unsung Hero in Countless Crises

While the Flash has never been the most important character in any one Crisis-level event in DC, he has more than shown that he’s one of the universe’s essential characters throughout them. First off, it was through Barry Allen and Jay Garrick that the multiverse was introduced, which made Barry a prime target for the Anti-Monitor in Crisis on Infinite Earths. The villain tried to eliminate pr capture everyone with the ability to travel between universes, and the Flash was his number one target. It was Barry who averted the multiverse’s destruction with a heroic sacrifice.

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In Infinite Crisis, the Flash and the extended Flash Family were essential in saving the day once more. When Superboy-Prime was tearing through countless heroes like an unstoppable machine, the Flash Family saved everyone by temporarily trapping him in the Speed Force. When Darkseid used the Anti-Life Equation to take over the world in Final Crisis, it was the Flashes who were immune thanks to their connection to the Speed Force, and even managed to get the killing blow on Darkseid by racing his own Omega Beams back into him. 

Dark Nights: Death Metal heavily featured Wally West, who had previously absorbed some of Doctor Manhattan’s power from sitting on the Mobius Chair. He reawakened Wonder Woman’s memories, kicking off the whole event, and kept the Darkest Knight busy while they were plotting how to gather Anti-Crisis Energy. Although the Flashes were never the main stars of any one event, almost all of DC’s biggest events would not have succeeded without them.

The Fastest Crisis Alive

It’s safe to say that the Flash has more than earned the right to headline a major event, and definitely has the chops to do it. With all that said, let’s briefly talk about what a Flash-led event could look like. Given how closely the Flash is connected to both the timestream and the multiverse, it’s likely that an event centered around one of the Flashes would stem from that. The Prime Universe is currently cut off from the rest of the multiverse, and while they cannot form, the potential for alternate timelines still exists, as shown by Wally’s ability to duplicate himself by harnessing this potential energy.

Perhaps, without a greater connection to the multiverse, the Speed Force would be unraveling and becoming unstable. The Flashes would be the natural people to tackle this threat as the experts on it. Or maybe there would be a being deeply connected to the Speed Force that was unleashed when Prime Earth was cut off from the rest of reality, planning on using this world as a launch pad to eventually get everything else. There’s also always the possibility that this threat would be entirely unconnected to the Speed Force and emerge from time or space itself, moving so quickly that only the Flash could keep up.

Whatever the threat that the Flash Family should tackle, it should tie into the hero’s long history as DC’s trailblazer. You’d be hard-pressed to find a hero who has pushed the universe farther and further than the Flash, and with him already being one of DC’s most popular heroes and their top three having all shared the spotlight, it’s about time that the Fastest Man Alive is given his due.

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