Absolute Flash’s Powers Could Have Meaning For a Beloved DC Hero

Absolute Flash #2 continues where the stellar first issue of Absolute Flash left off, with Wally trying to figure out his powers as Captain Cold, Golden Glider, and the Trickster hunt him down. Absolute Flash is very different from mainline Flash, and DC has promised that his powers aren’t based on the Speed Force. Readers have seen his powers throughout the first two issues, but Absolute Flash #2 gives more clues on exactly what Wally’s new powers are. While Wally has shown some indications of having super speed, his powers also seem to have other facets as well, one of which might mean that not everything we’ve seen has actually happened, including the death of a beloved DC character — Barry Allen.

Absolute Flash #1 ended with the burnt corpse of Barry Allen, which readers were led to believe where a consequence of Wally’s new powers. However, Absolute Flash #2 shows more of the moments Wally gained his powers, and throughout the issue readers get to see Wally’s powers in new ways. While there’s a still a mystery about the whole situation, the issue gives us multiple clues, including its title — “The Flash of Two Worlds”. This is a classic Flash title, and that, combined with what we’ve seen of Wally’s powers, gives us clues that maybe Barry’s death isn’t all we thought it was.

Wally’s Powers Have an Aspect of Time Travel To Them

So, we’ll start with what we know about Wally’s powers. He can run fast, obviously, but he also seems to be unstuck in time. Absolute Flash #1 and #2 both use flashbacks to tell the earlier parts of the story, but it seems like Wally is actually going back to his memories, like he’s moving through time. There’s also the energy outbursts from his body, which can do damage to everything around him. We learn that whatever was done to Wally to give him powers made him into some kind of energy being. We see him after he gains powers, becoming a being made of red lightning. It takes time for him to regain his human form in the flashback, and the last thing we see from this flashback is his lightning powers going haywire again, hitting Barry, and knocking him back. However, as the issue goes on we get a better idea about the temporal aspects of Wally’s new powers.

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So, towards the end of the issue, Wally realizes that he can see two different worlds. One is a hopeful world where he’s the Flash and everyone loves him. The other is a world of darkness, where he’s just an energy being pulling himself back together. As mentioned above, this issue is titled “The Flash of Two Worlds”. This came from The Flash #121, the first time that readers learned that DC’s Golden Age heroes live on Earth-Two. Apparently, the Flash can see two different futures, which means that it’s possible that he also sees two different pasts, one from the good past and another from a darker past. Now, obviously, this could be multiversal, but I don’t think that’s possible. DC All-In showed that the Absolute Earth isn’t a part of the main multiverse, so Wally’s powers being multiversal don’t really make sense, beyond something like alternate realities based on the events of Absolute Earth. Wally’s powers being somehow related to time makes much more sense, and that means that there’s a good chance that Barry might not actually be dead. Wally only just realized he was seeing two different timelines, so maybe the flashback memories we saw are from one of the two timelines, and Barry is actually still alive at the military base with Wally’s father.

Wally’s Powers Open Up a Whole Cornucopia of Story Opportunities

The Flash’s powers have always allowed him some kind of power over time. It looks like Absolute Flash is going in that direction, with Wally’s new powers giving him the ability to see more than one future. This means that everything we’ve seen in flashbacks could have been one of the two timelines that Wally could see. However, there’s something even more interesting about Wally’s powers and it reaches back to the mainline DC Universe and one of Wally’s greatest foes — Hunter Zolomon, the villain known as Zoom.

Zoom wasn’t technically a speedster, instead having power over time, allowing him to speed it up or slow it down. This made it seem like he was actually running fast, but that wasn’t the case. On top of that, the energy that he had was also red, which is a hallmark of Absolute Flash. Wally’s powers could be entirely time based, and that could mean that Barry Allen is actually still alive. There’s also the chance his powers are based on Reverse Flash’s Negative Speed Force, which is more related to time and has destructive red lightning. This would make sense because Darkseid would have chosen to make the Negative Speed Force a part of his Earth. This whole situation could lead to some amazing stories, as Absolute Flash’s time based powers are similar but quite different to the Speed Force energies of the mainline Earth.

Absolute Flash #2 is on sale now.