DC’s The Flash’s New Powers Bring New Triumphs and Challenges

The Flash has been an unconventional look at the powers of the Scarlet Speedster and how they affect the West family. Absolute Power brought even more change to the Flash, as that book ended with superpowers being shuffled around. The Flash has had a huge status quo change because of this event – there’s now two of him. This led him to take his family on vacation while his other self helped out with Justice League stuff. The West family find themselves in the magical realm of Skartaris for some dinosaur watching, but that ends up going pear-shaped as well, as the events in Skartaris overlap with rage outbreaks around the world.

The Flash #17, by Simon Spurrier and Vasco Georgiev, sees the two Wallys try and deal with this new situation, one in Skartaris and one in the outside world. His new powers allow him to do some things that he never could before, which comes in handy in Skartaris when the hand behind the recent troubles is revealed, but also presents challenges to him that he never expected.

The Flash Is Doing Things With Speed He Never Could Before

The Flash #17 jumps back and forth between the two Wallys. Each Flash is dealing with a related problem, as Irey West, escaped from Skartaris to ask for help, helps the Justice League chart the rage outbreaks that have been happening in the outside world. Mapping them all together reveals an Atlantean symbol, which points to an area in the open ocean. Mister Terrific, Irey, the Flash, and Black Canary make their way there and find a magical tower, as the other Flash’s new powers reveal something terrifying about Warlord, an ally of the Justice League who lives in Skartaris.

Jai West’s powers have also been changing and he quickly notices that something isn’t right about Warlord. Every time he tries to talk to his father about it, Wally cuts him off, continuing to talk with Warlord about the situation in Skartaris and the outside world. However, Wally soon is able to secretly communicate with his son, shocking the boy. Wally reveals that he can use sound vibrations to communicate secretly. That’s only one of the changes to Wally’s powers, though.

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Wally’s senses have changed just like Jai’s have and he can see the dark energy emanating from Warlord. These two new abilities are completely new to the Flash. Wally was always able to see Speed Force energy, but being able to notice other types of energy is something new. It’ll be interesting to see if this power to see different types of energy will lead to him being able to control new types of energy. His new communication ability is also pretty cool, but it remains to be seen if he can use it to communicate with people who can’t use the Speed Force.

The Flash tells his son to escape and get to Irey, then confronts Warlord about what he’s been sensing. Warlord reveals his true identity – the insanely powerful villain known as Eclispo. At this point, the Flash manifests a weapon of pure energy, which is another power that he’s never shown in the comics before. However, it is familiar to fans of CW’s The Flash, where Barry Allen gained the power to shape Speed Force energy into constructs. The weapon isn’t needed, as Eclipso reveals that he doesn’t want to fight, instead showing Wally the powerful Atlantean matter transference technology he’s been using to change Skartaris. Wally is able to use the tech to teleport his wife Linda and their youngest son to his other self, and learns why Eclipso is much less evil than before – he figured out a way to separate out his anger and hatred with the Atlantean machinery, leading him to a new plot.

Linda Discovering That There’s Two Flashes Leads To an Outburst of a Different Kind

When Linda arrives in the outside world, she sees that there are two Flashes. This enrages her; not only did Wally not tell his wife that there are now two of him, but she believes that the only reason there are two of them was that he decided to split himself into two so that he didn’t have to go on vacation with the family. However, this isn’t the case at all, as Wally had no control over what’s happened to his powers.

Wally’s new powers are a big change for the Flash. The Flash has always been one of the most powerful heroes on Earth, his Speed Force control allowing him to do things that other heroes can only dream of. His new sensory powers and the ability to manifest Speed Force constructs are just icing on the cake and the fact that there are now two Flashes means that he can be anywhere his friends need. However, the fact that he never told his family about this last fact shows that saving the world has always been easier for Wally than dealing with his family.

The Flash #17 is on sale from anywhere comics are sold.