Absolute Flash

Absolute Flash
Textless cover of Absolute Flash #1, art by Nick Robles.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics (Absolute Universe)
Schedule	Monthly
Format	Ongoing
Genre	Superhero
Publication date	March 19, 2025 – present
No. of issues	9
Main character	The Flash
Creative team
Written by	Jeff Lemire
Artist	Nick Robles
Letterer	Tom Napolitano
Colorist	Adriano Lucas
Editor	Andrew Marino

"Of Two Worlds" (#1-3)

Two day ago, 15-year-old Wally West walks back home late to the army base Fort Fox, where he and his father, Colonel Rudy West, live. Arriving, he meets with Barry Allen, a friend and scientist working at Fort Fox. Barry shows Wally his lab and invites him to work part time on the cutting edge "Project Olympus" government research experiment, but Rudy storms in, chastises Wally for being late, and tells Barry not to talk to his son. The next day at their home, Rudy attempt to talk things out with Wally, but it quickly devolves into an argument that ends with Wally storming out. Outside, Wally sees something strange is happening inside Barry's lab. He enters, discovering a mutated green monkey that scares him. Running deeper inside the building, he finds Barry, dressing in a red containment suit, sitting inside a large machine with bizarre energy all around. Barry yells at Wally to run, but it's too late: Wally is consumed by the energy. Rudy comes in and angerly starts beating Barry, demanding to know what he did to his son, only to realize that Wally is behind him, glowing red with the exotic energy. Rudy and Barry try to calm him, but the frightened Wally freaks out and runs, unknowingly having connected with Barry with the energy and dragging him along as he travels at superhuman speeds, accidently killing him.

In the present day, Wally is being afflicted by his new powers. As he reflects on the events that have occurred, he sees that he is being hunted down and runs into the cave where he left Barry's corpse. His pursuers are the Rogues, a special-ops team with experimental equipment, signed up with Project Olympus, comprising of Captain Leonard Snart, Digger Harkness, Lisa Snart, and Jesse James. Leonard tells his team bring the boy in alive. As Wally griefs over accidently killing Barry, he is discovered by Harkness's flying boomerangs, forcing him out for an ambush. Wally is captured by Jesse's force field tech, but quickly manages to escape and outrun Lisa's flying gear. As he runs, his powers cause him to uncontrollably travel across his timeline and see visions his past, present, and two possible futures: one where he's a hero and another where he's become a horrifying energy monster. Leonard, fed up with Wally, orders the Rogues to release Grodd, revealed to be the small green monkey Wally saw in the lab. Grodd follows Wally into a barn, where he psychically connects with the boy, revealing that they both lost their moms, Wally's died due to cancer and Grodd's was killed was he was taken to be experimented on by Project Olympus. Now psychically bonded, Grodd declares "Wally Grodd same" and helps Wally overcome his fear and clears his mind. When the Rogues blow up the barn they are in, Grodd retaliates with a psychic attack against the Rogues. Wally fights back against Harkness, and he and Grodd run off together. Wally returns to the cave to bury Barry and takes his containment suit.

Flash-forward a year later, in the destroyed Project Olympus facility, a mysterious hooded man emerges from a mirror, and begins observing various past future events as he declare it's "time to make this world fall".

"The Trials of the Flash" (#4-7)

"Iron Heights"

Wally has a nightmare of his mother's grave and Barry's corpse rising out it before waking up in a park. With Grodd hiding in his backpack, Wally enters Iron Heights, a district of Central City. While waiting in a line for food, he is approached by Ralph Dibney, who offers Wally a stay at a youth mission he and his wife runs. There, Wally meets with Linda Park, who asks him what he's running from. Meanwhile, the Rogues observe an anomaly left by Wally before it implodes. Rudy West chews the team out for letting Wally and Grodd escape before heading back to Fort Fox to figure out what Allen doing in his lab. While investigating the wreckage of the experiment, Rudy is approached by the lead scientist of Project Olympus, Dr. Elenore Thawne, who is indirect in telling him about the truth of Barry was doing. She tells him that Wally is the greatest success to come out the Project, which angers Rudy. She then reveals that they know where he is as they are tracking Grodd, before showing him that other test subjects escaped the night Wally got his powers. Back at the mission, before heading to bed, Wally realizes that Grodd has left his backpack and is running away. Wally runs after Grodd into the sewers, where Grodd says they have to stop "hot". The two then come face to face with the escaped Project Heat Wave, a humanoid creature made of lava.

Wally tries to reach out to it, but his powers hurt the creature, who angerly attacks him. Heat Wave emerges from the sewers, threatening Ralph, Linda, and others in the mission. Thawne informs the Rogues that they have a lock on Wally and that Grodd has led him to Mick Rory, surprising Leonard who was told he didn't survive the experiments. He angerly asks what else she has lied to them about, but Thawne says that she is prepared to explain more of Project Olympus's true goals later. Grodd conforms a frightening Wally and tells him that the people need them both to help. Wally puts on the suit and confronts Heat Wave. Grodd tells Wally to help the creature by taking the heat from him. Wally does so and suddenly has a vision of standing on a asteroid as a giant dark hand reaches out for him. Wally is then awaked by Ralph, and sees that Mick Rory has returned to his human form. Ralph and Linda ask Wally to let them help him, but he sees a helicopter and runs away. At Fort Fox, Thawne tells the Rogues to deploy immediately, only to realize that Rudy isn't there. Rudy uses Barry's badge to enter a locked room, where he discovers a strange craft and bodies of aliens inside tanks.

The Rogues' backstory is revealed: Six months prior, Harkness is thrown out of a bar in Oklahoma for flirting with someone's sister. He is then approached by his old colonel, Rudy West, who offers Harkness a chance to wipe his state clean and start over. Harkness accepts for the chance to blow stuff up. Next, Rudy travels to Kansas, where Leonard is taking care of Lisa who lost both of her legs. Rudy talks with Leonard about the situation they're in and he gives them an offer to get both of them the help they need. Later, as Rudy is trying to call Wally, he is informed by Leonard that Jesse is there, having put trackers on everyone to prepare for the day Rudy comes for them. Jesse believes that Rudy has come to imprison them, being four court-martialed, disgraced soldiers that went rogue on a mission in Syria and took bribes from a foreign government. Rudy assures them that he has a mission for them, one so dangerous that no one in their mind would volunteer for. Rudy takes the group to Fort Fox and there they are introduced to Allen and Thawne, who show them the advanced technology Project Olympus is working on. Thawne reveals that their plans for the Rogues isn't to give them weapons, but rather to make them into weapons. When Jesse asked where the tech came from, Allen says it is classified. A flashback to 1940 in the Mojave Desert is shown, where two men named "Thawne" and "Garrick'' are working on an experiment similar to what Barry Allen was working on in the present. Garrick tries to shut the machine down, but Thawne throws him into the energy field to stop him, which destroys Garrick's body. Barry and Elenore tell the Rogues that their choice is either to sign the waivers or go to prison for treason for the rest of their lives. The team accepts. In the present day, Rudy, after discovering the aliens in Fort Fox, calls Wally and tells him that he loves him. Wally answers but Rudy is then bound and gagged by Elenore's soldiers.

Premise

Plot

"Of Two Worlds" (#1-3)

"The Trials of the Flash" (#4-7)

"Iron Heights"

Publication history

References

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