Sure, The Flash Season 5 episode 1 introduces Nora, Iris and Barry's daughter from the future. But there's a much larger plotline to think about, and it involves that mysterious newspaper headline from Season 1: "Flash Vanishes, Missing in Crisis." Spoiler for The Flash Season 5 ahead! Last chance...
So, we always just assumed (hoped?) The Flash returned from said "crisis." Well, it turns out he didn't. Nora shows Barry a newspaper headline from 2049: "Flash Still Missing 25 Years Later." This means Nora has lived almost her entire life without her father. That's the reason she travels back in time to spend time with him at the end of last season. To fully understand the newspaper headline from 2049, it's important to revisit the original "Crisis in 2024" newspaper headline.
Original "Crisis of 2024" newspaper, explained
The "Flash vanishes, missing in crisis" headline existed all the way back in the pilot episode of The Flash Season 1. The Central City Citizen article is written by Iris West-Allen on April 25, 2024. Hidden in Eobard Thawne's time vault in STAR Labs, it described a fight between Flash and Reverse-Flash, and concluded with them both vanishing from time. The disappearance actually made sense back then; that was the version of Barry who went back to the year 2000 to try and stop Reverse-Flash from murdering his mother. But there's been a lot of time-travel since then and it's fairly unclear what "crisis" the paper is referring to now.
With Nora staying in the current timeline to hang out with team Flash, it's possible she could use that projection device (the one she used to show Barry the future newspaper) to give audiences a glimpse of that future fight from 2024. Showrunner Todd Helbing also confirmed Iris will focus on transforming her personal blog into the Central City Citizen, another huge hint that this mysterious "Crisis" will be explored directly this season (finally). Here's the full text of the article:
After an extreme street battle with the Reverse-Flash, our city's very own Scarlet Speedster disappeared in an explosion of light. The cause of the fight is currently unknown. According to witnesses, The Flash, with help from Starling City's Green Arrow, The Atom, and Hawkgirl, began fighting the Reverse-Flash around midnight last night. The sky took on a deep crimson color as the ensuing battle created the most destruction this city has seen since The Flash first arrived in Central City.
Several trucks were caught in the fray, spilling their contents into the street. Power outages swept nearly twenty city block, between 16th Street and Adams Avenue. Five of those blocks still remain without power. All of the buildings in the area were evacuated by the CCPD, with help from The Atom.
According to reports, as The Flash and Reverse-Flash battled with each other between two overturned tanker trucks, the lightning emanating from the speedsters threatened to ignite spilled oil leaking from one of the trucks.
The smoke from the truck's engine made it difficult to see, but it appeared at one point they were having a very heated conversation before continuing the fight. Then, suddenly, The Flash sped after Reverse-Flash and the two vanished leaving The Atom, Green Arrow and Hawkgirl behind.
An eyewitness who watched the battle from her apartment building before being evacuated said, "It was hard to see, but The Flash and Reverse-Flash were zipping up and down M-- Avenue and then there was a whole bunch of lightning, and then nothing. It was weird."
Other witnesses describe a similar phenomenon: a blinding light followed by darkness as the sky returned to black. And as the --- reverted, it took only a moment to realize The Flash and the Reverse-Flash were gone without a trace.
Central City Police Chief, Joe West gave a press conference in the wee hours of the morning stating, "We don't have many details now. What we do know tonight is Central City's greatest protector vanished in a flash. I only hope he returns just as quickly." A sentiment shared by all who call this great city home.
What is the "Crisis" in the comics?
It's impossible to tell where the show is going with the "crisis" storyline four seasons later, but the comics do have a few interesting clues. The "red skies" and the "Crisis" is a reference to 1985's Crisis on Infinite Earths by Marv Wolfman. In that story, The Flash sacrifices himself to save the DC Universe from the Anti-Monitor. He remains dead for over two decades before returning. This all matches the show. The newspaper from 2049 says 25 years missing… that's exactly like the comics.
Long story short, Crisis on Infinite Earths results in the destruction of many parallel universes, and the recreation of a single positive matter universe. Basically, DC had too many worlds and needed to reorganize everything into one continuity. So what happened? Barry dies stopping a bad guy named Anti-Monitor (an immortal cosmic entity of the DC universe). Since The Flash is pretty much the only hero who could traverse time and universes, Anti-Monitor, who wanted to destroy Earth, captured Barry Allen. But Barry persisted, stopping Anti-Monitor's plan by creating a speed vortex to stop his anti-matter cannon. Barry dies in the process. Legend has it that during his death, he travels back through time and becomes the very lighting bolt that gave him his powers (1988's Secret Origins Annual #2), and his soul rests inside the Speed Force.
Two decades later, Barry returns in Grant Morrison's Final Crisis (2008). The implication of Crisis on Infinite Earths was that Barry "cheated" death, not that he actually died. Remember, there is no concept of time in the speed force. So it's sort of impossible for The Flash to "die" outright once he's in there… more like he's stuck an infinite loop. Like when Barry got stuck in the speed force in The Flash Season 4, he said he experienced his life infinite times over and over again. Barry came back to life in Final Crisis because it was simply when the world most needed him most, at least that was the explanation (to be fair, Darkseid and the Anti-life equation is a pretty good reason to show up). Geoff Johns' The Flash: Rebirth (2009) traces Barry Allen's return to the DC Universe after his resurrection in Final Crisis.
Crisis on Infinite Earths Implications
DC eventually introduced Elseworlds, an entirely separate imprint that takes place outside of continuity. Interestingly enough, that's the title of this year's Arrowverse crossover between The Flash, Arrow, and Supergirl. LaMonica Garrett (Designated Survivor) will play the aforementioned Monitor. He's made up of the universe's positive matter, therefore a wise, expert on the multiverse and inherently an adversary of Anti-Monitor, who again, attempted to destroy the balance of the multiverse in the famous Crisis on Infinite Earths storyline.
The Flash Season 5 episode 8 is the 100th episode of the series, which means something big is probably going to happen. This "Crisis" storyline could play out faster than anticipated. Barry hasn't really talked about how he and team Flash are going to prevent this event from happening. Now that you have some knowledge from the comics, any theories? Sound off in the comments.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Autumn Noel Kelly started as a staff writer for Newsweek in 2015. She covers anything in the comic book world—TV ... Read more
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