DC Relaunch: This Is Not Good-Bye

On the occasion of the end of the pre-Flashpoint DC Universe, upon the publication of Flashpoint #5 and Justice League #1.

Wally West will be back.*

Believe it or not, he'll be back. In five years, maybe, or ten, or twenty, when Wally's finally back, come see me. We'll talk about it.

They all come back. Anything can happen.

Barry Allen came back. Kara Zor-El came back. Jason Todd. Booster Gold got a series again, written and drawn for a time by Dan Jurgens. Swamp Thing is back from limbo. Animal Man. Resurrection Man, though maybe the name should've tipped us off.

I remember wondering if Ultra Boy would ever find out that Phantom Girl hadn't died, but was living in the twentieth century as Phase. Ultimately they met, but Phase, it turned out, was really Phantom Girl's cousin. The couple was finally reunited just before Zero Hour; now that whole storyline's no longer in continuity.

Hal Jordan came back. Oliver Queen. Hank Hall. Dawn Granger. Connor Kent.

One of the great (in my opinion) unresolved storylines of the pre-Death of Superman era was that head of Newstime Colin Thornton was really the demon Satanus. When the creative teams changed, I figured Superman would never find out about that; he finally did, in a story by Gail Simone just before Infinite Crisis, over ten years after the original revelation. Simone hadn't even started writing for DC when the original story came out, but she finished it. Anything can happen.

Ronnie Raymond. Rex Tyler. Max Mercury. The Peter David-era Linda Danvers showed up in a miniseries for a few seconds, a couple of years back. Bart Allen. Will Payton, a bit, though he was actually Prince Gavyn.

John Stewart left the Darkstars and went back to being a Green Lantern. Boddika's back -- Arisia, too. Some people wouldn't believe Guy Gardner was once a Vuldarian. He's going to appear in a new Justice League International title, alongside Fire, Ice, Booster Gold, and a Rocket Red again, and that's good news. A lot of what's to come is good news.

Jericho. The Superboy of Earth-Prime. Kal-L. The Kingdom Come Superman. Stephanie Brown. I read a comic the other day where General Glory cameoed. Blue Devil headlined Shadowpact for a while.

When Barry Allen died during Crisis on Infinite Earths, Geoff Johns was a teenager; over twenty years later, he helped write Barry's resurrection. Who could have guessed, at the time?

JLA/Avengers, rumored for so long, is even a little dated now. The New Teen Titans: Games is scheduled to arrive next month.

Jack Knight will be back; maybe James Robinson will write it, or someone else, maybe someone we've never heard of. Ambush Bug will be back, whether by Keith Giffen or another writer. Just a few years ago, DC published a new Captain Carrot miniseries(!). Wally West will be back. Someone will write it -- maybe even you.

When John Byrne recreated Superman after Crisis on Infinite Earths, the Justice Society was in limbo; they came back. A Superman origin without the Justice Society in existence seems so foreign, and yet it worked before. That Byrne origin was my favorite, but it's long since been replaced -- by Jeph Loeb, in part; by Mark Waid, for a time; and by Geoff Johns, lately, though it's about to be replaced again.

Do now what we we did then -- remember the classic Justice League/Justice Society team-ups. Tell new readers about them. Buy the New Teen Titans and the Flash (Wally West) Omnibuses. Put them on your top ten lists and treat them as vaunted aspects of DC Comics history. Barry Allen came back -- in Return of Barry Allen, in "Chain Lightning," in Rogue War, in Infinite Crisis, in Final Crisis -- because it excited the fans, and it because it sold books. If you want it, and you wait for it, and you keep the faith, Wally West will be back.

Krypto. Holly Robinson. Tora Olafsdotter.

Wally will be back. They all come back. Anything can happen.

* Written prior to reading Flashpoint #5, so disregard if Wally secretly takes on Barry's identity or something equally unforeseen happens.