The Flash #22 Preview/discussion

[Clark_Kent]

Perhaps. Who am I to make assumptions. I'm not all up on the solicits and interviews. But the pages in the comic I read today didn't leave me with the feeling "oh Bruce is retiring".

I didn't take it that way either (I try not to read solicits or interviews so that I'm always surprised). I just took it as a guy who's pretty damn shaken, and with his fathers words still echoing in his mind he is unsure of things. I can imagine him thinking "perhaps Gotham will survive tonight without me."

[MikefromGotham]

Remember in Death and the Maidens and Identity Crisis where Bruce finally came to terms with the fact that even if his parents didn't want him to be Batman, he still would be? Those were the days.

Didn't Bruce just come to realize he is Batman for himself, that it's what he wants to be doing? Wasn't just during the Bane fight that Bruce was seeing his mother and having a long conversation with her about his motivation, right?

Rebirth and DClock are both seemingly about emotional and personal feelings/relationships that give the DCU heroes their, for lack of a better word, strength. Manhattan removing ten years of relationships, eroding Bruce's rock solid rationale for his mission weakens all those heroes, making it possible for Manhattan to do... well I guess we find out in DClock starting in November.

The Button, being four issues of two books I'm buying made it very digestible, was a bridge from Rebirth to DClock. It served that purpose really well albeit not answering any questions at all. Each issue was well executed and enjoyable.

[JBatmanFan05]

I didn't take it that way either (I try not to read solicits or interviews so that I'm always surprised). I just took it as a guy who's pretty damn shaken, and with his fathers words still echoing in his mind he is unsure of things. I can imagine him thinking "perhaps Gotham will survive tonight without me."

Yea, I am tending to think Batman #23 means he might have just taken that one night off. Still, I think we're supposed to really think retirement is perhaps around the corner.

[SicariiDC]

Perhaps Bruce is very close to retiring, but something, some event, will yank him out of that thought. Looks like Batman #24 will tell us what this ending was really leading to.

Awesome!!! Im excited to read that issue

[Frontier]

Interesting to note that Jay seemed about his Post-Crisis age here, so that might be an indication that, even when the JSA come back, they won't be "hip and young" and still the elder statesmen of the DCU .

Jay also seemed to personally know Barry, enough to where he believed Barry could remember him like he did Wally, so either Jay (like Wally did) remembers the older timeline or that Jay was still around in the new variant Rebirth/Reborn continuity to have been able to have a relationship with Barry.

I'm guessing Joan is Jay's lightning rod, like Barry ended up being for Wally, so is she still alive?

And it seems Jay was trapped in the Speed Force, like Wally, not zapped away like the rest of the JSA by Johnny's Thunderbolt. I imagine Jay will probably be the key to bringing them back, once he's out of the Speed Force...

I'm also wondering when we'll see this and the Rebirth of the JSA followed-up on...in The Flash or in Doomsday Clock?

The next arc has Barry going into Thawne's future to battle him, so I'm guessing the Reverse-Flash we're going to see there is either Thawne revived somehow or Thawne before he ever went back in time to kill Nora.

Good arc. Big tease. I'm not a patient man but I'm going with the flow on this.

I didn't get Bruce not answering the signal as him retiring...

I think it signifies that he feels very conflicted about continuing to be Batman in light of what his father said to him.

I doubt we're going to see Bruce retire for the umpteenth time, but this is pretty deliberately Manhattan, in his own way, trying to take Batman out of the equation.

[Maxi]

I don't get how Barry could think Thawne was responsible for the lost time, Wally already said him in Rebirth it wasn't Thawne. I guess he forgot.

And why would he come to the conclusion that it was Thawne's death that triggered all of this? What sense does that make?

[Maxi]

Didn't Bruce just come to realize he is Batman for himself, that it's what he wants to be doing? Wasn't just during the Bane fight that Bruce was seeing his mother and having a long conversation with her about his motivation, right?

It seems that King's story is at odds with what Johns has planned for the characters.

[Clark_Kent]

Yea, I am tending to think Batman #23 means he might have just taken that one night off. Still, I think we're supposed to really think retirement is perhaps around the corner.

I agree that we are absolutely meant to think it.

[andersonh1]

Interesting to note that Jay seemed about his Post-Crisis age here, so that might be an indication that, even when the JSA come back, they won't be "hip and young" and still the elder statesmen of the DCU .

Jay also seemed to personally know Barry, enough to where he believed Barry could remember him like he did Wally, so either Jay (like Wally did) remembers the older timeline or that Jay was still around in the new variant Rebirth/Reborn continuity to have been able to have a relationship with Barry.

I'm guessing Joan is Jay's lightning rod, like Barry ended up being for Wally, so is she still alive?

And it seems Jay was trapped in the Speed Force, like Wally, not zapped away like the rest of the JSA by Johnny's Thunderbolt. I imagine Jay will probably be the key to bringing them back, once he's out of the Speed Force...

I'm also wondering when we'll see this and the Rebirth of the JSA followed-up on...in The Flash or in Doomsday Clock?

Jay looks like John Wesley Shipp now, I notice! At least in that one close-up panel.

I have to admit, he's the one character I'm looking forward to the most when he returns, so this three or four pages was a bit disappointing.... more of a tease than anything. The lenticular cover was great though, and I usually skip those. I did notice his age, so maybe we'll get a return to 2000s - era JSA after all, though Johnny Thunder being alive tells me that something is different now.

As for Batman, perhaps seeing his father and questioning his mission is part of Dr. Manhattan's plan to keep him off the table. Superman's back to his old self, more or less, so maybe it's Batman's turn to face a major crisis.

[David Walton]

I think it was also the conclusion that Bruce drew in the recent storyline with Bane.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

That's how I read this:

[warzon]

I think he disappeared back to EARTH 2.i'm just saying.

[Assam]

I think he disappeared back to EARTH 2.i'm just saying.

This was clearly the real Jay though, not the Earth-2 Jay. I'm fairly sure that outside of appearances in multiverse-wide events, we've seen the last of Nu52 Earth-2.

I'm fairly sure Jay is just off on his own quest to find a lightning rod now.

[thefiresky]

Is no one mad AF and/or confused about Red Robin being on the cover? Is this being talked about somewhere else?

[Buried Alien]

Any significance to the Superman logo at the end looking a little battered and dinged up?

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[SicariiDC]

I didn't take it that way either (I try not to read solicits or interviews so that I'm always surprised). I just took it as a guy who's pretty damn shaken, and with his fathers words still echoing in his mind he is unsure of things. I can imagine him thinking "perhaps Gotham will survive tonight without me."

Absolutely. He's def thinking about things his dad said. It reverberates in Batman #23 too. But with Dark Nights and all that around the corner I just don't think he's retiring. Could be wrong. I think it's gonna be on his mind a lot going forward and yeah maybe that's Manhattan's plan to have him off his square.

Idk but I'm freaking psyched for this whole shit...Metal, Doomsday Clock, Manhattan's exposed genitals!!!!