The Flash 2024 Annual: It’s All Coming Together

The Flash 2024 Annual is an oversized issue that picks up with the aftermath of the first arc and reintroduces Wallace West and Avery Ho to the series in a fun way. Despite the series’ solicitation, this is not a Barry Allen centric issue, in fact, he’s only really in it to set up Wallace and Avery’s involvement. So, for anyone dying to get back to the Barry days, this isn’t it. In fact, Wally is actually heavily featured here with this issue tying up a lot of the lingering questions. The Flash 2024 Annual breaks annual tradition by feeling like more of a core issue with some of the plot reveals. Despite this, DC chose to still go with the annual approach of a heft creative team for an oversized issue.

Part of the oddities with The Flash 2024 Annual stem from its duality as a core part of the overall arc, while also trying to do its own thing with the many artists and colorists that transition as the characters go to new settings. Comparatively, the Superman 2024 Annual that also comes out this week, features a couple of stand alone plots that hold a more unique significance to the Superman/DC landscape rather than the ongoing House of Brainiac narrative. For anyone jumping into both series this week, you are in for two very opposingly structured stories.

Jumping into the overall plot, The Flash 2024 Annual sees Wally start to succumb to his mind’s more negative thoughts as he tumbles through realities looking for answers. The issue bounces that narrative with the adventure of Wallace and Avery as they seek to figure out what is going on with Wally. Ultimately, both these storylines interweave in a fun way that makes the artistic changes fun and not as jarring as they could be. The issue also sprinkles in some of the other plot elements of the main book, like Amanda Waller’s investigation leading her to Linda, as well as the mysterious group that seems to be trapping speedsters. This oversized issue touches on just about everything going on in the main series.

A part of this issue that general audiences are going to love is how thoughtful it is in its explanation of the events that are going on. A lot of the first arc of the main series was seemingly random events, chaotically leading to the reveal that Thawn is somehow back and working with some of Flash’s villains to systematically destroy the hero. This issue further explains that element and gives clarity to some of the more obscure cosmic happenings. This new creative direction is definitely a departure from the previous run, so it is nice to have an issue that genuinely seems like the creative team wants to reign in fans who may have fallen off.