The Flash In Five Seasons, Season 1: Terminal Velocity

Carlos Williams requested a Flash comics chronology. Personally, I'm not a big fan of reading a comic about someone who runs fast. The character is much better suited for TV, and the CW is doing an incredible job with the current Flash TV show, and it's spin-off, "Legends Of Tomorrow". "Arrow" sucks, though.

If I were to make a five season chronology for The Flash, I would skip out on all the silver-age Barry Allen stories. So, unlike some of the previous chronologies, you're not going to get a ton of origin stories and first appearances of villains. The Flash will follow Wally West (who is not like the Wally West in the TV show...instead of being Iris's brother, he is her nephew) and the villains he inherited from the previous Flash. 

Fuck you uncle Barry!
art by Greg Larocque


Season 1: Terminal Velocity
(Showrunner: Mark Waid)

Serial 1: The Flash By Mark Waid Book One
written by Mark Waid, art by Greg Larocque, Jim Aparo, and Pop Mhan

Wally West is Barry Allen's favorite nephew. But Barry has always been careless with chemicals and lightning, so he accidentally, and against astronomical odds,  recreates the situation that turned him into The Flash, thus turning Wally into Kid Flash. Idiot. But it's not too long before Wally has to go from Kid Flash to regular old Flash when Uncle Barry disappears saving the universe.

Kid Crisis. 2 episodes.


Serial 2: The Flash By Mark Waid Book Two
written by Mark Waid, art by Greg Larocque and Sal Velluto

It seems like just one serial ago when Wally West was Kid Flash and Barry Allen rescued the universe, meaning he was gone forever. Oh, wait. It was. Then how is Barry back already? And why is he such a dick? Original Recipe Flash, Jay Garrick, and some Green Lanterns step in to try and solve the mystery.

The Premature Return Of Barry Allen . 2 episodes


Serial 3: Impulse Reckless Youth, The Flash Terminal Velocity
written by Mark Waid, art by many

One of the things that drives me crazy about Flash books is that there are So Many Characters whose power is that they can run fast. And this series adds even more! Bart Allen, Barry's grandson from the future (comics, sigh), finds himself in the present, and it's up to Wally West, Jay Garrick , Johnny and Jesse Quick, and Max Mercury (alliteration, ugh) to train him, lest he become any more of a bratty nuisance.

Impulse Control. 3 episodes


Episode 8: The Flash Dead Heat
(written by Mark Waid, art by Oscar Jiminez, and Humberto Ramos)

The lamest part of the Flash tv series is how terribly CGI the villain Savitar looks. It's so substandard to the other effects on the show that I have a hard time taking him seriously. Well, in this book we meet Oh So 90s Savitar, who looks like Rob Liefeld designed him but someone with talent and opposable thumbs got to draw him. Once again, all the speedsters are in this book.  And Savitar, also a speedster, has brought a new army of speedsters. So much running. So much hair.

Faster Than The Fastest Man Alive. 1 episode


Episode 9: The Flash Race Against Time
written by Mark Waid and Brian Augustyn, art by Oscar Jiminez, Anthony Castrillo, Jim Cheung, and Sergio Cariello

Another another goddamned Flash??? This one wears a blue suit and, like very other new Flash before him, his arrival changes everytthzzzzzzZZZZzzzzzzzZZZZxxxxXXZXZxzzxzx, huh? Oh, changes everything.  While this Flash is in the present, Wally West is doing some serious Ghost Of Christmas Future adventuring around the timeline on his way home from defeating Savitar.

Blue Steal. 1 episode


Serial 4: The Flash Emergency Stop
written by Grant Morrison and Mark Millar, art by Paul Ryan...not the spineless Speaker Of The House

Wally West is dead. And it's up to the eight billion speedster characters, including Wally West, himself (totally not dead) to solve his murder. In addition to yet another speedster villain, we get some time to visit with classic villains like Mirror Master and Captain Boomerang.

The Suit. 2 episodes


Serial 5: The Flash The Human Race
written by Grant Morrison and Mark Millar, art by Paul Ryan and Pop Mhan

Alien gamblers arrive on Earth and demand a champion speedster human race an alien speedster. Sure. Featuring all the speedsters, and even new speedsters! Alien speedsters! Speedsters that Wally might have encountered when he was a child! And then, The Black Flash. No, it's not a cool new character of color, it's a...speed force demon doppelganger maybe? It runs! Fast! And Wally must conquer it to avenge yet another death that may or not be permanent!

The Human Race. 3 episodes



Season 1 of The Flash is 15 episodes that don't go as fast as you might imagine a book about speed would.