The final issue The Flash's tie-in arc to Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths reveals the origin of Night Flash, a hybrid character combining Batman and the speedster.

In a preview for The Flash #785 by writer Jeremy Adams and artist Amancay Nahuelpan, Jai and Irey West learn about how the Barry Allen of another Earth became a speedster with a Batman-like twist. Told to them by a mystery character who somehow knows a lot about Night Flash, the father of this Earth's Barry, Henry Allen, was a scientist at Allen Tech who developed a formula for rapid regenerative healing. One night, when a young Barry and his mother went to visit Henry at the lab, he was surrounded by criminals looking to steal the formula, with one bearing a resemblance to the mystery figure with black hair and a purple suit helping Jai and Irey. After the purple-suited criminal killed Barry's mother, lightning crashed through the window and struck Barry, giving him super speed while killing everyone else in the room.

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THE FLASH #785

  • Written by JEREMY ADAMS
  • Art by AMANCAY NAHUELPAN
  • Cover by TAURIN CLARKE
  • Variant cover by GEORGE KAMBADAIS
  • $3.99 US | 32 pages | Variant $4.99 US (card stock)
  • ON SALE 8/16/22
  • A Dark Crisis tie-in: the search for Barry Allen! Just when the speedsters seem to have snapped Barry out of Pariah’s clutches, Wallace seems to be falling in… and the creator of Barry's mind prisons isn’t about to let the team of speedsters just run off. And even if they could, where exactly would they run to…?
  • The Dark Crisis tie-in storyline races to its conclusion!

Night Flash is one of two alternate Barrys introduced in The Flash's "Search for Barry Allen" arc. Like Batman, this Barry Allen lost his parents at a young age, prompting him to become a superhero, though Jai and Irey are told that "he's more like a dictator handing down rules from on high we all have to follow." As for the other alternate Barry Allen, lacking super speed and instead having a muscle car, he lives on an Earth very similar to the post-apocalyptic environment seen from the Mad Max franchise.

How 'The Flash' Ties Into 'Dark Crisis'

"The Search for Barry Allen" ties into the Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths event, which explores how the legacy heroes of the DC Universe handle a crisis-level event following the Justice League's death. Barry has been trapped in a dreamworld reality since coming across Dark Crisis villain Pariah in Infinite Frontier #6 (2021), and instead of actually being dead, the rest of the League shares his fate. Each Leaguer has been trapped on a dreamworld of their own, explored in the Dark Crisis: Worlds Without a Justice League one-shots tying into the main event.

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The Flash's Wife Linda Park Is Becoming a Hero

As for The Flash title itself, the preview also hints at a heroic turn for Linda Park in the series, the mother of Jai and Irey and wife of Flash Wally West. In recent issues, Linda discovered that she somehow has super speed now, but she has yet to tell Wally as of The Flash #784. The preview shows her entering the Speed Force herself to find her children and save them from the Night Flash's Earth that they are stuck on.

The Flash #785 is written by Adams with art by Nahuelpan, colors by Jeromy Cox and letters by Rob Leigh. Main cover art for the issue is by Taurin Clarke, with a variant cover by George Kambadais. The issue goes on sale Aug. 16 from DC Comics.

Source: DC Comics