WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Dark Nights: Death Metal #2 by Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, Jonathan Glapion, FCO Plascencia and Tom Napolitano, available now.
In the DC Universe, legacy maters, and there may not be a more important legacy than the Flash legacy. Jay Garrick, the original Flash, was one of DC's first superheroes in the Golden Age of Comics. Barry Allen, the second Flash, reignited superhero comics with his debut in Showcase #4 and introduced readers to the multiverse when he met Jay in the classic story "Flash of Two Worlds" in Gardner Fox and Carmine Infantino's The Flash #123. Wally West started his career as Barry's sidekick Kid Flash before taking up the mantle and running with it after Barry's death. Through their decades of stories, the Flashes have overcome deaths, multiple Crisis events, and even being wiped out of existence. All the while, they built up the speedster family, bringing in Jesse Quick, Max Mercury, Impulse, Wallace West, Avery Ho and more.
But for far too long, the main three members of the Flash Family have been separated. It started with Flashpoint and New 52, when all the Flashes except for Barry were erased from continuity. It took a while, but DC finally gave fans what they wanted when Wally returned in DC Rebirth, and shortly after that the publisher began to drop hints that Jay and the rest of the Justice Society would be back before long. The JSA finally returned in Justice League #30 and Doomsday Clock #12, but by then, Wally West had become something else; a broken hero traveling the Multiverse trying to stop the oncoming destruction of the Dark Multiverse.
While fans had been given a moment between Barry and Wally in DC Rebirth, it felt like we may never see Barry, Wally, and Jay all together again. However, Dark Nights: Death Metal #2 finally provides that moment when the three Flashes were finally reunited. But perhaps more importantly, Wally and Jay are back together.
When Wally graduated from sidekick to full-fledged hero and became Flash, he also found himself in a world without any mentors and a whole lot of self-doubt. Barry was dead and Jay, along with the other members of the JSA were trapped in an alternate universe. When Jay and his team did finally come back, Wally was well into his Flash career, but he was still seen by many as a replacement, not the real deal. Jay continued to call Wally by the well-meaning nickname he gave Wally long ago; "Junior".
Things got harder for Wally when Barry seemed to come back from the dead and demanded that Wally give up the name in Mark Waid and Greg LaRocque's classic "The Return of Barry Allen Saga." One thing was clear to everyone, this returned Barry Allen was not the Barry they knew, and it would take all the speedsters to bring him down. During this time, Wally was finally told about the Speed Force and how his powers really worked, Jay gave the hero the boost he needed by simply calling him "Flash." For Wally, this was when he knew that he had earned the right to wear the crimson and gold and that he was and would forever be worthy of the name.
For years, Jay was there to help Wally. They fought Reverse-Flash and Savitar side by side, and Jay and his wife Joan evolved into the loving parents that Wally never had. They gave Wally advice not only on how to handle Captain Cold but on how to handle his relationship with Linda Park. Jay was the elder statesman of the DC speedsters, but he knew Wally was their leader now, and that meant the world to Wally. When Barry came back from the dead (for real this time), Wally was married and had kids of his own, and Jay was helping train the next generation of heroes. The three would come together, but they had their own lives. But then, as fast as the snap of someone's fingers, Jay and Wally were gone, wiped out by Doctor Manhattan.
While they all returned into the DC Rebirth Universe in their own ways, the reunion between Jay and Wally and Barry is one that Flash fans have been waiting a long time for. This moment confirmed that no matter what these heroes have been through or how much they've changed, these heroes will always find a way to come back together and fight for what's right.