WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Future State: The Flash #1 by Brandon Vietti, Dale Eaglesham, Mike Atiyeh & Steve Wands, on sale now
The Future State era is already revealing some major changes that could be on the horizon for the heroes and villains of the DC Universe. Perhaps one of the most radical transformations is the fate of the Flash family, who now find themselves hunting down one of their former members -- and losing many of their number in the process.
Over the course of Future State: The Flash #1, three speedsters -- Bart Allen, Wallace West, and Jay Garrick -- all meet gruesome, grisly ends.
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In the world of Future State, Wally West has once again turned against his fellow heroes. This is revealed to be a result of the mysterious force known as Famine, which has taken possession of Wally's body. Using him, Famine is able to drain the speed powers from the other speedsters. Making matters worse, the corrupted Wally is revealed to have assaulted the Teen Titans five years previously -- and used his powers to drain Wallace West of both his Speed Force connection and his life. All that the possessed Wally leaves behind is a withered corpse and a heartbroken rest of the family. The rest of the speedsters spend years trying to figure out how to defeat the corrupted Wally and restore him, even utilizing the weapons of the Flash's Rogues to great effect.
Finally breaking into Checkmate, the group of former speedsters are able to confront their old enemy the Thinker and steal his helmet. This could be the key to reaching to Wally and finding out what power has taken over his body. But before the heroes can escape, Thinker is able to fire a laser blast at Impulse. The blast is strong enough to shatter the Rainbow Rider's tech that Impulse was utilizing and send shards of light straight through Bart's back, leaving the young hero to die in Flash's arms. The death shakes the remaining speedsters, with Max Mercury and Avery Ho particularly affected by the loss of Bart. However, Barry refuses to let it slow him down fully, and he completes his modification of new thinking caps.
Using them will allow the four remaining speedsters to reach Wally's mental Speed Force resonance frequency and speak to him, despite his possession. However, Famine quickly takes control of Wally's body and proves capable of attacking the psychic representations of the heroes. He quickly grabs onto Jay and drains him of his power, seemingly destroying Jay's psychic form. When the other Speedsters barely escape Famine's grasp thanks to the timely arrival of Iris, they realize that Jay's heart gave out when his psychic form did, which killed the JSA veteran. With these deaths all weighing on Barry, he finally decides there's no way to save Wally from the darkness that has consumed him, and it time to use the equipment formerly belonging to the Rogues to kill Wally.
While Wally is also shown killing other characters -- including King Snake and Avery's teammates on the Global Guardians -- killing two speedsters means he's brought down some powerful heroes with relative ease. Even the Thinker can now claim he's killed one version of the Flash by removing Bart Allen from the board in a particularly brutal manner. Even with the full power of the Rogues' armory at his side, Barry will be hard-pressed to deal with a fully unleashed and devilish speedster.
Even if Barry can defeat Famine and save Wally, the Flash Family has been utterly broken. This version of the DC Universe will have to carry on with almost half of its major speedsters dead, which might be why speedsters from other realities need to fill that void, explaining why someone like the Flash of Earth-11 would need to make the leap to the Future State timeline.