WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for The Flash #755, by Joshua Williamson, Rafa Sandoval and Jordi Tarragona, Arif Prianto and Steve Wands, available now.
In The Flash's latest storyline, "The Flash Age," Barry Allen has gone up against a new villain named Paradox. This new enemy is powered by changes in the timeline, and he made it his mission to destroy Barry Allen and the legendary status of the Scarlet Speedster. For that reason, Paradox trapped August Heart, Godspeed, and used him to travel through the timeline. Because of this, Paradox was able to kill multiple versions of Barry throughout history, gaining more and more power as he did so.
However, it's only when Godspeed took the villain back to a time when he was just a man that Paradox reached a new level of power: by killing his past self, Paradox gained enough energy to wipe out all of reality itself. And in The Flash #755, it was up to the Flash, Reverse-Flash and Godspeed to stop him once and for all. While their efforts were ultimately successful, their victory came at a terrible cost.
While first fighting with Paradox, Barry learned that there was only ever one person who was able to defeat him in the 25th century: Eobard Thawne, the Reverse-Flash. Because of this, Barry reluctantly teamed-up with his worst enemy to defeat his latest -- and possibly most powerful -- opponent. Thawne devised a plan to kill Paradox before he would ever become a cosmic-level threat, but Barry simply couldn't let him do that. As a result, Paradox became even more powerful.
Now, in The Flash #755, Barry frees Godspeed from the villain's clutches, and August joins Barry and Eobard in the fight against Paradox. It's been a complicated road for August Heart since he debutd in Joshua Williamson and Carmine Di Giandomenico's The Flash: Rebirth #1 in 2016. He started out as Barry's friend, a fellow detective looking for his brother's killer. But after a Speed Force lightning storm gave him super-speed at the start of the DC Rebirth relaunch, August became the villainous Godspeed and clashed with the Flash. Then, after being incarcerated in Iron Heights, August reformed, learned from his mistakes and helped the Flash on a few separate occasions.
At the start of "The Flash Age" however, Godspeed appeared to return to his villainous ways. However, he was just working undercover to find out what Paradox was plotting.
Now that he's freed from the villain's hold, August proves himself a hero once again by helping Barry hold off Paradox. As they do so, Eobard Thawne travels back in time and does something uncharacteristic: he prevents Paradox from even being born by saving his life. As a result, the villain is erased from existence, and the timeline is restored. Central City is saved, Barry and Iris are reunited and, for a brief minute, it looks like everything's going to be alright.
However, things take a shocking turn when Godspeed asks the Reverse-Flash if he knows who killed his brother. "Oh, that was me. I did it," Thawne answers, before proceeding to snap August's neck with his bare hands. Godspeed falls dead to the ground, and the Flash is faced with yet another terrible loss at the hands of his worst enemy.
The death of Godspeed is tragic, given that the character proved how good an ally to the Flash he could really be in "The Flash Age." August and Barry were back to being friends, and his loss will weigh heavily on the Scarlet Speedster. After all, Thawne is only there because Barry asked him to help.
Reverse-Flash may have helped defeat Paradox and saved reality, but he's still the Flash's worst enemy. By telling August that he was responsible for his brother's killing in his final moments, Thawne just twists the knife with another unnecessary cruelty. This moment goes a long way to show just how irredeemable the Reverse-Flash really is, even if he spent most of his life idolizing the Flash.