The Flash: Rebirth #2

History

The Flash: Rebirth was conceived by writer Geoff Johns and artist Ethan Van Sciver — the same creative team behind Green Lantern: Rebirth (2005) and The Sinestro Corps War — as a direct follow-up to Barry Allen's return in the 2008 DC crossover Final Crisis, where Johns had also scripted the character's reappearance. The series was initially planned as a five-issue miniseries, but was expanded to six issues in May 2009 — the same month issue #2 shipped — because the creative team determined they needed additional room to complete the story. Unlike the later issues in the run, issues #1 through #3 shipped on schedule; the publication delays that drew criticism from fans only began with issue #4. The entire series was subsequently collected in a hardcover trade paperback (ISBN: 978-1401225681).

Trivia · 8 facts

• Released May 6, 2009; cover-dated July 2009; written by Geoff Johns with art and covers by Ethan Van Sciver; colored by Alex Sinclair; lettered by Rob Leigh; edited by Joey Cavalieri and Chris Conroy.
• Issue #2 is part of the six-issue The Flash: Rebirth limited series (Vol. 1, 2009–2010), DC's second 'Rebirth' event after Green Lantern: Rebirth (2005), designed to re-establish Barry Allen as the lead Flash following his absence since Crisis on Infinite Earths.
• The issue deepens the Speed Force murder mystery: Barry Allen is shown to have become inadvertently lethal to other speedsters, with his returned energy field carrying a corrupting black aura — a condition later revealed across the series to have been engineered by Professor Zoom/Eobard Thawne.
• The issue features appearances by Jay Garrick, Wally West, Jesse Chambers (Liberty Belle/Jesse Quick), and other Flash Family members, all of whom are central to the multi-generational speedster ensemble that Johns assembles across the miniseries.
• A key narrative thread in this issue involves the Savitar cult subplot in the Balkans, in which Lady Flash attempts to contact the dead villain Savitar and witnesses a vision of his death at Barry's unwitting hands.
• A flashback sequence in the issue depicts the day Barry Allen first met Iris West — Johns retroactively positions this encounter as occurring on the same day Barry gained his powers, a continuity revision that the DC Database notes contradicts Iris's original comics appearances.
• The issue received a second printing, commissioned shortly after its May 2009 debut, reflecting reader demand that had also seen multiple printings of issue #1.
• The entire series, including this issue, is reprinted in The Flash: Rebirth trade paperback collection and is available digitally via DC Universe Infinite.

Cast · 6 characters

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Variants (2)