Announced today at New York Comic-Con’s DC “World’s Finest” panel, current “Flash” writer Joshua Williamson and artist Howard Porter will be giving Barry Allen a ‘Year One’ arc in the pages of “The Flash.” Williamson said on the panel this is the story that he’s been wanting to tell since he started writing the title when ‘Rebirth’ began two years ago. The story will follow Barry’s first year as the Flash, and how he came to find hope and optimism after his mother’s murder and his father’s arrest for the murder.
The title ‘Year One’ stems from the Frank Miller and Dave Mazzucchelli’s ‘Batman: Year One,’ which ran in issues #404-407 of “Batman” following “Crisis on Infinite Earths” in 1987. The story is one of the definitive “Batman” stories, and spawned a number of miniseries like it such as “Batman: Year Two,” “Green Arrow: Year One,” and “JLA: Year One.” Mark Waid and Greg LaRocque’s first arc on “The Flash,” following “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” called ‘Born to Run,’ was also labeled as a ‘Year One’ story, and followed the first year of Wally West’s time as The Flash. Barry Allen has never had a ‘Year One’ story.
Williamson and Porter have already worked together on “The Flash,” having collaborated on the ‘Flash War’ arc earlier in the year. Williamson also said on the panel that there would be an upcoming “The Flash Annual” in January that would include the return of Godspeed, and deal with Impulse’s return before he joins Brian Bendis and Patrick Gleason’s “Young Justice” book. That issue will also deal with fallout from the recent debut of “Heroes in Crisis.”
‘The Flash: Year One,’ will debut sometime in 2019, and you can check out concept art for the arc from Porter below. You can also check out details from the entire panel here which included Kelly Sue DeConnick discussing her upcoming “Aquaman” run, and Steve Orlando previewing “Martian Manhunter” by him and Riley Rossmo.
