Recently, Barry Allen otherwise known as the Flash, and his hero friends saved Earth from complete domination by the evil god known as Darkseid. Now, before saving all of reality in this century, Barry sacrificed his life saving all of reality in the year 1985 from the mechanical beast known as the Anti-Monitor. Outracing the collector of souls known as the Black Racer and using him as a weapon to bring the touch of death to the ultimate evil, Barry and his nephew Wally West, also the Flash, saved the whole universe from extinction. Between restoring his hometown of Central City and freeing those still enslaved by the Anti-Life Equation, Darkseid’s weapon against the Earth, Barry has found time to sit down and volunteer himself to answer my questions.
Q1: Now, Barry, let’s start with the obvious question. How were you able to return to life?
A1: Well, Justin, I wish I could answer. I, uh, I don’t exactly know how I came back. I can only tell you where I was. And that was an extra-dimensional prison of some sort. It’s also the place where all Flashes draw their powers from.
Q2: You were trapped in the same place where you got your powers from? How? And also, do you think that an outside force was responsible for your return?
A2: When I stopped the Anti-Monitor, I ran faster than I ever imagined possible. I ran so fast I broke the dimensional barrier and joined the Speed Force, our name for the prison. And the Speed Force can be accessed by any Flash if they push themselves past their limits. As helpful as the Speed Force is, it can also be volatile. We’ve lost two speedsters to it. And to answer that last question, I would hope that some outside force did bring me back. Because if it was some wish off of a monkey’s paw, then my biggest question would be: why now?
Q3: Barry, you said that you lost two of your own to the Speed Force? Who were they, and how did they disappear?
A3: They were both good men. The first one we lost was named Max Mercury. He was like a father to my grandson, Bart Allen, also known as Kid Flash. Bart came from the 30th century and became Kid Flash after I died. Max joined the Speed Force willingly; he wanted to unlock its secrets and reasoned the only way to do that was to become a part of it. So he ran as fast as he could until he left the material plane altogether.
Q4: How did Bart handle this? How did the rest of the speedsters react to Max’s...suicide?
A4: Suicide? Eh, I guess you could call it that. I mean when a speedster dies that is where they go. We were shocked but I guess we understood why he did it. What better way to study something than to become one with it? And Bart? He didn’t handle things too well. He tried to join the Speed Force as soon as he found out. It took Wally and Jay Garrick, the original Flash, to restrain him. But right now, it looks like he got his wish.
Q5: His wish? You mean that Bart joined the Speed Force too? Was he the second man who the Speed Force took? And have any of them ever returned?
A5: No, he wasn’t the second person the Speed Force took. But, he is a part of it. Wally just told me that Bart was killed while defending Central City from the Rogues. The second person to be taken by the Speed Force was Johnny Quick.
Q6: From the All-Star Squadron? Liberty Belle’s ex-husband? Why was he taken? And do any of these disappearances strike as being more than coincidences to you?
A6: Yes, the same Johnny Quick. He was taken because the formula that he used to achieve his speed was defective and the Speed Force just claimed him, leaving his daughter an orphan. And these all strike me as peculiar. But I just came back from the great beyond, and if this investigation means that I’ll have to venture back to the Speed Force, then I’m in no rush.

And with that, Flash got an alert from Superman about a rogue group of Justifiers rampaging through Keystone City. I thanked him for his time, and he left in a blur of red and yellow.