FLASH MISSING; VANISHES IN CRISIS
FLASH MISSING; VANISHES IN CRISIS
In the original Arrowverse timeline, today is the publishing day of Iris’s coverage of Barry’s disappearance
Wow, we really are in the future. Today is April 25, 2024. The day Iris West-Allen published her coverage of the disappearance of The Flash and the end of the Red Sky Crisis. In the pilot episode of The Flash, which aired October 7, 2014 on The CW, Harrison Wells revealed there was more to him than he seemed, entering a secret room in STAR Labs, rising from his wheelchair and pulling up a holographic archive of the Central City Citizen. Top story for April 25, 2024: Flash Missing, Vanishes in Crisis. Now it’s never been clear how up-to-the minute the publishing was. It very well could’ve happened the night before, but we’ll never know, so people just use the publishing date. But who could’ve ever guessed that The Flash itself would’ve lasted for all but 11 months of it, ending a 9-season run last May.
For the first four and a half years across five seasons, this article loomed over Team Flash, such as in season 3 when Barry traveled to February 2024, the Crisis still set to happen in spite of Iris’s death by Savitar’s hands. The looming of the 2024 date ended with the erasure of the Cicada’s dagger and Barry and Iris’s daughter Nora West-Allen from the timeline in May 2019, because that brought the Crisis to December 2019, resulting in the Crisis on Infinite Earths as played out in the miniseries that aired then and finished in January 2020. In-universe, it is called the Anti-Monitor Crisis. According to Wiki, the Anti-Monitor is a part of the original events but as far as what’s onscreen, it's not explored enough before the time comes and the event it becomes is fully conceived.
Here is the initial version of Iris’s report:
After an extreme street battle with the Reverse-Flash, our city's very own Scarlet Speedster disappeared in an explosion of light. The cause of the fight is currently unknown. According to witnesses, The Flash, with help from Starling City's Green Arrow, The Atom, and Hawkgirl, began fighting the Reverse-Flash around midnight last night. The sky took on a deep crimson color as the ensuing battle created the most destruction this city has seen since The Flash first arrived in Central City.
Several trucks were caught in the fray, spilling their contents into the street. Power outages swept nearly twenty city block, between 16th street and Adams Avenue. Five of those blocks still remain without power. All of the buildings in the area were evacuated by the CCPD, with help from The Atom.
According to reports, as The Flash and Reverse-Flash battled with each other between two overturned tanker trucks, the lightning emanating from the speedsters threatened to ignite spilled oil leaking from one of the trucks.
The smoke from the truck's engine made it difficult to see, but it appeared at one point they were having a very heated conversation before continuing the fight. Then, suddenly, The Flash sped after Reverse-Flash and the two vanished leaving The Atom, Green Arrow and Hawkgirl behind.
An eyewitness who watched the battle from her apartment building before being evacuated said, "It was hard to see, but The Flash and Reverse-Flash were zipping up and down M-- Avenue and then there was a whole bunch of lightning, and then nothing. It was weird."
Other witnesses describe a similar phenomenon: a blinding light followed by darkness as the sky returned to black. And as the --- reverted, it took only a moment to realize The Flash and the Reverse-Flash were gone without a trace.
Central City Police Chief, Joe West gave a press conference in the wee hours of the morning stating, "We don't have many details now. What we do know tonight is Central City's greatest protector vanished in a flash. I only hope he returns just as quickly." A sentiment shared by all who call this great city home.
The Atom and Hawkgirl would be introduced over the course of that season, Ray Palmer played by Brandon Routh and Kendra Saunders played by Ciara Renee. The former would start out on Arrow, and both would become Legends together and briefly romantically linked. It is believed that Barry and Thawne’s explosion-creating quarrel resulted in them both time traveling to March 18, 2000, allowing Thawne to kill Barry’s mother. This created the timeline that The Flash began under. As the show went on, major timeline changes would put the article in major fluxes, with additions going so much as including later-introduced heroes like Supergirl, Batwoman, and Elongated Man, all of whom would be part of the eventual Crisis that did come to pass, while Hawkgirl was not.
While another portion of the front page covered the clearing of the red skies, the bottom left covered the completed merger between Wayne Tech and Queen Inc. And apparently there were some charming wooly mammoths at the zoo. Coincidentally, Tuesday saw the release of the second part of the animated Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths movie adaptation of the story. Lately, Barry’s actor Grant Gustin has been starring in the stage adaptation of Water for Elephants on Broadway, and last week reunited with Tom Cavanagh, who portrayed the various Harrison Wellses across the multiverse and Eobard Thawne when he bears the face of the Wells he murdered and assumed his life. Cavanagh had taken in a performance with his family. And as proven Thursday morning, he didn’t forget this date either.
Sources: Quora, Arrowverse Wiki