Pre-Crisis Primer: This is Why the Crisis Needed to Happen

Flash 347-350

“Trial of the Flash Part 6”

Not really a jury of his peers. Moustache man can impale the Flash.

The Trial is over! Behold the verdict for the Scarlet Speedster. Spoiler, he's guilty! How can he be guilty of the Reverse Flash isn't dead?! Prepare your head for some spinning.

Sorry for the overuse of exclamation points there but this final chapter to 'The Trial of the Flash' completely loses its shit. Any semblance of realism in the story disappears (not that here was much to begin with, but when the conceit is a superhero finally being put on trial for taking the law into their own hands, that's an interesting attempt at realism) and transference of souls, time-travel and resurrection are the plot points we're bombarded with.

Despite the best efforts of Flash's formerly-antagonist-lawyer-now-turned-best-pal, the jury returns a verdict on Flash's complicity in the murder of the Reverse-Flash: guilty. Flash, being the hero that he is agrees to go to jail, even though there's nothing stopping him from just flat-out running off and finding a new life elsewhere that doesn't include running fast. No, society has spoken and Flash will be a hero until the end and accept the punishment meted out. One disappointing aspect of the end of this story has been the lack of a lot of involvement from Flash's friends in the Justice League. The JLA shows up once, to admonish the Flash, basically and Green Lantern (the Hal version), Barry's best friend, shows up to offer some salient advice, but other than that they don't do much. You'd think any of them would deign it worth their time to show up at the trial, maybe play as a character witness, or at least visit the poor schlep in jail, at the very least give him hell for how he treated his wife-to-be. Sure, he saved her life, but left her to languish in a mental hospital. Nope, we don't get to see them at all. Perfect point for some inter-title continuity, but instead Flash is in a world all his own.

Screw you guys, I'm outta here.

Also, just an aside because I've spent so much time on this part of the story: after Fiona Webb's relapse in court during the previous part of this story she does not show up at all in this story again nor in the entirety of Post-Crisis continuity. That's it, Fiona's story ends with a mental breakdown. She deserves a lot more than the Flash.

I'm also going to throw out that Flash deserves a better ending than what's presented here. To skip ahead a bit: Flash 350, the final chapter in this story is always the final issue of the series. Considering that 'The Trial of the Flash' has been going on for almost 2 years right now, it's safe to assume this story was not planned to end the series, it's just the way things shook out. The way events quickly devolve from any kind of rational method of story-telling into the crazy shit I'll type out in the next paragraph has to do with the writer struggling to give the entirety of the Flash's superhero career some kind of closure.

Let's do this: Flash's guilty verdict is the result of jury manipulation, obviously. Or, given the events that lead up to it, not so obviously. While the jury had come to a not-guilty verdict on their own, there is one verdict, a portly bald accountant by the name of Newbury who has access to advanced technology and claims that, if the jury deadlocked or came back with a guilty verdict, would ensure that a not-guilty verdict would be missed. So how did this mysterious man fail so miserably? That would be the mysteriously returned Reverse Flash who takes the identity of one of the jurors and is able to use similarly advanced technology to what Newbury possesses and force a guilty verdict. Where does this deluge of jury-verdict-changing technology come from?

A whole lot of jury-tampering brought us to this moment.

What the fuck is going on? Reverse Flash is still dead, a newly-introduced villain to this story by the name of Abra Cadabra is to blame and has been donning the identity of the deceased banana-colored villain. Abra hails from the 64^th century where' he's a failed magician and entertainer who eventually travels back to the 20^th century to find audience, passing off advanced technology as real magic. At some point he becomes a criminal and is punched by the Flash several times which leads to this plot to ensure a guilty verdict for the Flash. But who is Newbury? Newbury is also from the future, attempting to thwart Abra Cadabra by making sure the not-guilty verdict recorded by history in the 64^th century comes to pass. Flash should be exonerated! Newbury is a resident of Central City 20^th century possessed by the should of Barry Allen's murdered first wife Iris West. I know, I know, get this: Iris was never killed in our time: at the moment of her death West's relatives from the future snatched her soul to the future and placed it in a new body. Later, when Barry needs her help during the trial, West's soul is sent back to the past to inhabit the body of Newbury. With this revelation, Flash's body is whisked to the 64^th century where he's reunited with his first wife and lives happily every after. To the people of the 20^th century, Flash was found not-guilty and simply disappeared.

With these revelations, he should have stayed in jail.

  Yeah bu-whu?

That's how it ends? With this future soul-stealing mumbo-jumbo and two main characters introduced into the end of a 25-part series? What a disappointing ending. Screw it, what a crap ending. A ton of new elements are introduced at the end that take the focus away from the trial, abandon established characters like Fiona Webb or Flash's lawyer and shoe-horns in a convoluted attempt at a happy ending tied in a bow. I don't buy it and this is the kind of crap that leads to superhero comics being maligned as mediums for decent story-telling. Don't worry, Crisis is coming to clean this up and hopefully wipe it away.

At least the public knows he's not guilty even though getting there was  a hell of a trip.