As Barry Allen continues to search for a way to escape from the Speed Force, he encounters a familiar villain lurking within the pocket dimension.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Flash #760, by Joshua Williamson, Christian Duce, Scott Kolins, Luis Guerrero, Hi-Fi and Steve Wands, on sale now.
The Speed Force is an extra-dimensional realm that fuels and connects virtually all of the speedsters in the DC Universe. It also serves as a sort of pocket dimension that speedsters are drawn into when they lose their grounding in the real world.
For the second time in his life, Barry Allen has found himself trapped in the Speed Force, this time due to the sinister machinations of the Reverse-Flash. The villain has seized control of Barry’s body, leaving his consciousness adrift inside the Speed Force. As Barry searches for a way to escape, he quickly realizes he isn’t alone.
As Barry acclimates to his extra-dimensional surroundings and decidedly out-of-body experience, he’s reunited with Max Mercury and Jesse Quick, who had both been plucked from the DCU due to the events of Flashpoint. As Max helps Barry re-find his center to emerge from the Speed Force and liberate his body from the Reverse-Flash, the three heroes are suddenly joined by a vision of Inertia, the villainous teenage speedster who has long antagonized Impulse and Wally West.
Created by Todd DeZago and Mike Wieringo in 1999’s Impulse #51, Thaddeus Thawne was introduced as an evil clone of Bart Allen crafted in the 30th century. Just as Bart inherited his connection to the Speed Force from his father Don and grandfather Barry, Thaddeus similarly took after Eobard Thawne, from whom Bart’s mother Meloni was directly descended.
Racing back to the relative present of the DCU to menace Bart, Thaddeus created the supervillain mantle Inertia and battled his genetic twin. This culminated in Inertia convincing the Rogues to team up and beat Bart to death after the speedster briefly inherited the mantle of the Flash from Wally. Then, the Rogues turned on Thaddeus and killed him for manipulating them into breaking their own moral code.
Rather than physically overpowering the twisted clone of his grandson in The Flash #760, Barry is able to talk Inertia down, reminding him that he has more in common with Bart and Wallace than Eobard, with so much of his future ahead of him. As Inertia runs off into the horizon, he hints that he is still stuck on a different vibrational frequency than the outside world.
He also hints that the Reverse-Flash has tasked him with stopping Barry, should he ever get close to regaining control of his body. This sets the stage for a renewed confrontation down the line, while leaving open the possibility of a potential redemption for Thaddeus.
It is unclear how Inertia was able to resurface after his pre-Flashpoint death but, just as speedsters are absorbed into the Speed Force by the Black Flash, Inertia may have received a similar fate, as he doesn’t draw his energy from the Reverse-Flash’s Negative Speed Force. The teenage villain doesn’t appear to be able to escape the Speed Force to join the Legion of Zoom as its final battle against the Flash Family begins to take shape, but Inertia’s DC Rebirth debut guarantees the heroes haven’t seen the last of him.
