Into The Future

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“Always in motion is the future,” a famous Jedi Master once said, and it holds true even more so in comics, where even the past may change. The future of the DC Universe is as complicated as its history, and as changeable as its present.

Here I’m focusing on those futures related to the site’s topic: those that have Flashes, or those to which one of the present-day Flashes have traveled. So I won’t be including extra futures from Chronos, Hourman, The History of the DC Universe, or even The Books of Magic (although issue #4 has an interesting take on Kadabra’s home era, as well as a description of the end of time which I’ve considered in my meditations on Death).

There actually isn’t as much as I’d thought from the Silver Age. Most of it focuses on Zoom, Iris, or Abra Kadabra, and all three of their time periods have had at least some significance during Wally’s solo career. Also, note that I haven’t written up the futures in JLA: Rock of Ages yet.

The 21^st Century

The near future is very unstable. Here are a few possibilities.

The Third Millennium

A few things are known over the next thousand years, particularly about the 30^th and 31^st centuries.

The Distant Future

The 21^st Century

The early years of the 21^st Century are still in flux. What happens to our heroes, their loved ones, and their enemies in the next few decades is unknown. However, we have seen a few possibilities:

Armageddon

[Note: These futures have already been prevented.] Roughly ten years from now, one of Earth’s heroes would massacre his allies, take on the identity of Monarch, and become absolute ruler of Earth. Thirty years into his reign, Monarch would begin funding investigations into time travel, leading to a man being transformed into Waverider. Waverider traveled back to what we consider the present day, looking into the futures of the world’s most powerful heroes to learn who would become the Monarch.

Wally West’s future, at that time, would have led to a battle with a corrupt industrial tycoon and a decade hiding in the witness protection program, as well as a wife and son. Ironically, Waverider’s examination actually prevented Wally and Bonnie from meeting. Sadly, one can assume Bonnie likely met a tragic end.

Appearances:

More Information:

The Dark Knight Returns &
The Dark Knight Strikes Again!

20–30 years into the future: Superheroes are illegal. Political tensions bring the United States and the Soviet Union [Note: this was published in 1986] to the brink of war, and rampant crime and corruption bring the Batman out of retirement. Finally the government sends its most secret agent to stop him: Superman. Batman fakes his death, then heads into the caves with his new allies to begin planning a new world.

Three years later, in the aftermath of the brief nuclear exchange, the U.S. has beaten the rest of the world into submission. Its own citizens, though enjoying a veneer of prosperity, live in a police state. The President is a hologram, the government controlled by Lex Luthor and his allies. The most powerful heroes on Earth—Superman, Wonder Woman, and Captain Marvel—are blackmailed into doing Luthor’s bidding, while others thought simply to have retired are revealed to be captured or otherwise neutralized. The Martian Manhunter has lost his powers, the Atom is imprisoned in a petri dish, and the Flash—Barry Allen—is being used to power half the eastern seaboard.

Against this backdrop, Batman returns to start a revolution.

On one hand, this looks like a future of the Silver Age DCU. On the other hand, Luthor appears to have been a power-mad businessman rather than a mad scientist.

Appearances:

Kingdom Come & The Kingdom

Again, 20–30 years into the future. Ten years after Superman retired in disgrace, the new generation of heroes and villains have become little more than super-powered street gangs. Superman’s generation has mostly faded from view, abandoning heroics or working in secret. The Flash, slowly discarding his humanity after the death of his (unnamed) wife, constantly patrols the streets of Keystone, protecting it from the slightest problem. Until a battle in Kansas leads to Captain Atom’s body being ripped open, destroying most of Kansas and parts of neighboring states in a nuclear holocaust.

In the aftermath of the disaster, two generations of heroes clash, and Armageddon nearly descends, averted at the last moment by the sacrifice of Captain Marvel and the advice of an aging preacher to an enraged Superman. Ultimately, the heroes agree to begin working within the system to help rebuild and improve the world.

It was in this era that Hypertime was discovered. A time-traveling villain calling himself Gog threatened to wipe out their history, and a group of younger heroes (including Wally West’s daughter, the new Kid Flash) went after him, only to learn that time was much more fluid than anyone had thought.

Flash-Related Appearances:

More Information:

The Ray: Time and Tempest

As Ray Terrill—the Ray—ran a software company for Vandal Savage, he became accustomed to having power: not just super-powers, but power over people, over finances, over politics. A corporate struggle between himself and Vandal Savage became an all-out war. Fifteen years later, the Ray, Bart Allen (now the Flash), and Triumph are a trio—“three rich guys with super powers”—of what might be called friends. Until a girl steps in. Ray’s girlfriend, specifically, a Philadelphia cop named Gaelon. Ray treated her like dirt, Bart was in love with her, and when she finally left Ray, Bart realized he didn’t have a chance either. He knocked Ray out, then left, not knowing that a pair of hit men were on their way.

Appearances:

Titans Tomorrow

Titans West
Batman II (Robin III)
Superman II (Superboy)
Wonder Woman II (Wonder Girl II)
Flash IV (spy)
Dark Raven
Animal Man II (Beast Boy)
Aquawoman (Aquagirl II)

Titans East
Cyborg
Bumblebee
Captain Marvel II
Batwoman (Flamebird)
Terra II(?)
Ravager II
Flash IV

Ten years from now, America is once again a divided nation. After the older heroes died in a crisis, today’s Teen Titans took on their mentors’ roles: Tim Drake became Batman, Cassie Sandsmark became Wonder Woman, and Bart Allen became the Flash. Turned darker by their experiences, they decided to eliminate crime, poverty and disease... at the expense of freedom. Raven quashed rebellions by absorbing the populace’s free will. In response, Cyborg and Bumblebee created a new “Titans East” based in New York, and managed to free twelve states.

The present-day Titans landed in this mess after an accidental trip through time. They went straight to their headquarters in San Francisco, where their future selves first fought, then hosted them. Once Superboy discovered the truth, they left as quickly as possible, heading for Keystone City—now a gigantic Flash Museum—where they met Titans East. With these Titans’ help, they managed to return to their own time...determined to prevent the future they saw.

Appearances:

The Third Millennium

A Thousand-Year Legacy

Super-speed breeds remarkably true; only one known child of a speedster has not developed speed (Max Mercury’s daughter Helen). So it should be no surprise that the Allen and West families should produce a thousand-year dynasty of Flashes.

Over the next few centuries Central and Keystone Cities will merge, with the name Central City taking over. Most of the Flashes will remain based in the Central City area, although some will travel to other cities and even to space colonies.

The Flashes will gain a new arch-rival in the Cobalt Blues. Malcolm Thawne’s hatred for Barry Allen would lead to a centuries-spanning feud—and since both families have inheritable super powers, that rivalry would spill over into super-powered battles.

Two notable stand-outs include Eobard Thawne, the Reverse Flash of the 25^th Century, and John Fox, a Flash of the mid-27^th Century. Eobard Thawne, both drawn to Barry Allen and immersed in the family feud, chose not the path of a Cobalt Blue but instead duplicated the Flash’s powers and traveled back in time to fight Barry Allen himself in the past. John Fox did not inherit his speed, but gained it through a time travel accident. His era’s Central City soon developed super-speed robots to police the city, and left him to guard the Time Institute. It’s no wonder that Fox left his century for a time in which he could become a hero, eventually settling in the 853^rd Century.

Appearances:

More Information:

30^th Century: Iris and the Tornado Twins

In the mid 30^th Century, a war threatened to destroy large areas of North America. Eric and Fran Russell, fearful for their infant daughter Iris, placed her in a time machine, sending her a thousand years into the past where she was discovered and adopted by Ira and Nadine West.

Central City survived the war, and the Russells researched their daughter’s life. Seeing that she had been murdered, they reached through time to the moment of her death and transplanted her spirit into a new body they had cloned for her. Not long after, her husband Barry Allen traveled forward in time to be with her.

Barry was killed in Crisis on Infinite Earths only a few months after he arrived in the 30^th century. During that time, Iris conceived twins: Don and Dawn. They grew up in an era of paranoia and isolationism in which anyone alien or metahuman risked hate or captivity and experimentation. They kept their powers and identities secret, acting only as twin tornadoes.

By this time, the Thawne/Allen feud had died down somewhat. But when Don married Meloni Thawne, it broke wide open again. At this point the President of Earthgov was a Thawne, and he arranged for the two to be killed battling the alien Dominators. Don and Meloni’s son Bart, already showing signs of super speed, was captured for study, while Dawn’s apparently-normal daughter Jenni was simply marked for observation.

When Meloni discovered that Bart was held captive, and not dead as she’d been told, she went to Iris for help. Iris brought her parents in, and they arranged to rescue Bart and send him into the past where Iris’ nephew Wally could help him learn to control his power. The last of the Allens departed, and Iris went with him.

Appearances:

More Information:

31^st Century: Dark Tomorrow

This future has since been averted, but its personal consequences for a few time travelers continue to be felt.

Following the deaths of his guardian Max Mercury and Max’s daughter Helen, Impulse decided to return to the future to be with the only family he had left: his mother, Meloni. His girlfriend Carol came with him. President Thawne remained in office longer than he might have otherwise, and Carol began studying the Speed Force, hoping to use it to benefit humanity. Thawne took her unfinished research and began using it to create a cadre of hyper-fast soldiers. He then planned to turn it on the entire world, despite its frequent side effects of insanity and physical degeneration.

Desperate, the adult Carol arranged to pull her younger self into the future, and the younger Bart followed. While there, he was exposed to the hyper-ray and gained the ability to send avatars through time. He was able to prevent Max and Helen’s deaths, so that he and Carol never went to the future and never did the research Thawne appropriated. Sadly, Carol and Meloni had already left for a more distant future in hopes of preventing this one.

Appearances:

More Information:

31^st Century: Legion of Super Heroes

At the start of the fourth millennium, the galaxy was uniting under the United Federation of Planets. Space travel had sped up considerably, and the future was looking bright. Into this stepped businessman R.J. Brande and a dream. Inspired by the actions of three teenagers who used super-powers to stop an assassination, as well as legends of the heroic age a thousand years before, he financed the formation of a Legion of Super-Heroes.

Among the members of one version of the Legion was Jenni Ognats, granddaughter of Barry Allen, whose speed finally manifested in her mid-teens.

Interestingly, while the existence of the Legion of Superheroes has been quite stable in the timestream, the details (including which decade they arose in) have changed frequently. In the wake of the Crisis on Infinite Earths, it was a hot spot of temporal change, due to the anomalous presence of a Superboy and the manipulations of first the Time Trapper and then the sorceress Glorith.

Note on Dates: The Legion of Super-Heroes stories essentially take place 1,000 years in the future. Unfortunately, this means that those stories suffer from the same “time shifting” that the present does: a story printed in 1996 would take place in 2996 with an 18-year-old character... but a story printed in 2004 would take place in 3004, and as far as I can tell, the Legionnaires are still in their late teens.

More Information:

The Distant Future

63^rd Century: The Vid-Masters of Korpor

Nothing is known of Earth in this time period. Only the eighth moon of Korpor is known to anyone from our era. The humanoid inhabitants of this moon have a government whose power depends primarily on keeping its populace distracted and entertained, and is not above manipulating anyone they encounter—such as luring a hero from another century to their world and forcing him to risk his life on camera.

When last seen, Meloni Thawne Allen was preparing to start a revolution.

Appearances:

64^th Century: Chronarch and Wallyworld

Our knowledge of the 64^th Century is limited to one unnamed city, ruled by the Chronarch and the Central Clockworks, a vast computer that regulates human activity down to the nanosecond. Into this ordered world was born Abra Kadabra, champion of individual thought and aficionado of the ancient art of stage magic. The Chronarch exiled him to the past, concluding he would fit in well in the late 20^th Century.

With Kadabra missing, however, revolutionaries chose him as a rallying point. An agent was dispatched to retrieve him and quell the rebellion, but picked up an unexpected guest: the Flash. By the time they were sent back to the past, the Flash had destroyed the central clockworks and Kadabra was leading the rebels in taking the city.

Unfortunately, they learned the wrong lessons from the Flash’s interference. Instead of self-reliance they learned impatience and the value of a quick fix. They based their society—almost to the point of religion—on what they knew of the Flash... as he discovered when a brush with the speed force sent him there. Desperately trying to repair the damage from his last appearance, he pointed them toward the great philosophers of society and government from the past, then headed for home, using (and accidentally destroying) a tower they had built to harness the energy of the speed force.

Technology in this era is so advanced that to us it seems like magic. In fact, some have speculated that their technology is a mixture of science and magic.

Little is known of the rest of Earth during this time period—or whether the Chronarch’s city might actually span the entire world.

Note: Prior to Crisis on Infinite Earths, the 64^th Century was not unlike the 20^th with more advanced technology.

Appearances:

More Information:

70^th Century: Diderot and the JLI

By the 70^th Century a dark age has enveloped humanity, and a race of robots known as the Simulacra, or Sim, keep civilization alive. The Sim apparently predate the 30^th Century, when many records were lost, and appear to have been custodians of the world for several millennia. Either they exist on a separate timeline from Chronarch’s city (only four centuries earlier), or that city was an isolated pocket of civilization.

The European branch of the Justice League got involved when a Sim called Diderot yanked them into his time to stave off a human assault while they completed a more powerful time machine to transport their city to a more civilized era.

Appearances:

70^th Century: Dmane and Magnetic Power

In another possible future, the world of 6946 is a peaceful one, made wealthy by five centuries of technology based on magnetic power. A man called Dmane tried to use this technology to rule the world, but was ultimately defeated, tried, and sentenced to death. Just before his execution, he was pulled back in time to 1946. He attempted to take over the world of the past, but was stopped by the original Flash, who returned him to his own era...just in time to be executed.

Little has been seen of this era aside from one courtroom and a few elevated streets weaving through skyscrapers. Some humans of this era have very pointy heads.

Note: This may be the first instance of a speedster traveling through time in a controlled manner (both in print and in the DCU timeline). (See the statement on Golden Age accuracy).

Appearances:

98^th Century: Kryad

Humans of this era are smaller than those of the present day, with wide heads, no hair, and pale yellow skin. All are telekinetic and telepathic. In the wake of several devastating world wars, a peaceful civilization has taken hold, but only fragments of history remain—including legends of the 20^th-century heroes.

Into this utopia came a menacing creature which fed off of the humans’ mental powers, gripping all nearby in an agonizing, fatal fever—one which threatened to wipe out everyone on the face of the Earth! A history buff named Kryad, hoping the 20^th Century’s heroes were real, traveled back in time to steal the powers of the Flash. The hero found a way to give Kryad super-speed without killing or de-powering the Flash, and both speedsters came to the 98^th century to defeat the menace. Kryad sacrificed himself to destroy the behemoth, and the world was saved.

Note: Humans of later eras appear much the same as those of the present. Recall the words of Yoda.

Appearances:

Time Flies (Century Unknown)

It’s unclear just what era the Flash traveled to, but it can be assumed to be within the next few thousand years. The Flash was pursuing a test pilot whose accidental speed force-powered trip threatened to break down the fabric of time itself, with only a few thousand years to spare.

Little of the structure of society was clear from this brief stay, but colorful and fanciful seemed to be the rules for both clothing and architecture, and navels had somehow vanished from the human race (although there was no mention of what replaced the umbilical cord). Personal-sized blimps and hovercars shared the city with biotech, nanotech, toxic air and exoskeletons.

Appearances:

853^rd Century: DC One Million

The solar system has been rebuilt, planet by planet, all of them inhabited. The galaxy is linked by a network of star-computers. Earth is again an unspoiled paradise, the population residing in tesseracts, pockets of folded space. Nearly everyone is linked telepathically to the HeadNet, a vast network of news, information and entertainment. And the legends of the past live on, in the form of the heroes who make up Justice Legion A and the power icons that can give anyone the powers of a superhero.

Some notable immortals still alive in this century include the original Superman (living in the sun), the Martian Manhunter (now merged with his homeworld), Resurrection Man and Vandal Savage.

Flash-Related Appearances:

More Information:

Legends of the Dead Earth

“Earth is dead. Those who once might have called it home are long scattered to the endless stars. But in that scattering, on a thousand different worlds, by a thousand different ways... Earth’s greatest legends live on.”—series introduction.

Whether this lies in the future of the 853^rd-century utopia, in its past, or on another timeline—or indeed, whether all such stories told even share a timeline with each other—is unknown.

Flash-Related Appearances:

Text by Kelson Vibber. Do not copy without permission.

Into the Future

The 21^st Century

The Third Millennium

The Distant Future

The 21^st Century

Armageddon

The Dark Knight Returns &
The Dark Knight Strikes Again!

Kingdom Come & The Kingdom

The Ray: Time and Tempest

Titans Tomorrow

The Third Millennium

A Thousand-Year Legacy

30^th Century: Iris and the Tornado Twins

31^st Century: Dark Tomorrow

31^st Century: Legion of Super Heroes

The Distant Future

63^rd Century: The Vid-Masters of Korpor

64^th Century: Chronarch and Wallyworld

70^th Century: Diderot and the JLI

70^th Century: Dmane and Magnetic Power

98^th Century: Kryad

Time Flies (Century Unknown)

853^rd Century: DC One Million

Legends of the Dead Earth

Miscellaneous

Places/Times

Theory & Commentary

People, Events, etc.

Series Info

Fun Stuff

Site Info

Into the Future

The 21st Century

The Third Millennium

The Distant Future

Miscellaneous

Places/Times

Theory & Commentary

People, Events, etc.

Series Info

Fun Stuff

Site Info

The 21^st Century