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See Also: Flash IV: Bart Allen, Speed Force

[Aftermath of Superboy-Prime's escape]

During the Infinite Crisis, the murderous Superboy Prime rampaged across Kansas, killing several reserve members of the Teen Titans. The three active Flashes—Wally West, Jay Garrick and Bart Allen (then Kid Flash)—attempted to trap Superboy in the Speed Force. Jay was unable to keep up, Wally was drawn to another place, and Bart alone pushed the villain to the brink of the speed force alone...until he was joined by dead speedsters Johnny Quick, Max Mercury and Bart’s grandfather, Barry Allen. (Infinite Crisis #4, 2006)

The speed force transported them all, along with Wally and his family (maybe—see below), to an alternate Earth. Along with that world’s Jay Garrick, they imprisoned Superboy in a building in Keystone City surrounded by machines that generated red sun energy (Flash: TFMA #6, 2007). Four years later, Superboy escaped, and Bart followed him back to the main DCU. Because time flows differently in the two universes, only a matter of hours or days had passed for the rest of the DCU.

Contradicting Bart’s memories, it appears that the Wests spent their missing year on an alien planet (Flash v.2 #231, 2007). It could be that Bart’s memories were inaccurate, or that their fate was rewritten in the creation of New Earth, and Bart, true to form, remembered the previous version of events.

Little else is known of this dimension, including its fate after the events of Infinite Crisis.

Text by Kelson Vibber. Do not copy without permission.

Top of Page Primary Sources

  • Infinite Crisis #4 (March 2006): “Homecoming,” Geoff Johns
  • The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #6 (January 2007): “Lightning in a Bottle Part 6: Burning Bridges,” Danny Bilson & Paul DeMeo

Art

  • Flashes: Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #6 (January 2007) - Andy Smith and Art Thibert.
  • Earth-2 Flash: 52 Week 52 (May 2, 2007) - Keith Giffen (breakdowns) and Justiniano (thanks to Glen Cadigan for identifying the artist!)

Notes

In the October 11, 2006 DC Nation Column (check 52 #23), DC Executive Editor Dan Didio hinted that we might learn more about the missing four years, saying, “Superboy Prime/All Flash works better as [a] miniseries than part of [the] monthly.”

New Earth-2 is not an official name. Fans have speculated that this world might be an equivalent to the pre-Crisis Earth-2, populated by younger versions of Golden Age characters. This is based on:

[Flash of Earth-2 in 52]
  • References to the Flash discovering another Earth in Justice League of America.
  • The Earth-2 Superman and Wonder Woman being pulled somewhere in the collected edition of Infinite Crisis.
  • The presence of a younger Jay Garrick in the flashback in Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #6.

Since the post-Infinite Crisis universe is identified as “New Earth,” fans started referring to this world as “New Earth-2.”

Several months later, 52 Week 52 revealed the existence of a new multiverse, with a new Earth-2 very much like the original, but it is not clear whether the universe seen in the flashback is the same. Additionally, the Flash shown in the officially-named Earth-2 wears a slightly different costume, though super-heroes have been known to change their costumes from time to time.