Flash writer says its time for a Wally West teaser ahead of "something really big"

(Image credit: DC)

Update: Writer Joshua Williamson has followed up posting more art on Twitter from next month's Dark Nights: Speed Metal #1 under the theme "Wally’s race is not over!" including pencils from Eddy Barrows and inked and colored art from Barrows, Eber Ferreira,  and Adriano Lucas.  

Check out Newsarama's gallery of panels from the 48-page special courtesy DC and links to art from Williamson's Twitter account:

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Long-time The Flash writer Joshua Williamson is teasing something over on his Twitter account. 

(Image credit: DC)

The image shown to the right is all he tweeted - no text - but there's a lot of meaning to be gleaned from it.

Eagle-eyed comic book fans will remember this as Wally West's watch, featured prominently in 2016's DC Universe: Rebirth #1 - which brought the fan-favorite character running, literally, back into the pages of modern DC comic books.

"The day I graduated high school, my uncle gave me a watch," West said back in that 2016 one-shot. "It belonged to his father. And his grandfather before that. The watch had been handed down generation after generation with an inscription on the back... 'Every second is a gift.'

"My uncle was an optimist. I used to be an optimist, too. Until the day the watch broke. And I lost it. I lost time. Everyone did."

That uncle is Barry Allen, whom West reunited with after nearly a decade in DC Universe: Rebirth #1. Since then, Wally's life has been full of ups and downs, from Heroes in Crisis to Flashpoint and now looking for redemption in Dark Nights: Death Metal.

(Image credit: DC)

While Williamson has said his run on The Flash title ends technically with the finale of the 'Finish Line' arc in #764, he told Newsarama that the Death Metal tie-in Speed Metal (scheduled to be released the same day) is just as important - especially for fans of Wally West.

"'Finish Line' wraps up, to me, what I have to say about Barry and the Barry Allen story that I've been building since 'Rebirth,'" the writer explained. "Speed Metal wraps up a lot of the stuff with Wally and really ties things up on an emotional level between Wally and Barry, things from 'Rebirth.'"

"When you read it, you'll see we're connecting all these things going back as far as 'Rebirth' then resolving things from Flash Forward," he continued. "It was important to me that I put certain things into motion starting with my issues of 'Rebirth' and 'The Flash War.' It was really important to me that I also tied those things up and finished some of those stories, and that's what Speed Metal does."

The one-shot is drawn by Eddy Barrows and Eber Ferreira.

It definitely pushes Wally further along in his story, while wrapping up a lot of these things before," Williamson adds.

Dark Nights: Speed Metal #1 goes on sale on September 22.

Can't wait and want to read some The Flash stories now? Check out our rundown of the best Flash stories of all time.

Chris Arrant

Chris Arrant covered comic book news for Newsarama from 2003 to 2022 (and as editor/senior editor from 2015 to 2022) and has also written for USA Today, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly, Marvel Entertainment, TOKYOPOP, AdHouse Books, Cartoon Brew, Bleeding Cool, Comic Shop News, and CBR. He is the author of the book Modern: Masters Cliff Chiang, co-authored Art of Spider-Man Classic, and contributed to Dark Horse/Bedside Press' anthology Pros and (Comic) Cons. He has acted as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Stan Lee Awards. Chris is a member of the American Library Association's Graphic Novel & Comics Round Table. (He/him)