Noteworthy Issues: Knight Terrors: The Flash #1 (July, 2023)

Well now, what is Barry Allen afraid of?  That’s a legitimate question actually.  Barry’s kind of a bland guy, basically just the square-jawed hero type, a bit laid back, and a fast runner.  What would make Barry quake with fear in a nightmare of his own?

Well, you know, the usual:  loved ones dying or in danger.

Issue:  Knight Terrors: The Flash #1, July 2023

Writer:  Alex Paknedei

Artist:  Daniel Bayliss

The Plot:  Wally West is severely injured!  How did that happen?  Barry Allen is on the case.

Commentary:  So, here’s the thing about this issue:  at no point during it did Barry seem to be involved in the same crisis as all the other Knight Terrors specials.  If there’s a sign of Insomnia out there somewhere, I can’t find him.  He isn’t really out for all to see.  The story seems like a weird warping of time and space, and I have my suspicions about what the threat spotted on the last page will be, but so far, it just seems odd.

The basic idea is Barry learns Wally was severely injured by Gorilla Grodd during a fight, something that shouldn’t be possible given Wally’s speed relative to Grodd’s.  However, Barry remembers Wally as a Flash in his own right, but Iris says he’s still a juvenile Kid Flash and has never heard of Linda Park.  So, OK, time travel?  Not quite because the overall setting for this story is a mishmash of current and old Flash continuity.  People he shouldn’t have met yet are present, and Grodd and Wally both make hints that Barry knows more than he should.  The JLA satellite is in orbit, and Hal Jordan up there remembers his time as Parallax while looking like he’s dying of radiation poisoning.

That might have been the coolest detail.

The weirdest was the guy outside the hospital who was talking about why it shouldn’t have been snowing in June.  Did that mean anything?

The problem seems to be Wally claims there was a monster that slowed him down inside the Speed Force or something, and Barry’s efforts to help seem to be mostly making things worse.  But is this really an Insomnia based nightmare?  Damned if I know.  I’m gonna guess that will come out as the case in the second and final issue, but so far, I’m mostly just kinda confused.

Grade:  C