Extra! Extra! Extra! Legion Guest Stars In Flash #26!

Do you know? Do you know? Have you heard the news?

Two characters connected to the Legion appeared in The Flash #26!

Admittedly, they aren't Legionnaires, but supporting characters who first appeared in a Legion comic. It's Don and Dawn Allen, the Tornado Twins.




The Twins are a looser Legion connection, having begun their time as characters claiming to be descendants of the Flash before getting retconned into being the actual son and daughter of Barry and Iris Allen. They're more well known through association, as Don is the father of Impulse and Dawn the mother of Reboot Legionnaire XS.

Time has not been kind to the Tornado Twins. In the FYL era they were experimented on and killed by the Dominators. In the Reboot era they briefly appeared during the "Chain Lightning" arc. Their last mention was in "Legion of 3 Worlds," where it turned out the twins fled to Earth-247 with their respective spouses and infant children to hide from the Reverse Flash's army of speedsters. And, like the entirety of the Flash Family except for Barry and Iris, they were retconned out of existence in the New 52. Don wasn't even the father of Bart Allen anymore, who's real name is now "Bar Torr" and has no real connection to Barry Allen in any way.

This past week DC formally reintroduced the Tornado Twins in the post-Rebirth DCU, in The Flash #26. But don't get too excited...

Several weeks back, as part of "The Button" storyline that ran between Batman and The Flash, (Concerning the appearance of the Comedian's bloodstained pin from Watchmen)  Eobard Thawne's memories of the pre-Flashpoint DCU and his death at the hands of the Thomas Wayne Batman were restored along with his original powers. This effectively erases the New 52 Professor Zoom and brings back the original Reverse Flash. After attacking Batman and ripping up the letter written by the Flashpoint version of Thomas Wayne, Thawne decided to follow the energy signature coming from the pin to its source, hoping to kill whoever the power belonged to. It seemed as though Thawne was then murdered by Doctor Manhattan, but a spark of life remained in Thawne's decimated corpse and his body revived, once again escaping death.

Thawne attacked Iris West and the second Wally West, beating Wally II within an inch of his life and calling him a "Fake Wally West." In a way it felt like Thawne was confirming that the second Wally did not exist in the old DCU and was acknowledging his controversial status as the "new" Wally West. He then kidnaps Iris and brings her to the 25th Century. Thawne left Wally II alive so that he could tell Barry where Thawne went. Thawne unmasked Barry in front of Iris since, at this point in her life, Iris had no idea Barry was really the Flash. To further twist the knife, Thawne (who remembers everything before Flashpoint and the New 52) decided to show Barry and Iris what their personal futures would have in store for them in the post-Rebirth DCU.

To that end, Barry and Iris were shown their future selves, older and grayer, in a version of Central City under siege by a destructive force. Barry tries to reason with whoever is causing the chaos, saying he's there for them now. However...

(Art by Howard Porter)

This is all part of a display in the Flash Museum called "The Destruction of Central City." And because he's just that nasty, Thawne cryptically mentions the Twins "should" be heroes, somewhat acknowledging the twins have been retconned into villains.

Because of course Barry was a terrible dad. Because Barry ruins everything, just like he ruined the Flash Family and the entire DCU after throwing them all under the bus in a poorly thought out attempt to save his mother's life. The worst thing DC has done in the last decade was bring Barry back.

The one bright spot of hope in all this is the future Barry and Iris are shown might be A future, not THE future. It's also likely that being bad guys was a temporary thing for Don and Dawn and Eobard deliberately kept hidden their heroic careers. But with all the devastation the twins leave in their determination to make Daddy Dearest suffer, I won't hold my breath.

This is just so lazy, like what's happened to Saturn Girl in Arkham Asylum, mentally unwell and spouting mysterious foreshadowing. With Saturn Girl, that's a rehash of what they did to Starboy in "Justice Society." But this? The whole "I'm a bad guy because daddy didn't love me" routine? And the worst part is, they were going to do something like this with Wally West's twins before Flashpoint, although admittedly it was going to be one of his kids, not both. So once again the creative team copies Wally's storylines and gives them to Barry.

I'm not even sure what, exactly, this means for Bart and Jenni, but it can't be good. I thank God I work in a comic store so I don't have to pay for my books, which means I didn't have to pay for this mess. I only looked through this because I was expecting Thawne to shed more exposition on the pre-Flashpoint DCU in his quest to troll Barry, in the vain hope of DC further acknowledging the DC Universe before it all went to Hell six years ago. Pick it up if you're a die-hard Legion fanatic. Otherwise, let it sit on the shelf.