Frowning at the underlying reasoning behind DCs Rebirth is easy, I shall indulge in that myself, but credit to the publisher for keeping the secrets contained in this story for so long, a pity the book was leaked a week early but nontheless Spoilers are one thing, Story is something else.
And in spite of my not being comfortable with the rationale of the books plot there can be no denying it contained some potent character pieces for The Flash... in particular a well executed return from a long missed redheaded Flash we likely all grew up with.

Well done, well drawn, and, quite clearly, heartfelt from those involved....

Someone showed me this, since I won't get my books until next week. (Did ask them to pull me a copy, tho'.)

Did you notice at the very end, in the scene of so many characters...

Left hand side, there's a guy in a red and SILVER suit, with lightning bolts on it, and it sort of looks like an all red version of the Kid Flash costume? (No top to the mask...hair sticking thru.)

Obviously, Wally, since his cousin is shown in a traditional Kid Flash style costume.

I wonder...

Will Wally have a code name? "Speedster"? "The Blur"? It's got me wondering...

They kept the secret amazingly well, if I get some time this weekend I shall rather like to talk more about Rebirth as it was not quite as appalling as I had feared. I disagree with much of its underlying mechanics but I will give full credit to Geoff Johns as It's strength for me lay in some fine heartfelt introspection and confession over the decline of the DCU in recent years and the erosion of so much of what made these characters appealing historically.
Returning Wally West was a decision I saw little reason for given Barry Allen's entrenchment these last five years, but Johns impressed by essentially devoting this books content and narrative to reintroducing him, and doing so in an emotional manner that only a die-in-the-wool pessimist could dismiss as wasteful pagecount.

So Wally returns to active service. Do we need him in the DCU today? No. But in a sense the revival of the original Titans by Dan Abnett means he at least has a home and is among friends and fellow orphans... in a real sense he has indeed come home. And the return of the Legacy tradition to the DCU forms an interesting subject in itself - it does appear that in as much as anything Rebirth is the manifest admittal that the 2011 rebooting and subsequent five years of aimless blundering have been not just a mistaae, but incredibly damaging. I posit then that what we have here is 70 pages of admittal of failure... and a publisher with little or no idea how to repair its self inflicted damage.

Someone suggested to me that this is all going to lead to another Crisis, and THEN there'll be a full reboot, the results (hopefully) being something far more like the pre-Flashpoint timeline, only with no excess baggage from the nu52 like we'll continue having now.

I feel another Reboot is a near certainty. The irony, and painful paradox, of this is that both Dan Didio and Geoff Johns have indicated their full awareness that yet another reboot would not be tolerated by the readership, and the company's reputation would run the real risk of being ever more brittle - you cannot keep rebooting your entire line with this frequency, and this continued lack of thought and care.

For me Rebirth presents more problems than it addresses. One of my concerns being the utter lack of any original ideas or characters put forth. Just like much else of Geoff Johns' work of this nature everyone involved in the plot is recycled, familiar. There is nothing new here. And given the amount of old continuity and characters this book looks at that lack of fresh ideas being injected is worrying for the future of this publisher.
Still, what ingredients Geoff Johns does use are quite well seeded. The intriguing Justice Society mystery, the three Jokers, Aquaman proposing to Mera in a wonderfully romantic moment scarely seen in the modern DCU. I did find it odd and convenient that Wally West did not find himself immediately drawn to Clark White/Superman (and therefore a valid tether) but Barry Allen being his saviour was the right choice and the logical one. I can well believe that Barry's inexplicable realisation as to Wally was due to his own subliminally remembered fate at the end of the Crisis and years spent in the Speedforce himself, but take the logic of the scene further and Barry would surely now be all too aware he was a married man and his life used to be very different. It makes for an extra layer of unnecessary baggage. But on the other hand I do appreciate the idea that these heroes might now be aware of their past lives and remember the heitage and experiences that created their strength of characters and made them the best of the best...

In the end Rebirth was a fine tale concerning loss and loneliness, of love and the real possibility of characters growing and evolving in a convincing and meaningful manner. Whether this narrative momentum will be maintained with Geoff Johns' temporary sabattical I am doubtful over however.

Very inteersyed as to what Oz meant when he told Superman that neither him nor the other Superman were who they thought they were, and to see if maybe another Force intervened, Time trapper? mxy? and Dr manhatten stopped them from fully taking over?