I've been thinking about how the American psyche lays itself out in the comics we (hopefully) read. I've been thinking about the country's self-flagellating need to have our elders continue to lead us far beyond what is either sane or logical and be a constant surrogate Dad in our lives. This was true with Biden until it wasn't, and now (again, hopefully) more than half of America is currently euphoric to potentially not have that be the case anymore!
How does this apply to comics? For decades, the original Flash, Barry Allen, was replaced by his mentor Wally West. This gave us decades of watching a younger character carrying the torch, growing into the role and bearing the burden of his legacy. Then DC Comics brought Barry Allen, "a white republican from the sixties" as one cartoonist aptly put it, back to life, destroying decades of storytelling and world building. All to satisfy that need for nothing to change.
It's weird. We want our comics characters to become "mature" and get with the times and stay with us as we get older, but we don't want them to grow up and move on. Because we don't want to do that either.
The above page marks Barry Allen's return all the way back in 2008's Final Crisis (the second issue, to be exact) by Grant Morrison and JG Jones.
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