Just a few things I wanted to talk about
Some notes on the ending of Blitz and the age of baby Josh
There may be spoilers for those who haven't read Geoff Johns' run on the Flash.
Blitz ending
I don't really like the whole 'everyone forgetting Wally West is the Flash' plothook. Yes, it gives us a sort of origins story over the next arc and gives us a Flash with a secret identity again (and all the problems that causes), but there are a few reasons I dislike it.
Wally had the very reasonable reaction to a personal tragedy of stopping being the Flash. No one could begrudge him some time off after the events of Blitz. A few months to get his head clear and I believe his better nature would've nudged him into helping people again. Fair enough.
The mass mind-wipe however...
1) It wasn't Wally's idea - Barry and Hal push for him to make everyone forget. It was their idea and had they been anyone else, I think Wally would've said 'no'. Barry's acting like Wally hasn't grown into being the Flash in his own right, treating him like he doesn't know what he's talking about. It's really quite a humiliating moment for Wally.
2) It leaves Keystone/Central without a protector - In Ignition, we have a Keystone City with no hero and it's a mess. Had Wally just retired/taken time off, he would've made sure that someone was there instead of him. But Jay and Bart are staying out of the way to make sure they don't mess with Wally's memory, which is stupid of everyone involved.
3) It didn't work the way it was meant to - We see in issue #219 that Zoom still remembers. He was the reason for the mass-memory-wipe and it didn't affect him. None of Flash's other enemies have come close to actually hurting Linda, but they all had to forget.
4) It doesn't hold up if you think about it - How many villains are going to go 'hang about, why did I kidnap that reporter to get to Flash?' or similar instances. Linda 'died' earlier on and all the villains were passing on their regrets to Wally and Flash was powerless for a little time after. Maybe the larger-scale villains won't care, but the ones closer to home? I'm personally of the opinion that Captain Cold worked it out during the diner sequences, especially when he saw Linda with Wally, and that's one of the reasons why he'd stopped coming at the end.
5) It doesn't give Wally and Linda proper closure - They put the blame of their lost babies on Zoom and Flash equally. As far as they're concerned, the Flash has vanished. They don't get to talk to/shout at him or hear any sort of apology from him. They don't have Wally being the Flash and simply saying that he tried his hardest. They can't grieve properly and that's a horrible thing for them to go through.
There you go. I'm sure other people have their own opinions, but that's what I thought about the way Wally's secret identity was reinstated.
Josh's age
We all know Josh Jackham is Mark Mardon/Weather Wizard's son, by a cop called Julie Jackham. Julie is an ex-girlfriend of Wally's. What I'm going to look at is what Josh's age should be when we see him in Final Crisis: Rogues' Revenge.
Julie thought Josh was Wally's son. I'm going to assume Wally never cheated on Linda, for all that he was quite bad with women initially. This means Wally dated Julie shortly before he ended up with Linda.
I'm going to call Josh 6 months old when we first see him. Still small, but able to entertain himself with blocks and other simple toys. This means we have 9 months of pregnancy plus 6 months of growing. Wally and Linda's courtship/marriage/everything happened within the space of 15 months.
Say that's plausible (retcons after all), so we have a 6 month old Josh.
At the end of Crossfire we find out Linda's pregnant. Josh is with Iris Allen and I'll add a month for general events happening. 7 months.
Skip forward 8 months (twins come early/Linda wasn't only just pregnant when they found out) to the end of Rogue War. Linda gives birth. Josh is now 15 months old.
Say another month for the time between the twins being born and Infinite Crisis taking place. 16 months.
We have another skip of a year (One Year Later), now Bart Allen is the Flash. Josh is now 28 months old, that is, 2 years and 4 months. When a child is 2 they are half the height they will be as an adult. Josh should now be able to toddle about somewhat, speak some words, and generally start acting like a person instead of a baby.
If we say Bart Allen doesn't last more than a few months and Salvation Run was of a similar length, Josh is still pushing 3 years old when he appears in Rogues' Revenge. At 3 years, a child is able to talk in short sentences and is much more a small human being than a baby which is unaware of itself.
This is of course assuming Wally and Linda didn't have a longer courtship and any of my other assumptions are approximately correct.
Still, Libra is definitely not holding a 3 year old. A child that old would be much more aware of what was going on, even if it was just 'I'm scared, please make the bad men go away'. I, for one, would have much rather seen a more grown-up Josh and all the new issues that would've brought up.
There may be spoilers for those who haven't read Geoff Johns' run on the Flash.
Blitz ending
I don't really like the whole 'everyone forgetting Wally West is the Flash' plothook. Yes, it gives us a sort of origins story over the next arc and gives us a Flash with a secret identity again (and all the problems that causes), but there are a few reasons I dislike it.
Wally had the very reasonable reaction to a personal tragedy of stopping being the Flash. No one could begrudge him some time off after the events of Blitz. A few months to get his head clear and I believe his better nature would've nudged him into helping people again. Fair enough.
The mass mind-wipe however...
1) It wasn't Wally's idea - Barry and Hal push for him to make everyone forget. It was their idea and had they been anyone else, I think Wally would've said 'no'. Barry's acting like Wally hasn't grown into being the Flash in his own right, treating him like he doesn't know what he's talking about. It's really quite a humiliating moment for Wally.
2) It leaves Keystone/Central without a protector - In Ignition, we have a Keystone City with no hero and it's a mess. Had Wally just retired/taken time off, he would've made sure that someone was there instead of him. But Jay and Bart are staying out of the way to make sure they don't mess with Wally's memory, which is stupid of everyone involved.
3) It didn't work the way it was meant to - We see in issue #219 that Zoom still remembers. He was the reason for the mass-memory-wipe and it didn't affect him. None of Flash's other enemies have come close to actually hurting Linda, but they all had to forget.
4) It doesn't hold up if you think about it - How many villains are going to go 'hang about, why did I kidnap that reporter to get to Flash?' or similar instances. Linda 'died' earlier on and all the villains were passing on their regrets to Wally and Flash was powerless for a little time after. Maybe the larger-scale villains won't care, but the ones closer to home? I'm personally of the opinion that Captain Cold worked it out during the diner sequences, especially when he saw Linda with Wally, and that's one of the reasons why he'd stopped coming at the end.
5) It doesn't give Wally and Linda proper closure - They put the blame of their lost babies on Zoom and Flash equally. As far as they're concerned, the Flash has vanished. They don't get to talk to/shout at him or hear any sort of apology from him. They don't have Wally being the Flash and simply saying that he tried his hardest. They can't grieve properly and that's a horrible thing for them to go through.
There you go. I'm sure other people have their own opinions, but that's what I thought about the way Wally's secret identity was reinstated.
Josh's age
We all know Josh Jackham is Mark Mardon/Weather Wizard's son, by a cop called Julie Jackham. Julie is an ex-girlfriend of Wally's. What I'm going to look at is what Josh's age should be when we see him in Final Crisis: Rogues' Revenge.
Julie thought Josh was Wally's son. I'm going to assume Wally never cheated on Linda, for all that he was quite bad with women initially. This means Wally dated Julie shortly before he ended up with Linda.
I'm going to call Josh 6 months old when we first see him. Still small, but able to entertain himself with blocks and other simple toys. This means we have 9 months of pregnancy plus 6 months of growing. Wally and Linda's courtship/marriage/everything happened within the space of 15 months.
Say that's plausible (retcons after all), so we have a 6 month old Josh.
At the end of Crossfire we find out Linda's pregnant. Josh is with Iris Allen and I'll add a month for general events happening. 7 months.
Skip forward 8 months (twins come early/Linda wasn't only just pregnant when they found out) to the end of Rogue War. Linda gives birth. Josh is now 15 months old.
Say another month for the time between the twins being born and Infinite Crisis taking place. 16 months.
We have another skip of a year (One Year Later), now Bart Allen is the Flash. Josh is now 28 months old, that is, 2 years and 4 months. When a child is 2 they are half the height they will be as an adult. Josh should now be able to toddle about somewhat, speak some words, and generally start acting like a person instead of a baby.
If we say Bart Allen doesn't last more than a few months and Salvation Run was of a similar length, Josh is still pushing 3 years old when he appears in Rogues' Revenge. At 3 years, a child is able to talk in short sentences and is much more a small human being than a baby which is unaware of itself.
This is of course assuming Wally and Linda didn't have a longer courtship and any of my other assumptions are approximately correct.
Still, Libra is definitely not holding a 3 year old. A child that old would be much more aware of what was going on, even if it was just 'I'm scared, please make the bad men go away'. I, for one, would have much rather seen a more grown-up Josh and all the new issues that would've brought up.