The second major Rebirth storyline begins this week and will run through the Batman and Flash titles in a 4-arc story.

Whereas Superman: Reborn began to answer and raise more questions about the Man of Steel, “The Button” spins directly out of the ending of the DCU Rebirth Special, where Batman found a blood-spattered smiley face button that resembles The Comedian’s trademark button, in the Bat-Cave wall, following Wally’s attempt to reconnect to the New52 Universe through Batman.

I also want to repost the segment I did on the history of the Button from Watchmen:

The button appears in the very first panel of Watchmen #1 laying in the gutter and picked up by Rorschach. The reader also learns that the button belonged to the vigilante/ Government Agent Edward “The Comedian” Blake, who was thrown out of his apartment window by a then-unknown assailant. Rorschach takes the button and gives it to the retired Daniel Dreiberg, Nite Owl II, his former partner before Keene Act era, where vigilantism and costumed fighting crime was made illegal. Dan later places the button without the blood in The Comedian’s grave and it is never seen again during the Watchmen story.

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The mystery of The Button was last addressed in The Flash Rebirth special.

Batman’s involvement in the Watchmen storyline has been minimal aside from his appearance in The Flash Rebirth and the events of Rise of the Batmen, where Red Robin/Tim Drake is captured by Mr. Oz during the opening run of Detective Comics’ return to the original numbering. I will address this in the Rebirth Checkup on The Batman Family (coming soon, hopefully).

The Flash Rebirth is Barry’s story, the first half of the book happens right before Wally appears to him as he is losing himself to the Speed Force.

Once Barry remembers and pulls Wally from The Speed Force, there is an extended reunion scene between the two and both promise to let each know as they both look into the mystery of who has messed with the history.

The one thing, and it may be a nitpick on my part, but this panel confused me:

Thing is at end of Flashpoint when Barry meets Batman and delivers the letter, he admits to knowing about Flashpoint and that he caused it, and said that everything was back to normal…I not sure he even remembers agreeing to help Pandora.

So I am unsure why when Wally telling him what happened (Flashpoint universe) he is hearing about it for the first time, or is surprised.

So Barry heads to Gotham while Wally heads to reunite and follow some leads with the Titans.

We Flash to the Batcave and two of the best forensic scientists in the DC are on the case as they realize they are working the same case

The letter is shown in Flashpoint #1, it’s the narrator captions. In order, it would read like this.

There’s only one thing I know about life.

I know some things happen by chance,

And some things happen because we make them happen. Barry Allen was a man haunted by his past.

But when he became the Flash, he left the ghosts behind.

He found love. A Family. Friends.

Barry thought yesterday was behind him…

…But somebody wouldn’t let him escape it. When Barry came to me for help, I turned him away.

I’m not the hero of this story.

I’m a man who’s been corrupted by his own unbearable pain, I’m a man who has too much blood on his hands to be called good.

I’m a man who had nothing to live for…

…until the day I met the Flash. The first time I met Barry Allen, I nearly killed him.

Like I said, I’m not the hero of this story.

After receiving and reading the letter Bruce Wayne breaks into tears over the letter and thanks Barry for being a good friend and for delivering this letter to him.









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Image 1 of / 9 Caption Close Image 2 of 9 Image 3 of 9 Image 4 of 9 Image 5 of 9 Image 6 of 9 Image 7 of 9 Should have known this was an tampered with timeline...Batman does not cry... Should have known this was an tampered with timeline...Batman does not cry... Image 8 of 9 Image 9 of 9 Rebirth Checkup - previewing The Button 1 / 9 Back to Gallery

This is also is the letter referred to by Wally when he appears to Batman.

I hope that the plot point of how the letter is plays into the creation of the New 52 Universe is explained.

In the two page spread of Batman and Flash involves where Batman is keeping the button:

First I can see how Batman would suspect the Joker, although aside from the knowledge he learns that there are three Jokers according to what he learned from his time on the Mobius Chair. But the thing that really caught my attention was this panel:

I have added the red circle above for emphasis. When Batman removed the button to look at it the light makes a Flashpoint reference that most readers may have missed.

The light makes the shape of a Amazonian sword through the Reverse-Flash symbol, representing the climatic ending of the Flashpoint Universe battle where Batman aka Thomas Wayne runs Reverse -Flash, Eobard Thawne through go with an Amazonian Sword. Batman does this to save Barry Allen so he can go back and correct the timeline where it is Bruce is alive and he is dead.

This is important because at the end of Flash #20, the Pre New52 Eobard Thawne / Reverse Flash returns

Now the Reverse-Flash and Eobard Thawne character was changed in the New52 Universe:

In the New52 universe Reverse-Flash was Danial West, who is New52 Wally West’s father and died on a mission with the Suicide Squad.

In the DCYou era, Eobard Thawne was introduced as Zoom, who was able to time travel, and was the one who killed Barry’s mother and framed his father for the murder. Thawne also gathered acolytes who were able to manipulate the Speed Force in different ways to use against Barry. This DCYou storyline ended up with Eobard in Iron Heights.

How Pre-New52 Eobard Thawne came back is a mystery which hopefully be explained he and possibly Thomas Wayne Batman will also make an appearance in The Button.

I am unsure how they would bring Thomas Wayne back unless it is in a Flashpoint universe flashback.

The Return of Jay Garrick?

The promo art that has released hints strongly that the Pre-Flashpoint version of the Golden Age Flash will be making an appearance during the story.

The released promotional art is an homage to the original Flash Comics

If you notice on the promotional cover has, like the original, has at least one of the small circles on the left.

On the original cover, is Cliff Cornwall, an FBI agent, whom the US army “borrowed ” to hunt down spies and sabetours. He was a reserve army air corps officer,a skilled pilot, and also shows familiarity with deep-sea diving.

On The Button promised cover you can just make out “Red Robin” which may mean a rescue attempt or more on the fate of Tim.

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The return of Jay was first teased in Flash Rebirth.

The last page show a speedster appearing at the crime scene where Barry was earlier that evening.

At first I thought it was Godspeed, the villian of the first arc of the new series…but the second panel clearly shows Jay’s helmet.

The second time was at the end of the one issue story where Wally (pre-Flashpoint) met his cousin the New52 Wally.

During the story, Barry has what he called a Flash Forward, where he sees visions of the future or possible future events.

I’ll cover these more in the Flash Rebirth checkup.

One last thought about Jay Garrick and a possible connection to the Multiverse from the pages of Multiversty.

Notice that there are two versions of Jay Garrick… The original Golden Age Jay and just over his right shoulder, wearing the yellow eye shield is the Earth-2 Society New52 Jay.

Maybe I am reading to much into things but it wouldn’t be the first time.

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Back tomorrow with Weekly Picks & Pulls