What Happens To 'The Flash' In 2024?

Hey, do you know what you're doing on April 25, 2024? It's a Thursday, if you didn't know off-hand. While you might not even know what you're having for dinner tonight, Barry Allen already has a date 10 years in the making. Or, at least we know he's got a date. Harrison wells knows he's got a date. Barry probably doesn't realize that The Flash "vanishes in crisis" on April 25, 2024. The only reason we know that is because of Wells' super creepy futuristic newspaper. It appears that everything Wells is working towards right now has been for whatever happens on that Thursday a decade away. For those who are new to the world of The Flash , you basically need a small crash course in time travel, since The Flash comics are riddled with it. It's been stated before by the folks behind the show (and we've discussed it a million and a half times here at Bustle), so in one way or another, time travel is going to happen on the show. To what magnitude time travel appears on The Flash remains to be seen. But it'll be there. And whatever it is, it'll have to do with what happens to Barry on April 25, 2024.

The headline of the paper clearly states that The Flash vanishes in he middle of a crisis. Maybe, in the middle of the Crisis on Infinity Earths ? See, there's this storyline in DC Comics where there's a crisis — obviously — and Barry has to come back from the future (just go with this) and save everything, as usual. But, in trying to defeat Professor Zoom once and for all, he actually runs so fast that he runs into the Speed Force. Now, Speed Force isn't something that's been discussed before, but it's a pretty simple thing. It's basically the "thing" that gives all speedsters — like Barry, and all other versions of Flash — their speed. Think of it like, the midi-chlorians of the Force. It's this invisible thing/being that gives other things life. And Barry manages to break through the Speed Force, basically, and in doing that he "vanishes." In the comics, Barry dies when he enters the Speed Force. There are also a few different accounts as to what actually happened to him when he entered the speed dimension. Here's one of the craziest ones: when he entered the Speed Force, he basically traveled through time and space, al la Interstellar, and manifested as the lightning bolt that struck him initially to give him his powers. Trippy, right? There's also another story that suggests Barry is in the afterlife giving advice to other DC superheroes. This just might be what Wells is working towards — that disappearance and apparent death of Barry, whether by the Speed Force or not. Bear in mind, this is what happens in the comics, and not might necessarily appear on the show. But, considering that the newspaper clearly states the word CRISIS and there's already a Crisis storyline written, it might at least run parallel to that. Too bad Barry has no idea this might be coming his way.

Images: Katie Yu/The CW; iqntojones /Tumblr