Family is a pretty big theme "running" throughout THE FLASH, since the New 52 version of the series kicked off. Aside from the Allen family, the West family has been a large part of this volume as well, with Iris West's younger brother, Danny, becoming Reverse Flash, a thorn in Barry Allen's side for quite some time.
Now, with Reverse Flash "enjoying" his new life on the Suicide Squad, there's no more speedsters for the Flash to fight, right? Wrong. Back in issue #40, right before CONVERGENCE, Professor Zoom popped up and now, he's terrorizing the Allen family and making their lives a living hell. What is his connection to the family and what is he exactly doing? Let's take a look at some of the moments from THE FLASH #42 and see what could be going on in this story.
Warning: There are some spoiler moments from this week's issue. You have been warned.
As seen in issue #41, Henry Allen, along with some other villains, like Girder, and now they're on the run and grabbing supplies from the Central City distribution center for Medi-Barn Supplies, Inc, but someone is following Henry and crew and Henry doesn't notice him at first.
Obviously, it's Zoom, but what does Zoom want with Henry Allen?
As the moment moves forward, it seems Professor Zoom doesn't want Henry Allen to be a "free man," even though Henry is wanted for escaping prison and all, so Zoom does what every concerned citizen or monster messing with a whole family's life would do, he pulls the fire alarm.
With the fire alarm comes a guard and the group is put in a sticky situation.
In the moment where the guard has his gun drawn on Henry, Zoom speeds in and puts Henry's gun in his hand and makes Henry pull the trigger. The guard goes down and is dead.
That is a moment that's going to change everything. Henry Allen is a killer, as far as everyone else knows. Why is Zoom doing this? It's one thing to make your enemies look bad, but forcing them to commit murder? Zoom is doing everything he can to soil Allen's name.
It does seem like that moment with Allen earned him some "street cred" with Girder and the gang, but Zoom isn't done yet. Later on, Zoom confronts Barry again and while Barry has only bumped into Zoom a couple of times, Zoom seems very familiar with who Barry is.
After their confrontation, Zoom leads Barry to the house where his mother was killed.
What Could be Going on?
There's a lot of animosity that Zoom has for Barry, which is apparent in the dialogue through the issue, but there's almost this uneasy feeling that while Zoom spends every moment in this issue trying to mess with the Allen family, he could be doing it for the greater good. Stay with me.
After Henry shot the guard, he got some respect from Girder, who, in turn wouldn't give him up during his fight with Barry. Henry has become the alpha in that rogue crew.
Later on, when Zoom and Flash meet, Zoom brings Barry to the house where his mother died. There's no fight, just Zoom leading the way. If he despised the Flash as much as we think he does, then something bigger should have happened at the end of the issue.
There was to be something more to all of this. It can't be so cut and dry. Could Zoom be leading the Allens down a specific path so it doesn't mess up his future or a future event? Our theory says that's what's going on, mainly because of how held back Zoom seems in this issue. We may even go one step further and say all-in-all, Zoom is actually the hero of this story and his actions in this issue are stopping some huge, horrible events before they start.
We're not sure, but we'll keep you updated as more develops in this series!
What do you think is going on with Zoom and the Allens? Let us know!
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