So, the real cover for the upcoming Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #13 was revealed at Heroes Con this weekend. Things don’t look promising for Bart, especially since there’s a history of Flashes dying… but let’s remember there’s also a history of Flashes (and supporting cast) appearing dead on the cover, but still making it through the issue. The full cover—and more than 20 examples of dead Flash covers—appear below.

Flash #13 full cover Flash: The Countdown Continues in Flash #13

I went through the galleries at the Grand Comic Database for the 1959 and 1987 series, and managed to find no less than 23 covers on which the Flash, or a member of his supporting cast was depicted as dead, but managed to survive the story. Sometimes the events took place, but the character survived, or it turned out the body was someone else’s. Sometimes they were what I call “CPR deaths,” in which the character is technically dead, but not beyond the help of modern (or in comics, slightly ahead of modern) medicine. Generally they’re resuscitated in the following issue. And some are just plain misleading.

Cover: Flash v1 #130: Who Doomed the Flash? Cover: Flash v1 #171: The Flash lies dead--unburied--and unmourned! Why? Cover: Flash v1 #172: Gorilla Grodd: If you're looking for the Flash on this cover--forget it!  This uniform is all that's left of him! Cover: Flash v1 #174: Triumph of the Six Super-Villains Cover: Flash v1 #186: Skeleton in uniform; So that's what happened to the Flash! Cover: Flash v1 #191: Empty uniform; Wrong! This is NOT the Flash! Cover: Flash v1 #199: Newspaper: Flash Dead! Cover: Flash v1 #202: Woman floating in pool; Oh no!  My wife--they've killed her! Cover: Flash v1 #209: Captain Boomerang and Tricskter: We did it! Killed the Flash! Cover: Flash v1 #215: Lifeless Jay Garrick.  Barry: You...Savage!  Why did you have to kill him to get at me? Cover: Flash v1 #227: Book title: Flash: This Is Your Death! Cover: Flash v1 #233: Prof. Zoom: Now that I've taken the Flash's life--I'll take his wife! Cover: Flash v1 #235: Dead Jay; Vandal Savage: I've finished one Flash! But to remain immortal, I must kill the other Flash--and Green Lantern! Cover: Flash v1 #258: Black Hand: You've run your last mile, Flash! I've doomed you to a flaming finish! Cover: Flash v1 #305: Jay Garrick: When your wife died...you know mine would die, too! Why didn't you tell me? Cover: Flash v1 #322: Flash seen in rifle scope, shot Cover: Flash v2 #17: Flash lying on ground amid rubble from explosion Cover: Flash v2 #25: Tattered costume remains in huge crater Cover: Flash v2 #49: Dead Flash, with R.I.P. Cover: Flash v2 #140: Tombstone: In loving memory, Linda Park Cover: Flash v2 #157: Tombstone: Here lies Linda Park... died again 2000 Cover: Flash v2 #202: Empty suit amid rubbble. Whatever happened to the Flash? Cover: Flash v2 #228: Flash and Nightwing, with multiple tombstones: Here lies Wally West, Barry Allen, Linda Park, Jay Garrick... Cover: Impulse #66: Impulse and Inertia clash in front of Max Mercury's skeleton Cover: Impulse #77: Impulse leads Young Justice into battle, saying 'They'll win this war over my dead body.'  Then the team looks at a grave, marked with a lightning bolt and the words, 'That's not funny.' Cover: Flash v.2 #247: the Flash's shadow is the Grim Reaper's, and the caption reads: Wally West...Finished? Cover: Flash Rebirth #2: Barry Allen runs in the foreground, while skeletal remains of other Flashes appear on a film strip.

Hover for a description. Click to open the issue’s page at GCD.

Update: It’s Monday, and spoilers for the actual issue are starting to hit the message boards. Please DO NOT post any here. I’m waiting until Wednesday when I can read the book. Thank you!

Update 2: Added one cover from Impulse.

Update (June 25): I just discovered that Comic Coverage did a similar feature on The Many Deaths of Barry Allen last year.

Update (August 19): I can’t believe I missed Impulse #77.

Update (September, 2009): Cross-posted at Speed Force.

Update (June, 2010): Added Flash v.2 #247, Flash: Rebirth #2, Flash v.3 #3.

Update (July 2010): Added Secret Origins #41

6 thoughts on “Dead Flash Covers

  1. There’s at least one more. There was one during the Bill Messner-Loebs run that had him lying on the ground looking like he’d been run over.

  2. i’m getting closer to having all of those comics. obv the new ones are easy to find…. #s 130, thru the 173 area are the couple i need right now.. and i think one or two more.

    awesome that you have this so i can identify and track down these issues.

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