DC’s The Flash #35 pushes Wally West’s newest ability into unexpectedly ambitious territory. After a confrontation with Heat Wave on the sea floor, Wally realizes that his “Flashes of Insight” could become more than a warning system—they could help him prevent disasters before they happen.
Written by Ryan North and drawn by Gavin Guidry, the issue arrives Wednesday, July 22, 2026, as part of the current Wally West-focused era of the long-running series. For readers interested in how superhero stories handle nearly limitless power, this issue presents a compelling question: what happens when the Flash stops reacting to emergencies and starts trying to eliminate them altogether?
A Flash Who Sees Trouble Coming
The preview begins with Wally facing Heat Wave beneath the ocean’s surface. The setting alone promises a visually unusual challenge for the Scarlet Speedster, but the encounter’s greater importance is what Wally learns from it. His Flashes of Insight have already suggested a new dimension to his powers, and this confrontation gives him a breakthrough in how those glimpses might be used.
Rather than treating his visions as isolated flashes of information, Wally starts thinking about them as part of a larger system. With help from Mr. Terrific, he begins combining the Speed Force with rapid passes through Central City, gathering data on a scale he has never attempted before.
The idea turns one of the Flash’s most familiar abilities—moving faster than anyone else—into something closer to real-time emergency forecasting. Wally is not simply arriving at the scene of a robbery, accident, or crisis. He is attempting to identify the conditions that lead to those events and intervene before anyone is hurt.
Central City’s Perfect Day
The first results are extraordinary. Wally manages to give Central City a day in which nothing goes wrong. No accidents occur, and even an attempted bank robbery by one of his Rogues fails to disrupt the city’s seemingly perfect run.
That premise gives the issue an intriguing tension. A conventional Flash story often asks whether Wally can move fast enough to save everyone. Here, the challenge is more complicated: can he maintain total awareness of an entire city without becoming overwhelmed by the responsibility?
The preview describes Wally’s initial success as only the beginning. Once he proves that even a glimpse one second into the future can make a meaningful difference, the next step is scaling the process up “to a level the world has never seen.” That goal carries obvious promise, but it also raises questions about the limits of prediction. Preventing one accident may be heroic. Trying to control every possible outcome could become something much more dangerous.
Ryan North’s Expanding Vision of Wally West
The issue continues the creative direction established by Ryan North and Gavin Guidry, who began their run with The Flash #31. In an official DC interview about the series, North emphasized the distinction he sees between Wally and Barry Allen. Barry is traditionally associated with scientific analysis, while Wally is characterized by his enthusiasm, emotional openness, and sincere desire to help people.
That perspective appears especially relevant to The Flash #35. Wally’s plan is highly technical, involving data collection, Speed Force experimentation, and consultation with one of DC’s greatest scientific minds. Yet the motivation behind it remains personal and straightforward: he wants to help more people before they get hurt.
North has also discussed his interest in Wally’s more sympathetic relationship with the Rogues. The preview reflects that approach without turning the issue into a conventional redemption story. A Rogue still attempts a bank robbery, but Wally’s improved awareness allows him to stop the crime before it can undermine Central City’s perfect day. The conflict is less about overpowering an enemy and more about understanding the city well enough to stay ahead of trouble.
Gavin Guidry and the Challenge of Speed
Guidry’s artwork is particularly well suited to an issue built around motion, information, and cause-and-effect. The preview’s sea-floor confrontation with Heat Wave gives the artist an opportunity to place the Flash in an environment that naturally works against his usual advantages. Once Wally begins racing through Central City, the visual focus can shift from a single battle to the movement of an entire urban ecosystem.
That change in scale is important. The Flash is often depicted as a streak of red moving through a crisis, but this story positions him as a presence woven through the city’s daily life. Every rapid pass becomes part of a larger map of potential emergencies, with Wally trying to read the patterns before they become disasters.
For collectors, the issue also carries the Legacy designation #835, reflecting the historic numbering tradition attached to The Flash. That milestone adds context to a story that is otherwise focused on a very contemporary superhero idea: using predictive information and constant data gathering to make a city safer.
Release Details and Reader Interest
The Flash #35 is scheduled for release from DC on July 22, 2026. Ryan North is credited as writer, with Gavin Guidry providing the art.
The issue should appeal to longtime Wally West readers, fans of inventive Speed Force concepts, and anyone drawn to superhero stories that explore the consequences of power rather than simply adding another stronger villain. Its central hook is immediately accessible: the Flash gets a chance to prevent problems before they happen. The more interesting question is whether a perfect day can remain perfect once Wally tries to reproduce it on a much larger scale.
At its best, the premise offers a natural extension of Wally’s heroic personality. He is not seeking control for its own sake. He is trying to make sure that no one has to experience the kind of crisis he is usually forced to confront after the damage has already begun. That hopeful impulse may be exactly what makes the experiment work—and what could make its eventual consequences so significant.
Sources
aiptcomics.com
dc.com
