Barry Allen wakes up and realizes the world has changed first off he has no super speed, his powers are gone. He is still at the police station but then he is hit with a second shock to the system, his mother is still alive. Barry is running around losing his mind because of all of the changes but it isn't just the physical changes to the world but his memories are also starting to change. In Barry's quest to get his powers back he seeks out the Batman of this time.
This version of Batman was truly a twisted take on the character. Thomas Wayne has become the Batman of this time because of the death of his son at the hands of gun violence. Thomas Wayne helped Barry get his powers back by having him struck by lightning twice. Now that Barry has his powers back he has a plan to right all of the wrongs of this timeline. He knows the Reverse Flash is behind it but he just doesn't know how he did it. Barry's one thought is that since Atlantis along with Aquaman are tearing the world apart while they war with Wonder Woman and the Amazons. Europe is underwater and many of the heroes of that the world used to have are no where to be seen. In fact the most well know hero of the United States is Cyborg.
The Flash along with Batman and Cyborg have set out on a mission to rescue Superman from a government project. Barry believes by bringing the Justice League together they can stop Aquaman and Wonder Woman from fighting. There are other characters who make their appearances in this series such as Element Woman, Shazam or should I say Captain Thunder and even Hal Jordan as just a pilot no powers. With the help of some of these other heroes the Flash arrives in the middle of a battle where Aquaman and Wonder Woman are about to kill each other. Enchantress turns out to be a double crossing bitch and we see the death of Shazam. Billy Batson is by far not the only death in this timeline of a prominent character, there are lots of them. It is only during this battle that the Reverse Flash arrives. I have to say I love the Reverse Flash as a concept and a villain he is in some cases the most horrifying villain in all of comics he is definitely up there with the likes of Norman Osborn, the Joker, many others.
The big reveal of having the Reverse Flash show up is not because he created this reality but because Barry did when he stopped the Reverse Flash from killing his mother. Imagine if Batman stopped the gunman or Spider-Man stopped the death of his uncle how would their worlds have been changed. This is where the event is stronger than House of M because unlike House of M the person behind the problem is the same person trying to fix the problem. The Reverse Flash is ecstatic because in this new timeline he can kill Barry without erasing himself from existence. But before he can do that Batman kills the Reverse Flash. As the battle is raging on around them Superman shows up to balance the scales and Barry sets off running as fast as he can. He runs so fast that he shatters three different timelines and those three lines mold together into one which becomes the New 52. If Barry's sacrifice gave us the modern age of the DC Universe in Crisis on Infinite Earths. His running gave us the New 52 proving again when the time stream is involved Barry Allen is the greatest hero of the DC Universe.
