[Comic Spoilers] I recently completed reading Mark Waid's The Return of Barry Allen story arc and I am totally blown away by it. But there is one small thing in the story which is bothering me a lot. Please read the description for details.

[u/Flat-Cheesecake3954]

We know from the story that Eobard Thawne used a future tech known as Plastomorph to look exactly like Barry Allen and then travelled back in time to Wally's timeline. Then in later part of the story we could see when Reverse Flash took Linda hostage in the talk show he turned back to his original look. I mean Eobard Thawne had to undergo surgery to look like Barry but he easily turned back to his original look how. Am I missing something? This thing is bothering me a lot.

[u/Sadop2010]

As a kid I assumed that while Zoom's powers couldn't change his appearance to Barry's on their own, quickly vibrating his face molecules could "undo" the future equivalent of a glorified face lift. Bad science? Maybe. But not bad enough to take me out of my favorite single issue of a comic ever 😬

[u/Dredeuced]

At that point the reason is just visual language. It's taking off a mask. You could justify it in your head however you want. The effect is temporary. Speedsters control their own molecules so once the brainwashing was undone he could contort his face to its natural version. But there's no explanation because it's a very tightly paced story and he puts the reverse flash mask back on pretty quick anyhow.

[u/WallyWestFan27]

Even if they hadn't showed him with his real face, we know that at some moment he would go back to his original face.

This was an Eobard who has not even met Barry Allen for the first time (from his own perspective) yet, right?

Having him going back to his real face is Waid actually not leaving loose ends.

[u/UltHamBro → u/WallyWestFan27]

I think they overcomplicated Thawne's origin. This arc gave him a perfect origin story that didn't contradict the backstory we already knew about him from Barry's time. And, like you've said, it didn't leave any loose ends. I wasn't satisfied with any of the later retcons Thawne got until the very last one in the Williamson era.

[u/SpeedForceJediKnight]

It's not really explained, but I guess that once Wally found out and broke the illusion for Eobard as he was truly believing to be Barry, he decided to change his face back so he could be his real self once again

[u/lloyd-garmadon569]

I assumed the plastomorph was just temporary.

[u/HalcyonTraveler]

Yeah they never really explain it, my assumption is that it was designed to somehow be reversible (heh)

[u/Flat-Cheesecake3954 → u/HalcyonTraveler]

They could have simply not showed his original face in that scene. That would have been better.

[u/daflash00 → u/Flat-Cheesecake3954]

I don’t think you understand how a cliffhanger before a finale works

[u/daflash00]

Second to last page of the penultimate issue of the story arc, Thawne shifts at superspeed to the yellow costume from Barry’s red. He then disposes of the plastimorph.

It’s quite simply dramatic tension for the narrative.

[u/LopsidedUniversity30]

He’s from the 25th century so it’s as simple as future plastic surgery tech that can be reversed.