hey I wanna read your frequency fic but I only vaguely know what the deal is with thaddeus. he's barts evil clone or something? Will I be super lost?
i like to recommend reading through the Mercury Falling arc of Impulse 1995 (issue #62-66) since Frequency is something of a spiritual sequel to that arc! it has the bulk of the context for Thad and where he's coming from. (there's also a scattering of references to other comics throughout the fic which are cited in the author's notes of each chapter if you want to check them out, but they don't have quite as much narrative weight)
however! there's been a couple commenters who've told me they've never read a Flash or Impulse comic before and still seemed to enjoy the story/get it through context!
the cliffsnotes on Thad is that he is Bart's evil clone, grown in a laboratory by Bart's maternal grandfather/Thad's namesake Thaddeus Thawne, and trained to be superior to Bart in every way. Thad fully buys into the Thawne narrative and is intent on destroying Bart and his family, until he swaps places with Bart, stealing his identity, and then gets to spend a few weeks living Bart's life. Where people are nice to him and appreciate him and think he's cool and Thad is baffled by how much he likes it. After a final climactic confrontation in the speedforce where Thad tries to kill Bart's mentor Max Mercury and can't, Thad runs away, cursing the names of the people who made him.
but yeah highly recommend a minimum reading of Mercury Falling, although you can probably enjoy Frequency on its own as well











