Quote Originally Posted by SiegePerilous02 View Post
That's a good point.

Is Barry being declared the best Flash really so much worse than when it was done with Wally? Or does it only seem worse to the Wally fans, even though it's pretty much the same?

Sort of like how Hal being declared the greatest GL both in and out of universe is a bit obnoxious...but Kyle got plenty of transparent shilling as well, to the point where even friggin Dream of the Endless said he'd surpass Hal Jordan. This crap didn't arrive with DiDio and Johns.
Shilling does exist, and almost always favor the current starring character in a role. But if I may make a slight argument for why Wally fans may have a justified tendency to bristle at Barry getting explicit pride of place...

Wally wound up having a character arc that seemed to let him earn a mantle as "The Flash, Evolved." Because his first major creator made him significantly slower than Barry, when he broke past that limit while duking it out with Reverse-Flash (who was acting as an almost perfect reflection of Wally's "inadequacy" as Barry's successor), the moment felt like an official crowning of Wally as Barry's equal, even though Barry had the usual Silver Age OP history. Then, of course, Waid continued his run by having Wally discover the Speed Force and focusing multiple stories around him learning how to control and manipulate it in a manner totally unique in comparison to Barry's abilities. The trend continued and arguably culminated in Wally taking on his own Zoom, who was initially portrayed as *above* super-speed, since Zoom controlled his own momentum in time itself. I mean, post-Blitz, Wally feels like a more powerful and disciplined take on the concept of the Flash, created over decades and featuring in almost universally praised books (in comparison to Kyle, at least.)

The delivery speed and degree of shilling Barry got upon returning does feel like an overcompensation for the new paradigm Johns established; on a strictly subjective level, Wally earning his credentials slowly over decades felt more genuine than a quick retcon hammering Barry into the center of the Flash universe that was altered by and for Wally. Green Lantern at least had the excuse of having simultaneously Hal's power and experience played up as extraordinary during his heel turn, while that same heel turn also ticked off fans far more than Barry's dignified and heroic finale, and already came with a vehicle by which a "first among equals" system could be enforced thanks to John and Guy.

Ideally, they probably could have played with the Wally and Barry dichotomy better with some differentiation, sort of like what could work with Cassandra Cain and Babs Gordon as Batgirl: perhaps they could make Wally *clearly* and *significantly* the more skilled manipulator of the Speed Force while Barry's generation of it gives him a more natural raw physical edge, and then maybe suggest that the difference and approach and powers leads to very different uses of power. Maybe Barry can accelerate his mind to keep up with his top speeds in a way Wally would need help to reach. Or maybe Wally can enter the time stream without any aid much more easily than Barry, but lacks the specific control Barry can attain with the Cosmic Treadmill.

In any case, it's an issue that may have been moot if they'd followed through on the original plan and allowed Johns to launch a Speed Force title.