Should Black Wally West Get His Name Changed?

[Kyer]

Because real Wally has 50+ years, Young Justice, Smallville and a TON of comics under his belt.

Because when that tv show ends-who is going to remember black wally played by a bad actor?

Because if black Wally is the one that makes the movie-to avoid the Diversity & Comics legion of wearing out DC over it-change his name. If you are going to sell him-he needs his OWN name not someone else's. Then again folks would have to put in some EFFORT to build him up beyond my Daddy is a villain and need to be saved by a white savoir trope.

"..." Unfortunate turn of phrase there, bro.

I also voted for a new name. Rudy works fine. Not Walter though. In my heart, Walter is already taken. *sobs*

[byrd156]

Okay, here's another idea: We add a third Wally West.

Why stop at three?

[Buried Alien]

Why stop at three?

CRISIS OF INFINITE WALLIES?

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Kyer]

CRISIS OF INFINITE WALLIES?

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

Way back....when I first discovered Wally West (Justice League Unlimited) and that comic books were still being made.... there was a list of Flash cover art pre Barry's return. One of them featured a bunch of Wally West Flashes with different expressions on each. Anyone have that pic?

[Ascended]

Wally should definitely keep his name. It's fine as is. Two Wally Wests aren't gonna blow anything up. They haven't in the past and won't in the future.

Besides, there would be so many things wrong of them if they were to change his name, on so many levels, including quite a bit of unfortunate implications. It would just be tacky. A lot of the people shouting for an arbitrary name change, including the person who made this thread, don't see that. Perhaps they simply can't.

Also, on another note, I can't help but feel that many, if not most or all, of those who want Wally with a different name want the name change for reasons quite a bit less genuine then they posit/imply.

Is this a race thing?

Why does everything have to be about race? Can't it be about a new character who hasn't quite caught on with fans and the original version who did?

I'd be fine with OG Wally changing his name, but I think it makes more sense for Nu Wally to do so. He doesn't have the history and kids change their names all the time. I myself went from "Bobby" to "Bob" to "Rob" over the course of 12-19 and now fully half the people I know call me "Robert." Makes a little more sense for a kid to change his name than it does for a grown man who is fully self-actualized.

[Ascended]

CRISIS OF INFINITE WALLIES?

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

As long as Walter "Dark Flash" West is there, I'm down.

Loved me some Dark Flash! Still wish OG Wally would take up a costume with that design......maybe a brighter shade of red though.

[Buried Alien]

As long as Walter "Dark Flash" West is there, I'm down.

Loved me some Dark Flash! Still wish OG Wally would take up a costume with that design......maybe a brighter shade of red though.

Walter left a good impression during his brief tenure in the late 1990s/early 2000s. Wonder why DC never followed up with him.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[BohemiaDrinker]

Yes, nuWally should have his name changed.

If DC had gone to the trouble of bringing a Wally West akin to the one that fans wanted to see, only black, despite the initial backlash he could occasionally have worked. But they didn't, instead:

- They demoted him to a proto Kid Flash
- Removed him from his generation.
- Not only removed his status, but made sure that said status was thye lowest possible - age and experience wise - than any other character in the DCU at the time.

AND THEN

-they made him a racial stereotype. A pretty offensive one at that.
- The unintentional yet blatant racism cited above was made worse by the comparison with classic Wally, a white kid who never displayed those traits.

Now, speaking as both a black man and a die-hard Wally fan - whose opinions are mostly aligned with the majority of the fandom, I believe - I can't just say that there's was no way in HELL I would accept that kid as "Wally".

Now, the phrase "slap to the face" was thrown around a lot 'round here, and I tried to avoid it, but if there ever was a thing that could be called that to Wally fans was that kid.

Now they're fixing him, but he's also becoming his own thing - as it should have always been. DC had to cave and make ogWally "Wally" again. So, let the kid have a new name. Wally keeps whatever little he has left, the kid can finally grow, and we can all admit he's another character and move on.

[BohemiaDrinker]

Walter left a good impression during his brief tenure in the late 1990s/early 2000s. Wonder why DC never followed up with him.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

Politics.

He came from "Hypertime", which would lead to "HyperCrisis", which may have had been cancelled for a lot of reason, but many believe it was part of the fallout from the Superman 2000 thing. Messy business, those times at DC offices.

[Buried Alien]

Politics.

He came from "Hypertime", which would lead to "HyperCrisis", which may have had been cancelled for a lot of reason, but many believe it was part of the fallout from the Superman 2000 thing. Messy business, those times at DC offices.

What was the premise of SUPERMAN 2000 anyway?

DC sounds even more allergic to Hypertime than Pre-COIE Earth-One, which is quite extraordinary.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[BohemiaDrinker]

What was the premise of SUPERMAN 2000 anyway?

DC sounds even more allergic to Hypertime than Pre-COIE Earth-One, which is quite extraordinary.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

You can find most of it googling, the whole thing is online and easy to find.

But basically, Grant Morrison, Mark Millar (who was sort of a Grant's pupil back then), Mark Waid and Tom Peyer all came together and with a pitch to DC about modernizing Superman, who was not at his strongest moment, bringing back his most classic elements, expanding the line, etc. But this fell into the hands of whichever editor who understood it as those four guys trying to sabotage the then current Superman team, and this generated a shitstorm of epic proportions (I believe soimeone actually told Waid "he would never write Superman" because of this). That's when all those guys left DC for a while, Morrison went to do X-Men, Waid went to do something else, Millar went to become famous, etc.

Now, because of this, both Waid andMorrison became sort of persona non gratta at DC for a short period, and the Hypertime was their baby, and would be further defined and expanded in Hypercrisis, which was at an embryo state back then as I understand.

Now, when Grant and Mark came back to DC full on, the Multiverse was being brought back as well, so the Hypertime got redundant. By then, everything connected to it had already gone missing. Also, the decision to do away with Wally had been made, so there was no point in having an alternate Wally around.

[Buried Alien]

You can find most of it googling, the whole thing is online and easy to find.

But basically, Grant Morrison, Mark Millar (who was sort of a Grant's pupil back then), Mark Waid and Tom Peyer all came together and with a pitch to DC about modernizing Superman, who was not at his strongest moment, bringing back his most classic elements, expanding the line, etc. But this fell into the hands of whichever editor who understood it as those four guys trying to sabotage the then current Superman team, and this generated a shitstorm of epic proportions (I believe soimeone actually told Waid "he would never write Superman" because of this). That's when all those guys left DC for a while, Morrison went to do X-Men, Waid went to do something else, Millar went to become famous, etc.

Now, because of this, both Waid andMorrison became sort of persona non gratta at DC for a short period, and the Hypertime was their baby, and would be further defined and expanded in Hypercrisis, which was at an embryo state back then as I understand.

Now, when Grant and Mark came back to DC full on, the Multiverse was being brought back as well, so the Hypertime got redundant. By then, everything connected to it had already gone missing. Also, the decision to do away with Wally had been made, so there was no point in having an alternate Wally around.

Sheesh...talk about cutting off one's nose to spite one's face. Waid and Morrison were *only* two of the most popular and successful comic book writers of the period.

Aren't most of the people who made those decisions no longer at DC now?

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[BohemiaDrinker]

Sheesh...talk about cutting off one's nose to spite one's face. Waid and Morrison were *only* two of the most popular and successful comic book writers of the period.

Yup. The official stance at Dc was that "if you put Morrisaon on Superman, his name becomes more important than the character". (Yeah, this made so much noise that DC had to give an statement even in a time that was pretty much pre internet.)

But the real reasons came to light when the pitch started to surface online.

ose decisions no longer at DC now?

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

Yes.

They already weren't around when Morrison and Waid came back.

Waid left again because of another matter.

[Ascended]

What was the premise of SUPERMAN 2000 anyway?

DC sounds even more allergic to Hypertime than Pre-COIE Earth-One, which is quite extraordinary.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

You really should check out the Superman 2000 pitch. Should be easy enough to Google. I don't agree with every detail (they wanted to remove the marriage for example) but all in all it's an amazing update. You'll see a lot of Superman 2000 ideas made their way into each writer's work to one degree or another as well.

Had DC been wise enough to let that happen, the slow decline in Superman's popularity might have actually started turning around. That in turn might have resulted in the New52 not happening (talks of updating/fixing Superman lead to the reboot when WB got on Didio's ass) and the entire DCU might look vastly different today.

[The Darknight Detective]

CRISIS OF INFINITE WALLIES?

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

LOL

Funniest thing I heard this week. Thanks, BA!