Wally West: The Flash Appreciation 2019

[king81992]

That’s not true. A mental breakdown doesn’t mean one becomes stupid. It actually quite remarkable what a person can do during and after a mental breakdown, motivated by delusions that seem utterly crazy to others but completely sane to them.

And that battle after, that doubt from others and even themselves of whether they can ever truly be trusted again, is exactly what people who suffer from mental health issues go through.

Also your last paragraph there, you say that like it’s all bad, but to me that actually sounds like a potentially interesting character dilemma and challenge ripe for exploration. A hero that can’t be trusted, not even by himself. A hero that no matter what he does will have to face what he’s done and his own mental fragility. I’m sorry, but I don’t hate this idea. But Hank Pym is one of my favorite characters. That being said, I don’t know if Wally is the right character for it. I get it’s a hard sell. While I can see potential, and personally think Wally was in need of something out of the box, I’m not necessarily convinced this was the right direction for Wally.

This arc would work for a villain who's trying to redeem themself.The problem is that DC never tries to redeem the villains who would work better as anti heroes. They'll come up with the most ridiculous excuses to justify villains who did everything wrong and turn heroes into villains for shock value.

[Frontier]

DC is probably going to retool Wally into an anti hero or anti villain after this(assuming that Doomsday Clock isn't a pseudo reboot that rectons everything).That being said, Wally should have never been put in a position where he had to be retooled into an anti hero or anti villain in the first place.

Well, there are those Suicide Squad rumors...

[BohemiaDrinker]

Well, there are those Suicide Squad rumors...

I doubt those would pan out at this point. If they put him on a team, it'll be Outsiders.

[Darkcrusade25]

Read Flash by GJ vol3 for the first time today. Felt like I was reading a current day Barry Allen story rather than Wally.

[king81992]

I doubt those would pan out at this point. If they put him on a team, it'll be Outsiders.

Why Outsiders?

[married guy]

I do not want to see Wally West appear in another comic book again.
I think the character has been torn down enough.

[Darkcrusade25]

I do not want to see Wally West appear in another comic book again.
I think the character has been torn down enough.

I do. Tbh this is just another Superman/Tim Drake issue that could be fixed with the right environment. When will that environment come idk.

[married guy]

I do. Tbh this is just another Superman/Tim Drake issue that could be fixed with the right environment. When will that environment come idk.

That environment won't be until Didio and Lee are moved on. Then, we MAY get a book that respects the entire Flash Family and not screw everyone other than Barry.

[Tenzel Kim]

I can definitely Johns retconning blue lightning that killed everyone as really being from Doctor Manhatten. That kind of twist would make sense on more than one level. But here's the thing, Wally killing Roy, Lagoon Boy and the other's in a horrible accident isn't the problem. Retconning that isn't going to clear Wally's character. It's how he tampered with the crime scene that made him so despicable in this story.

Well, if they made it so that the reason he did the tampering with the crime scene was that he needed the extra time to confront or figure out Dr. Manhattan involvement in the deaths. So it was basically him trying to play Manhattan's game and make it appear he believed he was responsible himself while uncovering the truth. I doubt we'll see anything like that but that could somewhat exonorate him for his actions.

[BohemiaDrinker]

Why Outsiders?

Titans is no more, and there's no way in hell they'd put him in JL. I doubt they'd persist with the SS angle given the response. What's left ios Outsiders, which is conveniently "out of of the loop" so he wouldn't really have an impact in the rest of the DCU, and could even not b seen as an actual "hero", if that's how they choose to go.

[WallyWestFlash]

Read Flash by GJ vol3 for the first time today. Felt like I was reading a current day Barry Allen story rather than Wally.

Very much in agreement with this. I did not really care for Johns Wally run since he pretty much turned him into Barry light. Wally lost his cool character traits under him.

[WallyWestFlash]

I do not want to see Wally West appear in another comic book again.
I think the character has been torn down enough.

Agree. They have just been screwing with Wally since he came back. I'd rather he just go back into limbo before they screw with him more.

Well, if they made it so that the reason he did the tampering with the crime scene was that he needed the extra time to confront or figure out Dr. Manhattan involvement in the deaths. So it was basically him trying to play Manhattan's game and make it appear he believed he was responsible himself while uncovering the truth. I doubt we'll see anything like that but that could somewhat exonorate him for his actions.

This would be a great way of going about it. But it's never going to happen.

[king81992]

Titans is no more, and there's no way in hell they'd put him in JL. I doubt they'd persist with the SS angle given the response. What's left ios Outsiders, which is conveniently "out of of the loop" so he wouldn't really have an impact in the rest of the DCU, and could even not b seen as an actual "hero", if that's how they choose to go.

I feel like Titans will be back eventually and considering that it's only one issue in and the plot is 'Outsiders vs Batman' I doubt they'll add Wally.

[Frontier]

Read Flash by GJ vol3 for the first time today. Felt like I was reading a current day Barry Allen story rather than Wally.

Very much in agreement with this. I did not really care for Johns Wally run since he pretty much turned him into Barry light. Wally lost his cool character traits under him.

I always thought Johns wrote a good, seasoned, and adult Wally and that a lot of his motivation and context came from stuff that would only be true of Wally with the history he had up to that point.

It helps that I think he wrote Barry differently whenever he wrote him as Flash.

Titans is no more, and there's no way in hell they'd put him in JL. I doubt they'd persist with the SS angle given the response. What's left ios Outsiders, which is conveniently "out of of the loop" so he wouldn't really have an impact in the rest of the DCU, and could even not b seen as an actual "hero", if that's how they choose to go.

I guess I'd be kind of surprised to see Wally end up in the Bat-offices. It would probably depend a lot on Bryan Hill (the writer).

[Blue22]

And please dear god spare me the "Well they were misusing Wally so they need to do something different!" What the hell kind of logic is that? They were misusing Wally so the only course is to ruin him so they can misuse him in a different way? What are you even talking about? They could just use Wally West as Wally West instead of as broken down horrible monster man who needs to get a bullet in his head before he explodes and kills a dozen people again..

That's honestly my biggest issue with arguments like that. Why is it that whenever people wanna do something "different" with a character, they always go straight for the worst possible things you could do to them?

"Let's do something 'different' with Wally West by turning him into a mentally unstable killer, who felt the need to tamper with the bodies of his friends just to frame two innocent people for deaths that were an accident. Added bonus: he's gonna kill himself next."

"Let's do something 'different' with Dick Grayson by effectively killing him and replacing him with wisecracking bum who never passes up the chance to talk about how lame Dick was. While we're at it, let's have the writer occasionally toss in some sloppily placed metaphors about how the audience should just learn to accept change. Because that's what the problem is, right?"

"Let's do something 'different' with Superman and his family (even though the concept is already something relatively new and different) by turning Clark and Lois into neglectful parents who are perfectly fine with leaving their ten year old child in the hands of someone that they know can't be trusted. What could possibly go wrong? Oh, what's that? The son is back but he's now seven years older and spent most of those years being tortured inside a volcano? Perfect! Let's also throw in some arbitrary story line about Lois cheating on Clark with himself."

"Let's do something 'different' and have a big crossover event where heroes decided to team up with an edgy Batman/Joker hybrid"

Nowadays, every time something "different" is done, it's never good news. It always means something horrible is about to happen characters that you love. Because there's just apparently no way to change the status quo with something good. Nope. The only change people are interested in, I guess, is when characters suddenly decide to be horrible people. Maybe I'm just crazy for thinking not every change has to be a freakin tragedy XD