Wally West: The Flash Appreciation 2019

[Dred]

Yeah; and “the story” for Hal Jordan was that he had a psychotic break because Coast City was destroyed and the Guardians refused to let him mope; so he went to Oa, slaughtered the entire GLC on the way, killed all of the Guardians, and then set about rebooting the universe.

That was the original story. It got retconned by GL:Rebirth to “Hal did terrible things because a space insect possessed him”.

I'm not talking here about what King's or Didio's intent was. I'm talking about what can be done to fix this mess.

Wally West is not Hal Jordan. Hal Jordan is, to the people in charge, THE Green Lantern. Wally West is an nuisance rather forgotten to the people in charge. Wally is closer to Doctor Light than Hal Jordan in DC's eyes.

Guys, please. This is superhero comics. If you think this whole thing can't be retconned away with the snap of a finger, you haven't been reading comics for very long. Whether Didio allows this to happen in the near future is a whole other question (though Bleeding Cool reports rumblings of a new Wally book of some sort) but if there is a willingness to do so, the entirety of HiC can be unwritten with a throwaway line of dialogue ("that wasn't Wally") or even some timey wimey nonsense. Heroes in Crisis is further proof that Didio hates Wally West but has it really ruined Wally beyond repair? Not even a little bit. If Ralph and Sue Dibny can return from the events of a massive megaseller like Identity Crisis, Wally West can certainly survive what has ultimately been a series that has made almost no impact on anything outside of its pages, has had reasonably weak sales for an event book and has even had its own writer distance himself from the series by repeating over and over again that the choice of characters was not his.

Was Heroes in Crisis by far the worst thing that Tom King has ever written? Yup. Is it a wasted opportunity? Certainly. An objectively bad comic? Probably. Is Didio's Wally hatred exasperating? Most certainly. Does it instantly negate the quality of other titles that DC puts out? Nope. Has it put an end to Wally West as a character? Not even close. Am I asking too many rhetorical questions? What do you think?

People have been saying this stuff for Wally for 15 years. This is comics. Everything is cyclical. Things will get better. Just be patient. They'll retcon everything.

There is no light at the end of the tunnel. It's just a train named Didio.

[Ilan Preskovsky]

Wally West is not Hal Jordan. Hal Jordan is, to the people in charge, THE Green Lantern. Wally West is an nuisance rather forgotten to the people in charge. Wally is closer to Doctor Light than Hal Jordan in DC's eyes.



People have been saying this stuff for Wally for 15 years. This is comics. Everything is cyclical. Things will get better. Just be patient. They'll retcon everything.

There is no light at the end of the tunnel. It's just a train named Didio.

Yeah but Didio has been in charge for all that time. Things will change when he steps back from the creative side or leaves the company entirely.

[Potanical Pardon]

Heh. The “evil twin” ploy. I'm having trouble seeing how that would work in this case, though.

Walter hasn't been used in a while because he was exiled back into Hypertime, complete with a tragic breakup with his impending girlfriend. Setting him up as a substitute for Wally after the fact would almost certainly stretch credulity even more than HiC did — though admittedly not as obnoxiously.

Walter could work. He already went evil mad after his Linda died. And he uses the dark red/silver color scheme.

Last seen, he was reading comics in a Earth Prime type of place. He could have been reading Flashpoint and post-Flashpoint, and just like last time when he noticed Wally disappeared, he came and took his place. His crazy could have merged his loss of Linda to Wally's and by extension the kids as well.

I'm okay with genies, and any other way too, FWIW.

[Dataweaver]

Yeah but Didio has been in charge for all that time. Things will change when he steps back from the creative side or leaves the company entirely.

Indeed. To my mind, the big question is whether DC Comics will last that long. Didio may well stay in charge long enough to run it into the ground. He almost did, once already.

[Dred]

Yeah but Didio has been in charge for all that time. Things will change when he steps back from the creative side or leaves the company entirely.

If you think WB is going to replace Didio with someone who cares about anything but IP farming then I've got news for you. There's a reason Didio still has his job and will likely have his job for years to come.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

Bored, I know you mean well, and I say this with no snark at all: just don't.

It´s been 13 years already. Let people be pissed. Being pissed is the one healthy, sane and adequate reaction to this bullshit.

Sorry, I'm confused. What's your issue with my comment? I'm not telling people they shouldn't be pissed. Hell, I'm pissed. This is another dumb move in series of dumb moves.

But, I can say from hard-earned experience that this will eventually pass. Nothing lasts forever in comic books and, sooner or later, Wally West will get his time in sun. It'll happen. There's too many people out there who grew up reading Wally West and loving him for this to remain. The overwhelmingly negative reaction to Heroes in Crisis's conclusion is a pretty big indicator that few readers were satisfied with this. As clueless as Marvel & DC often are about this kind of stuff, when a story direction gets a reaction that bad, they reverse-course, even if it takes a while.

This is not just my usual sunny optimism speaking, this is supported by historical precedent. Spider-Clone? Gone? Evil Tony/Teen Tony? Who? Parallax? Evil yellow fear monster. New 52/DCYou? Rebirthed. It may take months, or years, or even decades, but creative directions like this, that almost everyone agrees are bad, tend to get walked back.

What was just done to Wally West is a giant blowing neon example of one of those creative misfires. I don't care how up his own ass Didio is, the writing is on the wall with this one. The fan reaction to Wally's return in DC Rebirth was so overwhelmingly positive. Yes, that ball was immediately fumbled by Abnett's Titans, but no one at DC is going to be able to ignore the steaming hot turd that this disaster has left. People are pissed and they are letting DC know about it.

It's one thing to ignore Wally West, or publish mediocre comics with him, or retcon him away. This is a different animal completely. Historically, this kind of stuff rarely, if ever, sticks in superhero comics. They'll be the usual face-saving nonsense and digging in of heels. Like I said, it may take a while, but this won't last. Count on it.

[Dataweaver]

If you think WB is going to replace Didio with someone who cares about anything but IP farming then I've got news for you. There's a reason Didio still has his job and will likely have his job for years to come.

…until the runs DC Comics into the ground, yes. But let me correct myself: he's almost done so twice: the first time resulted in an executive mandate to shake things up, or else be fired; he shook things up with the New 52 and kept his job as a result. The second time was when the New 52 was sputtering and dying. Didio was all set to pull the plug on the New 52 when Johns gave him a way out: thus, Rebirth.

And as Bored says, this is exactly the sorry of mess that gets the execs' attention. I won't be at all surprised if Didio gets a mandate from his bosses to fix this mess or else. Did will stick around; but that's because he's smart enough to know when to say “yes sir”.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

Yeah but Didio has been in charge for all that time. Things will change when he steps back from the creative side or leaves the company entirely.

Yup, Didio will move on sooner or later. Same thing happened with Carlin, which happened to Giordano before him. This is corporate comics. No one lasts forever.

Granted, there's no guarantee that whoever replaces Didio will necessarily be better, but he or she will certainly have different biases and preferences they'll bring to the table.

[Ilan Preskovsky]

If you think WB is going to replace Didio with someone who cares about anything but IP farming then I've got news for you. There's a reason Didio still has his job and will likely have his job for years to come.

Sure but for that he only really needs to be on the business side of DC, not the creative, which TPTB at Warners couldn't care less about. And I actually think he's decent at the business/ marketing aspects, on the whole, (contrary to what Dataweaver says above) so I don't know if they will keep him on the creative side of things indefinitely. Hell, for a while there, he was removed from the creative side while Johns had his chance with Rebirth.

My big problem with all this, really, is non-creatives (or, in Didio's case, of limited creativity - some of his writing is OK) sticking their noses where it doesn't belong. If Warners did just leave DC's comics division to do its things, while using its IPs for everything from movies to lunch boxes, we wouldn't have crap like the neutering of the Black Label line because of "Bat Penis". Similarly, Didio seems largely pretty good with the talent, with promotion and with acting as a liason between DC Comics and Warners but he has no business allowing his biases to determine the creative direction of the line.

DC can keep Didio, they just need to find a hands-on editor in chief or chief creative officer to take over the creative side of things.

[Dataweaver]

Didio got back into the creative side when Johns went to make movies. After Johns' firing in the wake of the Justice League fiasco (which really wasn't his fault; extreme executive meddling guaranteed that that movie would be a disaster no matter who was making it), I wouldn't mind seeing Dido step back over to marketing and let Johns take over again on the creative side. Frankly, the biggest problem with Rebirth was that Johns didn't stick around to keep it on track.

[Dred]

Sorry, I'm confused. What's your issue with my comment? I'm not telling people they shouldn't be pissed. Hell, I'm pissed. This is another dumb move in series of dumb moves.

But, I can say from hard-earned experience that this will eventually pass. Nothing lasts forever in comic books and, sooner or later, Wally West will get his time in sun. It'll happen. There's too many people out there who grew up reading Wally West and loving him for this to remain. The overwhelmingly negative reaction to Heroes in Crisis's conclusion is a pretty big indicator that few readers were satisfied with this. As clueless as Marvel & DC often are about this kind of stuff, when a story direction gets a reaction that bad, they reverse-course, even if it takes a while.

This is not just my usual sunny optimism speaking, this is supported by historical precedent. Spider-Clone? Gone? Evil Tony/Teen Tony? Who? Parallax? Evil yellow fear monster. New 52/DCYou? Rebirthed. It may take months, or years, or even decades, but creative directions like this, that almost everyone agrees are bad, tend to get walked back.

What was just done to Wally West is a giant blowing neon example of one of those creative misfires. I don't care how up his own ass Didio is, the writing is on the wall with this one. The fan reaction to Wally's return in DC Rebirth was so overwhelmingly positive. Yes, that ball was immediately fumbled by Abnett's Titans, but no one at DC is going to be able to ignore the steaming hot turd that this disaster has left. People are pissed and they are letting DC know about it.

It's one thing to ignore Wally West, or publish mediocre comics with him, or retcon him away. This is a different animal completely. Historically, this kind of stuff rarely, if ever, sticks in superhero comics. They'll be the usual face-saving nonsense and digging in of heels. Like I said, it may take a while, but this won't last. Count on it.

Good job listing a bunch of characters who are way more popular and supported than Wally.

If your actual dang answer is "wait decades!" then whatever. That's not a response. It's an admission of defeat.

[Frontier]

I mean, me personally I just can't believe there's much good coming Wally's way as long as current DC editorial is as it is, and that's been in place for over a decade by this point.

If there's a huge creative overhaul of DCU or someone with the power to overrule Didio like Bendis or Johns get their way, then I'll believe that there's hope for Wally.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

Good job listing a bunch of characters who are way more popular and supported than Wally.

If your actual dang answer is "wait decades!" then whatever. That's not a response. It's an admission of defeat.

I think it's highly unlikely we'll be waiting decades for this latest misfire to be reversed, but I suppose anything is possible. Expressing our dissatisfaction clearly and respectfully and only supporting books you enjoy is all any of us can really do. That's not defeat, that's simply the way reading comic books works. If you have a better answer, I'd love to hear it. I don't think lashing out at each other in anger or resentment is much of a solution.

[Frontier]

At this point I think the best thing for Wally is for them to use him in outside media where DC editorial can't touch him, but I'm not sure how likely that is with how they use Barry and don't really utilize the other Flashes that much (the TV show is pretty guilty of this).

[Bored at 3:00AM]

I mean, me personally I just can't believe there's much good coming Wally's way as long as current DC editorial is as it is, and that's been in place for over a decade by this point.

If there's a huge creative overhaul of DCU or someone with the power to overrule Didio like Bendis or Johns get their way, then I'll believe that there's hope for Wally.

The balance of power is ever-shifting in corporate comics. Nothing last forever. Not Didio. Not Johns. Not Carlin. Not anyone. Sometimes, things go your way. Sometimes, they really don't.

Like with life, the best you can do is roll with the punches and try your best to make things better.