Wally West: The Flash Appreciation 2019

[Robanker]

I have no idea what you guys are talking about. And this is coming from someone who's spent his life growing up with Wally.

While I do harbor other criticisms about this issue, Wally has been willing to give up being a hero no less than 4 times. Once early on when his powers were hurting him in Wolfman's NTT, once during ROBA, once at the end of Blitz, and once during The Black Flash Arc. It is VERY in character with Wally, in times of crisis or depression, to consider giving it all up and throwing away his hero life because he can't do it anymore and the toll has been too great.

The thing that makes Wally Wally is that, in spite of that, he always put the suit back on when people needed him. Every time. All of his significant writers besides Morrison have done it. Lobdell and Booth are just blatantly reusing one of Wally's more well used character struggles.


That aside, my biggest criticism of this issue was that it was all exposition. All flash, no bang. It could've cut to the premise and engaged the premise 10 pages earlier and instead it did the Lobdellian nonsense of hammering us with exposition boxes that could've been much more condensed. There's a couple of other, weird nitpicks (no fucking way the JL would've put Wally in a prison with all his villains just waiting to kill him, what the heck) but I can see the purpose it serves to frame Wally's pitiful situation. Linda was wasted in this issue, but I suppose they might be saving the mending of their life for the finale and they need to reintroduce her early to set up that throughline. I just wish there was a better writer to handle what should be a very, very significant conversation.

Issue 2, when they actually start exploring the premise of the book, will probably be where I drop my yay or nay on. This book was a lot of air.

My concern was Wally having suicidal thoughts. I just can't reconcile that with the character in grew up reading.

[Pohzee]

If y'all can't fathom any character having suicidal thoughts, then Heroes in Crisis really didn't get it's point across.

But then, with how it was written, that probably isn't a very hard thing to do.

[Dataweaver]

My concern was Wally having suicidal thoughts. I just can't reconcile that with the character in grew up reading.

Agreed. On the other hand: if the “Dark Multiverse has messed with Wally's mind” theory is true, then this is just another example of that: Wally hasn't yet purged the dark influence that's warping his mind, and still isn't thinking straight. So it's, well, not precisely “OK”, but at least logically consistent at this point in the story that this is happening.

If, after he's resolved the Dark Multiverse thing, he's still having suicidal thoughts, that's a whole other matter.

[Dataweaver]

If y'all can't fathom any character having suicidal thoughts, then Heroes in Crisis really didn't get it's point across.

Wally isn't “any character”. There are quite a few characters that I could see doing what Wally did in HiC (setting aside the “would they have had the right powers to do so” issue); but Wally isn't one of them: the train of thought that lead to his breakdown just doesn't work for him.

[BohemiaDrinker]

(setting aside the “would they have had the right powers to do so” issue)

Wally didn't have the right powers to do so.

Speed Force explosions were never a thing before that, and neither was deciphering binary code. (Yeah, king acted as if the footage was split tape. That's not how compure video works, though....)

[Dataweaver]

Wally didn't have the right powers to do so.

Speed Force explosions were never a thing before that, and neither was deciphering binary code. (Yeah, king acted as if the footage was split tape. That's not how compure video works, though....)

Like I said, setting that aside. The issue I'm addressing isn't that his powers wouldn't let him; but that even if they did, it wasn't in his personality to do it. That's the more fundamental problem, because what powers are and aren't capable of is highly elastic. (I remember an issue of Morrison's JLA where Aquaman defeated a White Martian by using his marine telepathy to shut down the part of its brain that evolved from an aquatic ancestor.) Comic book characters regularly do the impossible, frequently even doing things that stretch credulity of what's previously been established.

And as I said earlier, I'm currently operating under the premise that Wally was (and still is, at least for now) under the influence of the Dark Multiverse: that not only warped his personality; it also messed with his powers, leading to the explosion. Admittedly, that still doesn't explain the “deciphering binary” thing; but that strikes me as a nitpick not worth bothering with.

[manwhohaseverything]

I have a theory,on why wally is chosen as hero by tempus guy. Is'nt speed force surrounding the multiverse? I believe the weakening of that is what caused the dark multiverse to seep in the light multiverse. Wally is needed to fix it.

[manwhohaseverything]

My concern was Wally having suicidal thoughts. I just can't reconcile that with the character in grew up reading.

I think, his depression was getting to him.i mean, It was just one of those days in prison. But, He couldn't give up even when he wanted to. He automatically started fighting back against villains.also, the first thing he did when he saw tempus was help him

[Robanker]

Edited; Double post, I apologize.

[Robanker]

If y'all can't fathom any character having suicidal thoughts, then Heroes in Crisis really didn't get it's point across.

But then, with how it was written, that probably isn't a very hard thing to do.

Sure, it absolutely was, but keep in mind I hadn't read the issue yet and no matter how bad it got, I don't think Wally would ever consider a dirt nap. I think he'd go catatonic and just become inert far before that.

Quite frankly, as someone who has lost a fair number of friends and family to illness, I would like to think I have a decent understanding of depression and (from viewing how my other family members dealt with it) that nobody copes in the same exact way. Heroes in Crisis would absolutely make some consider suicide, but having read Wally for as long as I have, I'm certain he would never be one. But then when did characterization and history ever stop Tom King from mangling a character to fit his ends? He just writes what he wants and damn the consequences or any semblance of congruity with that character's voice, history or anyone else involved. He railroaded Dick Grayson for, what, 15 months and counting just so he can make Bruce sad for six issues?

The only thing Heroes in Crisis reminded me of, frankly, is 50s cinema where mental illness was used as a catch-all for writing people as unhinged and untrustworthy because they're incapable of using any sense of reason. What was the message, you're not alone and it's okay to seek help because everybody hurts? You really can't have Wally reach that conclusion, try and find some degree of redemption on-page and then go into this joke:

Heroes-in-Crisis-9-7.jpg

Would Harley be pissed? Sure! But don't undercut what has to be the most poignant scene in the book about healing (you know, the dude finding some solace in finally getting help) with a kick in the dick. It undercuts the entire scene for a cheap laugh that feels tonally wrong. It's ugly. The only people who would enjoy that are those who actively hate Wally and want to see him physically hurt for doing harm to Harley and Ivy, which certainly isn't a positive message in a book about "please, don't suffer alone, get help."

Heroes in Crisis was clearly a personal project to Tom King, and frankly he just botched the execution horribly. It sucks for everyone involved save Clay Mann, who got to remind everyone how wonderful he is at penciling an issue.

For what it's worth, issue #1 of Flash Forward does seem to be trying to reposition Wally to a better place and I really hope they stick the landing.

[The_Sneezing_Stormtrooper]

My concern was Wally having suicidal thoughts. I just can't reconcile that with the character in grew up reading.

I think given all he's been through since Rebirth, it's fairly understandable why the thought would cross his mind. I think the important thing is not acting on those thoughts. As others mentioned, when he's about to get killed he fights back.

[Dred]

My concern was Wally having suicidal thoughts. I just can't reconcile that with the character in grew up reading.

Wally has often mired on his own useless and ineffectuality and the cost he brings to the lives of those he loves. All cornerstones of suicidal thoughts. This might be a little more on the nose than, say, Wally giving up on life during the Black Flash arc, but this certainly isn't a first.

What Wally was doing here wasn't going "I should kill myself," but considering giving up on fighting back when Girder and Tar Pit came to kill him. And even then he fought back.

[Rac7d*]

at least he is keeping up with his fitness

[Jekyll]

at least he is keeping up with his fitness

Should have been edited to say: "After everything Tom King made me do?!"

[Spider-Ham]

Wally is in ComiXology’s top 10 :

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