The Didio thing...

[WallyWestFlash]

Didio started out as VP of marketing. He is very into brands and selling things to general audiences from a business, corporate perspective.

He is way more interested in having IPs and franchises streamlined then actual passion for DC characters and their stories.

He had said himself in a recent interveiw that he does not like legacy heroes, specifically Wally and Dick, because they "threaten" their respective brand.

Nightwing being independent and evolving as a character undermines Batman. In his own words he dosent see the point of Wally or Nightwing because they will never replace Bruce or Barry so they are at best superfulous or at worst a "threat" to them. Which shows his bias rather than his business sense but that's something else.

He had it all wrong though. Comic fans read and enjoy THE CHARACTERS. We read comics for the people behind the mask for the most part.

Yes brands have a place but they should not be the deciding factor. As a Wally fan if you want to give Wally a different name I would be OK with that. It wouldent be ideal because it is a part of his identity but I love the character. So as long as it's still Wally West the core and characte is still there.

Didio is good in the business and corporate department but as far as the creative head he has no place as he doesn't care for the characters themselves.

[Spider-Ham]

Any word on why he's down on Grayson and West? Is it that they make continuity messier or what?

People already said why he doesn't like Grayson so here's my part on the Wally West subject :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGx16xXt6Mw&t=325s

It starts at 1:15.

So basically, if we translate :

- "Flash Fans, back off" (I love this one)

- You don't really like Wally West. You just like Barry's clone. Because Wally is only interesting when he is written like Barry. Which is ... Well ... I don't even want to comment. But I don't think that growing up or not being a jeark means you are becoming like Barry. You are just ... Growing up.

- You don't like Wally West because he is a good character. You love Wally West because you grew up with Wally West.

- "JUST LIKE DICK GRAYSON" (it becomes funny)

- If you didn't understand the first time, then let's repeat : you shouldn't like these characters, because they were not likeable in the first place.

Have fun guys.

[Elmo]

Yo that's actually fuckin sad that Didio saw Infinity War and thinks that movie alone outdoes the beauty of comics. They are entirely different mediums...infinity war is contingent on what came before and comics are meant to be read however you want, read voraciously or picked up whenever. Nobody trying to make their own comic book or movie should look at IW as inspiration, nothing about it even feels like a normal film and the fact that this guy is looking at #1 blockbuster movies as his way to promote comic books is very telling . I haven't usually had issues with Didio but wow you're actually bugging if that's you're inspiration. DC is doomed with this mans

[Comic-Reader Lad]

People already said why he doesn't like Grayson so here's my part on the Wally West subject :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGx16xXt6Mw&t=325s

It starts at 1:15.

So basically, if we translate :

- "Flash Fans, back off" (I love this one)

- You don't really like Wally West. You just like Barry's clone. Because Wally is only interesting when he is written like Barry. Which is ... Well ... I don't even want to comment. But I don't think that growing up or not being a jeark means you are becoming like Barry. You are just ... Growing up.

- You don't like Wally West because he is a good character. You love Wally West because you grew up with Wally West.

- "JUST LIKE DICK GRAYSON" (it becomes funny)

- If you didn't understand the first time, then let's repeat : you shouldn't like these characters, because they were not likeable in the first place.

Have fun guys.

Having watched the full video, I will agree with DiDio on one thing. He's right about Wally being written as an ******* after Crisis on Infinite Earths in his own comic by Mike Baron. The Wally that Baron wrote was NOT the Wally we had previously seen in comics at all. Baron recreated Wally as a self-centered jerk like DiDio says and didn't really become the fan favorite Wally until Mark Waid took over the comic years later. I don't know if Wally was "like Barry," but Wally became more of a recognizable DC character rather than a Marvel-wannabe.

This idea of making DC characters unlikable after Crisis also affected Green Arrow and Green Lantern. DC was trying too hard to shed its goody-goody Silver Age image and went too far in the other direction.

However, it does seem as though DiDio also is trying to apply Marvel's worst traits to the DC Universe, so people never learn.

[Spider-Ham]

Having watched the full video, I will agree with DiDio on one thing. He's right about Wally being written as an ******* after Crisis on Infinite Earths in his own comic by Mike Baron. The Wally that Baron wrote was NOT the Wally we had previously seen in comics at all. Baron recreated Wally as a self-centered jerk like DiDio says and didn't really become the fan favorite Wally until Mark Waid took over the comic years later. I don't know if Wally was "like Barry," but Wally became more of a recognizable DC character rather than a Marvel-wannabe.

I totally agree with you. You explained very well what was the main problem of Baron's run and I really don't like Wally's portrayal during what seemed like interminable issues.

[caj]

Having watched the full video, I will agree with DiDio on one thing. He's right about Wally being written as an ******* after Crisis on Infinite Earths in his own comic by Mike Baron. The Wally that Baron wrote was NOT the Wally we had previously seen in comics at all.

Giffen and DeMatteis also contributed to this in the way they wrote Wally in JLA/JLE as a womanizing (but loveable) jerk.

[BohemiaDrinker]

Having watched the full video, I will agree with DiDio on one thing. He's right about Wally being written as an ******* after Crisis on Infinite Earths in his own comic by Mike Baron. The Wally that Baron wrote was NOT the Wally we had previously seen in comics at all. Baron recreated Wally as a self-centered jerk like DiDio says and didn't really become the fan favorite Wally until Mark Waid took over the comic years later. I don't know if Wally was "like Barry," but Wally became more of a recognizable DC character rather than a Marvel-wannabe.

Yeah, but it's intellectually dishonest on Didio's part to treat Baron's version as the "quintessential" Wally West, while everybody else looks at Waid or Messner Loebs, which Dan says is "watered down Barry". And it's really not.

[CaptCleghorn]

Yeah, but it's intellectually dishonest on Didio's part to treat Barry's version as the "quintessential" Wally West, while everybody else looks at Waid or Messner Loebs, which Dan says is "watered down Barry". And it's really not.

Wally after he got his own book was a character trying to deal with living up to an iconic example in Barry. He had qualities that were less than admirable, but come on, DC was just post-Crisis and moving on from the last vestiges o their Silver Age idealism. And the return of Wally's full powers later on coincided with his redemption in character. It seemed like a perfectly natural and decent story to me. There was also a need to separate him from Barry and make him his own character. The goal of Wally was to make him the third Flash and to fix post-Crisis as the new DC Comics.

[Comic-Reader Lad]

Yeah, but it's intellectually dishonest on Didio's part to treat Barry's version as the "quintessential" Wally West, while everybody else looks at Waid or Messner Loebs, which Dan says is "watered down Barry". And it's really not.

It's so hard to compare Barry-Flash to Wally-Flash because all Barry-Flash stories were written before Crisis. In the Silver Age and Bronze Age (until they killed Iris and tried to make Barry's comic more soap operaish), Barry was the classic DC one-dimensional good guy.

But, you know what? Pre-Crisis, so was Wally.

It's not always fair for Wally lovers to say that Barry was boring, because before Crisis, all DC characters except maybe Green Arrow and the newer ones like Firestorm and Black Lightning were basically written the same way.

Getting into the characters' heads and having them be conflicted was a Marvel thing. SOME of that feeling was brought over to DC by the Marvel writers who came in the early 80s like Marv Wolfman and Roy Thomas, but even Wolfman's Wally was still basically a Midwest good guy.

So, it's understandable to me why there are people who prefer Wally. Not only because they grew up with him, but because Wally had the benefit of Post-Crisis writing that Barry never had. Even when Waid took over and made Wally likable again, he still made Wally fleshed out and three-dimensional.

I'm more of a Barry fan than Wally, so I was glad to see Barry be brought back and be given the benefit of being written by today's writers. Now, maybe the results haven't been to everyone's liking, but I don't think it's fair to say that Barry is being written "like Wally" any more than it was fair for DiDio to say that Wally was written "like Barry."

It's just that they are now both being written simultaneously in today's writing style whereas before all people knew of Barry was the Silver-Bronze Age writing style, which of course would make Barry seem corny compared to Wally, but as I said Silver Age Wally was a goody-goody cornball also.

Beyond that, I would also say that while I don't agree with DiDio that Wally, Roy, Dick, Donna, and Garth are redundant and useless, I do feel that they should have their OWN identities, and except for Wally they DO.

I think since Wally discovered the Speed Force, that should always be his "thing." In other words, he's the expert on that. Barry is the expert on understanding vibrations and how to travel to different parallel universes that vibrate at different frequencies. Barry was the first to do that.

Each speedster should be given his own area of expertise and unique way of using speed to make them fun and different. Also, Wally should definitely be given his own name. I'm not a fan of the mantle thing.

We don't need 15 Robins, 10 Wonder Girls, 5 Flashes, etc. It pleases no one and really does create redundancies.

[Gaastra]

He had said himself in a recent interveiw that he does not like legacy heroes, specifically Wally and Dick, because they "threaten" their respective brand.

The joke there is barry and hal ARE legacy heroes. They are not the originals. Heck batman and superman are legacy heroes who are younger copies from another universe! The 30s superman and batman are the originals. The real batman has been dead for along time! Funny how people forget that.

[Rend20]

Also, Wally should definitely be given his own name. I'm not a fan of the mantle thing.

I'd be fine with that just as long as Barry gets a different name too. If there can only be one Flash, then it should be Jay as he had the name first.

Otherwise the idea that Wally has to change his name so Barry can be "special" is one that's never made sense to me. It's something that does nothing for Wally's character at best and diminishes his character/history at worst. Rebirth has already proven Barry doesn't lose anything with Wally having the Flash name so there's no reason to do it.

[BohemiaDrinker]

It's not always fair for Wally lovers to say that Barry was boring

Personally, I never said that. My point is that Dan argues that once Baron was gone, Wally became Barry-lite. That is just not true.

Each speedster should be given his own area of expertise and unique way of using speed to make them fun and different.

That is a great idea! It's also how things used to work before Dan Didio demolished the franchise. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Also, Wally should definitely be given his own name. I'm not a fan of the mantle thing.

No, he shouldn't. I' am a fan of the mantle thing. Make Bart and Wallace Flashes too, for ll I care.

[Frontier]

No, he shouldn't. I' am a fan of the mantle thing. Make Bart and Wallace Flashes too, for ll I care.

I think the only people we need active with the Flash name are Jay, Barry, and Wally and that's it.

[DevilBat66]

I think the only people we need active with the Flash name are Jay, Barry, and Wally and that's it.

Only one Flash at a time. You want other characters with the same name? Bring back Earth 2 or whatever.

The idea that grown adults would be using the codename of another hero, especially at the same time always takes me out of the story somewhat. It makes "a little" sense when the original is dead or retired, but even then, any self respecting individual would make their own identity.
It's absolutely ridiculous to me when you have multiple heroes with the exact same codename running around together. ( Marvel has become unreadable to me because of this )
It's pretty much why I gave up on Flash and GL. They made the name a "title" and that's just lame to me.
What's the point of a "solo" book if they all end up being thinly disguised team books where everyone has the same power fighting villains with the same powers? It's boring as hell.

I hate to say it but, that's why the Bat-Family works better than all the others. They all have their own unique ID's even if they all have the same basic power set.

The de-uniquing of many of it's characters is probably one of the biggest mistakes DC has made in recent years.

All, imo, of course. Not ragging on anyone. I just hate that stuff about modern comics.

[Lee Stone]

I agree about not having people sharing the same name on the same Earth.

And I prefer Bart as Impulse because that's a good name.
Wally was coming from Kid Flash and Barry was dead, so Flash was a better choice for him at the time.
When Barry came back, it should have been agreed between Barry and Wally who would get the name. Then it should've stuck.
If the person who gave it up wanted to be a superhero still, it was now time to get a new costume and a new name.