Why Do People Even Care About Wally West?

[skyvolt2000]

I keep seeing all over people upset about how Wally West has been treated and especially in HiC.

Why do fans care about him so much? I am new to DC but more specifically do not know anything about Flash.

I see that Flash is an important figure and that I need to figure out what Flashpoint is, but what is special about Wally West?

Because Wally West represent the ultimate dream.

He was a sidekick who had to step up and take over for his fallen mentor.

He then went to be the Flash for 20+ years and a Leaguer, Titan and so on.

Under his watch we saw other Flashes and even another Flash book with Impulse.

You saw a blue print on how a FRANCHISE is suppose to run. Take notes Green Lantern.

Dc then derailed that.

Meanwhile at a Marvelous Company-they are showing how Flash used to be with Peter Parker and his kids.

Imagine Into the Flash Verse with a renamed Wallace winning that Oscar with Barry, Bart, Xs, Wally & Jay behind him.

Too bad we will never see that.

[Eto]

Best Flash IMO.
Waid's legendary run is one I still hold in high regard.
Then there's Geoff Johns' run.
Both writers treated him with the utmost respect.

[Stanlos]

I keep seeing all over people upset about how Wally West has been treated and especially in HiC.

Why do fans care about him so much? I am new to DC but more specifically do not know anything about Flash.

I see that Flash is an important figure and that I need to figure out what Flashpoint is, but what is special about Wally West?

Wally is what made The Flash awesome, exciting, and fun. Mark Waid's creation of the spped force and his character work made The Flash an icon.

That they did away with Wally only to attribute Wally's qualities to Barry is a headscratcher for me. I think Johns even retconned in this notion that Barry created the speed force. LOL LOL LOL

Soooooooooooo it is kind of a mess if you have been following the characters. But if you are new it probably doesn't factor in to your enjoyment.

[Dred]

Just read DC Universe Rebirth. If you don't love, or at least gain an interest for, Wally at that point then you'll never get it. It's fine not to, but that comic is a character study on who Wally is and why he's great.

He's DC's most well developed character. In history. No one had the time or consistency or connection to the rest of the universe while growing like Wally. Only Starman and Dick even come close in my eyes and Starman is a lot more isolated and standalone (and benefits from that) while I think most would agree Dick's own solo run doesn't have the level of growth as Wally's.

[bretmaverick2]

For me, I always found Barry to be a BORING character but enjoyed Wally in the TEEN TITANS books. I was not a sad or mad reader when Barry died in Crisis. I liked when Wally adopted the Flash identity.

Once Wally had his own series, the writing was excellent! Can’t recall one bad storyline in that book. So I was disappointed ted shen Barry returned and Wally was basically wiped out for a while.

Wally will always be MY fav FLASH.

[godisawesome]

I think the best way to look at his fan base, his current status quo, and the reaction people have with his treatment in his new status quo, is to see him as, on the one hand, the standard bearer for the highest quality and most consistently great period in the Flash franchise, but on the other hand, a character who requires a new reader to accept that they’re a bit late to the party if they arrive during his ascension and epoch.

It’s a scenario designed to create a massive schism between people who have enjoyed and invested money and time into his stories and character arc (and the numerous additions made to the franchise off his back)... and a marketing-driven philosophy that views “baggage” as unacceptable and dangerous to a franchise’s long-term viability.

On the plus side, Wally had:
- 2 Legendary runs by 2 Legendary writers, in Mark Waid and Geoff Johns, that produced arguably the best Flash stories, bar none; I think part of the reason New 52 Barry is sometimes disregarded is because fans enter with expectation from The Return of Barry Allen or Blitz, which are two arcs I would not want to have my stuff compared to, because I’m unlikely to ever meet their standard.
- A mostly successful expansion of the franchise: not only did you get a pretty robust Flash family even if they only ever held down 2 books, but they managed to integrate in older characters like Jay Garrick and Max Mercury to do so, and created now-fundamental concepts like the Speed Force.
- A fun character and personality that adapts well to cartoons and live action, especially in team-scenarios. This is why people watching Justice League still say that DCEU Barry has some Wally personality.

On the down-side, which primarily comes in a marketing strategy viewpoint:
- The character’s epoch requires an audience member to keep track of multiple Flashes... and the fact that time is passing... which anathema to the idea of making everything so simple that it can be summarized in few words. And taking away the legacy aspect arguably damages some of Wally’s appeal; being a legacy character makes him more unique, so just erasing Barry doesn’t necessarily help.
- A lot of what makes Wally good is that his run as the main Flash embraced growth and long-lasting change...which are again anathema to the idea of simplicity, but also to the idea that a character must have a “perfect formula” status quo the books can safely return to after a writer is done. This is why people sometimes say the character had “run his course:” he’d grown and developed enough that he kind of needed to reformat in a major way to keep going, like going full Flash-Daddy and embracing his kids growing older... and DC’s editorial philosophy is opposed to that on principal.

Wally is basically the perfect Flash to use if you wanted to, say adopt a comic to a soap opera that you wanted to see run for a long time... but still either end, or transform into an all new generation of characters. And DC Comics has no interest in such explicitly growth-focused storytelling right now, and in fact regards it as a liability.
-

[Dred]

The idea that baggage is unacceptable is preposterous. DC lovingly adopts baggage to all their other characters. Even when they do a full reboot, Batman and Hal keep all their baggage.

[K. Jones]

Teen Titans.
Wolfman's New Teen Titans.
Justice League: The Animated Series.
Grant Morrison's JLA.
Morrison's/Waid's/Johns's Flash.
Young Justice: The Animated Series.

[BohemiaDrinker]

The idea that baggage is unacceptable is preposterous. DC lovingly adopts baggage to all their other characters. Even when they do a full reboot, Batman and Hal keep all their baggage.

Yeah, that line bothers me too.

Not to mention treating the best runs a franchise ever had as "baggage".

Talk about favoritsm...

[Sutekh]

One thing that confounds me is the desire to appeal to a certain demographic, and yet to avoid any sort of younger versions of classic characters.

As designed, Barry (and Hal and Bruce) are supposed to be mature, serious, veteran heroes, while stories in which the hero is out of his depth, or fails to take a situation seriously enough, or is still learning the ropes of their powers or situation, seems better suited for younger heroes like Wally and Kyle and Dick, and yet, the writers want to tell said stories, *but* continue to use only Barry and Hal and Bruce, and so we get these experienced heroes behaving like newbies or frat-boys or making fairly gratuitous errors in judgment. I'm old enough to have bought Crisis on Infinite Earths on the stands, and to remember Barry Allen as 'my Flash' (and Hal Jordan as 'my Green Lantern' and the only human Green Lantern in the 'Earth 1' universe), and yet, they came back as super-immature and inexperienced and rookie-ish, which, IMO, is the *opposite* of showing respect for these classic characters. Arguably, *Wally* is no longer viable as the inexperienced rookie hero that other heroes openly mock to his face, and to tell that same story with Barry is crapping all over Barry's memory.

They keep bringing back the older characters *names,* but making them act more like the newer characters, while pushing the newer characters away and claiming that they are somehow bad for the originals... And that argument is just crap. Were Alan Scott and Jay Garrick somehow 'bad' for Hal Jordan and Barry Allen? No. Is the continued existence of Dick Grayson somehow bad for Batman? Ridiculous.

The writers clearly *need* younger Flashes and Green Lanterns and whatever to tell the sorts of stories they want to tell, but instead write them out and then have the *experienced adults in the room* behave like inexperienced newbies to the world of super-heroing, instead, making these classic characters seem like idiots who never learn anything.

[U.N. Owen]

For a good many people, Wally West was the Flash, the heart of the Justice League, because of his vibrant personality. Kids who grew up with the Justice League cartoon believe he was the Flash as much as John Stewart was the Green Lantern. In fact, his voice actor reprised his role in the Teen Titans cartoon. Nostalgia has a factor in that.

Until Barry got catapulted into mainstream audiences.

[Killerbee911]

I would say because Wally West Flash pulled off the impossible, Giving the main hero a meaningful death and successful replacing him with his sidekick who grew into the main role of hero. Nothing against Barry who is a great hero but Wally have to live up to his legacy combined with wally personality made for the time the Best flash. Now honestly Barry has stealthy taken some of wally traits in popular media (and they improved character weaker aspects since his return ) and combined with Nu52 stuff has weakened the overall value of Wally West I understand why someone would doubt Wally. But his devaluing is mostly editorial side and if left alone I would argue Wally West flash had a higher upside than Barry Flash.


Where I differ from most people is that Hero in Crisis didn't do the near the damage people think it did, I won't go as far to say it help the character but I think good writers will be able to use this event better than people think

[andersonh1]

I'm reading the Silver Age Flash stories for the first time, and as a long-time Wally fan, I note with some delight that Wally is never referred to as Barry's "sidekick", but always his protégé. Wally frequently stars in his own solo stories as a lead character right from the start.

[caj]

A lot of us basically saw him grow up. We knew him as a young teen, older teen, college student, and then 'graduate' to the Flash mantle. He was immature at first but we saw him grow into maturity, marry, and have kids. We've known him at just about every stage of his life. Like Dick Grayson and Donna Troy, he means a lot to us because we watched them grow up.

[Dr. Ellingham]

As designed, Barry (and Hal and Bruce) are supposed to be mature, serious, veteran heroes, while stories in which the hero is out of his depth, or fails to take a situation seriously enough, or is still learning the ropes of their powers or situation, seems better suited for younger heroes like Wally and Kyle and Dick, and yet, the writers want to tell said stories, *but* continue to use only Barry and Hal and Bruce, and so we get these experienced heroes behaving like newbies or frat-boys or making fairly gratuitous errors in judgment. I'm old enough to have bought Crisis on Infinite Earths on the stands, and to remember Barry Allen as 'my Flash' (and Hal Jordan as 'my Green Lantern' and the only human Green Lantern in the 'Earth 1' universe), and yet, they came back as super-immature and inexperienced and rookie-ish, which, IMO, is the *opposite* of showing respect for these classic characters. Arguably, *Wally* is no longer viable as the inexperienced rookie hero that other heroes openly mock to his face, and to tell that same story with Barry is crapping all over Barry's memory.

Were continuity permanently irrevocable, I might agree. But it's not.

For decades-old superhero characters, writers need to rethink them every so often. Whether it's Barry, Wally, Bruce or Clark, writers have pushed them all into new personalities, situations and backstories. Different writers, different times.

Which is why writers are writing current-Barry as being inexperienced at times, or short-sighted at times. The full spectrum of human characteristics are available, so why not use them to enliven a character? (Execution being the deciding factor in success, of course)