If you think the arguments now over Wally and Barry are stormy, that's nothing compared to the deep divide between Hal and Kyle fans back in the day. This was the beginning of DC dividing up the fandoms against each other. I guess that social media wasn't as pervasive then and this bitterness didn't leak out into the broader community of fandoms--the way it has over things like Star Wars and Star Trek, these days.
And it seems like this has become the way of all things now--where fans of the same concept are constantly at war with each other. How does that work out for the company that owns the product? Does it actually help with sales? It seems like if a company is pushing away half of its fanbase, that wouldn't generate more profits.
Anyway, I always felt there should have been a better way for DC to do this kind of thing without offending half the folks that supported their comics previously. It seems like they learned all the wrong lessons from that debacle.