Wally West: The Flash Appreciation 2020

[Dred]

The conversation is straying from my original point:



Peter Parker, Miles Morales and Ghost-Spider are a more diverse cast than Jay, Barry and Wally. They expand the readership by speaking to different demographics. Marvel would have little use for a male version of Ghost-Spider or a white version of Miles.

Miles and Ghost-Spider are also both part of Marvel's YA line, along with Ms. Marvel, Squirrel Girl, Champions etc. Different demographic than stories about an adult Wally West.

But backtracking to Barry literally removed the next, obvious diverse step in the line.

[Lee]

But backtracking to Barry literally removed the next, obvious diverse step in the line.

I didn't comment on whether reverting back to Barry was a good idea or who should or should not be the next Flash.

What I said was, it's not the same situation as Marvel currently having three "Spider-Mans" (Peter, Miles, Gwen). These are characters that reach different demographics.

On top of that, Spider-Man has been able to support 3+ ongoing titles for decades, Flash has sometimes had two, but usually just one.

Wally West isn't Miles Morales, he isn't Kamala Khan, he isn't Kate Bishop. He's not in that position.

[Dred]

Neither is Barry. Frankly, the argument is based on an assumption that isn't necessary

[Lee]

I'm not arguing who should or should not headline the Flash comic. I'm saying the Flash franchise can't support as many titles as the Spider-Man franchise and the three big Spider-Characters aren't all straight white adult men, so Wally isn't in the same position as Miles Morales.

These are the posts that started this conversation:

Marvel has like 5 Spider-people running around and it's not a problem for any of them. They all have their own books in their own corners and sometimes meet up together. I don't understand why DC can't do this. For Flash, GL, and etc.

To be fair, Marvel only seriously publishes solo books for three spider-characters (not counting Venom or when Peter gets double books). Most of them fade into the background or get shoved off to team books.

The best Wally could hope for is the Miles treatment.

[manwhohaseverything]

So, white males can't support multiple books? Then how is superman or batman having multiple books?Flash isn't that small of a franchise.

[Lee]

I never said white males can't support multiple books. I said Flash, historically, usually hasn't supported multiple books.

[manwhohaseverything]

Historically, that might have been true. But, that doesn’t mean it should be true always. This is how a franchise grows. Although, i must admit in current market.The battle will be uphill. Since, it already is. It doesn't matter. Regardless, wally needs some love from the editorial.

[married guy]

Flash sells twice a month.
Each issue sells 30K copies. (there abouts)

Every time DC release a Wally-centric book it sells 30K copies (there abouts).

It would be a very simple thing for editorial to ship one Barry book a month and one Wally book a month and not lose a single reader. Hell, they may very well expand the readership if they assign decent creative teams to each.

[Lee]

That's a big assumption. With two issues of one Flash title, DC knows they're going to fetch similar sales. With one issue of two Flash titles each month, there's no guarantee that Flash Comic A is going to sell similarly to Flash Comic B. It would be a gamble. Nothing is ever a sure thing, and sister titles usually sell lower than the main title. If the two do balance out, and they sell the same number of comics as they did before, then what has been gained?

Fans naturally look at publishing decisions through the lens of a fan. "This is what I would like." But what any individual fan may like isn't necessarily going to be what best benefits DC Comics' publishing line and DC Entertainment's brand management.

[Dred]

I don't really understand what your point in this thread is, right now, throwing out why DC treating Wally poorly for decades is acceptable. The Wally West Appreciation Thread: Where looking at things as fans is less preferred to looking at it from the perspective of, and I quote, "DC Entertainment's brand management"

Maybe we should just change the title to DC Entertainment Brand Management appreciation thread. It really is hard on those guys, making those tough choices that they didn't even make.

[phantom1592]

I don't really understand what your point in this thread is, right now, throwing out why DC treating Wally poorly for decades is acceptable. The Wally West Appreciation Thread: Where looking at things as fans is less preferred to looking at it from the perspective of, and I quote, "DC Entertainment's brand management"

Maybe we should just change the title to DC Entertainment Brand Management appreciation thread. It really is hard on those guys, making those tough choices that they didn't even make.

Well, it's never been much of an appreciation thread. This has almost always been a place for bitter complaints. Personally I'd like to see the conversations STOP being about how badly Wally has been screwed over... or how bad Didio is... or how DC doesn't get it... and get back to some Wally Appreciation.

Let's see some cool pictures, panels, videos, art... something that makes me HAPPY to read the thread again :P Most of the other Appreciation threads are like this. This place tends to feel less like a celebration of Wally... and more like funeral home.

[Dred]

Well, it's never been much of an appreciation thread. This has almost always been a place for bitter complaints. Personally I'd like to see the conversations STOP being about how badly Wally has been screwed over... or how bad Didio is... or how DC doesn't get it... and get back to some Wally Appreciation.

Let's see some cool pictures, panels, videos, art... something that makes me HAPPY to read the thread again :P Most of the other Appreciation threads are like this. This place tends to feel less like a celebration of Wally... and more like funeral home.

Sure, complaining about how we wish Wally were treated better is right in line with appreciating Wally. When you appreciate a character, seeing bad things happen to them makes you want to see those bad things stop happening and you voice it.

What you don't voice, when you appreciate a character, is how it's really sensible for the company to treat them super poorly if you look at it from a brand management perspective. That's what we're all about here, DC's brand management and justifying them.

Most of what we get is bad news. We react to it here. C'est la vie. Other threads are either no news or are about characters with longstanding ongoings who have something for sure to look forward to. The ones that don't also complain, but less so because Wally's probably the highest profile/most popular character who gets the rough end of the stick.

[Digifiend]

Flash sells twice a month.
Each issue sells 30K copies. (there abouts)

Every time DC release a Wally-centric book it sells 30K copies (there abouts).

It would be a very simple thing for editorial to ship one Barry book a month and one Wally book a month and not lose a single reader. Hell, they may very well expand the readership if they assign decent creative teams to each.

Yeah, Flash Forward has been selling just as well as the main Flash title, so I'd say they can support two books. No reason Barry and Wally couldn't both have one.

[Kyer]

Yeah, Flash Forward has been selling just as well as the main Flash title, so I'd say they can support two books. No reason Barry and Wally couldn't both have one.

Selling just as well and until very recently with not much advertising. I basically stopped looking at the CBR Previews once I realized that with Wally finally getting a book.... no previews of it. If it wasn't for this thread it would have been months before I knew Fast Forward even existed.

[Godlike13]

The problem is most of DCs current books aren’t selling that good, so selling just as good as the main book right now isn’t that impressive. That being said with proper creator support I think Wally could still sustain a book just fine. But that right there is the issue, when it comes to a character like Wally he needs to be able to sustain with out real creator support.