Wally West: The Flash Appreciation 2020

[married guy]

Wally West is my Flash. Got into Flash with "Dead Heat" in Waid's first run, and was instantly hooked. Before that I didn't take DC seriously, I was instantly addicted to Marvel when I collected comics but this and Morrison's JLA really turned that around. Looking back, I was surprised to see future superstar artists like Pacheco and Larocca in Waid's Flash (Terminal Velocity), Flash always had great artists consistently along with the writing, it just overshadowed other titles like Ron Marz' Green Lantern. Not because they weren't good, it's just because Flash was that amazing.

Rereading Waid's Flash Oscar Jiminez was creating numerous memorable panels that stuck with me to this day, especially #111. Wally and Savitar fist fighting at superspeed, Savitar bouncing off a blow from Wally into a lake then telekinetically throwing a buoy at Wally in response, Savitar smashing away the line of speedsters like a wrecking ball, Savitar in traffic in the middle of adjusting where to run to mid-sprint while Wally catches up behind him, Impulse playing chicken with Savitar and only surviving at the last second because Wally picked him up from being hit because he's a stupid kid, Savitar's clawed hand reaching up grab Wally as they run into the Speed Force only for Wally to catch it and throw him deeper into it. Epic visuals. I noticed that artists didn't stick around for longer than an arc, however. That's a shame. They were all so good.

I think I'm the only fan of John Fox. I adored how that goofball tried replace Wally in the present and unintentionally sabotaged Wally coming back by putting the moves on Linda. Nearly started an ice age he was trying to prevent which he knew was coming since he came from the future. He was trying so hard to be a super-hero and failing at it.

Yup.
The Wally era of the title had consistently great writers and artists.
And John Fox is a great character!
His first appearance was in the Flash TV Special, and he played a nice part in DC One Million as well. I'd love to see him make a reappearance with the rest of the Flash Family.

[married guy]

I generally don't like Finch's pencils and this is no exception. It reminds a lot of Jim Lee's recent Justice League Flash cover. Similar pose and grimace.

I've always equated Flashes with being blue collar down-to-earth fellows, so whenever I see someone making them super angry it just reminds of edgy 90s stuff and it doesn't really feel 90s to me. Some artists can pull it off (Ringo was a fine example), but Finch is a miss for this Wally fan. He looks like Batman in a Flash costume.

I agree. It just looks a tad too angry for my tastes as well.

[Kyer]

Chalk me up for also preferring a less angry Wally and Fox was a neat character, trying so hard to be a hero and not quite nailing it at least at first.

The death of Savitar in Flash: Rebirth needs to be retconned. That was a crime: offing a great villain for Wally in such an off-hand manner.

[BohemiaDrinker]

Flash: Rebirth needs to be retconned.

There Kyer, I edited your post to make it a little more accurate.

[Waterfall]

I generally don't like Finch's pencils and this is no exception. It reminds a lot of Jim Lee's recent Justice League Flash cover. Similar pose and grimace.

I've always equated Flashes with being blue collar down-to-earth fellows, so whenever I see someone making them super angry it just reminds of edgy 90s stuff and it doesn't really feel 90s to me. Some artists can pull it off (Ringo was a fine example), but Finch is a miss for this Wally fan. He looks like Batman in a Flash costume.

Same. I put Brett Booth under this category as well.

Flashes should have softer art style. 90s masculine style doesn't go for them.

[Jekyll]

There Kyer, I edited your post to make it a little more accurate.

LOL! Yes!!!

[Ilan Preskovsky]

Yup, definitely count me as someone who doesn't like Finch's work very much and definitely on the Flash. I feel that way about a great many '90s artists in the Jim Lee style (including Lee himself, if sometimes less so) - they're nicely rendered pinups but the reliance on a grimace over actual facial expressions and the overly posed body language make for less than effective comic book art. And yet, I really like Jason Fabok's art (bot not for the Flash). Go figure.

I hate Brett Booth's work but, actually, he suffers less from this. I find his work overwhelmingly ugly but it is more kinetic and expressive than the more attractive art of guys like Finch and Lee.

[Kyer]

There Kyer, I edited your post to make it a little more accurate.

Unfortunately, to get the best accuracy we would have to have this entire century retconned. (And I'm not just talking about comics.)

[The Cool Thatguy]

I have a question for you more continuity Wally fans.

Where was Wally during the 'Titans Hunt' arc?

I mean, he ran into the ad-hoc team of Titans during the War of the Gods thing, the Wildebeest society even went after Hawk at the time, so how come Wally never came to help out his old team?

...besides the entire arc sucking.

[deadman322]

either wolfman wasn't allowed to use him or didn't want to write wally cause he thought he was too powerful (that's the reason he's given for having wally leave the team)

[Will Evans]

I have a question for you more continuity Wally fans.

Where was Wally during the 'Titans Hunt' arc?

I mean, he ran into the ad-hoc team of Titans during the War of the Gods thing, the Wildebeest society even went after Hawk at the time, so how come Wally never came to help out his old team?

...besides the entire arc sucking.

Wasn’t he on JUstice League Europe at the time?

So he wasn’t in the USA during Titans Hunt.

[The Cool Thatguy]

Wasn’t he on JUstice League Europe at the time?

So he wasn’t in the USA during Titans Hunt.

He's called the Flash, ya know

I thought they would have addressed it, is all. Donna said that she couldn't contact the League because all the information was at the (destroyed) tower, but you'd think that she would know how to reach Wally.

[Dred]

I have a question for you more continuity Wally fans.

Where was Wally during the 'Titans Hunt' arc?

I mean, he ran into the ad-hoc team of Titans during the War of the Gods thing, the Wildebeest society even went after Hawk at the time, so how come Wally never came to help out his old team?

...besides the entire arc sucking.

The same reason Wally doesn't solve every problem in the world. The same reason Batman doesn't just call in a random JLer with absurd powers who could easily take down whoever his villain du jour is once he finds them.

Wasn't meant to be part of that story.

[The Cool Thatguy]

The same reason Wally doesn't solve every problem in the world. The same reason Batman doesn't just call in a random JLer with absurd powers who could easily take down whoever his villain du jour is once he finds them.

Wasn't meant to be part of that story.

The difference is that, at the time, writers still accounted for logical narrative (to a degree). Hell, in Hawk and Dove's series had the Wildebeest Society going after them.

Wally was a founding member of the Titans, and close personal friends with most of them. I mean, Aqualad showed up

[Dred]

Wolfman hates Wally. He wasn't interested in putting him in the story even if you could make sense of why he could be.