Why do people hate Barry Allen?

[Dboi2001]

I don’t get why so many people hate barry allen so much or want Wally West to take over again. It just makes less sense considering people act like Wally never borrowed elements from Barry yet criticize Barry whenever writers borrow Wally elements

[caj]

I don't hate Barry. I grew up with him. But I also always found him pretty bland as a character.

I didn't know Jay very well, so Barry was the only Flash I knew. I liked his speed abilities and what he brought to the Justice League in the 70s and early 80s.

But Wally had better writers IMO and they developed a much more likeable and fun personality. And then we got to see him grow up, fall in love, and become a dad.

Wally just feels like The Flash to me - and always will. Barry died a hero's death and should've stayed dead IMO. Wally is The Flash to me now.

[Dboi2001]

is every silver age character bland and boring?

[manwhohaseverything]

is every silver age character bland and boring?

Superman was better in especially bronze age and maybe even in some of the silverage.Ofcourse, there were problems.

[PCN24454]

is every silver age character bland and boring?

Yes, we just don't like admitting it.

[Dboi2001]

Yes, we just don't like admitting it.

The I guess Superman is also boring? That is the thing. The silver age had a huge influence on comics that everything after it was built off of it so yes they may come of as generic but it set the precedent

[Hol]

I would like to see Mark Waid and Chris Samnee write a Barry Allen comic and take those STUPID New 52 lines out of the costume. Give him his old costume back.

[sifighter]

I have no problem with Barry, but I assume the main problem is that he feels like a step backwards if you would. Wally was Flash for decades, I’m sure there’s some fans who had no idea who Barry was besides the occasional mention. Wally grew into the role, had entire stories about him growing into the role and expanding the Flash family and its mythos around him. Then Barry came back, and suddenly a character who we had spend decades with as Flash and who we had followed along the way became redundant or at the very least replaceable and indeed he was fully replaced and done away with when New 52 happened and Barry took up the main mantle again after so many years away.

So unfortunately Barry became an example that a characters growth, one that was 20 or 30 some years long, can just be thrown out for someone else.

[Zero Hunter]

Sifighter hit it on the head. To an entire generation Wally was the Flash. We saw years and years of Wally trying to live up to Barry and finally surpassing his mentor. Wally was the better Flash with way more character. Then Barry was brought back and Wally was sidelined. Then after Flashpoint he was completely erased all together and replaced with a new version. To many of us seeing Barry come back and replace a character we had been reading about for decades was bad enough, but then to reboot him as a totally different character was just a slap in the face. If you look at the TV show and especially the Justice League movie they base so much of both characters on Wally way more than Barry. It is like even DC knows Wally is better than Barry but they are to committed to keeping him around now to change it.

[Waterfall]

As of August 2020, I dislike all Flashes. It has more to do with cheap, lazy writing. Current Wally is worse than Barry. He is ridiculously boring. When Flash writers stopped writing about the world Flash is in, with the cast he interacts with, the series stopped being interesting.

Now it’s all about ~high concepts~ without any depth.

[Frontier]

I don't hate Barry but I think the one two-punch of Barry coming back and replacing Wally as the main Flash and taking so many concepts, stories, and characterizations from Wally made a lot of fans resentful towards him.

[Lee Stone]

I don't hate him, myself.
I just kinda dislike him.

When I first started reading DC, my gateway was the Superfriends cartoon and he really didn't have a big presence on it.
His comics at the time were okay, but I never could get into him.
Then the Trial happened.
I remember thinking 'OMG... is that still going on..?' near the end of his run.

Add in that I liked Wally in the Titans, which I liked reading a lot more than Flash...
And CoIE.
Then Wally gets his own title as Flash, and suddenly Flash was interesting to me. I bought a lot more of Wally's title than I did Barry's.
But, honestly, if the Trial hadn't happened, if he didn't die in Crisis and if Mike Baron had done a Barry Flash instead of Wally, I might've liked him a lot more.

Incidentally, this experience could mirror modern day readers' reaction to the characters I grew up with. Especially Blue Beetle.
I'm always wondering, 'Why do people hate Ted Kord?'

[Dboi2001]

Sifighter hit it on the head. To an entire generation Wally was the Flash. We saw years and years of Wally trying to live up to Barry and finally surpassing his mentor. Wally was the better Flash with way more character. Then Barry was brought back and Wally was sidelined. Then after Flashpoint he was completely erased all together and replaced with a new version. To many of us seeing Barry come back and replace a character we had been reading about for decades was bad enough, but then to reboot him as a totally different character was just a slap in the face. If you look at the TV show and especially the Justice League movie they base so much of both characters on Wally way more than Barry. It is like even DC knows Wally is better than Barry but they are to committed to keeping him around now to change it.

Now you know how Barry fans felt for 20 years. JL cartoon replaces Barry with Wally and never mentioned Barry. that’d be like if a spider man movie started off with Miles Morales and never mentioned Peter Parker

They even turned Thawne into a Barry Allen stan meaning Barry Allen fans were literally to villain to Wally

[Midnight_v]

Now you know how Barry fans felt for 20 years. JL cartoon replaces Barry with Wally and never mentioned Barry. that’d be like if a spider man movie started off with Miles Morales and never mentioned Peter Parker

They even turned Thawne into a Barry Allen stan meaning Barry Allen fans were literally to villain to Wally

I don't agree with this. Like at all... The cartoons aren't the same as the books and bringing a grudge over like that is silly

Further, the problem with this is it stands in the way of growth in the universe. The worst thing about comics is "No one dies or No one stays dead" when really you should be able to write period pieces
and tell stories of consequence.

I frankly DON'T hate barry but... bringing him back after 23 years seems needless and egregious and actully hurts the overall universe because he actually DID make a noble sacrifice that affected everyone.

Why undo that?
Do you just want characters in perpetuity? NO character you like should have a beginning, middle, or end?

[Rend20]

They even turned Thawne into a Barry Allen stan meaning Barry Allen fans were literally to villain to Wally

When did this happen?

Thawne was trying to ruin Barry's legacy in The Return of Barry Allen, had no clue who was under the mask in Chain Lightning, and mostly battled Barry in Rogues War. If you're talking about ROBA, then Wally was the ultimate Barry stan in that story and pretty much throughout his entire run.