What costume should Wally West wear now?

[manwhohaseverything]

Me? Don't care one way or the other, personally.

Though, I confess to never caring all that much for the Golden Age characters. That isn't to say they couldn't be written to be cool, though, perhaps even better than the JLA characters. Anything's possible with good writing.

Hell, yeah! They could. They are all awesome. It's too bad these guys are stuck in an era.

[Hi-Max]

Hell, yeah! They could. They are all awesome. It's too bad these guys are stuck in an era.

Yeah, I think that is a problem, and one of the reasons I don't care that much for them. I think quite a few things about the characters would need to be overhauled (like costumes). But they've been written as not mattering as much as their counterparts for decades, and if they weren't written in that fashion and actually given precedence and care, then who knows, potentially you could wind up with something cooler than the Hal Jordans and Barry Allens and whatnot. I'm not saying that WOULD happen, but I'm also not saying it wouldn't. It would depend on the people behind the projects.

[BlueRuggo]

Those who are actually worried this is just an attempt to box character and regress him to "kids" table are the pretenders? Please, i haven't many of these so called concerned fans of wally west in the actual wally west appreciation thread regularly other than the pretenders. Those that are worried aren't the pretenders. Those that want wally out of the way for the "main" flash are.I don't believe the new costume is bad. But, it definitely lacks the qualities of his flash costume . The white eyes and cowl is signature wally west costume.His lighting pattern was different as well. Wally west is the flash. Those that are advocating for him to go back to being kid flash aren't really for the character. Would never be for the character.

Haven't seen anybody advocating for Wally West to go back to being Kid Flash. The idea that open hair signifies being a kid just defies comprehension.

[John Venus]

Shiny red costume with yellow accents when he took over as Flash.

The Walter West costume once Barry comes back and Wally becomes a dad.

[SanityOrMadness]

Haven't seen anybody advocating for Wally West to go back to being Kid Flash.

Well, someone was - remember, Wallace was originally meant to be the N52 version of Wally, end story. Deaged not just the way that most of the other original & New Teen Titans were (from mid-twenties to early twenties), but all the way to early teens. In Robin terms, that's all the way from Dick's age to Damien's age, younger even than what Beast Boy & Raven were taken down to (Tim Drake's age group).

[J. D. Guy]

2016 Rebirth suit, with free-flowing hair. I'm down for either the Red or Blue variation, though I agree that the Blue is unique, distinct, and striking, especially with Wally's red hair, so I want them to hold onto that variation as much as possible.

[Dred]

Haven't seen anybody advocating for Wally West to go back to being Kid Flash. The idea that open hair signifies being a kid just defies comprehension.

How does it defy comprehension when that is literally the reason given by the designer of the outfit?

[SanityOrMadness]

How does it defy comprehension when that is literally the reason given by the designer of the outfit?

"Wanting to evoke his Kid Flash look, which he appeared in in the massively-selling Rebirth book where he reappeared, a bit more" is not the same thing as "make him Kid Flash!" (Especially when they HAD a separate Wally West Kid Flash debuting at the same time)

[And let's remember that his 2008 costume was literally designed by committee after EVS, being the massively mature man he is, refused to engage seriously with the brief to make a new costume for Wally. I doubt that if an actual artist was tasked with the design and followed through it would have looked quite so much like a kitbashed "must be X% different" mess.]

[Dred]

"Wanting to evoke his Kid Flash look, which he appeared in in the massively-selling Rebirth book where he reappeared, a bit more" is not the same thing as "make him Kid Flash!" (Especially when they HAD a separate Wally West Kid Flash debuting at the same time)

[And let's remember that his 2008 costume was literally designed by committee after EVS, being the massively mature man he is, refused to engage seriously with the brief to make a new costume for Wally. I doubt that if an actual artist was tasked with the design and followed through it would have looked quite so much like a kitbashed "must be X% different" mess.]

That was not the reason given. You are bringing up some context that has never been said or referenced and retroactively using it to justify your position. But that's not the case. All we know is A: there were several designs for Wally's new costume that didn't have the open cowl and B: They were forced to put the open cowl on to make him look like Kid Flash. That's it. Though I'm not sure why you think it's a good thing that Wally's grand reappearance was as Kid Flash and not The Flash. That in itself was the only bad part of Rebirth. He hadn't been Kid Flash since before I was born but DC wants to make sure you know Wally is Kid Flash to Barry's Flash. This redesign was more of the same and I'd rather bury that mindset and editorial stranglehold than lift it up and support it. I mean you yourself mentioned how New 52 Wally was birthed in the minds of the people who made the same decision you're saying was in Wally's interest. Seriously, you think Lee and Didio were about honoring anything to do with Wally in any of their decisions?

Back when Wally wasn't as minimized as he is now it was easier to support him actually looking like The Flash. The idea of sticking him in a costume that didn't look like The Flash was still blasphemous because he was more popular than Barry. Turns out, 12 years later, apparently I'm the lunatic for still thinking of him as deserving that.

It's just "Wally should get a different name!" all over again, but with the outfit. Only this time he was forced into a new outfit anyhow so there's already a foundation for that minimizing.

I'm not sure you really get the purpose of evoking something. If your goal is literally to remind everyone every time they look at Wally that he was Kid Flash then...well, that's my argument. Imagine having to carry around your 8th grade report card stapled to your head everyday so no one would ever forget you got straight A's that first semester.

------

All of this boils down to what I really mean. The vast majority of people have a very specific, basic set of visual cues in mind when they think of or see the Flash. Not you or I or most people on this forum -- we're all DC fans. We can tell the differences, often by context even more than costume. But for all of those people who think of The Flash, they think of the basic silhouette and visual cues of Barry's costume. And not entirely because of Barry! Wally was carrying on and promoting that outfit, that look, for decades! This is not a Barry only suit. How many Flash fans started with the DCAU Flash? Online I've seen a large chunk of them say that that was their starting point. That visual identity is important. It's something that Barry and Wally BOTH have. It's an image that you could show random joe nobody on the street as well as any comic fan and they'd say "That's The Flash." That is an immense value.

What DC has done for the last 15 years is try to change that to have people say "That's Barry Allen, The Flash!" and did their absolute best to make sure no one ever thinks of Wally that way. Can't tell how many times I'd be watching a clip of DCAU JL and see people call him Barry in spite of the fact that it's Wally's only really significant external media appearance as The Flash.

When comic fans are looking at comics on the shelf, or online, and they see The Flash on the cover, they are more likely to be interested in that than what Wally looks like now. Or in external media, or anything. And, AGAIN, that is a value that Wally himself not only relied on, but also boosted through his own tenure. I'm fine with differentiating it in some obvious ways so that comic fans can easily tell there's two different Flashes, just for clarity's sake for us reading the comic. As they will, hopefully, share the page sometimes. But it should still very, very, very much just look like The Flash. Not Kid Flash, not some offshoot of The Flash, it should look like a Flash costume that you might've expected Wally to wear if Barry never came back.

The Rebirth suit is not that. The Rebirth suit, while a good design, is a compromise to a character they immediately put on the backburner and treated like ****. Wally has only failed and suffered in that costume, because both it and his time since returning was a decision made by people who want what's worst for him. There's some poetic justice in Wally's only real progress as a person and character being the exact moment that suit disappeared and he started glowing blue and sitting instead of running. But Wallyhattan is not a long term solution and that is not a long term look. And it suffers even worse from Not-Flashitis.

Here's the thing, I think The Rebirth design is better than the 2009 Rebirth design by EVS. I think the dumb nose cowl thing looks terrible in 2009 Rebirth. Heck, I think the original Kid Flash look is better than the original Flash look! Infantino was a slightly more experienced designer by then, after all. But I would still much prefer that 2009 version because it's clearly The Flash when you look at it in the way that Wally should be pictured. This Rebirth costume is just halfway to Wally's version of Nightwing, for all the wrong reasons, and I'd rather be done with it. It was spawned from bad ideas, bad intent, and bad motivations and has only existed in a time of failure and suffering for the character. Let's treat it like Barry's DCYou costume and close the chapter on it and let Wally look like The Flash. To you, to me, to random Jane Nobody on the street. Even if it's got silver or a different lightning bolt or a darker shade of red or something.

I totally empathize with everyone who makes the point that Wally and Barry should look absolutely distinct in the pages of the comic so you always know who is who. That is NOT the same thing as him wearing The Rebirth suit and looking like a reskinned Kid Flash.

The majority does not agree with me and that's what I expect. I just see it as another small step in Wally's long term erasure, even if the short term erasure has been put on hold with Didio's ousting. I'd just rather oust EVERYTHING of Didio's influence and destruction towards Wally than go half way.

[astro@work]

Rebirth. Let that ginger mane free!

Rebirth vote here. Let’s see that ginger hair!
Frankly I always disliked Barry’s look because of the closed cowl.

[witchboy]

I do advocate Wally returning to the yellow and red Kid Flash costume - it's a great costume. But not for Wally to be Kid Flash again, no.

[Dred]

I do advocate Wally returning to the yellow and red Kid Flash costume - it's a great costume. But not for Wally to be Kid Flash again, no.

That is an impossible distinction to make.

[Robanker]

Rebirth vote here. Let’s see that ginger hair!
Frankly I always disliked Barry’s look because of the closed cowl.

Oh I love the classic look, but if Barry is going to keep a deathgrip on that thing then I feel Wally should look visually different enough.

[manwhohaseverything]

Haven't seen anybody advocating for Wally West to go back to being Kid Flash. The idea that open hair signifies being a kid just defies comprehension.

Open hair might not.but,the overall costume is kid flash costume in red. That's it. That's what they were going for. They need to alter it to show more features of his flash suit. There were countless posts made insinuating him to either go back or be the something else.look below.

I do advocate Wally returning to the yellow and red Kid Flash costume - it's a great costume. But not for Wally to be Kid Flash again, no.

The thing is yellow and red costume scheme is linked with kid flash. This doesn't help the character at all.

[Digifiend]

The Flash suit is also red and yellow. Kid Flash just has more yellow. That's why i think Wally should be red and silver, his current colour scheme, even if the costume is otherwise made more like Barry's.