Who is the Best Flash writer

[Dred]

Mark Waid wrote clearly the best Wally and arguably the best Barry (in limited exposure). And as good a Jay as anyone. It's him and, frankly, it's not even close. And obviously he had the best Flash solo comic run.

[Ilan Preskovsky]

Waid. Easily. The best Wally writer, of course, but he's the only modern writer to write a decent Barry. His Jay is on point too.

[charliehustle415]

Mark Waid for me simply because of Wally and then a close second is Johns

[Hol]

Not surprised that Waid is smoking everyone.

[The_Sneezing_Stormtrooper]

Mark Waid is the name that instantly pops into my head when asked this question. I'd consider Johns a close runner up. Messner Loebs, Bates and Williamson also deserve an honorable mention for fantastic runs that only fall short because I'd consider Johns and Waid just that good.

[Sandy Hausler]

Cary Bates. Much of what we take for granted as being evergreen concepts of the FLASH franchise were established by Bates, and he did it without a Speed Force to use as a creative crutch.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

I am SO with you on this. In my opinion (and it's just my opinion), anyone who feels otherwise is obviously too young to vote.

[Lightning Rider]

Cary Bates. Much of what we take for granted as being evergreen concepts of the FLASH franchise were established by Bates, and he did it without a Speed Force to use as a creative crutch.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

It's a good point. Even just creating these concepts and expanding on them like he did is something special the others can't fully claim.

[Dred]

The speed force wasn't any less a crutch than "The Flash's aura." That was used before it to explain away physics issues. Certainly not with Waid who used and created it as a great storytelling device.

[married guy]

Cary Bates. Much of what we take for granted as being evergreen concepts of the FLASH franchise were established by Bates, and he did it without a Speed Force to use as a creative crutch.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

Talking about Barry? Abso-freaking-lutely!
Both Bates and Fox built the foundations that everyone who came after built upon.

[Stanlos]

Not surprised that Waid is smoking everyone.

Because he made the Flash brand epic and awesome taking it to heights undreamed of.

[The Darknight Detective]

Bates was the guy when I was a kid first reading Flash comics, so I went with him. Is he the greatest? It's impossible to say, since storytelling has changed over the years. Regardless, he was the most fun (at least until the late '70s...).

[Waterfall]

Waid. He basically recreated the entire character. To this day, no other writer maybe other than Johns came close to adding new layers to his vision.

The things is, people like Williamson were solid maybe but they preferred to play in the playground Waid built. Only Johns got out of Waid's lines, for better (his first run) or worse (Flash Rebirth & Flashpoint).

[Ilan Preskovsky]

Yeah, Johns is a tough one. He wrote some of the best modern Flash (especially the stuff he did with Scott Kolins on Flash and Jay in JSA) and some of the absolute worst (everything to do with Barry, making Wally too much like Barry in the second half of his run).

[Hol]

Also, the speed force was not a creative crutch until Flash Rebirth, the Flash TV Show and Williamsons run IMO. Waid run, Johns first run it was used well and not nearly as often. The speed force and Thawne since 2009 has been used too often and used incorrectly IMO.

[Jim Kelly]

I keep scanning the list of writers and I just don't see John Broome's name. Is it there and I'm just not seeing it?

If it isn't there, then I don't understand what filter leaves out John Broome from the list of top Flash writers. Maybe it's a case of three guys can't fit through the same doorway--so John, Gardner and Bob are all trying to push their way through and Fox and Kanigher manage to muscle out Broome.

It's true that Gardner Fox co-created the original Flash (Jay Garrick) and wrote most of the stories in the first half of the 1940s. But John Broome and Bob Kanigher became the regular writers in the second half of the 1940s.

Then in SHOWCASE, Kanigher wrote one story and Broome wrote the other for all of Barry's try-out issues. But after that John Broome was the regular writer on the THE FLASH. Occasionally, Gardner Fox would contribute a story and (maybe because he co-created Jay) he was the guy who introduced Earth-Two and wrote the bulk of the Earth-Two stories in the 1960s. But it was Broome who co-created Barry Allen, co-created Wally West, co-created Ralph Dibny, co-created the Rogues and so much of the Central City reality. I say co-created, because Carmine Infantino was a huge part of the creation process as was editor Julius Schwartz and Broome's work owed something to what Fox and Kanigher had also co-created.

As the 1960s wore on, Broome spent half of his year in Paris, and he only wrote all his comics scripts when he was in New York for the other half of the year. So we do see Gardner Fox doing a lot more scripts. And then Frank Robbins, Bob Kanigher, Mike Friedrich, Len Wein and Cary Bates become Flash writers. And, of course, no other writer did as many Flash stories as Bates. But I would say what made Bates great was his John Broome style of writing the Flash.

As far as I know, the only time that Denny O'Neil wrote the Flash was in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA. And he wrote a good many Green Lantern stories that appeared in the back pages of THE FLASH.