The thing is that Wally has so a rich history that i think if they had to choose they would just race bend him. Keep his roots as a Flash fan, being a founder of the Teen Titans and so on.
I can live with him race bended if he act like a proper Wally West. That kid from the TV series is neither Wally or Wallace.
DC: Dick Grayson, Wally West, Donna Troy, Yara Flor, Titans
Some of my favorite Mangas: One Piece, Slam Dunk, Fullmetal Alchemist, HunterXHunter, Vinland Saga, Monster, Berserk, Vagabond.
Current reading: Jujutsu Kaisen, Chainsaw Man, Spy X Family, Kaiju Nº8, Blue Lock, Dandadan.
But paving over Wallace to change Wally's ethnicity to take his (Wallace's) spot is problematic. If you are going to go that route with Kid Flash, then basing it on the actual character who currently fills that role in the comics makes the most sense. It was essentially the role Wallace was created to play.
It would also prevent people who get attached to that character in outside adaptions from getting confused about why they were based on the white character rather than the black one. Odds are they'll most likely merge them together and I'm not sure either side will ultimately be happy about that.
Last edited by Rend20; 04-24-2021 at 03:33 PM.
Honestly, I think people generally tend to put far too much stock in social media nontroversies. In reality nobody truly cares about a bunch of 12 year old white girls yelling on twitter about the "whitewashing" of a female character who's been white since before their grandmothers were born. People are so concerned about the outrage mobs and the online parasites who just can't seem to accept the fact that they are irrelevant. Besides the "synergy" thing has always been silly imo and DC just can't seem to let go of that for some reason.
Before Flash: Rebirth/Flashpoint, Wally/Linda was the highest profile interracial relationship in DC. I remember one of the criticisms of bringing back Barry Allen was losing that diversity. I suspect race bending Iris was there way of addressing that. We could have had both Wally/Linda and Barry/Iris but DC was hellbent on ignoring one for the other.
This. The problem isn't that they changed Wally's race, the problem is they gave his personality, charm and even his love interest to Barry Allen. Wallace is different enough from Wally that they could both co-exist.
The best fix would be to say that the Wests are a mixed family. Wallace could be an illegitimate child of either Rudy or Ira West. Wally having to mentor Wallace and Bart is actually grounds for good story telling. I know in the comics, they've gone a different route but adaptations have a clean slate and they could make sense out of the West Family Tree.
Hope Conrad is the new main artist, but I don't think he's done an ongoing series since Cyborg. Speaking of that, a Wally/Vic team-up would be awesome.
Has anyone here listened to the March 16th Word Balloon podcast with Tom King? In it he defends HIC as a story and he likes it still but he says it was a mistake to make Wally West the character who kills everyone and covers it up. He said he was give characters to use and ultimately it was his choice to approve Wally or not and he said if he could go back in time that’s the one thing he would change. It’s an interesting interview. About an hour and 15 minutes in is when he discusses Wally. Maybe a little earlier.
Yup, I listened to it. That was definitely noteworthy. I mean, I thought the final few issues completely destroyed my interest in the series regardless of it being Wally, but yeah, that he was forced to use Wally made it much, much worse. Good for him for defending his story while still taking responsibility for it.
Check out my blog, Because Everyone Else Has One, for my regularly updated movie reviews.
I mean, I still think HiC was bad as as a story idea to begin with, regardless of the culprit's identity, and the writing didn't help, but Wally was definitely the worst choice.
The only reason Tom King is saying Wally was a mistake is because fans let him have it over that horrible story.
AKA FlashFreak
Favorite Characters:
DC: The Flash (Jay & Wally), Starman- Jack Knight, Stargirl, & Shazam!.
MARVEL: Daredevil, Spider-Man (Peter Parker), & Doctor Strange.
Current Pulls: Not a thing!
Check out my blog, Because Everyone Else Has One, for my regularly updated movie reviews.
If they had made HiC basically just a mini about the characters of the DCU checking in and talking about all the traumatic stuff they went through that would’ve been pretty interesting to me. I enjoyed the little therapy sessions King did with the characters. It was choosing to do a murder mystery that sunk the concept and then Didio wanting to screw over Wally that really killed the concept.
Over on the Superman forum a while back a writer came by and talked with us about Loeb’s run and shed some insights. When it comes to events writers get lists from editorial that tells them “here’s what we need to happen, we need x to die, y to change in this way, z organization to get created or destroyed, etc”. Writers don’t usually get a lot of freedom with events, although I’m sure the rules differ depending on the writer. Writers agree to do events because it usually results in DC offering them prestige projects with more freedom and more money down the line.
For when my rants on the forums just aren’t enough: https://thevindicativevordan.tumblr.com/
Curious: did TK get a list of characters to use or was he told to use certain characters for certain roles in Identity Crisis 2: Electric Boogaloo? Did he have final say on which characters did what? I'm confused as to how much is TK and how much is editorial?
The sad part is that mental health vis a vis superheroes is an interesting concept. A writer who is interested in exploring the concept could possibly make it work. But I'm reminded of what Linkara said about Sue Dibny's rape in the first Identity Crisis. It was just thrown in there. As with rape, mental health/trauma is not something that you can just throw in there. Especially not a badly constructed murder mystery.