Wally West: The Flash Appreciation 2021

[Artemisfanboy]

Listing a bunch of recent things and shows a trend. I mean they have a choice in the animated features and they're choosing to follow the live action versions. Black Iris means any future external media "wally" appearances will likely be based around Wallace who suits it.

Which is a shame because if they stuck with Wally they wouldn't have to do any race bending shenanigans. His wife and kids actually ARE minorities, go figure. Walk back to Barry only to have to spin everything around and futz with it because Barry's tenure is outdated.

They could also try remembering that Iris is adopted and her 21st century family doesn't need to be be same race as her, if they want to keep defaulting to a black Iris in adaptations.

[Drako]

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.

[Rend20]

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.

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.

[Johnny]

Given that's the direction they've gone with in the show, movies, and now the animated films, I think DC would be hard pressed to walk back on Iris without facing significant backlash despite her still being white in the main comics.

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.

[John Venus]

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.

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.

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.

[Johnny]

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.

[Hol]

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.

[Ilan Preskovsky]

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.

[Frontier]

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.

[Jekyll]

The only reason Tom King is saying Wally was a mistake is because fans let him have it over that horrible story.

[Robanker]

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.

Wally, Wallace or Iris could simply be adopted as well. There's a lot of avenues to go to have both Wally and Wallace as they are now while changing Iris.

[Ilan Preskovsky]

The only reason Tom King is saying Wally was a mistake is because fans let him have it over that horrible story.

He has said all along and it has been backed up by some "insiders" that Wally was chosen by editorial rather than the writer. Character deaths, in general, work this way in these big events.

[Mojo]

Wally, Wallace or Iris could simply be adopted as well. There's a lot of avenues to go to have both Wally and Wallace as they are now while changing Iris.

Yeah If the crews behind a movie or show want to use classic Wally or if they use Wallace adoption and interacial families being a thing makes Iris's ethnicity frankly a non-issue in regards to that.

[Vordan]

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.

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.

He has said all along and it has been backed up by some "insiders" that Wally was chosen by editorial rather than the writer. Character deaths, in general, work this way in these big events.

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.

[PennyDreadful]

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.