What do you have against Waid?
Yes, Messner-Loebs wrote a great Wally and really developed him and also might have set up some stuff that Waid expanded on but Waid also evolved Wally tremendously and added a lot of his defining traits and mythos (obviously.)
So I dont see what the point is to elevate one over the other. You might prefer one above the other but it's pretty hard to totally invalidate one as having contributed nothing to Wally.
My name is Wally West. I"m the fastest man alive. I"m the Flash.
Favorite Heroes - 1-Flash/Wally West, 2-Superman, 3-Green Lantern/Hal Jordan, 4-Nightwing, 5-Hawkman, 6-Firestorm, 7-Supergirl/Linda Danvers, 8-Zatanna, 9-Robin/Tim Drake
I think Wally is definitely one of those characters where consecutive, great, runs really build up the character and his world so he becomes as multi-faceted and strong a character and lead as he could possibly become.
I have to say, I’m really excited now.Nrama: Why did you choose Wally, who seems cured of his omnipotence, as sort of the everyman who gets the explanation of all the new DCU architecture?
Snyder: Because I think he's a character who a lot of people love, I love as well, as a Flash. And yet he's been really elastically pulled in different directions over the last year to try and make him something darker and almost more substantive in a cosmic way then he was originally intended.
I think those are great risks to take, but we really felt at this point that he's a character that we wanted to return to his roots because it's something different than you've seen him. You haven't seen him in that iteration in a while, and we have really big plans for him that I can't reveal yet, but that are in Infinite Frontier that deposit him as the kind of restorative character of the story.
For us, he's someone whose displacement was a big part of 'Rebirth.' He represented in a lot of ways the legacy and the history that was missing that was then brought back through 'Rebirth.' But since 'Rebirth,' he's kind of been moved around a lot and he's taken a lot of different shapes. So, putting him back where he's meant to be at least in this moment for us was a way of saying some things now are back to being grounded, familiar, and excitingly classic.
Then other things about both his mission, his role in the DCU, and other characters around him are taking on brand new roles as well. It's that same thing we believe in, honestly, with Infinite Frontier, which is a mix of the big hearty comfort food everyone that's been a long-time fan wants to see, and then tweaking it to make it something you haven't quite tasted before.
Well, Williamson said he wasn't done writing speedsters. And if Infinite Frontier is an ongoing series, and it's about the Totality team from the end of Death Metal, then that means he'll be writing Wally!
They actually did resurrect some people as part of the multiverse restoration, but didn't say who. So some of the HIC casualties may in fact be back.
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Yeah but he was hardly likable during those days. Wolfman's Wally was a mopey asshole and Baron's Wally was a blatant jerk with money.
Messner-Loebs was when he started to get actually likable, thus "jerk with a heart of gold".
Well, he was never irritating during Messner-Loebs' run, most of the flaws from those days sadly disappeared after (and no, I'm not talking about "I will never be as good as Barry" which he already overcome towards the end of it, I'm talking about the other complex aspects of his personality).
He was certainly likable in Haney's day. He was a brash, inconsiderate doofus of the group but he was funny and joked and heroic like any Silver Ager. And a lot of people clearly liked him in Wolfman's run despite Wolfman's own distaste.
I think you're trying to split some non-existent hairs to back an opinion you have and state it as fact. I mean the fact that you're using the word "likeable" in any way and stating that a character's likeability is a fact is farcical. That's legitimately just your opinion.
And one I even generally agree with. I personally wouldn't enjoy Wally until WML's run, too (Haney's TT, while novel and cute, isn't something I'd read out of its own context and particularly enjoy due to how dated it is). But the premise you're stating isn't necessarily true.
There's probably, out there in the wide world, some big NTT or Baron era Wally fans. Maybe a bit old to be found on the internet in any number, though.
Last edited by Dred; 01-06-2021 at 06:38 PM.
Eeeehhhh, no.
Wally does tend to get a characterization closer to Messner Loebs in other media. That's true. Specially true since Barry came back.
But comics Wally? The assumed "correct" take is Waid's. You may not like him, and you may not like his run, and hell, he would be the first to say that yes, he did develop on some things set up by Loebs, and some of those things both did together. But Morrison's JLA Wally? That's Waid. The Wally people clamored for for the last 10+ years? Waid. Half of the personality Barry gets in the TV show, that's Waid Wally. The speed force? Waid. The Flash familly? Waid. Damn, even the Dick/Wally dynamic is probably traceable to Waid - and I know, you miss Chunk, but Dick/Wally just makes sense. (Also, they're adults and it's not a competition, but whatever).
Loebs did some great things. He's there with the greats. But concerning the Flash, Waid is up there with Kanigher, Infantino, Fox and bates as one of the more influential and long-lasting influences in the Flash franchise, period. And concerning Wally, he's unparalleled. Loebs doesn't come close, neither does Johns (as much as he tries to force his way into it).
And that's just it: the Wally that resonates most with most people is Waid's Wally.
ConnEr Kent flies. ConnOr Hawke has a bow. Batman's kid is named DamiAn.
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