Wallace West Appreciation Thread 2021

[Grandmaster_J]

Wow! When was the last time we saw, Chunk? Issue 10 of Rebirth? Just one of many on Wallace best friends list.

Oh forgot to say love seeing him and Barry getting along and no forced drama. It's the little things like that do it for me. DC has gone out of it's way to forget.

[Frontier]

Wow! When was the last time we saw, Chunk? Issue 10 of Rebirth? Just one of many on Wallace best friends list.

Oh forgot to say love seeing him and Barry getting along and no forced drama. It's the little things like that do it for me. DC has gone out of it's way to forget.

Sounds good .

[John Venus]

Wow! When was the last time we saw, Chunk? Issue 10 of Rebirth? Just one of many on Wallace best friends list.

Oh forgot to say love seeing him and Barry getting along and no forced drama. It's the little things like that do it for me. DC has gone out of it's way to forget.

I remember Chunk from pre-Nu52. Where did he reappear?

[Digifiend]

He didn't. New 52 Chunk showed up in Let Them Live #4. This version debuted in New 52's Flash #49.

[Frontier]

Suddenly I'm wondering if New 52 Chunk might somehow be the original Chunk's kid...

[married guy]

Suddenly I'm wondering if New 52 Chunk might somehow be the original Chunk's kid...

I'd be stoked to see Chester & Connie have had a boy.

[Digifiend]

Suddenly I'm wondering if New 52 Chunk might somehow be the original Chunk's kid...

Wouldn't he be too old to be pre-Flashpoint Chunk's son? Unless they pull the same shenanigans as with Jon Kent.

[Tzigone]

Just checking in since I haven't been reading comics lately - we never did learn anything at all about Wallace's mother, did we? Not even a name?

While I'm willing to invent something for my headcanon reboot (meshing together different characterizations/eras/continuities for my own amusement), I'd like to know what canon I'm discarding when I do. Right now I'm leaning towards a payroll clerk who dated Daniel back before he turned to crime.

Speaking of canon, since we have a image of younger Wally and Wallace together (if that hasn't been retconned out by now), have they yet told us what they perceived the relationship to be or actually actively added a retcon where Wallace knew his father was Daniel all along? Haven't we gotten any new info Daniel's age relative to other siblings or his backstory since Wally was reintroduced?

[Frontier]

Just checking in since I haven't been reading comics lately - we never did learn anything at all about Wallace's mother, did we? Not even a name?

While I'm willing to invent something for my headcanon reboot (meshing together different characterizations/eras/continuities for my own amusement), I'd like to know what canon I'm discarding when I do. Right now I'm leaning towards a payroll clerk who dated Daniel back before he turned to crime.

Speaking of canon, since we have a image of younger Wally and Wallace together (if that hasn't been retconned out by now), have they yet told us what they perceived the relationship to be or actually actively added a retcon where Wallace knew his father was Daniel all along? Haven't we gotten any new info Daniel's age relative to other siblings or his backstory since Wally was reintroduced?

Going off the New 52 he seemed relatively close to Iris in age if nothing else.

Iris has a habit of taking care of her nephews, I guess.

[Dred]

Just checking in since I haven't been reading comics lately - we never did learn anything at all about Wallace's mother, did we? Not even a name?

While I'm willing to invent something for my headcanon reboot (meshing together different characterizations/eras/continuities for my own amusement), I'd like to know what canon I'm discarding when I do. Right now I'm leaning towards a payroll clerk who dated Daniel back before he turned to crime.

Speaking of canon, since we have a image of younger Wally and Wallace together (if that hasn't been retconned out by now), have they yet told us what they perceived the relationship to be or actually actively added a retcon where Wallace knew his father was Daniel all along? Haven't we gotten any new info Daniel's age relative to other siblings or his backstory since Wally was reintroduced?

Daniel was doing crime before he had a kid, he was getting into trouble as a teenager (though the retcon timeline of Wallace and Daniel was originally a mess anyhow with Daniel needing to be like 13 when Wallace was born). That's kind of his whole deal is that he's a career scumbag.

There's no making sense of Wallace's origin. No matter how you twist and turn it the fact that he was originally meant to be Wally and they introduced a bunch of retcons to allow Wally to exist just puts his entire backstory in a headache ridden mess. It's obviously impossible to have the Rudy lie in a world where Wally exists and have it make any sense. Wallace's entire character history revolves around that lie -- his lack of a relation to the Wests, the idolization of "Uncle" Daniel, the reason Iris introduced him to Barry at all etc etc. Daniel hasn't been really been mentioned since his death in Suicide Squad. He's ostensibly older now with the timeline "restored" but Iris and Barry still look like they're in their 20s and the same age as Wally so who knows.

The best and possibly only reasonable course of action is ignore Wallace's timeline and pre-hero origin for a very long time and give him an updated origin sometime in the distant future if they intend to put more focus on him. If they don't intend to put more focus on him then it's a moot worry. That seems to be the plan since they haven't ever mentioned Wallace's mom again. Her entire purpose is to be dead/abandon Wallace so he can go be pseudo adopted by Iris and Barry like Wally was, because they were doing a fast and crappy retread to make him the new Wally. Bringing her back in just brings up all the messy, bad questions about his history.

Wallace just works much better as a character when you discard all the dumb stuff they did in trying to make him equivalent to the original Wally, both because it discards a bunch of mind bending inconsistencies and also because Wallace isn't Wally anymore, so why focus on the things that undermine that status quo? He's better off, and has been better off, as a unique character than the crappy facsimile of Wally he started off as. You can't do it to everything, obviously -- he's still Iris' nephew named Wallace who becomes Kid Flash and that glaring mirror of Wally 1.0 will always create those issues, but beyond that unfortunate necessity everything else should be more about making Wallace different from Wally so long as Wallace is around.

[Restingvoice]

Just checking in since I haven't been reading comics lately - we never did learn anything at all about Wallace's mother, did we? Not even a name?

While I'm willing to invent something for my headcanon reboot (meshing together different characterizations/eras/continuities for my own amusement), I'd like to know what canon I'm discarding when I do. Right now I'm leaning towards a payroll clerk who dated Daniel back before he turned to crime.

Speaking of canon, since we have a image of younger Wally and Wallace together (if that hasn't been retconned out by now), have they yet told us what they perceived the relationship to be or actually actively added a retcon where Wallace knew his father was Daniel all along? Haven't we gotten any new info Daniel's age relative to other siblings or his backstory since Wally was reintroduced?

The West sibling I only know in the Flash War epilogue

[Dred]

Rip Charlotte West. You never mattered and now you're Daniel I guess.

[Tzigone]

There's no making sense of Wallace's origin. No matter how you twist and turn it the fact that he was originally meant to be Wally and they introduced a bunch of retcons to allow Wally to exist just puts his entire backstory in a headache ridden mess.

I know, I know. Or rather, I'm not surprised. I just wondered if they'd made any sort of attempt since the last retcon I knew of.

The West sibling I only know in the Flash War epilogue

OOOkay, that image makes Iris significantly older at Wally's birth than she would have been in the original timeline (where she seemed to me to be mid-20s when Wally was 14). I really don't like that dynamic with Wally and Iris (and Barry), but I know a lot love it. I just liked the actual on-panel relationship they had back when actually was a teen better than the post-COIE retconned one. I deeply dislike trying to make Barry and Iris his parents (which they did even further with Wallace, but since I don't think of Wallace as Wally and it isn't erasing prior dynamic doesn't bother me as bad, even if the rest of Wallace's story and erasing Wally is very not okay). Indeed, I liked that, unlike Dick and Roy, Wally wasn't a sidekick and didn't have a parental relationship with his mentor figure (who was far less of a mentor than Batman and Green Arrow, too). I liked the greater independence/separation of Kara and Wally just for being different.

[Dred]

Barry and Iris have always been surrogate parents to Wally. That's not just a Post-COIE thing though they make it more tearjerky. Originally Wally is 10 (just like Robin, since he was a ripoff) when he becomes Kid Flash which would still put Barry and Iris as parental figures agewise to him. Doubly so for Wallace. Born To Run actually made their ages closer (Wally was a "Teenager" when he debuted as Kid Flash in the Born to Run retcon) but still dives into Iris being a parental figure.

I can't think of a time where this wasn't the case.

[Tzigone]

Barry and Iris have always been surrogate parents to Wally. That's not just a Post-COIE thing though they make it more tearjerky. Originally Wally is 10 when he becomes Kid Flash which would still put Barry and Iris as parental figures agewise to him. Doubly so for Wallace.

That is entirely incorrect. I've read almost every pre-COIE appearance with Wally. The day after he got powers, Wally got up and went school at Blue Valley High School (unless reprints changed something). Him being 14 and in 9th grade then works well with Dick, who was at least 15 already, and then later seemed a year older than Wally since Dick went to college in 1970 and Wally in 1978 (when Dick was still 18/19). Wally didn't know the Flash was Barry until a year later (real time). He was only visiting Iris for the weekend, it seemed. He got along very well with his parents (who were not prominent characters, I'll grant you), who were good people and good parents (here's a later, bronze age page and another). He did not live with Iris, Iris and Barry did not act as his parents. Iris was his aunt, and Barry/The Flash was his friend and later uncle. He also didn't usually act as sidekick - he had a lot more solo adventures than adventures with Barry. He was an independent hero as a teen, which I think is awesome.