What do you think should be done with Wallace West?

[John Venus]

The problem of overlapping roles and identities becomes apparent as soon as you start talking about live action adaptations. NuWally's existence almost makes it impossible for OG Wally to come into the story without acknowledging that the New 52 timeline reshuffled everything, that Barry basically lived two different lives with two different Kid Flashes. In comics thats all well and good, but how are you going to burden a movie or show with that? Are you really going to sell them as family with the same name?

They're not going to burden anything. All future external media adapations will be based on Wallace forever. Wally will no longer be relevant outside of callbacks to the Justice League or Young Justice shows. So they'll just call him Wally since, who cares, it's an adaptation anyhow and it's not like they're strict on perfectly recreating the source material. It'll be just like the CW show.

And frankly, that's probably going to work out better. No show is ever going to do Wally West's actual story line as The Flash. They're not going to do the entire legacy motif, the gradual coming of age that defines the character. They just want a black background character to be Kid Flash and, well, that's literally what Wallace was made to be.

I wouldn't be too quick to write off anything as a foregone conclusion. I still clearly remember a time when people considered Jason Todd and Barry Allen to be dead forever and bringing them back seemed almost unthinkable.

The truth is Barry is unsustainable as a main character in the modern day. That's why Geoff Johns saddled him with all the dead mommy angst, retroactively made him the 'father' of the Speed Force and the tv show tried to give him all of Wally's personality traits and even his love interest. He really served better as a symbol of heroic sacrifice and someone for Wally to constantly look up to.

I have faith that an actual comic accurate adaptation of Flash Vol 2 (either as an animated or movie ala Into the Spider-verse) can succeed that any writing hurdle presented by Wallace can easily be over come. Same name? Maybe they were both named after a common great grandfather. It's also possible to go the route of them not knowing each other initially. Personality? Their personalities are entirely the opposite of each other. If naming is such a huge issue, maybe give Wallace a nickname as suggested earlier in the thread?

Even in Flash Vol 2, Wally trained both Bart Allen and Jesse Quick while also being mentored by Jay Garrick, Johnny Quick and Max Mercury. I don't see why Wally can't be training both Irey and Wallace.

[John Venus]

Nah. If they had brought Kyle in and said he was supposed to be the real Hal Jordan, you might have a point. Totally different thing than the Lobos or the Wallys.

Besides, Hal was kind of ... as boring as plywood at the time and Kyle actually had some personality, but let's not turn this into another boring Kyle vs Hal debate.

And don't call me kid.

Kyle was never meant to be Hal Jordan though. He was always Kyle. Wally was a clear reboot of Wally.

Uhhh, no. The whole reason Emerald Twilight happened with Hal going evil and murdering the GL Corps was so they can replace him with a young, hip new Green Lantern. There was even a whole fan movement called HEAT (which Geoff Johns was a part of) protesting this take on the character. Kyle was absolutely meant to replace Hal Jordan as a GL when he was created. However he also had his own fanbase and character development. Even though Johns later brought back Hal, Kyle stuck around and was even the star of the GLC title. If Hal and Kyle can co-exist, so can Wally and Wallace.

[lemonpeace]

Uhhh, no. The whole reason Emerald Twilight happened with Hal going evil and murdering the GL Corps was so they can replace him with a young, hip new Green Lantern. There was even a whole fan movement called HEAT (which Geoff Johns was a part of) protesting this take on the character. Kyle was absolutely meant to replace Hal Jordan as a GL when he was created. However he also had his own fanbase and character development. Even though Johns later brought back Hal, Kyle stuck around and was even the star of the GLC title. If Hal and Kyle can co-exist, so can Wally and Wallace.

[Primal Slayer]

Uhhh, no. The whole reason Emerald Twilight happened with Hal going evil and murdering the GL Corps was so they can replace him with a young, hip new Green Lantern. There was even a whole fan movement called HEAT (which Geoff Johns was a part of) protesting this take on the character. Kyle was absolutely meant to replace Hal Jordan as a GL when he was created. However he also had his own fanbase and character development. Even though Johns later brought back Hal, Kyle stuck around and was even the star of the GLC title. If Hal and Kyle can co-exist, so can Wally and Wallace.

Uhhh no. A new character coming in a replacing an older character is not the same as literally rebooting the character and changing everything about them. Hal/Kyle are nowhere near the same as Wally/Wally. New52 Wally was MEANT TO BEEEEEEEEEEEEEE Wally West new and improved.

Kyle wasn't Hal Jordan who completely cease to exist and erased. He was Kyle.

DC has since tried to differentiate the two as completely different characters but lets not get it twisted that Wallace wasnt meant to be THE Wally West.

[John Venus]

Uhhh no. A new character coming in a replacing an older character is not the same as literally rebooting the character and changing everything about them. Hal/Kyle are nowhere near the same as Wally/Wally. New52 Wally was MEANT TO BEEEEEEEEEEEEEE Wally West new and improved.

Kyle wasn't Hal Jordan who completely cease to exist and erased. He was Kyle.

DC has since tried to differentiate the two as completely different characters but lets not get it twisted that Wallace wasnt meant to be THE Wally West.

Whether it was an original character or a basically a new character with the same name, the intention was the same; replace an older character editorial didn't like with a fresh new one. It didn't last with Hal/Kyle and it didn't last with Wally/Wallace. We have seen new and old characters can co-exist. We've seen this on the other side too with Peter and Miles. Yes, there is always pushback and the GL debates can get ugly but the whole multiple Flash's thing is more easily solvable without anybody having to sacrifice their faves.

The reason why fans rejected Wallace is because he's basically a new character who shared his name with an older character. He had nothing in common with Wally. But now Wally is back and Wallace has enough of his own stuff going on that the two can co-exist without tripping over each other. They already are in their own respective titles. Characters also exist outside of whatever context they were created in. I don't think it's fair to boil Wallace down entirely to 'character meant to replace Wally', Wallace can grow into a meaningful character. Just like Jason, Kyle and Wally has done over the course of the years.

Adaptations are a different matter entirely. But Smallville has 10 seasons and had very little impact on canon and very little of it has made it into Superman adaptations that came after it. I would rather keep an open mind than just write it off as a foregone conclusion that the Nu52, Flash tv show and DCEU are going to be the blueprints from the DCU from now on. I want to see both a comic accurate Wally and Wallace on screen someday.

[Lal]

Wallace is indeed in a problem. It seems like he doesn't really have a unique niche even after years of being pushed in both the Flash book and TT, while currently new young speedsters are introduced or are back.

He doesn't really fit in the new Flash series, since Irey would probably be the main kid flash there.

He was in two iterations of TT, but right now his group isn't the main focus of either TTA or the Titans United books. TTA has Alinta, a young speedster that actually has a unique niche and seems interesting.

Robin currently has a group of young characters in his book that would apparently stay with him for a while (Connor, Flatline, Ravager), and we already know that the Robin book will crossover with Deathstroke, but there's too much bad blood there for Wallace to join Damian again.

So while organically he currently doesn't really have a unique spot in the DCU, I think DC should try to do a mini-series with the flash family characters that aren't currently in use and see if there are enough readers who are interested in reading it.

[Dred]

I wouldn't be too quick to write off anything as a foregone conclusion. I still clearly remember a time when people considered Jason Todd and Barry Allen to be dead forever and bringing them back seemed almost unthinkable.

The truth is Barry is unsustainable as a main character in the modern day. That's why Geoff Johns saddled him with all the dead mommy angst, retroactively made him the 'father' of the Speed Force and the tv show tried to give him all of Wally's personality traits and even his love interest. He really served better as a symbol of heroic sacrifice and someone for Wally to constantly look up to.

I have faith that an actual comic accurate adaptation of Flash Vol 2 (either as an animated or movie ala Into the Spider-verse) can succeed that any writing hurdle presented by Wallace can easily be over come. Same name? Maybe they were both named after a common great grandfather. It's also possible to go the route of them not knowing each other initially. Personality? Their personalities are entirely the opposite of each other. If naming is such a huge issue, maybe give Wallace a nickname as suggested earlier in the thread?

Even in Flash Vol 2, Wally trained both Bart Allen and Jesse Quick while also being mentored by Jay Garrick, Johnny Quick and Max Mercury. I don't see why Wally can't be training both Irey and Wallace.

None of that matters. Barry's the easy one, so it'll always all start at him and given we got a seven season Flash show that never even touched on anything to do with OG Wally's stories besides mining it for Barry I think it's safe to say there isn't a lot of interest there.

[TheRay]

Like who ?

Literally everyone. Name somebody.

[Digifiend]

None of that matters. Barry's the easy one, so it'll always all start at him and given we got a seven season Flash show that never even touched on anything to do with OG Wally's stories besides mining it for Barry I think it's safe to say there isn't a lot of interest there.

Take Linda Park for example. While Arrow showed her as a TV reporter like in the comics, Flash showed her as a sports reporter for a newspaper and one of Barry's love interests before he got together with Iris (thus stealing from Wally). At least the season 2 love interest, Patty Spivot, actually was Barry's in the comics. And they made Linda's Earth-2 counterpart Doctor Light, who in the comics is two other people.
https://arrow.fandom.com/wiki/Linda_Park

[Dred]

Literally everyone. Name somebody.

Drake.

Flopped so hard they immediately undid it.

Not many heroes change names so there's not a whole lot of examples.

[TheRay]

You mean Red Robin?

Pretty sure there's tons of examples, but okay..

[Godlike13]

Uhhh no. A new character coming in a replacing an older character is not the same as literally rebooting the character and changing everything about them. Hal/Kyle are nowhere near the same as Wally/Wally. New52 Wally was MEANT TO BEEEEEEEEEEEEEE Wally West new and improved.

Kyle wasn't Hal Jordan who completely cease to exist and erased. He was Kyle.

DC has since tried to differentiate the two as completely different characters but lets not get it twisted that Wallace wasnt meant to be THE Wally West.

Ya, I think people are forgetting this. Wallace isn’t a new character, he’s a failed attempt at rebooting an old character. Which still remains part of the very bones of the character. The Wally West baggage is forever baked into the character, and the very ideas his foundation was built on, as he was suppose to be Wally West. Wallace is a failed reboot they tried later to make into a new character. Leaving them with this new character the wasn’t genuinely new, as he was born from the idea of being someone old.

This is why I say just move on and try again. As a reboot the idea failed, and as new idea it’s disingenuous.

[Dred]

You mean Red Robin?

Pretty sure there's tons of examples, but okay..

Did Red Robin work out?

[I.Strange]

The reason why fans rejected Wallace is because he's basically a new character who shared his name with an older character. He had nothing in common with Wally. But now Wally is back and Wallace has enough of his own stuff going on that the two can co-exist without tripping over each other. They already are in their own respective titles. Characters also exist outside of whatever context they were created in. I don't think it's fair to boil Wallace down entirely to 'character meant to replace Wally', Wallace can grow into a meaningful character. Just like Jason, Kyle and Wally has done over the course of the years.

I think they should lean into Wallace's character origins. Make him a Wally West variant from another timeline or universe. From the Wildstorm universe maybe (merged with Earth-0 because of Flashpoint), or a New 52 Earth. That would open up new character dynamics to explore, and add to his "Flash-iness". Jay was merged from Earth-Two, and Bart is from an alternate future. I like the idea of a Flash family formed across time and continuity.

[skyvolt2000]

Did Red Robin work out?

Well he did have a book that go derailed by New 52.

It's hard to work when the head of the company does not care for you and nobody could get a set direction for his generation.

If Hal and Kyle can co-exist, so can Wally and Wallace.

Kyle was never meant to Hal. Wallace was MEANT to be WALLY. That started part of the pushback to him along with how he was introduced.

So when Wally came back-we had this Wallace that had limited development. And aside from Priest-nobody seems interested in doing anything with him.