What do you think should be done with Wallace West?

[lemonpeace]

changing his name again and/or retiring him are lazy approaches to take. I most definitely don't even wanna hear nothing bout "retire him" unless i see characters like Tim Drake (who shoulda been retired many times over) are scrubbed the face of the DC hero landscape as well. I say give him a speedster ability that's unique to him (have him be a flying speedster or have him be able to embueing vehicles with speedforce like a speedster ghost rider or something) then graduate him up to a new hero identity. or simply, give him a book to be prominently featured in and write him better. they missed a HUGE opportunity after Priest by not having him lead the Teen Titans and they missed another by not making him the sidekick to Wally when he first returned. If Priest wasn't so weird about writing Black characters I would say give him to him but it is what it is.

[Frontier]

Just let him be Kid Flash.

[Factor]

I like the idea of him being able to boost vehicles with the Speed Force. He could be called Ignition or something. And wear a silver costume with red lightning like in Future's End.

[BohemiaDrinker]

Well, I'm really, really opposed to getting him a new mantle. And I get it: he was supposed to be Wally, his origin was filled with racist stereotypes, Og Wally was in the crapper, etc, etc. There was no bigger critic to all of that than myself, and I know we all would very much like to leave this all behind us.

BUT:

This whole "what should Wallace new name/new powers/new uniform" be is just something that the dickiest Barry fans (or just Waly haters) would do here, once a month or so to get on our nerves. And honestly, right now I'm pretty much done with it. I have no interest in fanboy wars.

So, to me, it goes like this: Wallace has his fans, his a West, he has superspeed. I think his being Kid Flash is just fine. His costume could have some further adjustments, but not that stray too far from KF, just stuff that highlights his personality a little better.

As for character, what I would do is really simple: have Jay and Joan Garrick adopt him. Now, Jay never had either kids or a protegeé, and the dynamics between him and Wallace were really sound in Speed Metal. Wallace, OTOH, has no father and we know almost nothing about his mom. We barely know where he lives nowadays (is he still with Iris?). Having Jay adopt him would put him, as Jay, at the center of the Flash families of characters that are more connected to both Wally and Barry. It could give him a different outlook than just "I'm next in line", it could take the Garrick name to all those future Flashes we see once in a while in all those time travel storylines and i would make him still connected, but no more subordinate, to boith Barry and Wally.

Wallace Garrick, Kid Flash. That's what I'd do.

[9th.]

As someone who loved John's TT, Bart has NO business being Kid Flash. His entire generation should've been aged up. It's unfair to put the burden of Irey and Bart on Wallace, it's not his problem more of a DC problem. The best thing to do for Wallace right now is give him stories and keep using him. Further develop his powers and give him a gimmick he can expand. ( He might already have one I haven't read TT and Flash in a while.)

[Incognito]

retirement is a lazy approach to take. I most definitely don't even wanna hear nothing bout "retire him" unless i see characters like Tim Drake (who shoulda been retired many times over) are scrubbed the face of the DC hero landscape as well. I say give him a speedster ability that's unique to him (have him be a flying speedster or have him be able to embueing vehicles with speedforce like a speedster ghost rider or something) then graduate him up to a new hero identity. or simply, give him a book to be prominently featured in and write him better. they missed a HUGE opportunity after Priest by not having him lead the Teen Titans and they missed another by not making him the sidekick to Wally when he first returned. If Priest wasn't so weird about writing Black characters I would say give him to him but it is what it is.

I like the idea of him being able to boost vehicles with the Speed Force. He could be called Ignition or something. And wear a silver costume with red lightning like in Future's End.

I had the same idea as well with Wallace transferring his power into objects and vehicles since I remember that Wally was able to steal speed/Kinetic energy from people and objects.

I don't mind Wallace being Kid Flash I enjoyed him in Williamson's Flash books and the Teen Titan books I would also liked to see him be the leader of the Teen Titans because IIRC their wasn't a speedster who was the leader of the Titans and he could be the first and he has the best potential out of the TT roster (maybe Red Arrow or Bunker). Bart is Impulse and part of Young Justice while Irey is part of Wally's cast and could go by a different mantle until Wallace is old enough to have his Nightwing stage by creating a new mantle

[Drako]

I like the idea of him being able to boost vehicles with the Speed Force. He could be called Ignition or something. And wear a silver costume with red lightning like in Future's End.

Make him kinda like a the new Hot Pursuit then?

[Lightning Rider]

Retire him. He's a failed concept from one of DC's worst ideas from the New 52. Where they tried to replace the real Wally West with him because they felt he better synergized with the TV show at the time. Now we have two characters both called Wally West (I get they try and call one Wally and one Wallace but that isn't really enough) who are both Iris' nephews basically. Here is where that is still a big problem. Not only is it stupid to give two characters the same name in fiction that interact with each other, but when they want to adapt Wally West to live action or other media more in the future which one are they going to use? It seems obvious that they want Wally West and the West family in general to probably be black going forward in live action. Both current live action Iris West actors are black. So when they are looking to cast Wally will they race swap the original one with a black actor or will they just use the now existing black Wally West that is the current Kid Flash and is also the nephew to Iris and Barry? It is really fucking confusing when you actually look at it like this. There is far to much overlap between the two characters where both cannibalize each other when you actually look at how to adapt them in other media.

If they wanted a young black Kid Flash then they should have changed his name more to make him more independent. I feel like that is what they should have immediately done after it was obvious the new Wally wasn't going to work. Then he could have had the Kid Flash identity and his own name be his alone. It is like if Snyder while he was writing Batman decided to instead of creating Duke Thomas he decided to create a new character that was a black teen hero and going to be the new Robin and decided to call Timothy Drake. Then they were just going to call the original Tim just Tim and the new one Timothy to differentiate them. That is basically the situation we have now with the two Wallys. It's insane to me.

Yeah, I don't want to hate on the character but this is all accurate. He's redundant. I think it's also convoluted that his origin is tied to some crappy Reverse-Flash knock-off. I don't think he needs to be killed or anything, but maybe give him a very specific niche as was suspected.

The fact that the New 52 has all but killed any chance of seeing a live action OG red-haired Wally is so infuriating.

[Lightning Rider]

This reminds me - I'm very happy that the Flash family is back in full force, but I think many of their roles and powers are going to have to be made more unique. 10 people with superspeed just feels like overkill, especially if they're all concentrated in the twin cities.

[Unspeakable Evil]

DC really made this thing weird. And they really couldn't Nick Fury Jr their way through it lol

[The_Sneezing_Stormtrooper]

Well, I'm really, really opposed to getting him a new mantle. And I get it: he was supposed to be Wally, his origin was filled with racist stereotypes, Og Wally was in the crapper, etc, etc. There was no bigger critic to all of that than myself, and I know we all would very much like to leave this all behind us.

BUT:

This whole "what should Wallace new name/new powers/new uniform" be is just something that the dickiest Barry fans (or just Waly haters) would do here, once a month or so to get on our nerves. And honestly, right now I'm pretty much done with it. I have no interest in fanboy wars.

These are not the same things though. Being The Flash is intrinsic to Wally's character. His entire time as the Flash is about him accepting that he deserves to be The Flash and earning that mantle. They spent 25 years, 247 issues, and some of the best and most definitive runs of The Flash in its entire history doing that. Calling him anything else would be impossible without it feeling like a huge demotion and a slap in the face to decades of Flash comics and a huge appeal of Wally is that development in the first place. Wally NEEDS to be The Flash or his decades-long character arc is thrown in the trash.

That isn't the case with Wallace. I haven't heard anything here yet to convince me that Wallace NEEDS to be Kid Flash. I'd actually argue that it is the strongest thread still tying him to his dubious origins and preventing him from moving on and becoming his own character. How is it actually best serving his character and the Flash franchise overall to keep him in the Kid Flash role?

As someone who loved John's TT, Bart has NO business being Kid Flash. His entire generation should've been aged up. It's unfair to put the burden of Irey and Bart on Wallace, it's not his problem more of a DC problem. The best thing to do for Wallace right now is give him stories and keep using him. Further develop his powers and give him a gimmick he can expand. ( He might already have one I haven't read TT and Flash in a while.)

I see Wallace more as Bart in this situation. He's serviceable as Kid Flash but I don't think it's where he could be best unutilized and I think he's taking up a role better suited for Irey.

This reminds me - I'm very happy that the Flash family is back in full force, but I think many of their roles and powers are going to have to be made more unique. 10 people with superspeed just feels like overkill, especially if they're all concentrated in the twin cities.

Yeah, this is definitely something that needs to be dealt with. It's almost a shame the other forces didn't work out better as maybe giving some of them a secondary force might have been the way to go.

[Frontier]

That isn't the case with Wallace. I haven't heard anything here yet to convince me that Wallace NEEDS to be Kid Flash. I'd actually argue that it is the strongest thread still tying him to his dubious origins and preventing him from moving on and becoming his own character. How is it actually best serving his character and the Flash franchise overall to keep him in the Kid Flash role?

He's a young and up-and-coming Speedster who was mentored by The Flash and was fulfilling the spirit (at least in some regards) of Wally West as Kid Flash.

So I think it's fine for him to still be Kid Flash.

Yeah, this is definitely something that needs to be dealt with. It's almost a shame the other forces didn't work out better as maybe giving some of them a secondary force might have been the way to go.

Or the TV show made them even less popular.

[deadman322]

give him a mini series that deals with his mystery mother. not every character has to be an orphan ffs and thats more the case in the flash family.

[lemonpeace]

These are not the same things though. Being The Flash is intrinsic to Wally's character. His entire time as the Flash is about him accepting that he deserves to be The Flash and earning that mantle. They spent 25 years, 247 issues, and some of the best and most definitive runs of The Flash in its entire history doing that. Calling him anything else would be impossible without it feeling like a huge demotion and a slap in the face to decades of Flash comics and a huge appeal of Wally is that development in the first place. Wally NEEDS to be The Flash or his decades-long character arc is thrown in the trash.

That isn't the case with Wallace. I haven't heard anything here yet to convince me that Wallace NEEDS to be Kid Flash. I'd actually argue that it is the strongest thread still tying him to his dubious origins and preventing him from moving on and becoming his own character. How is it actually best serving his character and the Flash franchise overall to keep him in the Kid Flash role?




I see Wallace more as Bart in this situation. He's serviceable as Kid Flash but I don't think it's where he could be best unutilized and I think he's taking up a role better suited for Irey.



Yeah, this is definitely something that needs to be dealt with. It's almost a shame the other forces didn't work out better as maybe giving some of them a secondary force might have been the way to go.

Irey doesn't deserve the Kid Flash title any more than Wallace does so I'm not sure why she needs to bump him out of the role; especially since it's not like she held it before anyway. I'm all for Wallace graduating out of the Kid Flash role when he's ready but to cap like Irey deserves it more than him essentially because she's Wally's daughter is weak; because that's the only possible reason Irey has a better claim to the mantle.

[lemonpeace]

Wallace should lead a team of all the young speedsters. Jai already has a unique identity as the Turtle, Irey and Avery can develop new names, and they just all work together as a young Flash unit. they can use the team to re-establish individual speedster applications and/or abilities via the other forces by having them develop their own signature abilities over time.

Wallace as Kid Flash - He's the leader, so his name has more meaning as the lead Flash of the the Kid speedsters. Speedster that specializes in speedforce embuing and engineering.

Jai as Turtle - Stillforce speedster (via time manipulation).

Irey as Inertia - she was impulse but with Bart back just give her the name of his long forgotten rival. she'll be a Speester specializing in phasing and vibration.

Avery as G-force - Speedforce/Strengthforce hybrid, able to manipulate gravity to fly at Flash speeds.

Have Wally be the Professor X to their X Men or the Batman to their Outsiders; he mentors and watches over them, joining them on missions from time to time.