Wally West: The Flash Appreciation 2022

[Maxi]

I'm glad someone brought up the potential reason why Jeremy Adams is avoiding Piper and made sure none of the kids were single in the future segment of the book. Not like it matters because you can easily switch them to bisexual if you want. I'm not happy with his Christianity touches in the book as well.

I try to give him the benefit of doubt but the fact that he outright ignores Piper really don't fill me with confidence. It really needs to be addressed if that's not his intention imho.

It's great to want LGBT characters, but it's awful how you're assuming the worst out of the guy just because he's not writing the book exactly the way you want or didn't chose the "right" sexuality for the kids. You focus on Piper specifically when it could be argued that other Wally's old friends like Chunk are also being ignored, yet John Constantine who is LGBT showed up in the book. He hasn't met with Kyle again, either. In which way does "it really needs to be addressed"? That dangerously reads like trying to force the guy into a corner to "confess" something, or worse. I'd say let the guy alone.

[PennyDreadful]

I don't think he ignores Piper, though. So far he had to fix HIC, re-establish Wally, his kids, the entirety of the Flash family and your in with an event. Page count is limited. And it's not like Piper has had a huge presence lately.

Piper had a stronger presence last year: DCeased, DC's Valentine's issue, last year's Pride issue, plus one Barry story. I'd rather move Piper to JLQ myself.

And by the way, Piper (or his story-within-a-story counterpart, Rathaway) was in the Flash annual.

Adams was asked about Piper on Twitter and replied: "We'll seeeeeee."

[Johnrevenge]

It's great to want LGBT characters, but it's awful how you're assuming the worst out of the guy just because he's not writing the book exactly the way you want or didn't chose the "right" sexuality for the kids. You focus on Piper specifically when it could be argued that other Wally's old friends like Chunk are also being ignored, yet John Constantine who is LGBT showed up in the book. He hasn't met with Kyle again, either. In which way does "it really needs to be addressed"? That dangerously reads like trying to force the guy into a corner to "confess" something, or worse. I'd say let the guy alone.

I agree. Adams had wanted to focus first in establishing Wally again as the Flash (especially after Heroes in Crisis and posterior works left him in a terrible position), and in his family and his relationship with Wallace. Accusing Adams of being homophobe just because Piper hasn't appeared yet is ridiculous and stupid.

[Drako]

It's great to want LGBT characters, but it's awful how you're assuming the worst out of the guy just because he's not writing the book exactly the way you want or didn't chose the "right" sexuality for the kids. You focus on Piper specifically when it could be argued that other Wally's old friends like Chunk are also being ignored, yet John Constantine who is LGBT showed up in the book. He hasn't met with Kyle again, either. In which way does "it really needs to be addressed"? That dangerously reads like trying to force the guy into a corner to "confess" something, or worse. I'd say let the guy alone.

They are tiptoeing into calling him a homophobe out of nowhere.

[Johnny]

DC should replace Jeremy Adams with Meghan Fitzmartin. She seems to love generalizing and stereotyping people based on her own assumptions after all.

[Timber Wolf-By-Night]

Families in which none of the kids produced are Lgbt+ happen all the time. Being offended by the suggestion that neither Irey nor Jai may be queer is....I'm trying to think of a less-emotionally-charged word than "entitled," but I'm coming up short.

[Hol]

If he's accidentally created a body of work that doesn't include LGBT people, that doesn't fill me with optimism about how Pied Piper might be handled either. But time will tell.

A body of work? He's written around 30 comics. Give him a break.

[Frontier]

Yeah, this kind of feels like a non-issue to me.

[Robanker]

This is coming close to some witch hunt bullshit and needs to stop.

It's great to want LGBT characters, but it's awful how you're assuming the worst out of the guy just because he's not writing the book exactly the way you want or didn't chose the "right" sexuality for the kids. You focus on Piper specifically when it could be argued that other Wally's old friends like Chunk are also being ignored, yet John Constantine who is LGBT showed up in the book. He hasn't met with Kyle again, either. In which way does "it really needs to be addressed"? That dangerously reads like trying to force the guy into a corner to "confess" something, or worse. I'd say let the guy alone.

This. Adams hasn't been given any books with queer leads, so at most they'll have occasional or guest spots. I don't think either kid has even had a first crush, have they?

[BohemiaDrinker]

Adams was asked about Piper on Twitter and replied: "We'll seeeeeee."

Oh, good. That probably means he's coming.

Yeah, this kind of feels like a non-issue to me.

This is coming close to some witch hunt bullshit and needs to stop.

Yeah... This escalated horribly, out of nowhere.

[PennyDreadful]

Oh, good. That probably means he's coming.

It's preferable to when Geoff Johns was giving interviews talking about grandiose plans that didn't happen. "Coming up, we’ll see a new supporting cast member, a new villain, the return of the Pied Piper, more on Captain Boomerang and, of course, the Flash Family as we race towards 'Flashpoint.'” Piper appeared in a flashback in a Boomerang-focused issue, but that was about it.

[BohemiaDrinker]

It's preferable to when Geoff Johns was giving interviews talking about grandiose plans that didn't happen.

Well, it would be hard to be worse than that period. :P

[Lee]

For decades LGBT characters simply were not allowed in mainstream American comics. Flash was one of the first all-ages DC superhero titles to have a gay character in its supporting cast when Pied Piper came out in 1991.

LGBT representation in DC Comics has gotten a lot better since, especially recently. Currently all the major DC series have LGBT characters in them: Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Green Lantern, Justice Society (via New Frontier etc.). But not Flash. So it stands out.

It stands out even more so when the series has such a focus on love and romance and big extended families, meeting all kinds of colorful characters from other worlds, other dimensions and parallel universes. It's like Modern Family meets Doctor Who, with super-heroes. But no LGBT representation.

Not every comic needs LGBT representation. But it stands out when there's only one major DC property that doesn't currently have it. If someone finds that to be a non-issue, then that's fine. Personally, I find it disappointing, and it gives me the impression that LGBT representation isn't a high priority for the Flash editorial and creative team. And it doesn't have to be. But I find it disappointing, considering how forward thinking the comic was in the early '90s.

Piper had a stronger presence last year: DCeased, DC's Valentine's issue, last year's Pride issue, plus one Barry story. I'd rather move Piper to JLQ myself.

Yeah, it's odd that Piper has shown up more in alternate universe titles and one-shot anthologies than he has his "home" book.

I'm glad someone brought up the potential reason why Jeremy Adams is avoiding Piper and made sure none of the kids were single in the future segment of the book. Not like it matters because you can easily switch them to bisexual if you want.

None of us can know what the thinking behind it was, but it certainly closes some doors for the time being (these future timelines are never definitive, but there's always a period where they inform how the present day characters are handled). It's just disappointing.

[Frontier]

It sounds like Hartley is going to show up, but Adams is juggling enough as is and we'll probably get to as much as possible as long as he's on the book.

There is Jesse Quick even if they're divorced from the main Flash books.

[BohemiaDrinker]

For decades LGBT characters simply were not allowed in mainstream American comics. Flash was one of the first all-ages DC superhero titles to have a gay character in its supporting cast when Pied Piper came out in 1991.

LGBT representation in DC Comics has gotten a lot better since, especially recently. Currently all the major DC series have LGBT characters in them: Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Green Lantern, Justice Society (via New Frontier etc.). But not Flash. So it stands out.

It stands out even more so when the series has such a focus on love and romance and big extended families, meeting all kinds of colorful characters from other worlds, other dimensions and parallel universes. It's like Modern Family meets Doctor Who, with super-heroes. But no LGBT representation.

Not every comic needs LGBT representation. But it stands out when there's only one major DC property that doesn't currently have it. If someone finds that to be a non-issue, then that's fine. Personally, I find it disappointing, and it gives me the impression that LGBT representation isn't a high priority for the Flash editorial and creative team. And it doesn't have to be. But I find it disappointing, considering how forward thinking the comic was in the early '90s.

I get what you're saying here, I truly do. And I can't say I disagree with you. However, we gotta look at what was thrown in Jeremy Adams lap here; at a time when DC was trying to move away from that whole "us VS the fans" attitude, and the Flash fanbase was more fractured than ever, he basically had to change protagonist - but was not allowed to announce it in advance - then undo what was probably the most hated storyline in the last 20 years, reestablish all the supporting characters that were missing (and it's reasonable to assume that the speedsters would take priority), align with continuity and two events (one minor and one major) all the while making the book work. It's a lot to juggle.

Add to that, DC did the reveals for both Tim Drake and Jon Kent pretty much at the same time (not to mention that attempted transition by Jackson to Aquaman), they knew how much backlash they would face and they are still facing it. So, the lack of focus on LGBT themes and/or characters in this particular book may or may not be intentional. If it was, they decided to pick their battles. If it wasn't, it just wasn't.

All that said, implying that there is an intentional erasure of LGBT characters because Piper didn't show up "yet", and assinging blame to the author with all that implies with no evidence is uncool.

Now, if it turns out to be the case, sure, he should be criticized hard. But it seems like we all made up this discussion out of thin air to me.