Wally West: The Flash Appreciation 2023

[SanityOrMadness]

Wow. So the plot of Max and Bart heading into the future through speed force, must have been Spurrier’s idea.

Not so sure - remember the whole "Impulse and Gold Beetle" thing from Adams' first arc, when Wally possessed Bart? I think that Adams was setting that up, but he's gone and Spurrier's just doing whatever he wants with it.

[Maxi]

I personally just wish Mora would work more with writers I want to read

World's Finest is a dream come true for me and the last reason I'm still reading DC at this point after the Adams fiasco.

[Maxi]

Waid is doing weird and wonderful things with Shazam now. Wouldn't mind seeing him have another Flash run if he ever feels he has something left to say.

He says he won't ever write another Wally comic ever because all he can do is dissapoint people. His last experience wasn't a good one.

[Digifiend]

Wasn't that because he was yanked off the book pretty quickly to make way for Barry's comeback? That experience totally put him off working for DC, and he defected to Marvel. He only came back to DC - non-exclusively - once DiDio was gone.

[clonegeek]

Wasn't that because he was yanked off the book pretty quickly to make way for Barry's comeback? That experience totally put him off working for DC, and he defected to Marvel. He only came back to DC - non-exclusively - once DiDio was gone.

Waids also got blacklisted by Bob Harris, I think

[Dred]

Waid never went into exacting details, but apparently to come back to Flash editorial promised him quite a few things about it. And then broke all those promises. The assumption was that one of those promises was Wally was going to stick around as The Flash this time and once they told Grant to bring back Barry in the upcoming big event (Final Crisis) that Waid was incensed that they lied to him before he even had his first script turned in. Again, this is speculation, but it's the most obvious lie DC would've been peddling at the time and Waid was a very big proponent of Barry staying dead (considering he built his entire Flash run around the concept). It's also possible he was promised a certain length run with Wally. And when he was told Barry was coming back, he would eventually have to transition over for Barry (at the time they figured Barry was coming back sooner than he ended up doing because of delays to Final Crisis). But Waid has never said exactly what the broken promises were.

He has explicitly said he quit out of anger and was going to breach his contract by doing so, since the promises weren't in the contract. But his direct editor at the time was an incredibly good friend who begged him to just do one arc (which ended up being Wild Wests) so they could find some time to look for a fill in/replacement. Waid acquiesced, which is why we got the Wild Wests setup with the kids in the first place. And it's a miracle we even got that, because the artist who they had pegged to do the arc (Daniel Acuna) was leaving out of nowhere and only promised to do half the work he was going to do, which is why Wild Wests has that weird dual story aspect to it with two different artists.

It was the last straw for Waid and he burned some bridges on his way out, particularly with Didio who was the one we know was doing the lying to Waid. Waid also hates Bob Harras for his instrumental part in the the near death of X-men and Marvel Comics as a whole and somehow got a golden parachute over to DC as the EIC. So when you have a blood feud with the two biggest people of power in the DC comics offices, it's fairly obvious why Waid was on a 12 year sabbatical from the company. Didio and Harras are gone, Waid comes back, and I imagine everyone has been happy with the trade so far.

Waid didn't say he won't write Wally again because of how disappointed he was in his last tenure on The Flash. He said he didn't want to because he's told every single story he wants to tell with The Flash in his time on the book (people forget he also basically rewrote the entirety of Barry's history on top of redefining Wally) because he has no more stories to tell. He always teased he had one more story to cement why Wally was much more cautious about time travel than Barry, having to do with him trying to save a friend from dying when he was Kid Flash and it going wrong, but has since said that The Flash has had so many stories like that since he left that it's old hat so he basically has nothing left as far as being the every month comic writer.

I imagine Waid could still very easily put out one off stories with any Flash, as we saw in #800 with his return to writing Bart in the Impulse era. And he seems happy to include Wally in World's Finest stuff with the Teen Titans. But as the primary mind driving the Flash Franchise forward, he's done. And considering his work is by far the most influential since Barry first got hit by the lightning, I'd say that's more than enough.

[Hol]

Waid never went into exacting details, but apparently to come back to Flash editorial promised him quite a few things about it. And then broke all those promises. The assumption was that one of those promises was Wally was going to stick around as The Flash this time and once they told Grant to bring back Barry in the upcoming big event (Final Crisis) that Waid was incensed that they lied to him before he even had his first script turned in. Again, this is speculation, but it's the most obvious lie DC would've been peddling at the time and Waid was a very big proponent of Barry staying dead (considering he built his entire Flash run around the concept). It's also possible he was promised a certain length run with Wally. And when he was told Barry was coming back, he would eventually have to transition over for Barry (at the time they figured Barry was coming back sooner than he ended up doing because of delays to Final Crisis). But Waid has never said exactly what the broken promises were.

He has explicitly said he quit out of anger and was going to breach his contract by doing so, since the promises weren't in the contract. But his direct editor at the time was an incredibly good friend who begged him to just do one arc (which ended up being Wild Wests) so they could find some time to look for a fill in/replacement. Waid acquiesced, which is why we got the Wild Wests setup with the kids in the first place. And it's a miracle we even got that, because the artist who they had pegged to do the arc (Serg Acuna) was leaving out of nowhere and only promised to do half the work he was going to do, which is why Wild Wests has that weird dual story aspect to it with two different artists.

It was the last straw for Waid and he burned some bridges on his way out, particularly with Didio who was the one we know was doing the lying to Waid. Waid also hates Bob Harras for his instrumental part in the the near death of X-men and Marvel Comics as a whole and somehow got a golden parachute over to DC as the EIC. So when you have a blood feud with the two biggest people of power in the DC comics offices, it's fairly obvious why Waid was on a 12 year sabbatical from the company. Didio and Harras are gone, Waid comes back, and I imagine everyone has been happy with the trade so far.

Waid didn't say he won't write Wally again because of how disappointed he was in his last tenure on The Flash. He said he didn't want to because he's told every single story he wants to tell with The Flash in his time on the book (people forget he also basically rewrote the entirety of Barry's history on top of redefining Wally) because he has no more stories to tell. He always teased he had one more story to cement why Wally was much more cautious about time travel than Barry, having to do with him trying to save a friend from dying when he was Kid Flash and it going wrong, but has since said that The Flash has had so many stories like that since he left that it's old hat so he basically has nothing left as far as being the every month comic writer.

I imagine Waid could still very easily put out one off stories with any Flash, as we saw in #800 with his return to writing Bart in the Impulse era. And he seems happy to include Wally in World's Finest stuff with the Teen Titans. But as the primary mind driving the Flash Franchise forward, he's done. And considering his work is by far the most influential since Barry first got hit by the lightning, I'd say that's more than enough.

Yup that sums it up...although I think it was Daniel Acuna , not Serg Acuna who bailed early on the Wild Wests arc. It also couldn't have helped that almost all of the Flash Rogues were off planet on Salvation Run.

[Drako]

Didio and Harras are gone, Waid comes back, and I imagine everyone has been happy with the trade so far.

Talk about a Win-Win situation.

[Dred]

Yup that sums it up...although I think it was Daniel Acuna , not Serg Acuna who bailed early on the Wild Wests arc. It also couldn't have helped that almost all of the Flash Rogues were off planet on Salvation Run.

Yeah my bad. Got the Acuna's mixed up in my head because Serg is a much more recent and relevant artist.

Waid never really cared for The Rogues so I don't imagine that has anything to do with it. He just didn't have much new besides the kids and everyone had a sour reaction to them at the time. I still think Wild Wests was good, though, if a bit disjointed for the art issues.

[Hol]

Yeah my bad. Got the Acuna's mixed up in my head because Serg is a much more recent and relevant artist.

Waid never really cared for The Rogues so I don't imagine that has anything to do with it. He just didn't have much new besides the kids and everyone had a sour reaction to them at the time. I still think Wild Wests was good, though, if a bit disjointed for the art issues.

I liked the Wild Wests arc too...but I especially enjoyed them in the Brave and the Bold #8 with Wally and the Doom Patrol. That was fun.

[Dred]

The movie credited Mike Baron and Francis Manapul, but didn't credit Mark Waid. This is quite possibly the most disrespectful thing they could've done besides not crediting Barry and Jay's creators.

[Garlador]

Belated Father’s Day to one of the best.

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[Dred]

I mean it's hard to argue Wally is rank 1 on the DC Fatherhood tier list.

[millernumber1]

I mean it's hard to argue Wally is rank 1 on the DC Fatherhood tier list.

For darn sure!

[Frontier]

He's one of the best .