Wally West: The Flash Appreciation 2023

[Rakzo]

As always, let's start the year the celebrating the year and expect things for the better!

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[Frontier]

Happy New Year to Wally and fans! Here's to an even better 2023 .

[Lucas 35]

Happy New Year to Wally and fans! Here's to an even better 2023 .

True

[Primal Slayer]

[married guy]

Still one of the best costume tweaks ever.

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[Johnny]

So I'm still not sure what were they thinking here. lol I get that Wally was like 21 at the time but were they purposely trying to make him unlikable. That was the first Annual of him as the new Flash, they should've probably been a little more self-aware. Seems like they could get away with anything in 1987.

[Rakzo]

The first Annual was written by Mike Baron who was really focused on making Wally an unlikable jerk (for some reason, Baron's overall work is known for not nailing the execution) while William Messner-Loebs did a more efficient job at making him a more likable jerk (and is the version that is most often portrayed in the DCAU), ironically Waid would make Wally more like Barry in terms of personality despite of what his run tried to say.

[Johnny]

Another thing is Wally's assessment of Connie lacking confidence isn't even that accurate since in another issue she yells at a director who tries to have her pose nude. Not to mention she also had asthma so to talk about "biology differences" seems really tone deaf. You just can't help but wonder if some of those writers really knew much about Wally's character or just wanted to make their own version of him.

[Digifiend]

The first Annual was written by Mike Baron who was really focused on making Wally an unlikable jerk (for some reason, Baron's overall work is known for not nailing the execution) while William Messner-Loebs did a more efficient job at making him a more likable jerk (and is the version that is most often portrayed in the DCAU), ironically Waid would make Wally more like Barry in terms of personality despite of what his run tried to say.

Barry's like a Dad to him (even though he's actually his uncle through Barry's marriage to his Aunt Iris). Why wouldn't he take some traits from him? Of course he's his own man in many other ways, but Barry hasn't done a good job raising him if he didn't instil his values into him.

[Drako]

The last one is from justice league doom?

[Frontier]

The last one is from justice league doom?

I think it's Crisis on Two Earths?

[Batgrayson]

So I'm still not sure what were they thinking here. lol I get that Wally was like 21 at the time but were they purposely trying to make him unlikable. That was the first Annual of him as the new Flash, they should've probably been a little more self-aware. Seems like they could get away with anything in 1987.

In that same annual, Wally had sex with a woman in China and at the end he came back to sleep with his girlfriend, like if nothing ever happened, right?

[The_Sneezing_Stormtrooper]

So I'm still not sure what were they thinking here. lol I get that Wally was like 21 at the time but were they purposely trying to make him unlikable. That was the first Annual of him as the new Flash, they should've probably been a little more self-aware. Seems like they could get away with anything in 1987.

I always chalked this up to being a result of Raven manipulating his emotions and recently having Frankie (someone he's known since childhood) dumping him with a Dear John letter and disappearing without so much as a conversation. Not saying Wally is handling it in the right way here but it's pretty understandable why he's hurt and might have trust issues with women at this point in his life. He's clearly projecting those negative feelings IMO

The first Annual was written by Mike Baron who was really focused on making Wally an unlikable jerk (for some reason, Baron's overall work is known for not nailing the execution) while William Messner-Loebs did a more efficient job at making him a more likable jerk (and is the version that is most often portrayed in the DCAU), ironically Waid would make Wally more like Barry in terms of personality despite of what his run tried to say.

How did Waid make his personality more like Barry? I think you could make an argument that this happened during the Johns run but Waid's Wally had WAY more personality than Barry ever did. He was outgoing, funny, emotional and flawed in relatable ways. Those aren't attributes I would apply to silver age Barry.

Another thing is Wally's assessment of Connie lacking confidence isn't even that accurate since in another issue she yells at a director who tries to have her pose nude. Not to mention she also had asthma so to talk about "biology differences" seems really tone deaf. You just can't help but wonder if some of those writers really knew much about Wally's character or just wanted to make their own version of him.

I don't know if it's fair to attribute something a later writer added to accuse Mike Baron of being tone deaf. This was Connie's first appearance and regardless of what happened with her during the next run here she is clearly meant to be a throwaway rebound after Frankie left.

[BohemiaDrinker]

So I'm still not sure what were they thinking here. lol I get that Wally was like 21 at the time but were they purposely trying to make him unlikable. That was the first Annual of him as the new Flash, they should've probably been a little more self-aware. Seems like they could get away with anything in 1987.

This was the mid 80's. Jerks were "in", classic heroism was "out", or so they thought. Baron's Wally, as Byrne's Clark (as much as people deny this out of nostalgia), the rise in popularity of Guy Gardner, etc, were kind of by design. Like the New 52 changes, this was a trend that had no legs, though. Baron left really quick. When Loebs took over he started laying the groundwork with Wally from "complete jerk" to "jerk with a heart gold". By the tail end of his run, he worked together with Waid to finally transition him into a more classical feeling hero. Ironically, it was kind of the book that led dc out of the "jerk" trend.

[Rend20]

You just can't help but wonder if some of those writers really knew much about Wally's character or just wanted to make their own version of him.

Baron has admitted he wasn't at his best at the time due to doing a lot of a certain substance.

Now he wasn't the only one involved, but I think he was already quite successful when he got the job that gave him some leeway. Though the apparent idea behind the start of Wally's run was to make him the anti-Barry and they probably leaned a little too much into that. Messner-Loebs really found the balance where he was different while still being likable enough and Waid carried it on from there.