"The Flash Is Not About Tragedy": Wally West Appreciation! (NO NUWALLY BASHING!!!)

[BohemiaDrinker]

Thank you, I wanted to read that "Flash of 2 cities" story but I didn't know where it was told.

Also, in "The Human Race", Wally raced through time and space and saved a society, I think that's more incredible than Barry and Superman racing between planets XD

Yeah, but also between planets.

But phantom1592 is not tottaly wrong: Barry had some ridiculously impressive feats pre-crisis that in fact were handwaved pre-Crisis. For instance, once he was damn-right disintegrated and just reassambled himself due to having "complete molecular control". This sort of thing was addressed post-Crisis with repeated statements about how Barry controlled the way he vibrated his molecules (and Wally never mastering it), but they never showed how far he went into it. And there are similar examples.

But overall, post Crisis made a decent effort at estblishing who he was or what he could do even with him being dead. It just wasn't in the spotlight.

[married guy]

The whole 'Barry created the Speed Force' thing HAS to go.
It was a stupid idea in the first place, and just makes everything more confusing.
If DC are reintroducing the status quo prior to New52 how did the Speed Force exist when Barry was dead?

I HATE that DC flushed it's characters' history and removed all sense of legacy from the DCU. (Except Batman for some reason)
I HATE that Barry Allen's childhood is now the trauma that spurred him to heroism. It was one of the great things about Barry that he made the choice himself because he was inherently good.
I HATE that we lost Wally West altogether because he wasn't deemed 'iconic' enough. I was originally really excited to read how the Barry/Wally dynamic would play out now that Wally was a more seasoned speedster than his mentor. How Barry & Iris reconciled. Would anyone mention that she dated Officer Chyre?? Seeing Barry's reaction to the newer heroes who has stepped up like Kyle and Connor. Alas, we got NONE of that. It seemed more important to make Barry THE Flash by pissing on everything over the last 20 years & starting again.

There have been so many missteps over the years. It feels like Flash War is the attempt to bring the Flash Family back into the fold and repair some of the damage that's been done this last decade. I hope I'm right.
The DCU is a richer place with Jay, Max, Bart etc a part of it and just maybe DC will realise they can have their cake & eat it too.

[Jekyll]

The whole 'Barry created the Speed Force' thing HAS to go.
It was a stupid idea in the first place, and just makes everything more confusing.
If DC are reintroducing the status quo prior to New52 how did the Speed Force exist when Barry was dead?

I HATE that DC flushed it's characters' history and removed all sense of legacy from the DCU. (Except Batman for some reason)
I HATE that Barry Allen's childhood is now the trauma that spurred him to heroism. It was one of the great things about Barry that he made the choice himself because he was inherently good.
I HATE that we lost Wally West altogether because he wasn't deemed 'iconic' enough. I was originally really excited to read how the Barry/Wally dynamic would play out now that Wally was a more seasoned speedster than his mentor. How Barry & Iris reconciled. Would anyone mention that she dated Officer Chyre?? Seeing Barry's reaction to the newer heroes who has stepped up like Kyle and Connor. Alas, we got NONE of that. It seemed more important to make Barry THE Flash by pissing on everything over the last 20 years & starting again.

There have been so many missteps over the years. It feels like Flash War is the attempt to bring the Flash Family back into the fold and repair some of the damage that's been done this last decade. I hope I'm right.
The DCU is a richer place with Jay, Max, Bart etc a part of it and just maybe DC will realise they can have their cake & eat it too.

Completely agree! We have an entire lantern corps of Green Lantern, we have an entire bat family, there is no reason we can’t have multiple speedsters again! ESPECIALLY, since it has been proven it can work!!! I am still holding on to hope that the flash family will be restored after Flash war.............but with the current leadership that seems unlikely.

Unfortunately I believe we are stuck with Barry creating the speedforce, just like we are stuck with his dead mom. THANK YOU GEOFF JOHNS!

[Ilan Preskovsky]

The whole 'Barry created the Speed Force' thing HAS to go.
It was a stupid idea in the first place, and just makes everything more confusing.
If DC are reintroducing the status quo prior to New52 how did the Speed Force exist when Barry was dead?

I HATE that DC flushed it's characters' history and removed all sense of legacy from the DCU. (Except Batman for some reason)
I HATE that Barry Allen's childhood is now the trauma that spurred him to heroism. It was one of the great things about Barry that he made the choice himself because he was inherently good.
I HATE that we lost Wally West altogether because he wasn't deemed 'iconic' enough. I was originally really excited to read how the Barry/Wally dynamic would play out now that Wally was a more seasoned speedster than his mentor. How Barry & Iris reconciled. Would anyone mention that she dated Officer Chyre?? Seeing Barry's reaction to the newer heroes who has stepped up like Kyle and Connor. Alas, we got NONE of that. It seemed more important to make Barry THE Flash by pissing on everything over the last 20 years & starting again.

There have been so many missteps over the years. It feels like Flash War is the attempt to bring the Flash Family back into the fold and repair some of the damage that's been done this last decade. I hope I'm right.
The DCU is a richer place with Jay, Max, Bart etc a part of it and just maybe DC will realise they can have their cake & eat it too.

All absolutely true. Which may just be why they're very slowly trying to backpeddle away from these boneheaded decisions. They can't do it fast enough for me, though.Geoff Johns has done some good comics work but, man , did he screw the pooch here. And, yes, this is entirely his fault. Editorial may have driven it home but the way he wrote Barry Allen's return meant that that general direction was inevitable.

[Kyer]

Seeing Barry's reaction to the newer heroes who has stepped up like Kyle and Connor. Alas, we got NONE of that.

I agree with everything married guy said and besides the whole El Stupido thing with the dead mom and Engine Fiasco.... the above still pissing me off. Yes I get that Kyle is currently doing things off planet with Jordon and Co, but when has stuff like that ever stopped a cameo performance? Worse... WALLY has yet to meet up again with Rayner. C'mon!

At least sneak in some homages to Wally's original Flash Friends. Mason would be great. Mason was so much fun. Wally had some lovely non-super friends mostly thanks to Messner-Loeb.

[married guy]

I agree with everything married guy said and besides the whole El Stupido thing with the dead mom and Engine Fiasco.... the above still pissing me off. Yes I get that Kyle is currently doing things off planet with Jordon and Co, but when has stuff like that ever stopped a cameo performance? Worse... WALLY has yet to meet up again with Rayner. C'mon!

At least sneak in some homages to Wally's original Flash Friends. Mason would be great. Mason was so much fun. Wally had some lovely non-super friends mostly thanks to Messner-Loeb.

Yeah. It's criminal how little Wally has been used since his return. Even a page in the Titans showing him catching up with Kyle, Chunk etc. would have been great.

[SanityOrMadness]

Yeah. It's criminal how little Wally has been used since his return. Even a page in the Titans showing him catching up with Kyle, Chunk etc. would have been great.

Chunk's been deaged to be Kid Wally/Wallace's pal

[Dred]

Chunk's been deaged to be Kid Wally/Wallace's pal

While I am the biggest NuWally detractor in the world, Chunk was such a seldom used Wally supporting character that this isn't a big deal.

If you wanted to backtrack on it, you could always retcon that he's Chester Runk Jr.

[married guy]

Chunk's been deaged to be Kid Wally/Wallace's pal

I must have missed that!
Was that in Teen Titans??

[Sam]

I must have missed that!
Was that in Teen Titans??

The Nu52 Flash series. Vendetti's run.

[Waterfall]

No matter what happens, I just hope for a positive direction for the character.

I genuinely love him and support him wherever he appears but I'm also smart enough to see that the character has lost his touch. Just like what I say to Barry fans in regards to his personality in modern times, the same applies to Wally as well: He's boring, sour, depressing and nothing you like about him exists within the current version.

2 years with Titans amounted to nothing, even worse his team is said as ineffective. Nothing came out of the heart condition, his relationships with Lilith and Donna, he has done nothing but spin on his heels so far. The fact that Flash book presents this as Wally's fault is another thing to talk about. The lack of mentions about him in recent solicits adds more to my worries as well.

If Wally is given to Tom King, it's good to be at the hands of a high profile writer. But King being he the writer that he is, he will double down on the depression, and personally speaking I'm not here for it anymore.

I also don't think a team book will cut it. A huge problem with character in recent times is that he can't get enough focus and as long as he is in team books he will be always half cooked at core. We need atleast a miniseries to settle down the core things with Wally.

It's infuriating at this point. There is a huge fan demand for this character and DC is still being deaf at this. We still haven't got a statue in his current look or any merchandise with him for that matter.

Flash War has to deliver even if partially. Our 2 years time table is long gone now.

[Rend20]

2 years with Titans amounted to nothing, even worse his team is said as ineffective. Nothing came out of the heart condition, his relationships with Lilith and Donna, he has done nothing but spin on his heels so far.

I do wonder how much his character arc in Titans got impacted by Flash War. I recall Williamson mentioning he knew he was going to be doing Flash War around the beginning of the Running Scared arc, and I believe that would have fallen around the time of the Lazarus Contract crossover over in Titans.

That could be why the damaged heart and Donna subplots never amounted to much. It would also explain why Wally never moved forward even though Abnett kept hinting at it. Maybe Abnett couldn't really follow through with those things like he wanted to because of what Williamson had planned.

Flash War has to deliver even if partially. Our 2 years time table is long gone now.

For better or worse, I think we'll know where Wally stands as a character at the end. I just hope it's a good place given he was referred to as the False Flash, a pretender, sidekick, rookie, and had it rubbed in his face that Barry is the real Flash in the last arc.

[Spider-Ham]

Flash War preview :

https://forum.sanctuary.fr/uploads/d...1_650x1000.jpg

https://forum.sanctuary.fr/uploads/d...1_650x1000.jpg

[Assam]

Flash War preview :

https://forum.sanctuary.fr/uploads/d...1_650x1000.jpg

https://forum.sanctuary.fr/uploads/d...1_650x1000.jpg

My heart.

[Rend20]

Here's the full preview for those interested.

spoilers:

Glad we get Wally regaining his memories of Hunter and everything he's done. Still looks like he might trust him, though.

end of spoilers