What do YOU think DC should do with Wally West?

[Waterfall]

Everyone's been complaining about Wally's treatment and I'm interested in a more productive discussion instead of circling similar complaints. What is your cure to current problem? Do you see any hope?

DON'T DERAIL THE THREAD. Any comment like "Kill Barry" will be reported to mods.

p.s.: a poll is coming up.

[MajorHoy]

Everyone's been complaining about Wally's treatment and I'm interested in a more productive discussion instead of circling similar complaints. What is your cure to current problem? Do you see any hope?

DON'T DERAIL THE THREAD. Any comment like "Kill Barry" will be reported to mods.

p.s.: a poll is coming up.

Isn't there more than one "Wally West" these days?

[sakuyamons]

He should get a solo book, where he develops/gains back his past relationships and we see him really struggle with the pacemaker bs. A crossover with Flash where Barry helps him to fix the mess LC caused would be a good idea.

His book should focus around the Rebirth mystery, he can still hang with the Titans of course, but I refuse to believe he's just accept the "old world" is gone and he (and us) should get over it.

[Buried Alien]

I picked the first option, though if I were calling the shots at DC, I'd have the monthly FLASH title feature sixteen pages of Barry, sixteen pages of Wally, with their stories occasionally bleeding into each other's. Twice a year, they might team-up for thirty-two pages.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Frontier]

My vote's for a Wally solo book (though I would settle for him leading a Flash Family book as well) .

[Lightning Rider]

I think he can definitely carry a solo book, and he should have one. Especially one in Keystone. Bring back his established world full of supporting characters and rich industrial setting. Maybe not all of it right away, but he has a whole different dynamic to operate in than Barry. It can be called "Wally West: The Flash" or "The Flash: Wally West". I don't want a Nightwing like title because that would be a demotion, but something should differentiate his title from Barry's. Maybe "Wally West: The Fastest Man Alive" could work.

[Assam]

What I'd want in a perfect world:

Wally's history with Linda is restored upon earning her love once again for the first time, simultaneously bringing his kids into the RebirthDCU, and restoring his entire history and all of his relationships (like would happen with EVERYONE by the end of Rebirth.) Wally would then be the lead in a Flash Family back, starring Bart, Max, Iris II, and Jesse, with Linda, Jai, and the supporting cast members of the other characters popping up with semi-regularity depending on who the arc was focused on.

[BohemiaDrinker]

Isn't there more than one "Wally West" these days?

When people say Wally West, they mean (the closest we have to) Wally West, the Flash, adult.

The new kid is referred to mostly as NuWally.

This is pretty common knowledge around here,

[Rend20]

With the landscape as it is, I think the ideal scenario would be the solo in Keystone option. They could also keep him in Titans if he needs to be on a team. I think Barry's footing as the primarily Flash is about as strong as it can be with everything his character has going so I don't think a Wally solo would infringe on that in any significant way.

Allowing both Barry and older Wally to succeed just seems to make the most sense for everyone based on the decision to bring Wally back.

[Doctor Bifrost]

By coincidence, I just posted this in another thread, but it seems more appropriate here.

***
I got some distance from [this other thread] a while ago, because it was getting so vituperative.

But I'll toss in my opinion of where I would like to see things going forward, given the corporate constraints that are in place.

I grew up on the Barry Allen Flash. I knew Wally West as Kid Flash, his sidekick. I met the Jay Garrick Flash, who was on a parallel world. Then Barry was killed off (in a very good story), and I got quite a few years of the Wally West Flash.

I don't have a very strong opinion on Barry over Wally, or Wally over Barry. I think they are both good characters. I remember some things from Wally's run that I thought were contrived and overdone - Wally has to eat constantly to keep up his strength! Wally loses his money! Wally's dad is a Manhunter, or a Manhunter agent, or whatever! - but then, I can talk about a lot of things from Barry's era that I could do without, too. (I mean - Cobalt Blue? And now apparently Wonder Woman is going to have a long-lost, hitherto unknown twin bother, because that soap-opera trick is always a winner!)

I really liked Wally's friendship with the Pied Piper. Hartley had the best coming-out scene in any mainstream comic bookI can remember (if evaluated in the context of its time). I'm sorry they felt the need to grim-ify the Piper again after that....

Anyway - it's pretty clear to me that Barry Allen is going to be the Flash for quite some time into the future. He's in the TV show, he'll be in the movie, and those are strong motivators to keep him the primary Flash in the ongoing comic. If you're such a big Wally over Barry fan that that's unacceptable to you, then I suspect you're just out of luck. You have my sympathies.

If Wally continues to call himself the Flash as he appears in the Titans and elsewhere, I think he will always be a secondary character by a lot. Yes, Barry Allen and Jay Garrick were both "the Flash" in the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity, but that limited Jay's role. For example, he never got his on ongoing series or miniseries (or even a one-shot, as far as I can remember). He was big in the JSA, but the JSA wasn't big. (I don't mean it didn't have its devoted fans. I really liked it. But in the landscape of the DCU, it was small compared to the JLA.)

Having two major characters with the same superhero name rarely works out equitably. Oh sure, there are a lot of Green Lanterns, but they have a whole Green Lantern Corps - they hang out together all the time and call each other by their actual names. Each one is "a Green Lantern," but it's rare that any one of them gets called "Green Lantern" anymore.

I also suspect that putting Wally on a parallel Earth where he could be "the Flash" wouldn't be a great success for him either. It's one thing to set aside a world for an entire set of characters who belong together and have a shared history. (The WildStorm characters, or the JSA.) But just to stick Wally somewhere else, away from his history and existing (or recreated) relationships - with Dick, with Donna - might be a one-way ticket to obscurity.

My suggestion is this: Wally should get a new name and a new costume. And maybe some slightly different speed-related powers, to distinguish him from Barry. Let him have a run-in with a Speed Force entity, or with Hermes, or Hermóðr (Hermod the Norse messenger of the gods, but you have to love those old spellings!), or whoever/whatever, and pick up some new talents and interests. This may be a path to clearly establishing him as a separate, independent character, who could be tried out in his own miniseries or series.

Dick Grayson didn't grow up to be Batman. Roy Harper didn't grow up to be Green Arrow. Donna Troy didn't grow up to be Wonder Woman. Garth (when we had any idea who he was) didn't grow up to be Aquaman. Now, Barry died, which left space for Wally to grow up to be the Flash. But as it happens, he's not dead now, so another solution may be needed.

Mind you, I'd have no objection if it were Barry who picked up a new name and costume. I just don't think that's going to happen.

As for NuWally, I wish he would just say: "You know, I was never really crazy about my first name, and now that my cousin has shown up - I don't really know where's he's been all this time, but I'm starting to remember meeting him when I was a kid - who is also named Wally West, I think I'll start using my middle name, which is Eliot." Kids in high school do this kind of thing all the time. And I don't think that having two speedsters who have connections to Barry Allen and his supporting cast, have both been called Kid Flash, and both live in the same fictional universe, having the exact same name, is good for those characters either. Now, I know there's a young, African-American Kid Flash in the TV show named Wally West, but he's a less major character than the show's star, and he's probably not going to be in the movie, so that much differential is probably fine. (Green Arrow is named Oliver Queen in both the TV show and the comic - he's the main character, after all - but there are a lot of differences among the non-main characters. Looks like Emi, not "Thea," is headed to being Red Arrow.)

That's my take. I realize there are many people on [this other thread] who would not be happy with that direction. So that's just me.

[Ascended]

By coincidence, I just posted this in another thread, but it seems more appropriate here.

***

I got some distance from [this other thread] a while ago, because it was getting so vituperative.

That's my take. I realize there are many people on [this other thread] who would not be happy with that direction. So that's just me.

While I dont agree with a new name for Wally, otherwise I think you have some great points.

On the idea of Wally gaining new abilities Barry doesn't have, however, there's no need for any kind of adjustment there. All Wally has to do is remember his past. He's already learned how to do stuff Barry never dreamed of. Stealing and lending speed? Freezing bullets and people in place? Exploding stuff he vibrates through? (a side effect of not vibrating properly but still). Wally has tricks Barry doesn't. Just lean into that, expand on it a little more, and you've got a powerset different enough to stand out.

[Atlanta96]

I say kill him. If DC absolutely refuses to treat this character with respect and instead taunts us with empty promises and sabotaging his character, they should just put us out of our misery and keep him dead for 10 or 20 years. A Wally solo would inevitably be a trainwreck under this management, as would any other book featuring him prominently. So why bother? Put him in the ground until some publishers who actually like the guy come along.

Why not give red-headed Wally his own series and let him explore his sexual identity in that?

Is this a joke?

[Lightning Rider]

I say kill him. If DC absolutely refuses to treat this character with respect and instead taunts us with empty promises and sabotaging his character, they should just put us out of our misery and keep him dead for 10 or 20 years. A Wally solo would inevitably be a trainwreck under this management, as would any other book featuring him prominently. So why bother? Put him in the ground until some publishers who actually like the guy come along.

So you've now advocated for the death of both Flashes, while feeling insulted for having your opinion loosely voiced by Reverse Flash. lmao you can't make it up.

[Atlanta96]

So you've now advocated for the death of both Flashes, while feeling insulted for having your opinion loosely voiced by Reverse Flash. lmao you can't make it up.

Why would you want this character around if he's just going to be sh*t on constantly? It's been bad decision after bad decision for Wally since Johns run ended, what do you think will happen if he remains in the DCU under this management?

[skyvolt2000]

So you've now advocated for the death of both Flashes, while feeling insulted for having your opinion loosely voiced by Reverse Flash. lmao you can't make it up.

It gets to a point of ENOUGH is ENOUGH.

The folks in charge are the issue and have been that for 20+ years. While they have done good things, it has come at the expense of others when it should not have.

It might not reflect in sales of a stupid floppy but it can reflect somewhere else.

We are long past the point of seeing sales on books with a character someone likes being written badly.

This is the behavior that gets you Image, Milestone, Lionforge, Dark Horse, Valiant, IDW & Titan Comics created. At least three of these guys got created out of frustration that Atlanta has pointed out. That John Stewart, Cassandra Cain & Stephanie Brown fans have vented.

Folks aren't settling for crumbs anymore. They are going to the competition or becoming the competition.

And by the time Dc finally decides to do something with Wally-NO ONE WILL CARE. Because someone else has given them what they wanted. It might not be Wally West or John or Cassandra or Tim Drake-but it something that is free of pets and management drama.

You think folks care about a crappy Cyborg with all those other better choices out there?

Or care for John Stewart with better choices out there?

Same will happen to Wally as folks walk away from DC.