I picked Barry because I'm 90% sure I saw stories with him first, but my first definitive Flash memory is Jay in a DC Origins book that had the origins of both Jay and Barry and Jay's origin was first,
Jay Garrick (Golden Age Flash) - 1st appeared in Flash Comics #1 (1940).
Barry Allen (Silver Age Flash) - 1st appeared Showcase #4 (1956) / died in CoIE
Wally West (post-CoIE Flash) - became The Flash at the end of Crisis on Infinite Earths
Bart Allen (post-Infinte Crisis Flash) - Became The Flash after Wally vanished / Bart suddenly aged
TV/the CW version of The Flash (Barry) - from The Flash: Season Zero (based on TV continuity)
other (please specify in a separate post)
I picked Barry because I'm 90% sure I saw stories with him first, but my first definitive Flash memory is Jay in a DC Origins book that had the origins of both Jay and Barry and Jay's origin was first,
Picked this up in the mall at a temporary stand, after being a fan of the JL cartoon and renting Alex Ross's "Mythology" from the local library. I was 13. I loved the smell of the paper.
After that it was lots of Wally in trades.
I got into DC comics buying the 2010 edition of the 'Green Lantern:Rebirth Trade but I decided to take a step back and bought 'The Secret of Barry Allen'-trade from Geoff Johns. Wally West was the first Flash I ever read.
Barry Allen, back in the day, was 'my Flash.' (Although I was also reading JSA/All-Star Squadron stuff within the first few years of discovering comic books, so it didn't take long to discover Jay Garrick or other speedsters like Johnny Quick.)
But then Crisis on Infinite Earth's came along and he died, and Wally West, who, IMO, was one of the weaker points in the Wolfman/Perez Teen Titans relaunch (they really didn't seem to have any idea what to do with him, he's pretty much the only Titan to not have a memorable arc in their run) stepped up and I had 25 or so years to get on board the Wally-as-Flash train, so he became 'the Flash' to me.
For me, one of DC's greatest strengths over Marvel is their ability to play on legacy characters like Dick Grayson, Roy Harper and Wally West (and later Tim Drake, Conner Kent and Bart Allen). It's also a source of some frustration for me when new ascended fanboy writers come up and try to recapture their youth by focusing stories on characters from their childhoods and eliminating or sidelining legacy characters to do so.
Last edited by Sutekh; 07-19-2017 at 09:31 AM.
Wally in Justice League Adventures
Barry Allen in Flash Rebirth the Geoff Johns story in the pre 52. Or it might have been the brief run when Bart was the Flash but it was one of those two.
Barry Allen Showcase edition!
I wanna say it was one of the issues of Terminal Velocity so I was exposed to Wally and Jay at the same time. I read a lot of Kid Flash in the NTT so I was already more familiar with Wally before actually reading him as the Flash.
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