Wally West: The Flash Appreciation 2019

[Bruce Wayne]

Nope. Sorry but I disagree. Yeah that is alllll Geoff and Ethan said prior to and after Rebirth. "there is plenty of room for all the Flashes". How long did that last? Within 12 months after Rebirth ended Wally was gone.

Then you should blame editorial. Johns had wanted a Flash family book with Wally and Barry (with Kollins and Manapul) as well as a Kid Flash book (for Sterling Gates) after Rebirth and editorial took it away from him at the last minute. It was editorial under Didio who tried their hardest to bring back Barry and in essence messed up the Flash book and Wally just for the sake of it. We even have Didio's own confession.

[WallyWestFlash]

Some excerpts from a review that made good points.

If there’s supposed to be some hope here, Wally’s aimless monologue as he sits alone in the dark in his suit doesn’t do much to inspire it. A handful of characters get to move on, while Wally’s punishment is to keep doing what kicked off this tragic series of events in the first place - to sit, alone, and dwell on everything he’s lost, and who he’s supposed to be, and how he’s fallen short of that?


“Older” Wally implores “Young” Wally to talk to people about what he’s dealing with, reassures him that he’s not alone, but in the end, alone is exactly what he is - it’s literally the last moment we spend with Wally, seeing the shadows of prison bars cast over his downtrodden figure, while Booster Gold and Blue Beetle laugh over beers and Harley and Ivy take a quiet walk through the woods.

[Denirac]

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This One Panel Physically Hurts Me. The issue itself prevented me from enjoying all my other comics today

[Spider-Ham]

Didio and King punishing Wally for coming back and bringing him back in limbo, as a murderer.

[Dataweaver]

My knowledge of what HiC did is strictly secondhand. But with that said: I could see salvaging something from it by way of saying that the release of Speed Force energy that killed everyone also warped Wally's mind in unnatural ways. In effect, it's the Parallax fix, but without needing to invite an alien entity: Wally didn't deliberately cause the massacre, and wasn't in his right mind in the aftermath; so all of the out-of-character things he did there aren't his fault. As the effects of the Speed Force Explosion recede, he can return to sanity and then work through the sense of guilt he's bound to have until he comes to terms with it. Frankly, it would help immensely if he could at least get Linda back to help him through it.

It's still a salvage operation; it would be better if HiC never happened at all. There's damage that can't be repaired (all those bodies…) and while Wally could potentially be redeemed, he now has a scar that's not going away any time soon.

But he can be redeemed — assuming that someone who respects the character is put in charge of writing him ASAP.

[Lee Stone]

My knowledge of what HiC did is strictly secondhand. But with that said: I could see salvaging something from it by way of saying that the release of Speed Force energy that killed everyone also warped Wally's mind in unnatural ways. In effect, it's the Parallax fix, but without needing to invite an alien entity: Wally didn't deliberately cause the massacre, and wasn't in his right mind in the aftermath; so all of the out-of-character things he did there aren't his fault. As the effects of the Speed Force Explosion recede, he can return to sanity and then work through the sense of guilt he's bound to have until he comes to terms with it. Frankly, it would help immensely if he could at least get Linda back to help him through it.

It's still a salvage operation; it would be better if HiC never happened at all. There's damage that can't be repaired (all those bodies…) and while Wally could potentially be redeemed, he now has a scar that's not going away any time soon.

But he can be redeemed — assuming that someone who respects the character is put in charge of writing him ASAP.

It's over.
Wally is dead.

[Dataweaver]

It's over.
Wally is dead.

Yeah; I remember people saying that about Hal after Zero Hour.

[Godlike13]

For me it comes down to what comes next.

[Dataweaver]

I'm sticking to the same policy as before: I'm not buying it until I see a review from someone I trust that says that it's worth buying.

[Badou]

My knowledge of what HiC did is strictly secondhand. But with that said: I could see salvaging something from it by way of saying that the release of Speed Force energy that killed everyone also warped Wally's mind in unnatural ways. In effect, it's the Parallax fix, but without needing to invite an alien entity: Wally didn't deliberately cause the massacre, and wasn't in his right mind in the aftermath; so all of the out-of-character things he did there aren't his fault. As the effects of the Speed Force Explosion recede, he can return to sanity and then work through the sense of guilt he's bound to have until he comes to terms with it. Frankly, it would help immensely if he could at least get Linda back to help him through it.

It's still a salvage operation; it would be better if HiC never happened at all. There's damage that can't be repaired (all those bodies…) and while Wally could potentially be redeemed, he now has a scar that's not going away any time soon.

But he can be redeemed — assuming that someone who respects the character is put in charge of writing him ASAP.

I think that is what King was trying to do but failed miserably. He was trying to excuse all of Wally's actions as him having a mental illness and was not in the correct frame of mind. It doesn't really work because King did such a poor job at setting up the story and displaying real mental illness and had Wally do all these unforgivable things, like shoving fake teeth into one of the corpses of a dead hero to trick Batman, all in order to try and have some makeshift murder mystery hook for the story. Wally accidentally killing the heroes is behind all the detailed premeditated things he did in trying to mess with the bodies and looking at every hero's personal information.

It will all eventually get retconned in a reboot or some other event. That is what always happens, but this will stick to the character for a while it feels like.

[Dred]

Yeah; I remember people saying that about Hal after Zero Hour.

DC likes Hal. DC does not like Wally. This is not comparable.

[Blue22]

Yeah; I remember people saying that about Hal after Zero Hour.

Yep. Meanwhile, people still hold plenty of **** over the heads of Hank Pym, Scott Summers, Reed Richards, and Tony Stark. Only time will tell if Wally can be saved in the eyes of the readers like Hal was, or permanently ruined for a lot of people like those others (Even if...#CyclopsWasRight). Personally, all I'm worried about is the damage that's been done right now. The fact that it can technically be fixed doesn't make the situation any less irritating. Yeah Wally will bounce back eventually....maybe...but this is still an unnecessary stain on his character that will follow him for a LONG time.

[EsotericFailures]

Nope. Sorry but I disagree. Yeah that is alllll Geoff and Ethan said prior to and after Rebirth. "there is plenty of room for all the Flashes". How long did that last? Within 12 months after Rebirth ended Wally was gone. Forgotten. And we all know what happened to his character since. I think it is naïve to believe that Geoff and Ethan didn't think this was a possible outcome...down the road. Hell I predicted something like this happening.

Bringing back Barry clearly ended Wally's run as one of DC's biggest characters and he'll never recover from that. But his treatment since has been far worse than anyone could have imagined and I blame that solely on DC editorial and Didio in particular.

[Supermutant2099]

Yep. Meanwhile, people still hold plenty of **** over the heads of Hank Pym, Scott Summers, Reed Richards, and Tony Stark. Only time will tell if Wally can be saved in the eyes of the readers like Hal was, or permanently ruined for a lot of people like those others (Even if...#CyclopsWasRight). Personally, all I'm worried about is the damage that's been done right now. The fact that it can technically be fixed doesn't make the situation any less irritating. Yeah Wally will bounce back eventually....maybe...but this is still an unnecessary stain on his character that will follow him for a LONG time.

It was not necessary at all. What was the point of this? There is no character development your getting from it. More could have been done and gain characteristic wise in reuniting him with his family. I don't get dc thought process anymore. They are doing exact opposite what anyone would tell them would work or direction any normal creator would be better ways to go.

[Dataweaver]

I think that is what King was trying to do but failed miserably. He was trying to excuse all of Wally's actions as him having a mental illness and was not in the correct frame of mind. It doesn't really work because King did such a poor job at setting up the story and displaying real mental illness and had Wally do all these unforgivable things, like shoving fake teeth into one of the corpses of a dead hero to trick Batman, all in order to try and have some makeshift murder mystery hook for the story. Wally accidentally killing the heroes is behind all the detailed premeditated things he did in trying to mess with the bodies and looking at every hero's personal information.

It will all eventually get retconned in a reboot or some other event. That is what always happens, but this will stick to the character for a while it feels like.

To clarify, my suggestion isn't just that Wally had a mental illness; it's that an outside influence was impairing his judgment: think of it less as “Wally wasn't thinking straight” and more along the lines of “Wally was ‘under the influence’”. Specifically, all the things he did after the Explosion weren't a direct extension of the thought processes that lead to the Explosion; they were more along the lines of “this is your mind on drugs”, but with “on drugs” replaced by “messed up by a massive Speed Force disruption”.