The Official Flash thread

[WompuM]

What's happening to Batman and Detective?

 

[TheCorpulent1]

They're being canceled. Batman's dead, motherf***er!

 

[WompuM]

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

 

[Keyser Soze]

Things are looking bleak for Wally, if the December solicits are anything to go by:

 

[Darthphere]

Yeah, color me shocked.


Shocked is like a pinkish blue.

 

[Odin's Fury]

Yeah, color me shocked.


Shocked is like a pinkish blue.

Purple?

 

[Darthphere]

No.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Things are looking bleak for Wally, if the December solicits are anything to go by:

Why is anyone surprised? The smart thing to do would've been to stop caring about Wally as soon as Barry's return was announced; you know it's all gonna be downhill for Wally from here on out.

Good art, though.

 

[yenaled]

Yeah good cover.

 

[Anubis]

Looks like an old Daredevil cover

 

[Keyser Soze]

Great art, yeah, and if this IS the last issue of the current run on "The Flash", then it makes for a suitably iconic cover to fit the occasion. But looking at it, I couldn't help but think, "Man, Wally doesn't even wear socks under his boots? With all that running, his feet must really REEK!"

 

[Odin's Fury]

Looks like an old Daredevil cover

I KNEW this reminded me of something.

 

[Keyser Soze]

Why is anyone surprised? The smart thing to do would've been to stop caring about Wally as soon as Barry's return was announced; you know it's all gonna be downhill for Wally from here on out.

Yeah, like I've said, I'm a Hal Jordan fan, but now I appreciate how the Kyle fans must have felt. I've been a fan of The Flash for a few years, and for me, Wally West is "my" Flash. Barry Allen has always been "the former Flash who died" to me. So from my perspective, having him come back to reclaim the mantle of The Flash seems almost like Uncle Ben coming back from the dead to take over as Spider-Man.

But I'm still trying to keep an open mind. And reading Johns' earlier work on Wally at least tells me he has a respect for the character, surely enough to not just kill him off as an afterthought. So I'm still holding out hope that Wally West will remain alive and relevant. Sadly, I think the likely scenario will be his repositioning as the head of a "speedster family" with his twin children, complete with matching costumes. Though interesting, Ethan Van Sciver has said that, even after Barry Allen's return and the costume change, Wally will still be known as "The Flash".

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Well, at least in this case Barry Allen was a good character.

Killing Wally off has never been a concern for me, though. Obviously Johns isn't going to do that, and even if he wanted to, I doubt DiDio would approve; it'd piss off too many fans. This ain't Bart or Kyle, this is a character who's almost universally loved by comic readers thanks to a 20-year run of some of the best superhero comics ever printed.

My fear is exactly what you mentioned in the latter part of your post: repositioning Wally as a subordinate to Barry, which is absolutely assured at this point. No point in bringing Barry back just to put him in the background, after all. And, frankly, I don't give a f*** what Van Sciver or Johns say on the subject of Wally at this point. Any mention of the fact that "he may have a new costume but he's still the Flash" is a mere platitude meant to placate people like me, and a pathetically transparent one at that.

 

[Keyser Soze]

I'm definitely anxious to see where they go with Wally West post-Rebirth. At least with Kyle, he gets a prominent role in "Green Lantern Corps", so he still has a place. It'd be harder to envision DC starting both a new "Flash" series with Barry, AND another new series featuring Wally and the kids. But I'd rather have that than see Wally become a supporting character in his own book.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I'd be fine if they gave Barry Central City and Wally Keystone City, provided Wally still had an actual comic of his own. That's not gonna happen, though.

 

[Kitsune]

Why does DC feel the need to kill off characters... Especially popular ones? Are they trying to repeat the sucess of Crisis on Infinite Earths or competing with the Death of Captain America...

 

[Flash Facts]

Why does everyone think that Johns cares about Wally? Everyone keeps saying that its obvious he likes Wally form his run but IIRC didn't he spend most of the run fleshing out sliver age characters, fleshing out Keystone City, talking about how great Barry was, and screwing up Wally's life?

 

[Keyser Soze]

Why does everyone think that Johns cares about Wally? Everyone keeps saying that its obvious he likes Wally form his run but IIRC didn't he spend most of the run fleshing out sliver age characters, fleshing out Keystone City, talking about how great Barry was, and screwing up Wally's life?

Yeah, Wally got put through the wringer. Drama is created by conflict, and a writer shouldn't go easy on their characters. If anything, I think one of the biggest weaknesses of "Green Lantern" is that Hal hasn't been put through the wringer enough! By bringing a character down low, you see their true strengths in the way they manage to fight their way back up.

Yes, there was much talk of how great Barry was. But that was often used to serve Wally's character. Like, Barry was "the idea"l, put up on a pedestal. And Wally was a "normal" guy who had to follow in his footsteps. And right from his first arc, "Wonderland", Johns seemed to hammer home that he had succeeded, not only in becoming his own man and his own hero, but in arguably surpassing his mentor.

 

[Themanofbat]

I think it's time to simply stop reading the Flash when this all comes to an end.

I love Johns' writing, but I see no justification to bringing back Barry Allen... and even when they do, there's NO WAY they'll be able to write him with the goody-two-shoes nice guy character that he was in the 60's/70's... that type of writing doesn't really fly well with today's fussy audiences... he'll be a total stranger to me.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Johns keeps stressing the forensic science aspect of the character, claiming it'll be like CSI. Only CSI kind of sucks, so I don't know why he thinks that's a good thing.

I'm with you on quitting the Flash after this, though. I'll probably just flip through Rebirth in the shop to see what happens to Wally.

 

[Kitsune]

Yeah, Wally got put through the wringer. Drama is created by conflict, and a writer shouldn't go easy on their characters. If anything, I think one of the biggest weaknesses of "Green Lantern" is that Hal hasn't been put through the wringer enough! By bringing a character down low, you see their true strengths in the way they manage to fight their way back up.

Yeah they need to destroy Hal's home town, kill everyone he knows and loves, and then have him possessed by and evil entity that makes him kill all of his coworkers. Then he might be an okay character.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I think you may be onto something...

 

[Ion Kenshin]

Sounds good...someone should really think about getting that story into a comic

 

[Keyser Soze]

Yeah they need to destroy Hal's home town, kill everyone he knows and loves, and then have him possessed by and evil entity that makes him kill all of his coworkers. Then he might be an okay character.

Yeah, all that happened. But ever since he's came back, Hal hasn't seemed overly concerned about it. I think the fact that Parallax is an evil entity that removes their free will shouldn't totally become a "get out of jail free card" for them. Part of me would still like to see a little more of him being haunted by what he did.

But then again, on the other hand, the other part of me appreciates that a part of Hal's character is that he's not one to dwell on his emotions and insecurities, and is more about just manning up and getting on with it. I think Meltzer did a good job of portraying this, when he had all the heroes all plagued with dark thoughts in "Last Will and Testament", but Hal's just like "I live for stuff like this, bring it on!"

But all the same, I think some of the strongest characterisation of Hal in this volume came in the first issue of "Wanted: Hal Jordan", because we actually got to see some vulnerability, and chinks in his "Oh ho nothing bothers me!" armor. And as much as I dig the action-filled pace of "Green Lantern", it could benefit with giving the characterisation some room to breathe. Like, Hal is told Carol divorced her husband in the off-chance Hal might take her back, but then it's marching onto Sinestro Corps War. And when that's done, Sinestro tells him he still views Hal as one of his only friends and he still believes in the Green Lantern Corps, just as Hal has to tell him he is going to be executed. But then it's on with prelude to Blackest Night and Ginal Crisis.

One of the things I've really enjoyed with Green Lantern Corps is the downtime, the character moments. And as much as I'm loving Green Lantern, I think it could use a little more of those, perhaps in between "Rage of the Red Lanterns" and "Blackest Night". I think the welcome change of pace with "Secret Origins" was a good first step in doing this, though.