It's hard to mention Barry anywhere on forums (namely ComicBookResources, but there are others) without Wally West fans jumping all over the character and saying that he's dull, outdated, and better off dead. It's this same vocal fan group that clamored for Wally's return so hard which I think could be part of the cause for this.
It may be difficult for them to swallow, but they are in the minority. Wally's book was kind of crappy up to the time right before Rebirth and before he was replaced with Bart Allen (if they're honest with themselves they'll agree, the Wally in those books wasn't the Wally that was a great character in the early 90s). The last 10, 15 years have been a bumpy time for the title in general, but those people that say Barry is "dull, outdated", and "better off dead" are deluded. Wally is almost as old a character Barry is, for one thing, and no character, especially one like Barry Allen, is better off dead, unless that's the purpose they were created for (like Uncle Ben, the Waynes, etc - Barry doesn't fall in that category at all).
They should just be careful what they wish for...New 52 Wally may not be at all what they're thinking, in fact, it's almost guaranteed to not be, IMO. I don't think they should have omitted the character but rather let him have his own place in the DCU with his own costume and possibly even separate identity, a la Nightwing, and the universe wide reboot that was the New 52 would have been the perfect place to do that, but to tell you the truth I would have rather seen them get rid of that damn collar on Superman before they bring Wally West back.
I wholeheartedly agree with his fanbase in that he really took the Flash mantle and (for the lack of better phrasing) ran with it. He made meaningful contributions to the legacy and really developed into a great character.
What an absurd statement.
Now, calling Wally a "poor man's Barry Allen" isn't fair in my mind.
True, Wally is a good character and some great stories were told with him, namely the whole Return of Barry Allen storyarc from the 90s (even though Mark Waid intentionally portrayed Barry as a cardboard cutout and gave him a Jameson haircut in that story when he could have written him as an actual person/engaging character as he did later in his career, but I understand he was trying to win people over for his cause at the time, even if I disliked the handling), and Wally is at his best when he is written as differently from Barry Allen as possible, particularly if he's going to be calling himself The Flash - this means no secret identity (sans Teen Titans days), police job (I don't care if he works on police cars or not, this was the closest thing Johns could do to make Wally like Barry when he wrote the title (giving him a secret identity and police job), I say have him be a mechanic somewhere else, I don't care, but don't have him work at a police station), no reporter girlfriend/wife, no superpowered twins, no Kid Flash of his own, no Reverse Flash of his own, and maybe get him his own costume, his on origin would be great too. Now there was a time in the early 90s when Wally was written pretty differently from Barry Allen (even though he had a few of those things I mentioned) and they were telling stories with him that could NOT be told with Barry Allen - and that was just about every story prior to the Return of Barry Allen arc. The great thing about Wally was that he had that whole living in the shadow of Barry Allen thing he had to overcome, that's what made him a compelling character, some might see it as a double edged sword in a way as it makes Wally very codependent on Barry Allen as a character, but if you're honest with yourself Wally is pretty codependent on Barry Allen as a character to begin with (his origin, costume, Rogues, etc) , so this is moot to me, but the "living in the shadow of" thing is what gave Wally a great dynamic unique among superheroes. The minute you take that away or the character "surpasses" that, he gets closer to just being Barry Allen with each minute. Think about it. Take that away, and what story could possibly be told with Wally West that can't be told with Barry Allen? NONE. They're all practically interchangeable, which is especially obvious as you look at Johns' Flash run (which if you know the behind the scenes stuff it makes sense as Johns wanted to write Barry Allen since he was a kid, and it's too bad for us that he didn't get to do that right off the bat, because all the Wally stories he told were damn near perfect versions of what contemporary Barry Allen stories would play like, it's a shame he felt the need to add the whole dead mother angle when he finally did get to write Barry - but I digress, there is a part of me that finds it interesting only because of the time travel thing, but without that novelty I absolutely HATE that edition to Barry Allen because it makes him like EVERY other hero who has a death in their story that inspired/motivated them to do something - hell, I'd say the murder origin they gave him is darker than Batman's, at least Bruce's father didn't "kill" his mother (allegedly - I know Thawne did it but still)).
So take the "living in Barry's shadow" dynamic away and Wally as Flash is essentially Barry Allen as Flash as far as originality and story standpoint goes.
Even on JL/JLU, this is what he is, essentially (although his personality is neither Barry nor Wally and is more comparable to Bart as they were going to use Impulse originally because they wanted more juvenile characters, but instead just transferred this into their Flash, along with much of their own input, the JL/JLU Flash was very much its own thing, Wally in the comics was written as much more intelligent and serious than the idiot they made him out to be in some of the JL/JLU moments).
One thing I don't like about Pre-Flashpoint Wally is how overpowered he got. Speed stealing and the infinite mass punch have their applications, but they're also kind of game breaking. Part of what contributes to DC's bad rap of having ridiculously powerful characters. But everything outside of that was great in my mind.
Well they did that when they introduced the whole Speed Force thing, all that was just done as a way to make Wally look "superior" to Barry Allen as whoever headlines The Flash title has to be the "most powerful/fastest/god flash", it's just par for the course, IMO.
I voted that I'm happy to learn this news, because I legitimately am. However, I'm also worried that the balance between Wally and Barry fanatics is so off that it could skew sales and possibly influence DC to boot Barry once again. But I fully admit to my paranoia.
Well I really hope they don't boot Barry again, there is still so much potential with the character that has yet to be utilized so it would be a shame to see him go so soon when they've barely scratched the surface of what could be done with him, IMO - but I'm happy they're going to incorporate Wally in some way, even though Barry is my favorite, I'm just interested to see where it will go and how...and a little apprehensive to be honest. I don't expect anything to be the way it used to be, which could potentially be good but also potentially be a lot worse, I have my fingers crossed very hard, as I have for much of what's been done in the New 52 (The Flash title being the best thing to come of it so far, IMO).
Completely agreed with this
To be fair, Wally's wife is from the present, not the future, and she changed her field of study sometime in her life
Wally is a mechanic, and his father is a Manhunter robot from the Guardians (post crisis retcon)
Barry did not have sex with a married woman (that is not his wife)
(Wally's father Post Crisis was also supposedly abusive if I remember (pre Crisis they were pretty cool), while Barry's parents were awesome originally) Linda, like Iris, is first and foremost best known as a tv reporter. Whether it was intentional or not I thought it was stupid to give Wally a love interest just like Barry's...but I guess it shouldn't be a surprise when he had all these things like Barry as well:
- Same origin (just miniaturized)
- Same costume (beginning of his career, and then later on)
- Same Rogues
- Superpowered Twins
- a Kid Flash of his own
- a Reverse Flash of his own
- upped power level
- police job
If it's not the same, it's very, VERY close, they even provide similar dynamics to the JLA most of the time.
Sans the "living in Barry's shadow", there's nothing really you can tell with Wally (as he was) that you could not tell with Barry, they're practically redundant - even Hal and Kyle have less similarities.
Wally can't phase through surfaces
Not at first but he was eventually able to.
And you forgot or neglected two common points:
*They were both fans of a previous Flash before getting their powers
Except Barry was a fan of a comic book that featured a fictitious character as far as he was concerned and was more inspired by the idea of him, not taking over for him directly or becoming his protege (Barry forged his own identity, outfit, etc), and Wally was a fan of someone who actually existed in real life to him. Not quite the same, but still similar, I agree.
*Same way of getting powers
It covers the commonalities between these two Flashes, not a fully absurd statement
Yeah, thank you, they are very similar, I don't think it's absurd at all to say Wally was a poor man's Barry Allen - BUT, and this is where I'm hoping the New 52 will do some positive, they have an opportunity to change all that here in the reboot and make him as different from Barry Allen as possible from the ground up: different origin, different costume, different job, different love interest (as far as occupation goes at least), maybe even slightly different powers. They could even use the Speed Force for them, like I liked what Johns did with Wally's origin in Flash: Rebirth, he didn't really retcon anything he just explained it in a way, it was stated there that the "accident" that gave Wally his powers was really no accident at all, and that he was struck by the lightning because Barry Allen generated it and made it happen, unconsciously - something he made possible when the accident that gave him his powers created the Speed Force (I thought it was a good try for an explanation anyway...), the Speed Force being the all encompassing Flasg Fact that spans all of space and time, the accident that gave Barry his powers being the cause/catalyst for it (I thought that was pretty mind blowingly awesome).
