Wally West debuts in the New 52

[luis4u]

... Right.

spraypaint

 

[Jason Kane]

That's because DiDio & his yes men are all idiots.

T.H.I.S! all day

 

[MadVillainy]

I read a rumor that some of the pre-52 and the new 52 would clash in an upcoming event. That wouldve been a cool way to introduce Wally

 

[Jason Kane]

I read a rumor that some of the pre-52 and the new 52 would clash in an upcoming event. That wouldve been a cool way to introduce Wally

If it means the New 52 gets booted, Im all for it but I wouldn't hold my breath

 

[ThePhantasm]

new fifty-two, more like new fifty-dumb amirite

 

[Jason Kane]

new fifty-two, more like new fifty-dumb amirite

Ikr. I wish DC never took in DiDio in the first place

 

[Namor ll]

my only issue with the new wally is the whole problem child thing

 

[badgrammar]

So who is the kid flash in the new 52 teen titans?

 

[badgrammar]

So, like I said: a mass of stereotypes.

Out of all the stereotypes, Wally being black and fast made me lmao

 

[Shazam]

1.broken home his dad walked out on him .
2.he's angry at the world.
3. Has a criminal record .
4. Busted tagging a building .
5.has a white guy/cop feel bad and wants to help him .
6.uses bad slang words that nobody's use in 30 years just because some white guy thinks black teens talk like that .
7.and last but not least he's wearing a hoodie.

all the boxes are checked

 

[TheCorpulent1]

So who is the kid flash in the new 52 teen titans?

Bart Allen. Only he's not really Bart Allen, he's an alien from the future or some junk. I don't know; the Teen Titans' comics have been awful even by New 52 standards, from what I hear.

 

[flash13]

Bart Allen. Only he's not really Bart Allen, he's an alien from the future or some junk. I don't know; the Teen Titans' comics have been awful even by New 52 standards, from what I hear.

The new #1 is a step in the right direction. But the previous stuff was so bad. Bart came out of it the worse.

 

[hippie_hunter]

The new #1 is a step in the right direction. But the previous stuff was so bad. Bart came out of it the worse.

What happened to Bart, or should I say Bar-Tor, was criminal. The new #1 was a step in the right direction, but it was still relatively boring. Oh well, I guess dull and boring is better than makes me want to rip my hair out bad. I'll take what I can get at this point with the Teen Titans.

 

[nygma619]

It may be difficult for them to swallow, but they are in the minority.

And your bias has NOTHING to do with that viewpoint?

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).

Sorry but I wholeheartedly disagree, they haven't done ONE damn thing that was worthwhile since bringing him back. If they can't do anything better than retread old ground with the character, than he should NEVER have been brought back. Barry dying was more synonomous with Gwen Stacy dying than anything else.

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?

The stories that involve HIM being known to the public CAN'T be told with Barry Allen.

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.

In broadstrokes perhaps, but from a character and personality standpoint, he was FAR MORE FLAWED than Barry was.

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).

THIS I agree with.

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 hate the speed force and thinks its absolutely unnecessary to the flash mythos for the same reasons Greg Weisman does:
"And how is Speed-Force different from Strength-Force? Or Heat-Vision-Force? Or Flight-Force? Or Shrink-Down-Force? Or Any-Actual-Super-Power-Force?
To some degree, you either buy into super-powers or you don't. At least, that's my opinion. The Speed-Force seems an unnecessary complication. Harder to get my head around than the original power its trying to explain. I mean, why should speed even HAVE a force?"

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

Generally you could apply that to just about ANY character. What makes Barry so special in this specific scenario?

Lol. Yeah, **** Bart. Kidding, I just didn't like him as Flash - he works best as Impulse, possibly graduating to Kid Flash - MAYBE, but that's all he should be, IMO.

I don't really care much for Bart, he usually annoyed me.

YJ Wally is the closest they've ever come to getting Wally right outside of comics. YJ was great in its handling of The Flash family in general, I loved their take on Barry Allen especially, great voice actor for him, IMO, and they did great with Wally as well. I also liked what they did with Impulse.

THIS I agree with, everything with Wally that could be improved upon showed potential in Young Justice. Especially a more interesting love interest. Wally and Artemis facing the life together while taking up their families identities (Flash and Huntress) is something that would be drastically different from Barry Allen and something I'm positive would've happened.

 

[Anubis]

Oh man, for a second there I thought that A-hole was back.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

The Speed Force is the best thing that ever happened to speedsters in the DC universe. Super-speed, as DC has always portrayed it, is an inherently physics-breaking power. The Speed Force was a way to try and have it make some semblance of sense by basically creating a new form of physics to explain it. It's different from a "Strength Force" because strength is something inherent to a single body. The Speed Force is basically just the endless well of energy that fuels motion, from individuals to the entire cosmos. It's like the Green or the Red, but with motion. That's friggin' awesome to me.

 

[The Endless]

I agree with The Corpulent1. The Flash's are basically broken characters, even in comic book terms. The Speed Force was a good way to kinda sorta make sense of their utterly ridiculous feats.

 

[Jason Kane]

Oh man, for a second there I thought that A-hole was back.

Barry? They brought him back six years ago

 

[luis4u]

I agree with The Corpulent1. The Flash's are basically broken characters, even in comic book terms. The Speed Force was a good way to kinda sorta make sense of their utterly ridiculous feats.

Every is almost broken in dc batman prep time force..

 

[cleverusername8]

Sorry but I wholeheartedly disagree, they haven't done ONE damn thing that was worthwhile since bringing him back. If they can't do anything better than retread old ground with the character, than he should NEVER have been brought back. Barry dying was more synonomous with Gwen Stacy dying than anything else.

I have to disagree with you there. They've improved Barry's character by leaps and bounds after his return. The rebooted origin about his mother's death deepened his rivalry with Professor Zoom, which was already one of the best (if not THE best) hero/villain rivalries in the Flash lore.

It also gave the character a more dramatic edge as far as storytelling goes moving forward. Say what you will about Flash: Rebirth, Flashpoint, and the arc before Forever Evil in the New 52 books, but those are some of my favorite Barry Allen stories in the history of the character. They removed the "vanillaness" of the character and gave him real character traits that I feel that I can identify with and root for.

Even if he's not a sarcastic wisecrack, he's definitely more likable than ever and has a solidly interesting civilian life - the one part about Wally that I feel is lacking. I'm not a fan of Wally's kids (well, Irey is alright in some senses, but Jai gets on my nerves most often). His relationship with Linda is mostly interesting in the sense of how she connects him to his powers as his lightning rod. Other than that, I don't really see the appeal of Wally when he isn't running around as the Flash. It's kind of the opposite in some ways with Barry.

Barry's work as the Flash is fun to follow, but I like the civilian side of his stories just as much if not more than his solo costumed adventures. I love science, so his work as a forensic scientist is great to me. His dealings with Patty and Iris in the New 52 aren't nauseating to read as most romance feels to me in most comics. Patty is a great character in her own right - especially when she goes into her cop mode. She's no pushover and has a nice dynamic with Barry that is different from what Iris was to him before the reboot (not better or worse, just different).

Sorry for the long, drawn out response, but I don't like seeing people rag on Barry just because of the terribly stupid decisions that the DC staff has made regarding Wally. Many Wally fans seem to be lashing out at Barry due to their frustration of what happened to their character. That's perfectly understandable, but I firmly believe that they have made Barry's return worthwhile and have improved his character greatly.

 

[Anubis]

Barry? They brought him back six years ago

No, Kevin Smith.

I f**kin' know Barry's back. I'm the guy that came up with the Maaaaan F**K Barry Allen meme that nobody used.

 

[The Endless]

I used it.

 

[nygma619]

The Speed Force is the best thing that ever happened to speedsters in the DC universe.

To me it's become one of the most convoluted things to ever happen to no only DC speedsters but comics in general. And that covers ALOT of ground.

Super-speed, as DC has always portrayed it, is an inherently physics-breaking power. The Speed Force was a way to try and have it make some semblance of sense by basically creating a new form of physics to explain it. It's different from a "Strength Force" because strength is something inherent to a single body.

How is super strength, heat vision, or multiple other powers any LESS physics breaking than super speed?

Also MANY DC superheroes have super strength why don't THEY ALL draw their powers from the same source?

The Speed Force is basically just the endless well of energy that fuels motion, from individuals to the entire cosmos. It's like the Green or the Red, but with motion. That's friggin' awesome to me.

It's not like those things because Barry Allen is now the person who generates the well of energy that fuels motion where he gets its powers from, which somehow makes the speed force even MORE CONVOLUTED & RIDICULOUS. A feet I didn't think possible, but then I keep underestimating "The Dan Didio Force" and its powers of finding new ways of disappointing/making me mad that I didn't think were possible.

 

[Panthro]

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.

If Wally had spent the rest of his life whining and complaining about how he felt he could never live up to Barry's example he would never have evolved as a person, which would have made him a truly flat, one note character.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

If Wally had spent the rest of his life whining and complaining about how he felt he could never live up to Barry's example he would never have evolved as a person, which would have made him a truly flat, one note character.

Won't make him a one note character, but it would repeat that one annoying trite line