The Flash probably has one of the three best superhero costume designs of all time. Bold, red and emblazoned with lightning bolts, it’s a killer. And his power – running super-duper fast – is elegantly simple, yet full of possibilities.
The Flash has been running since the very first Flash hero debuted back in the early 1940s. Because comic books have become all about legacy and rebooting characters, there are now a lot of Flashes out there, but for me, Wally West will always be the best Flash. I just wish the comics world would let him be that.
Wally West is, basically, the third person to be called the Flash, and somehow, despite having been doing this since 1987, he’s still somewhat treated as the “new” Flash. It’s a shame, because he’s by far the best character of all the Flash folk and one of the only “legacy” superheroes to truly outshine his predecessor.
West began as a sidekick – “Kid Flash” to Barry Allen’s 1960s Flash – but has since gone on to become a father, husband, and more than worthy successor to Barry Allen, who died – the first time – in 1985’s Crisis On Infinite Earths.
There are a lot of great stories with the Barry Allen Flash out there – a knotty mix of nerd science and colourful “Rogue” villains – but let’s face it – Barry Allen, to be charitable, was a bore. A straight-laced policeman with a very ‘60s crewcut, Barry Allen in the original comics remained opaque – the powers were cool, the costume was swell, the villains great, but Barry Allen, more than many other DC comics characters like Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne, defied any real depth. He just kind of was there.
Not so Wally West, who started off as a headstrong teenager, then a girl-chasing member of the Teen Titans. When he took over as the Flash after Barry Allen’s death, it was a breath of fresh air. The terrific, underrated Mike Baron and William Messner-Loebs ’80s Flash series radically scaled back his powers, and made Wally kind of an engaging jerk – selfish at times, foolhardy at others, always trying to outrace Barry Allen’s shadow.
It’s a pet peeve of mine that comics characters aren’t allowed to age but that’s been changing in recent years. West, unlike Allen, has been allowed to grow – under the excellent writing of Mark Waid and Geoff Johns and others, he became his own man – got married, and now has a family and several children. He’s a fun Flash, mostly, and while Flash comics themselves have been good and bad over the years, Wally West has – for more than 35 years now! – been the Flash.
But. He’s still chasing Barry Allen’s shadow. Because comics just can’t let dead be dead, of course Barry Allen was brought back to life back in 2009, and saddled with some new pointlessly grim-dark backstory about his mother being murdered and his father accused of the crime. You can load Barry Allen with all the baggage you like, but perhaps his finest moment was his starkly moving original death back in Crisis On Infinite Earths #8.
Barry Allen was brought back likely at the behest of corporate bean-counters, but DC Comics has never really seemed to know what to do with him. The Barry Allen version of Flash has been in a long-running TV show and a convoluted moderate flop of a movie, but to be honest, neither one of those Barry Allens was very much like the comic version. The CW Network Flash played by Grant Gustin was wide-eyed and perky and had a fair amount of Wally West’s charm grafted on, while the DC movie universe Flash played by controversial Ezra Allen was jittery, annoying and pretty much bore no resemblance to any comics version of the Flash other than perhaps his enthusiasm.
Ever since Barry Allen was resurrected, the comics have juggled West and Allen back and forth confusingly. West has been treated appallingly badly at times by the comics, with the nadir being the horrible Heroes In Crisis miniseries that somehow made West both a mass murderer and a traumatised victim and killed him off for good measure. West deserved better (don’t worry, he came back, because comic books).
Meanwhile, pretty much all of the most memorable Flash comics the past 35 years have been Wally West, but for some reason they can’t just kill Barry Allen off once and for all and let Wally be the true Flash. An intriguing current series of Flash comics I’m enjoying by Simon Spurrier are delving into pseudo-science cosmic horror and star Wally West, yet Barry Allen is still, confusingly, running around in the mix as well. Just pick a Flash, DC Comics.
For years, Flash comics would start off with the line, “My name is Wally West. I’m the fastest man alive.” After doing the main job for the better part of 40 years now, isn’t it time to just give up on trying to make boring Barry happen and acknowledge Wally as the one, true Flash?
(Just as I was polishing off this post I discovered that coincidentally friend Bob somehow wrote pretty much the same exact thing about Wally West nearly 10 years ago. We Wally West fans are legion in New Zealand! LEGION!)
Nik Dirga 