While DC has maintained Wally West and Bart Allen would continue to play a big role in the Flash Universe – there were statements made that BOTH Wally and Barry would continue to be the Flash – Dan DiDio quashed those claims in an interview with Newsarama. DiDio stated that Barry would be the only Flash in 2010, as the Wally West back up stories, and the Kid Flash title have both been dropped.
When Johns brought Green Lantern back, at least Guy Gardner and Kyle Rayner had the Green Lantern Crops to return to where we could follow their adventures (and you HAVE been following their adventures, haven’t you?), but for long time Wally fans, not having any Wally content is going to be a little hard to manage. I think most comic book readers today know Flash only as Wally West, much like many think of Timothy Dalton as James Bond, or Tom Baker as the only Doctor Who. Yes, they may be aware of a Flash named Barry Allen, until his recent resurrection, most have probably not taken the time to go diving in the back issue bins in hopes of reading his adventures.
While the Flash: Rebirth series has been hyped, and has received a fair amount of press and praise, unless DC is able to do something radically different with Barry and get Flash fans on board for the long haul, the Flash series just might have some speed bumps it will have to overcome in 2010.
Really? No Wally West?
11 Comments
I’m not even a Flash reader and that decision just seems weird… Like dropping the other versions of the Legion completely in order to concentrate on just one. Why would a few back up stories or guest spots be a problem for anyone but the most casual comics reader?
Doesn’t make sense….
OMG, this is a first! DC has stated a direction and then changed their plans! THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE!
Really? Are we really surprised by this? Are you sure that this won’t just end up being another swerve?
I guess somebody dug up another high school notebook and remembered another idea they thought was cool when they where 10.
Well, I was excited by that two page spread in the latest issue of Flash Rebirth showing the return of the Flash Family in full force. Emphasis on the WAS.
According to the sales analysis on The Beat, Green Lantern Rebirth #2 initially sold 86,273 compared to the 86,183 sold for Flash Rebirth #2. I doubt sales is the main reason why the Wally West/Bart Allen backup won’t be included.
It took DC at least a year before it released the Green Lantern Corps. spinoff on-going. This is probably an attempt to re-establish Barry Allen into the DCU and determining whether there is a legitimate desire to see Wally/Bart stories.
It sounded to me like the plans were just on hold for now… Probably to establish Barry Allen more firmly into the DCU, before bringing the rest of the Flash family back into the books. I’m sure they’ll show up here and there until then, but why muddy the waters right away? Give Barry a year to grow, and I’m sure we’ll see something with Wally and Bart in 2011…
Well, since I dont follow the Flash family too much it does not make me all upset, but I would love it if DC would just hold to some things like dead heroes and just leave them there. I know this goes against Blackest Night, but I am in reference to Barry Allen and Bart. Barry was fine dead and so was Bart. The issue is Wally. They always create him as some whinny guy who cant make up his mind about his family or the speed force. Let Barry be the Flash and give Wally time off stage to be with his family and Titans. Bart well, getting stuck in quick sand would be ok.
Having not been much of a Flash-Follower ‘lo these many years, my exposure to Scarlet Speed was mostly through JLbwahA. So, like, even though I knew of Barry, Wally was the Flash I got to see in action. Guess what? I was totally okay with it! :D Wally was funny, young, “hip/cool/trendy” (whatever word doesn’t make me sound like I’m 95 years old), had Peter-Parker type family/love-life problems, and so on, and so on… Then he did was Mr. Parker seemed incapable of: HE GREW UP!! A LOT! I liked the addition of Iris & Jai to the group too, and was just nicely getting attached to the West Family when they got their title pulled out from under them. Now they’re getting put away onna shelf, only to be dusted off.. well, whenever DanD gets the notion… :( This makes me sad, to some degree, but it is not (as Stacy points out) the first time DC has ‘broke my heart’. Meh, that’s a dramatic way of phrasing it, but.. I am a dramatic person? :D
The Wally/Bart backup story might have been folded into the main Barry story. However, this probably means I won’t get to see the story I’ve been wanting to see–a Batman/Flash teamup starring Wally as the Flash and Dick as Batman. It would have been interesting to see the former sidekicks together, since they seem to be the only sidekicks (not including Donna Troy, but timing is everything) to have inherited the mantle of their mentors.
We may very well see Wally and Bart in other books (like the 2 titans team books)… Just because those 2 particular stories aren’t being told in separate books, doesn’t mean they don’t have other plans elsewhere… Just as Superboy’s Adventure Comics came to an end… Maybe they decided Bart was better in Teen Titans and Wally in Titans for now…
Wally West was the Flash, the the main title character, for Twenty Years. A whole generation grew up knowing Wally as THE Flash. They knew more about Jay Garrick than about Barry Allen. Barry was a distant memory, a dead guy from they’d never even seen. To them, Wally West is THE Flash in the same way that Barry Allen is THE Flash for fans over 30. Returning Barry to the role feel like a sop to those older fans, a nostalgic move. More cynically, it’s a cynical desperation move, trying to recapture the stable sales of the Watergate era. But Barry won’t magically recreate a more innocent and profitable era. I’d understand DC moving forward, but moving backward 20 years makes sense to no one but the oldest fans and desperate accountants.
don’t under stand why the stories ate never the same with some of these dc caracters . West and allen ? Who is the true flash ..