The Great Wally West Fan Thread!

[Bruce Kent]

While I don't dislike Earth-2, it doesn't really help fans of those characters. I hated Robinson's justification. If Batman an Superman get to remain so close to the real deal, I see no reason to have it otherwise with Jay and Alan, or at least a version of them.

Alan has pretty much the same personality.
Jay's younger version was never properly developed, so it's not really "wrong" to show it in this way.

[Zak213]

I'll believe it when I see it.

pretty much.

[Sk8maven]

Alan has pretty much the same personality.
Jay's younger version was never properly developed, so it's not really "wrong" to show it in this way.

Wrong on both counts. Alan was not this grim humorless arrogant pompous ass in his younger days - in fact that appears to have been Robinson's own (mis)characterization of him from The Golden Age (an Elseworlds story). And Jay had quite a WELL-defined personality, not to mention a real career: he was a biochemist, and taught (bio)chemistry in New York for a year or two before returning permanently to Keystone City to teach and run a research lab. He was purposeful and businesslike, but with almost too much of a sense of humor and an excessive taste for pranks and practical jokes (as in, his favorite battle tactic was to get his adversaries' pants down around their ankles). And he almost always seemed to have a very clear idea of what he was doing, where he was going, and how he was going to get there. (Sometimes he got tripped up by overconfidence, a trait not much in evidence in NuJay.)

[Bruce Kent]

Wrong on both counts. Alan was not this grim humorless arrogant pompous ass in his younger days - in fact that appears to have been Robinson's own (mis)characterization of him from The Golden Age (an Elseworlds story).

I've been reading Alan Scott for years. His personality is pretty much the same, adding the fact that he lost a person that was dear to him.

And Jay had quite a WELL-defined personality, not to mention a real career: he was a biochemist, and taught (bio)chemistry in New York for a year or two before returning permanently to Keystone City to teach and run a research lab. He was purposeful and businesslike, but with almost too much of a sense of humor and an excessive taste for pranks and practical jokes (as in, his favorite battle tactic was to get his adversaries' pants down around their ankles). And he almost always seemed to have a very clear idea of what he was doing, where he was going, and how he was going to get there. (Sometimes he got tripped up by overconfidence, a trait not much in evidence in NuJay.)

Show me all the stories defining his personality when he was younger, please. If you show me Golden Age stuff, I will assume every character from that time is being wrongly represented for you, since not a single one is as it was.

[PennyDreadful]

I'll believe it when I see it.

This. It's DC, people. Unless it's in an actual, published comic book, don't get your hopes up. (Solicitations don't count either; given the micro-managing going on there, characters have been yanked out at the last minute.)

[PennyDreadful]

Double post.

[Kyer]

DC: this is the solution to your FLASH dilemma.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

Ant Man is the solution?

The Fastest Ant Man Alive!

Okay, yeah, I could live with that.

As for the hoary old "You still have the old stories..." Yep, and I bet if I gave that line to a video game fan that he didn't need to buy a single new game for the next few years because he had plenty of old ones he could revisit over and over again....I'd be nursing a black eye.

[James Hunter]

I'm amazed no one else has pointed out but, given that MULTIVERSITY is expected next year is it not more likely that Wally appearing there is what Didio is referring to??

It just seems the most obvious to me...

Cheers.

James.

[DrSimonHurt]

Or in Dial-H, he taps into a hero identity that is Wally West and gets to be him for an issue.

I would do something fun with it. Wally got his powers the same day Barry did, in the same accident, but it pulled him into the speed force.

Barry encounters him now, also the Flash. Barry simply questions why he's never seen this 'other' Flash, and Wally says "I guess you aren't the fastest man alive..."

Wally can be more absorbed into the speed force, granting him more dramatic powers. He's less visible, the way Zoom was in Flashpoint. Like a red phantom. Wally likes this, Barry is afraid of becoming like him. This is why Wally is faster and riskier, and Barry chooses to limit himself.

It's actually easy to do.

[Kyer]

I'm amazed no one else has pointed out but, given that MULTIVERSITY is expected next year is it not more likely that Wally appearing there is what Didio is referring to??

It just seems the most obvious to me...

Cheers.

James.

Egads....or some DC nonfiction book where he's a paragraph mention with photo.

It speaks a lot of Didio that I can actually picture this happening. "You want Wally? There he is!" *facepalm*

[Buried Alien]

Ant Man is the solution?

Forty years ago, the Japanese figured out how you can have two versions of the same hero coexist and make it work

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[batGRRRl4ever]

The problem with waiting is that none of us is getting any younger.

Kids of today have all the patience of an instantaneous twitter feed. It's only been a year, try waiting almost a quarter century like I had to for Barbara Gordon to return as Batgirl. A year is nothin'.

[godisawesome]

Well, if you were in a accept no substitutes for Babs-Batgirl, you did have one heck of a long wait.

I was coming up with a fan story in my head where Barry encounters young Wally, finds him hunted by a time traveling Hunter Zoloman with some serious issues, so he sends him into the future for safety, which gives him super-speed, and grown up Wally-Flash is encountered still trying to outrun Zoloman but now with his family in tow. His family accepts refuge in our timeline so we get Irey West as Impulse, at least in part so we can have Damian Wayne have a playmate near his age who can kick his butt, and a time traveling Flash story where Wally deals with his own rogues across time.

[Billy Batson]

You were waiting for Babs return as Batgirl? Well damn.

[Kyer]

Kids of today have all the patience of an instantaneous twitter feed. It's only been a year, try waiting almost a quarter century like I had to for Barbara Gordon to return as Batgirl. A year is nothin'.

I'd feel flattered if it wasn't for the fact that you had no idea I'm actually in my 50's.

Meanwhile, Barbara Gordon was still active as the beautiful and canny Oracle before the DC52 medical miracle happened.
Also, it's been (for all intents and purposes) early 2010 since Wally and his family were in a story. The Retros were just that.

Anyway, the point is that I feel that nobody should have to wait years and years for the return of their favorite characters. I can't help but think of those poor Barry Allen fans who waited decades for his return...only to die within a few months after/during Rebirth. All because for 20 years Barry was mothballed. If you were to ask a diehard Barry Allen fan who had to wait so long what they would give if they could have continued to have Barry stories for that long period of drought...I bet you'd get ae pretty heartfelt answer.

Twenty years from now....I don't want to be that fan.