The Great Wally West Fan Thread!

[tylenoljones]

So anyone saying I want to see this Wally or that Wally is sure to be disappointed if and when DC does decide to bring Wally back into the fold.

That's not necessarily true either. A New52 Wally West brought in by future writers is just as like to be influenced by Wally's portrayal in the Justice League Unlimited cartoon as he is to be influenced by the Wally from New Teen Titans. Possibly moreso in the case of the JLU version, it being more recent.

Really it's all just speculation, except for a few, like yourself, who seem to derive pleasure from discouraging people. Coming around and telling fans of the character that they don't really understand Wally or that the Wally they want to see won't be coming back accomplishes nothing, other than giving you some weird satisfaction in gloating that Wally fans can't (hypothetically) have what they want.

[tylenoljones]

"Is" or "was"?
What proof does anyone have as to how popular he would still be in 2013?

Sorry Major, but asking for proof of that type is absurd. There is no such proof. Just as there was no "proof" that Barry Allen would resonate with current fans when he hadn't been around since the 80's. What would you accept as proof here anyway?

It's really just common sense; would Wally West returning equal Batman or Justice League level sales? No way. Would it outsell Green Lantern? Nope. The Flash isn't as big of an IP in the last few decades.

Would Wally's return outsell Hawkman, or Team 7, or any of those weird DC books like Men of War? Definitely. Would a Flash family team up book similar to what Buried Alien often suggests be a consistent good seller for DC? Likely. Especially if DC played their cards right.

And it's all moot, because it'll happen eventually and then we'll know for sure.

[Kyer]

Quote Originally Posted by Jadenewt View Post
Simply stating that the character from the cartoon never existed in the comic book.


Well...kind of.
I do distinctly recall while reading the Baron years thinking "Oh, that's where they got the womanizing from!" because back then Wally was a womanizer, very immature, and generally rather egotistical. Under Messner-Loeb he had a sort of self-deprecating "I'm not worthy..." mixed with college frat boy. By th 2000's Wally had grown up a lot, arguably thanks to a stubborn Linda and the mentorship he got from Jay and Max. It wasn't until after Waid left the second time that he started breaking down such had not been seen since (the events of California?) and I really think that was deliberate because DC ED already were bound and determined to bring in Barry as the title Flash. (Likely the writers were told not to write Wally as being kickass so as to better pave the way for Rebirth. This is my own conjecture, btw, based purely on gut feelings from what I read in the books and internet articles about what was going on with DC Ed/Waid.)

If they bring back Wally I sincerely hope that Linda is still his anchor...or at least is clearly in position to become his anchor because I view the romantic relationship of those two to be amongst the strongest if not the strongest of anything DC ever put out....right up there with Ralph and Sue. As someone on the net stated years ago: "Why the heck wasn't Wally or Linda given a Love ring during Blackest Night?"

I state this as a woman who is generally apathetic towards female characters:

Keep Wally a family man, DC. Look at Animal Man...marriage does not kill a book.

But, yeah, probably all moot because I trust what comes out of Didio's mouth like I trust Ol' Scratch; not at all.

EDIT: Okay, I give. How does one place multiple quotes in one post without opening the same page from multiple tabs and doing a lot of copy/paste work? (Yes, I tried that little icon at the bottom of the screen.) I've a feeling maybe it's just my browser add-ons interfering again though....stupid add ons. -_-;;

[Kyer]

But the current I, Vampire..." isn't a book aimed at the Twilight crowd. Not past the covers for the first handful of issues at least.

Not knowledgeable on either book, but can say from experience that it would at least catch their attention. I'm not a fan of vampires, but for many years was a big fan of Forever Knight (detective crime drama where half the characters were vampires) and because of that long-cancelled TV show I still pause when I see a picture of a vampire. Would imagine that a Twilight fan would pause and maybe look it over if they ran across I, Vampire.

[Sk8maven]

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.

Jay was actually not that different, once you assume he outgrew "pantsing" adversaries sometime before 1950. (In any case, it was a prank he only seemed to pull in his solo adventures, and not when teamed up with the JSA.) But a broad and sometimes low sense of humor remained one of his defining characteristics (for instance he never gave up pranking his JSA comrades by racing to the light-switch, flipping it, and being back in place before the light could come on), even when things were at their bleakest. Of course he has been miswritten from time to time - there's not a DC character that hasn't. Some other reasonably consistent traits have been: easygoing, levelheaded, practical, doesn't sweat the small stuff (wasn't bugged at all by Piper's "coming out", unlike Wally, who freaked out at first but soon collected himself), knows when to take his time, doesn't define himself as a "superhero" but as "a person who happens to have superpowers". More than a few of Jay's adventures, from the Golden Age until - well, the PermaCrisis era, when there was no time for anything else - have focused as much on his personal life as on his superheroing.

Alan has had less consistent handling, partly (IMHO) because DC placed him firmly in Hal Jordan's shadow and did everything they possibly could to keep him there. Most Golden Age heroes were Deadpan Snarkers, but Alan was one of the snarkiest. (That went away with the Golden Age, mostly, except for a few scenes under Len Straziewski - notably when he says that whatever body the Ultra-Humanite was in, he (Alan) always thought of him as a horse's behind.) Retroactively linking Alan and Jay as "best friends" a la Hal and Barry (there are no published indications that they were any closer than any of the other JSAers, and only one unpublished hint) did more to suppress Alan's sense of humor than anything else, as he became "the serious one" to Jay's "funloving one" (note: this was the reverse of the Hal-Barry situation, and was reversed again for Wally-Kyle). This got taken to extremes after The Golden Age - Robinson apparently could not conceive of someone as powerful and slightly eerie as Alan having any sense of humor at all. (And he still can't.)

On the whole the JSAers never fared as well in the modern age as they did during the brief Straziewski run (an 8-issue mini, a 10-issue "ongoing" that was aborted because DC Editorial was utterly clueless, and a few isolated pieces here and there) - not before, and certainly not after. Straziewski understood what none of the present-day angst-o-maniacs seem to "get": that these guys had been around for so long, and had seen and done so much, that there was nothing that could get them down.

Incidentally: don't blame Robinson for resurrecting Dian Belmont. Strazewski did that, in an offhand comment in issue #1 or #2 of the "ongoing" - and Robinson merely ran with it.

[Jadenewt]

And that's a false statement.

Care to lay some issue numbers on us oh great font of all things DC?
I want to read where DCAU Wally suplimented DCU Wally in continuity and I'm not talking 'kinda'

That's not necessarily true either. A New52 Wally West brought in by future writers is just as like to be influenced by Wally's portrayal in the Justice League Unlimited cartoon as he is to be influenced by the Wally from New Teen Titans. Possibly moreso in the case of the JLU version, it being more recent.

Really it's all just speculation, except for a few, like yourself, who seem to derive pleasure from discouraging people. Coming around and telling fans of the character that they don't really understand Wally or that the Wally they want to see won't be coming back accomplishes nothing, other than giving you some weird satisfaction in gloating that Wally fans can't (hypothetically) have what they want.

At no point did I or anyone on this thread tell anyone that they couldn't have the Wally they wanted. What was said was that if you go in saying I want this or that Wally brought into story you are likely to be disappointed. Fans shouldn't dictate the direction of the story that pretty much leads to the stagnation and 'event that changes everything' but is later retconned out of existence that we currently see in US comics. But hey if you need to spit more venom just go on and do it. It's just the way we are all used to you being. Aren't the goats crossing your bridge while you are busy playing online?

[MajorHoy]

Sorry Major, but asking for proof of that type is absurd. There is no such proof. Just as there was no "proof" that Barry Allen would resonate with current fans when he hadn't been around since the 80's. What would you accept as proof here anyway?

And that was my point . . . we don't have any proof one way or another. Go check what message I was replying to so you see where I was coming from.

It's really just common sense; would Wally West returning equal Batman or Justice League level sales? No way. Would it outsell Green Lantern? Nope. The Flash isn't as big of an IP in the last few decades.

Would Wally's return outsell Hawkman, or Team 7, or any of those weird DC books like Men of War? Definitely. Would a Flash family team up book similar to what Buried Alien often suggests be a consistent good seller for DC? Likely. Especially if DC played their cards right.

And it's all moot, because it'll happen eventually and then we'll know for sure.

And I argue against just saying "common sense" . . . Wally lost his book how long ago? Despite the lovefest that some people here seem to show, we don't have anything that shows if it would work again or not this long after Wally was last able to carry a book. And, as I also argued before, no matter how much people loved Wally in the past, and Wally introduced in the New 52 won't / can't be the same Wally! There's no way they could suddenly introduce him and Linda with their backstories still the same unless he comes from another dimension or something, and how many readers would buy that reasoning these days?

[Fate's Faith]

I don't think so. DC is very intent on Barry being successful since he's been away until recently for like 25 years. By the time Barry returned from the dead, Wally had been the Flash for pretty much the same amount of time Barry was. Wally has an equal claim to the mantle now.

See, that's simply untrue. And the reason is Wally is completely dependent on Barry being the Flash. Barry doesn't have that same dependence. We can look at the current title and see there's no missing chuck of his backstory because Wally doesn't currently exist. Barry isn't even dependent on Jay being the Flash and again, he doesn't exist in Barry's world either because Barry was created without ties to Jay. Realistically, Bart is the only one that could be severed on his dependent of another Flash existing because he's from the future (I believe) and his ancestors could be anyone including someone not yet born determined on how far into the future he's from. What could Wally do? Just absorb Barry's history into his own (even more)? There is a price for a character not being totally original and this is one of them. Don't think some of the Robins didn't dodge a bullet? They could have easily been lost to Flashpoint too.

[MajorHoy]

See, that's simply untrue. And the reason is Wally is completely dependent on Barry being the Flash. Barry doesn't have that same dependence. We can look at the current title and see there's no missing chuck of his backstory because Wally doesn't currently exist. Barry isn't even dependent on Jay being the Flash and again, he doesn't exist in Barry's world either because Barry was created without ties to Jay. Realistically, Bart is the only one that could be severed on his dependent of another Flash existing because he's from the future (I believe) and his ancestors could be anyone including someone not yet born determined on how far into the future he's from. What could Wally do? Just absorb Barry's history into his own (even more)? There is a price for a character not being totally original and this is one of them. Don't think some of the Robins didn't dodge a bullet? They could have easily been lost to Flashpoint too.

I still miss this idea from Barry's original origin story:



and, of course it eventually led the way to . . .

[Fate's Faith]

Could be a way to solve the problem... Barry loves reading a comic starring Wally West. Wally is in the new 52... done! Now I think I'll move on to Middle East peace...

[Punter23]

Could be a way to solve the problem... Barry loves reading a comic starring Wally West. Wally is in the new 52... done! Now I think I'll move on to Middle East peace...

Haha yes. No wait

Barry walks past a kid reading a comic book called "The Adventures of Wally West"

[tylenoljones]

Care to lay some issue numbers on us oh great font of all things DC?
I want to read where DCAU Wally suplimented DCU Wally in continuity and I'm not talking 'kinda'

Since all we have to go on as far as JLU Wally acting more like Bart is that JLU Wally is funny; what do you want, an issue where Wally told a joke? Please.

At no point did I or anyone on this thread tell anyone that they couldn't have the Wally they wanted. What was said was that if you go in saying I want this or that Wally brought into story you are likely to be disappointed.

1. That's really not for you to say, unless you can see into the future. The Wally that shows up in the future might be the greatest thing ever, so why even bother to tell people they'll be disappointed? It's completely self-serving on your part.

2. Who exactly has been running around saying they want this or that version of Wally, and that's all they'll accept? Most people seem far more flexible in their desire to see Wally back.

Fans shouldn't dictate the direction of the story that pretty much leads to the stagnation and 'event that changes everything' but is later retconned out of existence that we currently see in US comics.

What are you talking about here? When has this ever happened?

But hey if you need to spit more venom just go on and do it. It's just the way we are all used to you being. Aren't the goats crossing your bridge while you are busy playing online?

You're the one that came to the Wally West thread to discourage Wally West fans. I mean, did you have anything to say about Didio's comment? No. You've come here to talk about fans of a character in a negative way, or at the very least to suggest that they'll never be satisfied, because it suits your preconceptions about people who aren't currently satisfied with DC's product.

You might want to rethink who's the troll here.

[tylenoljones]

And I argue against just saying "common sense" . . . Wally lost his book how long ago? Despite the lovefest that some people here seem to show, we don't have anything that shows if it would work again or not this long after Wally was last able to carry a book. And, as I also argued before, no matter how much people loved Wally in the past, and Wally introduced in the New 52 won't / can't be the same Wally! There's no way they could suddenly introduce him and Linda with their backstories still the same unless he comes from another dimension or something, and how many readers would buy that reasoning these days?

Wally won't be coming back married or with his children, I'd wager. I honestly don't know how they'd introduce him at this point, as the changes to the Flash family have been so odd. Have Barry and Bart even acknowledged each other in the new52 yet?

Regardless, I think most realize that same Wally won't be back. I suppose a few still cling to the hope that DC will return to pre-new52 continuity, but they've got to be the samllest minority on the planet.

I think there's two ways Wally returning could go down. They could do what they did with Cass becoming the Black Bat in Gates of Gotham and Inc. which would be a minor role and probably wouldn't result in any kind of sales bump. More a fan service kind of thing.

Or DC could give his return sufficient build-up, promote the crap out of it and build to a second ongoing Flash title, tie it into an event or a book like Justice League, and have another consistent seller on their hands.

Traditionally all the new Flash number ones debut with very high numbers regardless of who is wearing the outfit, so I have no doubt a new Flash book wouldn't do just fine. There's a lot of love out there for all Flash related characters.

[MajorHoy]

Wally won't be coming back married or with his children, I'd wager. I honestly don't know how they'd introduce him at this point, as the changes to the Flash family have been so odd. Have Barry and Bart even acknowledged each other in the new52 yet?

I stopped reading Teen Titans when The Culling started, but I don't even know if there's anything in the New 52 stories confirming Bart is even related to Barry. (Anyone reading Teen Titans or Bart's appearance in DC Universe Presents know?)

[the4thpip]

But the current I, Vampire..." isn't a book aimed at the Twilight crowd. Not past the covers for the first handful of issues at least.

Then I guess future trades won't sell as well and my point about companies not run well stands.