Wally West Deserves To Be DCs Main Flash

Wally West Deserves To Be DC’s Main Flash

Ever since Final Crisis, Barry Allen has been the Flash, and though the character has his fans, it’s his protege, Wally West, who deserves the mantle

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Wally West Deserves To Be DCs Main Flash

Warning: contains spoilers for Infinite Frontier #0

Barry Allen might be DC’s most iconic Flash, but it’s Wally West who deserves the mantle. The former Kid Flash has gone through a lot in the last decade. Though DC Comics hasn’t always handled the character well, his difficult journey is part of what makes the character so worthy to hold the title of DC’s main Flash.

Created by John Broome and Carmine Infantino in 1959, Wally was originally imagined as the Robin to Flash’s Batman. After almost thirty years of fighting alongside Barry Allen or the Teen Titans, Wally would finally step into the spotlight as DC’s main Flash when Barry sacrificed himself to save the universe in Crisis On Infinite Earths. From 1986 to 2008, Wally West was the DC Universe’s Flash. This extended into adaptations, as Wally West was the Flash’s secret identity in the Justice League animated series. Inhabitting the role for more than two decades meant that an entire generation of comic fans only ever knew of the Flash as Wally, but that changed when Barry came back to life in Final Crisis.

With Barry resurrected, Wally was increasingly pushed to the side until DC erased the character completely with the New 52 reboot. This new universe replaced Wally with a younger character named Wallace West. While Wallace has since grown into his own as the DC Universe’s Kid Flash, he lacked any of the relationships and history that defined Wally. It took until DC Rebirth for the original Wally West to be reintroduced into the main DC Universe with his identity intact. Though this was met with praise from comic readers who had grown up with the character, it was still an awkward phase. Both Barry and Wally were the Flash now, with Barry still firmly DC’s main Flash. Now, in Infinite Frontier, DC is finally handing the mantle of Flash back over to Wally.

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The reason so many find Wally compelling is that he brings something unique to the table as DC’s Flash. While comic characters such as Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman often grow and change over the course of a run in their own titles, these changes have to be so small that the characters are forced to remain static. Though this has been true of Barry Allen, the same can’t be said of Wally. Decades of stories have seen Wally evolve from Flash fan, to Flash sidekick, to taking on the mantle himself. That is a compelling arc in its own right, but it’s his relationships that also make him special.

Most members of the Justice League have known him since he was a child, and that has always colored the team’s interactions with him. It makes for an interesting dynamic. Additionally, his ties to the Teen Titans offer an opportunity to test his loyalties. At its best, this led to stories that just couldn’t be told with Barry, such as JLA/Titans: The Technis Imperative.

DC has finally struck the right balance with Infinite Frontier. Though some might feel that bringing Barry back to life at all was a mistake, he is just as iconic to more recent comic fans as Wally was to the generation before them. By keeping both characters alive, but having Wally West helm the main Flash book, DC is finally letting one of their most interesting characters have his moment in the sun.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/flash-wally-west-main-infinite-frontier-dc-comics/

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