Who is Wally West?

- by Steve Garcia, 17 January 2014

Ever since the character inexplicably left the world of comics, fans have been clamoring for his return nonstop. Finally, this April, the one and only hero will re-don the red spandex in the return of the century! Often called one of the best superheroes of all time, I’m not talking about Peter Parker-- I’m of course talking about Wally West! But just who is Wally, and why should you care about him? Let me learn ya something, Trash Muties! WHO IS WALLY WEST?!

All images here are © DC Comics.

Created by John Broome and the recently passed Carmine Infantino in 1959, Wally West is the nephew of Barry Allen, the current and second character to call himself “The Flash.” In an absurdly ironic twist of fate, the young Wally West obtained his incredible super speed while visiting his Uncle Barry’s lab after being struck by lightning and dowsed with the exact same chemicals that made Barry the Flash. 

Wally West. Born to run. (Click to enlarge)

Because this was around the time where just about every major superhero had a kid sidekick, it was only natural that the young character would fight alongside his uncle as Kid Flash. Mentored by Barry himself, Wally went on to fight alongside the original Teen Titans in 1964, which were made up of other popular sidekicks at the time: Robin (Dick Grayson), Aqualad (Garth), Wonder Girl (Donna Troy), and Speedy (Roy Harper). It was during this time that Wally was diagnosed with a unique disease: the more he used his super speed, the faster his body would perish.

In the 1986 crossover event, Crisis on Infinite Earths, the story met its unfortunate end as Barry Allen sacrificed himself to save the earth from being destroyed by an antimatter cannon planted by the Anti-Monitor. 

Unbeknownst to Wally, he and a group of heroes lead by Jay Garrick (the original Flash) engaged the Anti-Monitor in combat. During the fight, Wally was struck by a blast of antimatter energy, which corrected his power set and cured his disease. Upon learning of his mentor’s sacrifice, Wally would pick up the mantle and become the next Flash. Because Wally was still a young hero, he could not run quite as fast as his uncle, and had to intake a surplus of calories to satisfy his super speedy metabolism. 

At this point in time of the character’s history, it appeared that DC didn’t know exactly what they wanted to do with him. In his 1987 series, Wally won the lottery and the series focused on his life as a playboy. It didn’t last forever, as this dream ended 62 issues in. During the early 1990’s, a fight with Flash’s arguable arch-nemesis, Professor Zoom (Reverse-Flash), resulted in the shattering of a mental block which allowed Wally to not only surpass Barry in speed, but add a plethora of new abilities which included super healing (to both himself and others), sharing and robbing speed to and from his adversaries, and adding an extra punch to his attacks with a kinetic upgrade.
 
Wally’s power set grew even more extensively in 1992, when Mark Waid took over the title. Waid revived the idea of the Speed Force, gave Wally back his ability to phase through solid objects via vibrating his molecules, and now he could even create his costume on the fly out of Speed Force energy. The Flash was now the most powerful he had ever been. 

Flash vs modern Zoom.

The late 1990’s made Wally a member of Grant Morrison’s Justice League of America, where he became fast friends with Earth’s newest Green Lantern at the time, Kyle Rayner. Flash was also sued for not saving a woman who fell out of a burning building around this time, which pressured the character to remain active at all times. In the 2000’s, Geoff Johns took over the title and reintroduced a new Reverse-Flash in Zoom, as well as a new and improved Rogues (a villainous team notorious for making Flash’s life hell).
 

Wally as he appeared in "Justice League".

With all the bad, there were a few a silver linings. For one thing, he was a prominent member in Bruce Timm’s Justice League cartoon where he was voiced by Michael Rosenbaum.

Wally and Linda

Another positive was that Wally finally married his longtime love interest in the comics, Linda Park. Soon after his marriage, Wally and his wife moved to an alternate reality, where Bart Allen, the fourth Flash, took Wally’s place for the time being. Once Wally returned, he not only aged a few years, but had twins: Jai and Iris West. Because of the unstable Speed Force, the super twins had the physical appearance of eight-year-olds, but in reality, were only just a year-old. To cope with this, Wally was forced to teach them at super speed, catching their baby brains up to speed.

In 2009, Grant Morrison’s Final Crisis brought Barry Allen back to life, and the Flash franchise quickly took focus back to Barry, as Wally would continue to raise his family in the background. 

Unfortunately for Wally, The New 52 reboot at this time left the character in a state of purgatory, as he was not included or mentioned in any of the titles. The only time Wally saw any action in the 2010’s was in the short-lived Young Justice cartoon, which revisited his early days as Kid Flash. Finally though, in April 2014, Wally is set to return to the comics in The Flash Annual #3. 

Wally West, along with characters such as Dick Grayson, Kyle Rayner, Johnny Storm, Peter Parker, and Kitty Pryde, are notorious for being the few characters who were actually allowed to “grow up” and achieve greater goals for themselves, rather than just being teenagers forever. We’re unsure just how his comeback will be explained, whether or not he’ll be the same Wally we remember from the pre-Flashpoint reboot, or even how big of a role he’ll play in any of the current titles (let alone The Flash), but one thing we do know for sure is that we missed the character, and can’t be more excited for his return. Welcome back, Wally!

Is this the New 52 Wally?

So! Wally or Barry? Who is your favorite Flash? Are you excited for West's return? Cautiously optimistic? Sound off in the comments!

Tagged: comics.

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