Ok, so we're a little way on from the latest Flash swap and I'm kinda struggling to see what the point was. Unlike a lot of people I wasn't that fussed about the messy way in which Wally West got crowbared back into continuity. The third Flash's own demise had been seriously botched right from the start and served no purpose other than confusing the Flash line and relieving the JLA of one of it's more important characters; if killing off Bart Allen meant getting Wally back then it seemed like a fair trade to me. After all, Bart will probably be back in a couple of years and perhaps by then the dumb artifical aging storyline will have been layed to rest.
However, a year or so on from the switch I'm still non the wiser as to why DC bothered. Since returning to life in the pages of the Justice League, Wally has yet to appear in a single issue in any significant capacity. This is partly to do with the League's rosta getting bloated by writer switches, but even with the extra numbers the reason for sidelining an A-lister like Flash is baffaling. How does an editor look at a script and say "another one about Vixen not explaining her new powers? That's money in the bank!" As for Wally's own title, I can't say it's on my list but the reactions from critics appear to have been unanamously underwhelming.
This to me smacks of the wider problems at DC. I love books about minor charactors and I love seeing a sidekick step up to the plate, but ultimatly there is a reason that some ideas have been popular for so long. Marvel have had a bumper season as of late in terms of graduating obscure characters to the forfront, but this is because they've worked at it and made it feel like a natural progression for the characters. DC's attempts to follow suit have just consisted of jamming unheard of characters to the front of the stage and demanding the reader care about them. The result of such a haphazard approach is that proven characters like The Flash (or Martian Manhunter, or Kyle Rayner) have found themselves totally sidelined from the books that they could be doing the most good in.
I guess I've deviated a little here, but the key point stands: The golden rule of comic ressurections is that they're fine so long as they're well written and serve a purpose. Right now I can't see how Wally's fits either of those.
Thoughts?
Xeall
he was worth taking because the death of bart allen has treated us to Rascals comedy rage. He would tell you its not comedy but we all know the truth.
This is one of the reasons i don't read DC, you never hear anyone say 'WOW did you read this' anymore. All you hear is disapointment from fans that hold onto DC hoping it will stop flatlining. I can understand that to, damn OMD.......
Robin The Boy Wonder
Sometimes I get the impression that DC struggle to see beyond their 'Big Three' - Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. The fact that their next weekly, Trinity, focusses on these three characters appears to be another example of the fact.
Final Crisis will probably prove the same also. Infinite Crisis began and ended with Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. Stories simply can't end without one of these three, if not all, saving the universe as we know it.
This is in stark contrast to Marvel where Civil War prominently featured Captain America and Iron Man; two characters who had never previously enjoyed the same notoriety as Spider-Man and The X-Men. The latter have always proven to be huge money-spinners for Marvel (1996's Onslaught storyline had The X-Men at the very heart of it); however, they were barely featured for Civil War. Spider-Man's story was interesting; however, never provided the means to the end.
Same applies to World War Hulk. The Hulk is one of Marvel's iconic characters; however, has never been a big-seller in the same way as his other superhuman brethren.
Same should also apply to Secret Invasion - a story that will be Avengers-driven and likely showcase Iron Man and Luke Cage.
DC would never do this.
Their Civil War could have showcased Green Lanter and Green Arrow; yet it would have been Superman saving the day, likely on the steps of the White House defeating another impossible villain while The Flash died.
Their World War Hulk could have showcased the return of The Atom; however, Batman would ultimately have saved everyone's lives from an alien invasion by unstrapping his utility belt and using it to contact the demons from the Netherworld while The Flash died.
Their Secret Invasion would see the Justice Society revealed to be Joker-deformed victims - yet Wonder Woman, ably assisted by Superman and Batman, would save the day while The Flash died.
My point is that they forget they have some fantastic characters they could spotlight upon; however, it always defers to Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman before story's end.
Why not focus on Nightwing; a character who, in my opinion, is far more interesting than his one-time mentor? Booster Gold? Hell, I found Blue Beetle fascinating before his untimely death in Countdown.
My thoughts on the subject.
Seriously, this thread could almost be renamed 'The Problems with DC'.
The Rascal King
You're doing this just to piss me off, aren't you?
We're nearing Final Crisis, and everyone knows my views on a Crisis's.
Something fucks with the Flash.
Crisis on Infinite Earths? Supergirl died. Big woop. She's back.
Barry Allen died saving the UNIVERSE. Hero. Fans would be more pissed off now if they bought him back. Yes, he's been back a few times in various pages of various Flash's (Chain Lightning and whatnot), but only because of his tricksy time-hopping habbits.
Next.
Zero Hour. Beforehand, then Kid Flash (Wally) took up his mentor's mantle, and became the Flash. Skip to ZH, and Wally breaks Lightspeed, and ran into the Speedforce. Almost didn't come back. He did, and that was good. Yay Wally.
Then we skip forward a few more years. We get Impulse. He runs around, and decidedly doesn't become Kid Flash, nor a sidekick to the Flash in any major sense, aside from sharing his powers.
He is entirely his own creation, a hyperactive speedster, with little/no sense of his own well being. He was great.
Unlike other teens at the time (Wondergirl, Superboy, Robin) he wasn't intended to be a cheap knockoff of someone else. Wondergirl, retroactively changed to be Zues' daughter, Robin is RObin 3, and Superboy is Supe's clone. Nothing new there. Same basic premise as others.
Flash forward (sorry), and we get Young Justice, a great title. Not a Teen Titans in anyway, its their own book.
Then again, and they do become the Titans.
Then we get Deathstroke kneecapping Bart. What does Bart do? I don't know why, but for some reason he becomes Kid Flash.
I think alot of his fans saw this as the beginning of the end.
Then came the Infinite Crisis.
Oh shit. Flash's and Crisis's don't have a good history.
We have Superboy-Prime going ballistic on Superboy here. Superboy then gets ALL the Titans and heroes to help him out, beucase hes a chump who can't do anything. The Flashes take it from here. We get Jay falling behind early, because he's old (and because nobody fucks with the Golden Age Heroes).
Then Wally disappears in a lightning bolt with Linda and the Twins.
Then Bart, on his own, powers Superboy Prime into the Speed Force, taking him out of action for a good while.
Blank.
Prime comes back, with a Flash on his trail. We find out that they've been gone for 4 years, personal time, and its now Bart in the Flash uniform, and is now essentialy powerless.
Then Prime rampages, and kills Superboy. Everybody morns.
Meanwhile, the world is down 2 Flashes, with an entire powersource gone. And nobody seems to give a shit.
The Flash returns, as Bart, for 13 issues?! He was the Flash for what, a year? And then he's gone. And for one of Robins supposedly "Closest friends" he's still bitching about Superboy.
Hell, we get him changing his costume, to red and black. Why? "They were [Superboys] colours."
I don't see any fucking red and yellow on anyone to morn Bart. No, instead we get some piss weak Legion story (seriously, the Legion of Superheroes?! Did I miss a memo where they mattered?), where they bring Wally back, the same week that Bart is killed. One story dealing with it, and then thats it. Off playing about with his fucking kids. Excuse me while I don't give a shit.
Now we've got a new Crisis coming up, and I'm wondering how DC are going to honour the legacy of fucking with the Flash. From the Lightning Saga, it seems that we've got someone else back, who's not Wally.
Seeing as Bart was depowered when he was (brutally) beaten to death by 4 supers (the consequences of which were WHAT?!), its not him.
The popular theory is that its Barry. Seeing as he was known to have turned back into the lightning bolt that struck him years ago, when he destroyed the Anti Monitors cannon in Crisis on Infinite Earths, it could be him.
But if DC fuck with that, fans will be pissed.
THey don't know when to not fuck with something, and don't know when to leave stuff well enough alone.
Bart was never given time to grow as a character, though it was repeatedly stated that he wasn't just the fastest man alive, but the fastest man who ever lived, being that he containted the Speed Force, not drew from it. There could have been years worth of stories there, but no. He's killed off, so we can have Wally and 2 twatty kids back.
There are reasons I've sworn of DC.
Reaper
I started reading Rascals synopsis of various flash bits and zoned after the first two paragraphs, through no fault on Rascals writing but due to the bloatedness of it all.
Robin The Boy Wonder
All jesting aside, Rascal has made several very valid points in his post.
For Bart Allen to become The Flash, DC needed to make him a very viable candidate to be The Flash to its readers; a true hero in every sense of the word and not just the guy who used to be Impulse and Kid Flash.
They did this in Infinite Crisis.
Now, I suspect the original plan was to have Bart be a long-term Flash with Wally West joining Barry Allen in the ex-Flash stakes. However, Dan Didio panicked after seeing the reaction from DC fanboys who, basically, were very pissed off that Wally had died.
Y'see, Wally was very well characterised and, when handled properly (Geoff Johns comes to mind; Mark Waid too), The Flash is an excellent title featuring a character who is not Superman, Batman or Wonder Woman. He developed a very loyal fanbase over the twenty year period in which he served as The Flash.
Then DC killed him.
Didio's answer to this was a hackneyed storyline in Justice League of America (Didio hasn't even the confidence to tell the story in Flash itself) to bring back Wally West after callously killing off Bart Allen. Sure, we all joke about it on the website at Rascal's expense but, and let's be honest here folks, it was one of the shiitiest things DC has ever done. They didn't have the balls to actually develop the character of Bart Allen, despite the initial reaction to Wally's death, as The Flash for the modern era.
Now I don't know if Grant Morrison is going to do anything with The Flash in Final Crisis; however, there have been several rumblings at DC suggesting that there is a very real movement behind the scenes to bring back Barry Allen.
My guess...? There soon will be a 'new' Flash...
The Rascal King
Robin The Boy Wonder wrote:
My guess...? There soon will be a 'new' Flash...
If they bring back Barry... well. Nobody will be happy.
He's been dead for what, 20 or so years now? He died a heros death, so its not like bringing Hal Jordan back. People were pissed that he died at the beginning, but now everyone's just accepted it.
There's no reason to bring him back.
As for Barts progression from Impulse to Kid Flash, to Flash and then death. Well, there was no need for it, and it was compleatly rushed.
Wally was Kid Flash for years before he became the Flash after Crisis on Infinite Earths. He ran with the Titans, (twice) and with Barry in his own book.
Bart was Impulse for years, in his own book, and in Young Justice. There was no need for him to change so severly. He had a number of character defining moments, but nothing that needed to change him that much. Then suddenly, they're in the Titans. For about 6 months, then some nonsense with Deathstroke and Jericho who for some reason was bought back, and then we have Kid Flash. Unessercary.
Then, after.. what, a year? 2 at tops? Hes thrust into the Crisis, and comes back the Flash.
Then he gets a year of being the Flash, and thats all she wrote.
Ok, Wikipedia dates. He goes damm near 10 years of being Impluse, before becoming Kid Flash. Of that he gets then 3 years of being Kid Flash, before one year of being the Flash.
Fucking rediculous.
All of the patterns for Crisis's point to Crisis-> New Flash. How well its handeled...
Well, lets just say they don't have a good track record so far, and have nobody to step up to the plate now.
