Issue 37: Superhero Information Initiative
By The Rambler

The Dark Flash: Idealistic Hero

Flash: Wally West, First Appearance: Flash V.1 #110 (Kid Flash) January 1960

So we’ve seen that college students and police scientists enjoy reading their comics for relaxing from work. However, this one is more true to form. Wally was a kid, like most kids, with a wild imagination and dreams to follow. He read the Flash and heard about him on the news. His room was full of childish drawings and writings about the Flash. He needed a hero, especially when his father was abusive and a scam artist. Rudolph West, Wally’s father, constantly crushed Wally’s dreams of being great.

This all changed when Wally visited his Aunt, Iris West, and her boyfriend, Barry Allen. Barry took Wally to his lab at the Police station, and Wally incurred super speed from the same accident that gave Barry super speed (lightning and chemicals.) Wally joined Barry as Kid Flash and ran with him until Barry passed away in Crisis on Infinite Earths. Wally then assumed the role of the Flash in the legacy of Barry. As Wally was developing speed under Barry, his body began to reject the effects of the speed, and Wally had to push through the pain, running until it almost killed him from the inside out. It jumped his body to get used to speed.

Wally was cocky and brazen, bouncing from relationship to relationship, and keeping shallow friendships. He revealed his identity and made “Super Hero” a job. He moved to New York, and battled Velocity 9, (Vandal Savage’s Speed drug), on the streets. Winning the lottery, he moved into a mansion and continued his big lifestyle. Eventually, Wally lost his speed out of fear of using it. Friends Tina and Jerry McGee doused Wally in chemicals and recharged him with lightning, causing him to speed across the nation, destroying everything in his path. The cost of damages destroyed Wally’s wealth, and he moved to Keystone City to be the Flash.

It is here that his character changes from arrogant to noble. Wally constantly strives to be like Barry, taking the weight of everyone in Keystone on his shoulders. He continually runs to stop all bad things, but fails when he does not check a fire and a woman is scarred in it. It is here that Wally’s nobility shines, for he forces himself faster and faster, until Max Mercury catches him and teaches him that he can’t be everywhere at once.

Key to Wally is his relationship with Linda Park, (reporter), and his connection to the speed force, (the plain of energy that gives speed.) Many times, Wally is forced to run so fast that he is absorbed into the speed force, but his love for Linda grounds him back to earth every time. They finally get married, and begin to start a family. However, a friend, Hunter Zolomon, loses his ability to walk, and pleads for Wally to go back in time and change it. When Wally refuses, Hunter tries to take the Cosmic Treadmill back to fix it, and it explodes, fusing Hunter with the ability to use time as speed. He assumes the mantle of Zoom and desires to teach Wally to be a better hero. In the fight, he causes Linda to have a miscarriage. After Wally defeats Zoom, The Specter comes to him and grants him his wish to erase his identity. Thus, Wally must relearn who he is and teach his family to accept it, especially after they blamed the miscarriage on the Flash. In another fight with Zoom, Wally is forced to re-watch, over and over, Zoom killing the future kids of the Flash. In an attempt to stop the present Zoom from tampering with the past, Wally trips him and causes the past Zoom to mess up. Immediately Wally is transported back to the present, Linda goes into labor and they have twins, (Jai and Iris).

Later, Wally sacrifices himself to the speed force with Linda and the children, forcing Superboy Prime into the force, and saving the world from him in Infinite Crisis. Only recently has Wally returned and taken the mantle of Flash again, with his wife and children.

The unique thing about Wally was that he befriended his enemies and helped them reform. The Pied Piper, Hartley Rathaway, became his best friend. This backfired many times as the Rogues thought that Flash was using them, or belittling them. So the rogues reformed late in Wally’s career.

The struggle with legacy made Wally a more noble hero than Barry, and a more real human than most masked heroes. He taught grace to enemies and love to friends. Wally truly is the Idealistic Hero.

Wally’s unique powers: He can run so fast he can pass through time, lending and taking speed away from objects and people, fast healing, and a direct channeling of the Speedforce. He seems to be an Avatar of the Speedforce on earth.