Barry Allen. Without him superheroes wouldn't have survived for much longer, DC wouldn't have made other revivals of Golden Age characters that we have come to love (Hal Jordan, Ray Palmer, Black Canary, Hawkman, Red Tornado, etc.), we wouldn't have the Justice League, we wouldn't have the Marvel universe (since Fantastic Four was created as a response to the JL), we wouldn't have had Wally West, he saved the entire DCU, he introduced us to Earth 2, he started every era of comics accept for the Golden Age (Silver Age with his first appearance, the old DCU with his death in Crisis on Infinite Earths, Flashpoint with New 52), he is one of the only heroes to be truly optimistic.
@crazyscarecrow: minor correction, Hal wasn't a Golden age character, he was created in the Silver Age, it was Allan Scott who was the golden age GL. Did you mean Silver Age in this context (as from memory the other characters you mentioned were SA too).
Also, Stan Lee's introduction for the JL/Avengers cross over states the Avengers was created in response to the JL... I haven't heard anything before about the FF being part of it too (not saying you're wrong, just that would make it two series inspired by JL then).
Barry was more influential to the comic world, but Wally was the first one I was introduced to. Barry always has a great moral standard and I love how you see his influence on Wally. Wally tends to be a bit funnier and you see him go through a wider range of character development.
Not to mention that Wally saves the day in some of my favorite story lines (JLU:Cadmus Arc and Flash:Stop Motion). I love them both, but Wally is my favorite.
Barry Allen. Without him superheroes wouldn't have survived for much longer, DC wouldn't have made other revivals of Golden Age characters that we have come to love (Hal Jordan, Ray Palmer, Black Canary, Hawkman, Red Tornado, etc.), we wouldn't have the Justice League, we wouldn't have the Marvel universe (since Fantastic Four was created as a response to the JL), we wouldn't have had Wally West, he saved the entire DCU, he introduced us to Earth 2, he started every era of comics accept for the Golden Age (Silver Age with his first appearance, the old DCU with his death in Crisis on Infinite Earths, Flashpoint with New 52), he is one of the only heroes to be truly optimistic.
That's all you need to make this argument invalid. :-)
But really,
Barry's awesome and is what a true Super-Hero should be molded from. But I grew up on Wally and think he has a more "human" personality (Barry's too golden/Wally has flaws) so I go Wally.
I get where you are coming from. I got into Flash a couple months ago with the New 52 so Barry has been my Flash. I even started buying some old Silver Age comics so I could read more of his adventures. I have been loving them!
I like Wally as well I just see him as more of Kid Flash than THE Flash mainly because most of the Wally comics I have read were the New Teen Titans stuff with him in it.
@wishiwassuperman: By revival I meant bringing back the character name, but with a different type of feel to the character.
There has been numerable resources and even in the JL: New Frontier documentary Stan Lee stated the Fantastic Four were created in response to the Justice League. Apparently to of the editors of Martin Goodman (owner of Marvel) and one of the DC editors were golfing and Martin heard how successful the Justice League and all the superhero comics were doing for DC so he got Stan Lee and Kirby to create a new superhero team and what came out of it was the Fantastic Four and soon later the entire Marvel universe. Justice League probably also inspired the Avengers as well.
@wishiwassuperman: By revival I meant bringing back the character name, but with a different type of feel to the character.
There has been numerable resources and even in the JL: New Frontier documentary Stan Lee stated the Fantastic Four were created in response to the Justice League. Apparently to of the editors of Martin Goodman (owner of Marvel) and one of the DC editors were golfing and Martin heard how successful the Justice League and all the superhero comics were doing for DC so he got Stan Lee and Kirby to create a new superhero team and what came out of it was the Fantastic Four and soon later the entire Marvel universe. Justice League probably also inspired the Avengers as well.
Ahh yes - I see. That makes more sense to me now - such as Barry being the revived Flash (as opposed to Jay Garrick). Now I'm with ya'
And yes - you are correct about the Fantastic Four - my memory wasn't right there at all. It WAS in the opening for Avengers/JL crossover, but yes - I just went back (as the golf story was what I remembered, so of course I had to double-check at that point) and it was Fantastic Four - I think I just remembered it as Avengers since it was an Avengers comic. I stand corrected.
Barry Allen, by far!! He's my 3rd favorite comic book character... I don't hate Wally, but I hate what the writers did with him. The Infinite Mass Punch is one of the reason why I dislike Wally. Flash is supposed to be the fastest man alive, right? Everybody knows that, but then, they also made him the strongest man alive?? That sucked, they almost ruined the character for me... It also raised a question: why doesn't he always do that to the more powerful villains? I believe there is only one comic where he does it... Second thing why I dislike Wally is the "speed steal" thing. At first, it was kinda cool, but then it just went out of control when he could turn people into statues. It didn't make any sense, again, why doesn't he always do that to all his villains??? At this point, Wally just became such a broken character that I didn't like him. The New 52 Flash is awesome, and not only because it's Barry, but so far, they have managed to keep the character in balance. He's still VERY powerful, but not a god.
Barry he is the reason i started reading The Flash in the first place he tries to resolve the conflicts without much punching he's really a guy who tries to know how control his powers. As much i love Wally he is allways gonna be my second option
Wally West. He had a great supporting cast, I loved seeing him learn about his powers and grow to surpass his mentor, and I also enjoy his personality more.
Wally West is the best. Yes Barry is a great character but he just doesnt interest me. Wally changed how people look at speedsters.
I know its part of the animated series but at the death of Wally the Justice League become evil. I stopped reading the flash comic when they brought Barry back and changed Wally's outfit.
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