I'm sure this has been said before but how is this kid in anyway Wally West? A character is more than just a name. They are a personality, a set of experiences that make them who they are. When people were upset that WW wasn't included in the N52 it was because of more than his goddamn name! We wanted the character we had been reading for years and in some people’s cases, decades. The character that rose through the ranks to become one of the companies premiere heroes. Who proved himself as the Flash in more ways than Barry Allen ever did!

I (we?) would understand (not be happy about) if some of that had to be wiped away, like in the case of the Robins. Maybe even understand if they rewound time and made him KF again but when they chose Bart for KF they deliberately overlooked Wally for a lesser character who had proven he couldn't be the Flash and who was a much less popular character (I still don't understand the logic in this decision.) but we were told that Wally would be back at some point so we were still moderately hopeful. Then they introduce this new "Wally" and they expected us to take it in any other way than them spitting in our faces? They bring back a name and act like we should somehow be appeased. I am so sick and tired of the idiotic decisions the top brass of the big 2 have been making. Can we please stop pretending that DC comics are anything other than fan fiction at this point? 90% poorly written fan-fiction. Each company has what?... 2-3 critically acclaimed series on the go at a time?! (To be fair, Marvel are doing significantly better in that regard. However, all their gimmicks and stunt deaths almost completely cancel that out) How is that anywhere near acceptable? This shit aint free you know.

If they just made this kid a new character then he wouldn’t have so much negative feeling toward him and he might have had a chance. As it stands he was doomed from the word go.

I almost entirely blame Geoff Johns for sending DC into full on fan fiction mode. He just wants to write stories about characters he was reading when he was young. That and the fact he is a terrible writer. I wouldn’t be surprised if all his stories came from an “idea” journal he wrote when he was 14. Hell, his entire GL run was just expanding on (stealing) Ideas Alan Moore had in a GL short story. His Justice League is laughable but that’s a post for another day.

Aquaman eats fish and cries like a little girl when people are mean to him in a restaurant. Isn’t he such a badass now? Idiots

Ehhh, Geoff Johns was reading Wally West comics when he was young. I agree that the New 52 Wally West isn't very good nor even mildly reminiscent of the old Wally. Barry was dead when Johns was 14. (Barry died in 1985, Johns was 12 at the time).

They had Bart (Or Bar Torr, really) instead of Wally because they were legitimately afraid that if Wally was there from the beginning people would be expecting and asking for Barry's death for the want of Wally to replace him. The idea was put Wally on the backburner so all of his fans would get over it and Barry could be established with new readers. And it worked magnificently, there is almost no more groundswell for Wally like there used to be 3-5 years ago.

Geoff Johns most certainly isn't the only one to blame. During the lead up and into the printing of Flash Rebirth he was promising, and presumably hoping for, a Flash Family book with Wally at the center. Now, he obviously ended up lying to us for about 2 years and some of the blame definitely falls on him for it, but the majority of the blame should be Ethan Van Sciver's (for being the one to push Barry's return, which more or less was the final nail in the coffin for Wally as an important or relevant character in DC) or Editorial's (mainly Didio's since he's the one who signed off on and pushed the way The Flash title has progressed, and was the one who told Manapul and Buccaletto that they were not allowed to even show Wally West). I'm still pretty bitter about Johns legitimately lying to me and many other Wally fans for so long but it's not fair to put ALL of the blame on his shoulders. Like most things, it started and ended with editorial.

I understand and agree with your problems with Wally's character and your frustration with how he was dealt with. I don't even think Fan Fiction is the right term. Fan Fiction implies you read the previous series and are trying to insert your ideals into it. Venditti never read a Flash comic before picking up the title. DC probably just told him "You're bringing back Wally West. He's a 12 year old black kid and becomes Kid Flash at some point" and he got saddled with including the character in his story. Which shows enormously -- beyond the first arc where he was forced to interject Wally into the story -- Wally hasn't been relevant at all. He literally has not even been in the comic for half a year and had one brief appearance over about 3 pages since the second arc even started.

DC doesn't really care about him because he's not popular enough to cause them sales problems. Plain and simple.

@dredeuced: You think there's a chance they might keep old school Wally after Convergence? It would be an excuse and the best of both worlds. Although Wally probably wouldn't be to happy with losing the entire Flash family and his wider universe.

No. It would be incredibly complicated to justify old Wally and I don't think they want to risk the possibility of backlash by replacing a newly race swapped black character with his older, white version. They did the race swap for a reason and I doubt they're backing out of it now.

@dredeuced: I suppose you're right. So you don't think any of the previous universe characters will make the jump? I get that it would complicate things, especially this early on but isn't that exactly what the event itself is doing? As well as Earth 2, Helena Wayne and Helena Bertinelli, Power Girl, Futures End, retcons after only 3+ years etc.? I doubt they are thinking of what complicates things rather than "what sounds good this very second?".

AD/DC. lol.

The event is a crapshoot filler event to mask their offices moving to LA. They hired out most of the stuff to people who weren't working on anything for DC so it wouldn't affect the core writers/artists they have moving. Earth 2 is probably going to be the only one that's majorly different after convergence because it was actually tied in so there's probably an expectant effect. They're not gonna suddenly lump characters like Pre-Flashpoint Wally West into their universe, especially when the only Flash they want is Barry Allen. They've made it abundantly, painfully clear they do not want Wally West as The Flash and I don't know why they would've changed their minds sense -- they do not care about the character and are not going to do anything with the character, probably forever.

@dredeuced said:

That makes me nauseous.

To tell the truth I have always been more of a Marvel guy and when I read my first DC comic I felt like I was cheating. It was vol 1 of Morrison's JLA run at my local library. My favorites were immediately Wally and Kyle. so much so that I did a lot of research, (which wasn't easy back then. why is it that I'm still a few years from 30 and I feel like a damn pensioner?) broke it to Marvel it was now an open relationship and bought and read every back issue I could find with them in it. solo series mostly but but I got a lot of Teen Titans too which introduced me to Dick. (hehe lol) I kept at it over the years until now my collection of Dick and Wally (Not so much with Kyle as I lost a bit of interest in him over the years) trades & floppies is pretty immense (only my X-men collection is bigger). I absolutely love those characters and still re-read those stories regularly.

I was gutted when I found out he wasn't continuing into the n52. It died down for a while but I was re-reading them recently and I was reminded again.

So now out of thousands of possibilities my 2 favorite characters in all of comicdom are Wally and the Richard Rider version of Nova. Neither of which seem likely to return in the near future if at all. Not counting Speed Force which seems to only exist to Kick me in the teeth. I suppose I should be grateful for anything I can get.

I have no idea why I told you all that. You must have drawn the short straw to become my shoulder to cry on. Sorry.

Farewell Wally West you glorious bastard.