DC Needs To Revive The Flash’s Best Legacy Era

Within the hallowed halls of the Justice League Watchtower, the best heroes of the DC Universe stroll the halls. Amongst them is Flash, the Quickest Man Alive. Nowadays, the person in crimson and yellow is Wally West, the one-time sidekick turned superhero statesman.

Wally is the third particular person to fill the function of the Scarlet Speedster. Earlier than him got here Barry Allen and Jay Garrick. These three males have saved the Flash legacy alive for nearly 90 years. However what was as soon as the story of a legacy hero passing the torch every technology has stalled over the past 20 years.

Now, greater than ever, it’s time for the present Flash to cross the baton and let a brand new technology take over.

Why The Legacy Of The Flash Issues

Arriving at the beginning of the Golden Age, Jay Garrick shortly turned a premier character. A school pupil who gained his powers in a lab accident, Jay helped discovered the primary superhero group in historical past, the Justice Society of America, and was the primary hero to repeatedly seem in three comics at a time (Flash Comics, All-Flash Comics, and All Star Comics).

Together with his silver kettle helmet and shiny crimson shirt with a big yellow lightning bolt, Flash immediately captured the imaginations of youngsters and troopers preventing WWII. However, as with most superheroes, Jay Garrick light away on the finish of the Nineteen Forties, seemingly tossed into the dustbin by no means to be seen once more.

Then, in 1956, lightning struck once more when Police Scientist Barry Allen turned the second Flash and birthed the Silver Age of comics. Initially, Barry took on the id of Flash as a strategy to honor his favourite comedian ebook superhero, Jay Garrick.

In time, Barry would study that Jay was actual and residing on Earth-Two together with the opposite members of the JSA. Jay, semi-retired from the superhero enterprise, was pleased to see his legacy residing on. Three years later, Barry would get a sidekick within the type of Child Flash.

Wally West, president of the Blue Valley, Nebraska Flash Fan Membership, would achieve the reward of velocity and run alongside his hero for years. When Barry died saving the multiverse in 1985’s Disaster on Infinite Earths, Wally picked up the mantle. With just a few breaks right here and there, Wally has basically been the face of the Flash for 40 years.

Every of those heroes represents a technology of readers. Jay Garrick was a part of the Best Era, fixing issues with grit and an actual can-do angle. Barry Allen was a hero for the Child Boomers, dealing with off in opposition to science-based villains and aliens. And, over time, Wally West turned DC’s Reaganite/Gen X hero, going as far as to be each super-rich after profitable the lottery to residing within the slums after he went bankrupt.

Three generations of readers had their very own private Flash, every with distinct personalities and struggles. It was a part of what made the Flash such an attention-grabbing character in a world the place Superman, Batman, and lots of the different heroes by no means appeared to age or change all that a lot. Flash moved with the instances.

And that’s precisely why a brand new character must tackle the mantle.

A New Flash Is Wanted For At the moment’s World

As somebody who has grown up with the character, I really like watching Wally West go from a cocky, misogynistic 20-something to a married man with three youngsters, a canine, and a home with a white picket fence. However that is my Flash, and immediately’s youthful readers deserve a Flash who experiences the world the best way they do. One which connects to the previous, however results in the long run, similar to Barry and Wally did.

This doesn’t suggest that the opposite Flashes have to run off into the sundown. Identical to now, they need to be round, however they should not be the main target. As a substitute, a personality coming in with a recent begin can deliver the legacy of the Scarlet Speedster to new heights.

Superhero comics are, and at all times can be, episodic in nature. The previous informs the long run, and the worlds of those books increase with every new story. However sooner or later, that enlargement can turn out to be too huge for somebody new. Go to any comics subreddit, and you will see the identical query over and over: the place do I begin with CHARACTER X?

A brand new Flash may make answering that query fairly simple. It acts as a real marker for brand spanking new readers to return in and check the waters. And, for the readers who wish to know the total legacy, that choice is at all times there. The outdated tales will reside on in back-issue bins, commerce paperbacks, and on DC Universe Infinite.

Who Ought to Be The New Flash?

Bart Allen, Barry Allen’s grandson from the long run, might look like the right option to turn out to be the brand new Flash, however the actuality is that this may be a really unhealthy thought. Created by Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo, the teenager hero with a severe case of ADHD was by no means speculated to turn out to be Flash.

In an interview for 2008’s The Flash Companion, written by Keith Dallas, Waid defined how he felt about DC’s try and make Bart the brand new Flash in 2006:

…we (Waid, author Geoff Johns, and editor Steve Wacker) all fought the nice combat, realizing past any shadow of a doubt that squeezing Bart into that costume would go in opposition to completely the whole lot about that character.

Some might wish to see Jesse Fast tackle the mantle. However that might be disrespectful to Jesse’s personal legacy because the little one of Johnny Fast and Liberty Belle.

And, in fact, there are Wally West’s youngsters, Iris and Jai. If a member of the West clan had been to take up the mantle, Iris could be the apparent selection. She likes being a hero and has superspeed, whereas her brother would relatively reside a standard life. Additionally, the West youngsters are nonetheless, in reality, youngsters (with child Wade being the youngest of them), and it will be good in the event that they did not should undergo a Jon Kent situation to turn out to be grownup heroes.

Wallace West, a personality created to exchange Wally throughout DC’s New 52 period, might be a superb selection. He hasn’t had a lot time within the highlight, however his journey as Child Flash has been an attention-grabbing one. The issue right here is that Wallace’s title is so much like Wally’s that it might be complicated (to not point out attempting to clarify New 52 and Rebirth to new readers).

Avery Ho is another choice. The Flash of China, Avery would not have an excessive amount of of a previous for brand spanking new readers to take care of. A author may create her supporting forged and construct an entire new period for the Scarlet Speedster.

Or DC may take an enormous probability and introduce a very new character to turn out to be Flash. They did it with Barry Allen, and it launched the Silver Age. Possibly what superhero comics want immediately is that very same jolt of electrical energy (blended with a shelf of chemical compounds) to kick issues into the subsequent period. Absolute Flash is a perfect example of this. Whereas the hero in that ebook is known as Wally West, he’s nothing just like the Wally in DC’s prime books. He is a child, he is a military brat, and he is on the run with a pet monkey. And, maybe most significantly, he has readers excited about Flash in a means they have not been in years.

The observe is evident. The beginning pistol is loaded. All DC must do is pull the set off and let a brand new Flash begin their race.