The Flash: Wally West Year 1 (1987)

[samurainoir]

So what did you guys think about Wally West when you first picked up the new Flash title with Mike Baron and Jackson Guice in 1987 following the Legends crossover and Titans appearance?

I have to admit I was completely shocked, but given that I had also just discovered Mike Baron's decidedly different MPD superhero, The Badger (as well as Nexus), I decided to roll with it, and it did end up being quite an interesting evolution for the character.

I'm reading the Flash Companion right now, and Baron's interview is quite revelatory regarding the state he was in when writing The Flash.

[Riffster]

you know I loved Wally as kid flash and in the Titans but I never really got him as the Flash, not then. I didn't like the whole having to eat tons of food etc.. I liked him in the relaunch though

[kryptosmaster]

I didn't read Barry Allen's Flash book so I was able to accept Wally as Flash very easily and I stuck with that book for quite some time. I don't recall when I dropped it but it was sometime after Impulse appeared because I know I bouight that for a few years, too.
I am a bit out of the speedster loop now and some of the stuff in the new Flash:Rebirth is confusing to me.
My favorite was always Jay Garrick anyway.

Rich

[Bionic Joe]

I loved the BADGER but i hated his take on the FLASH

[samurainoir]

I don't know if this is typical of Baron's oddball sense of humor, but in the Companion interview, he claims that he was snorting a lot of coke during the period he wrote The Flash (which he attributes to the quality or lack thereof on that run). Given how he portrayed Wally's Speed and personality, in retrospect it seems like a very plausible explanation for how Baron interpreted the powers and how Wally used them, in an oddly metaphorical sense.

At one of Warren Ellis' live chats, he talked about how his use of alcohol informs much of how he writes, as does Alan Moore and the reefer. Grant Morrison's bibliography pretty much shows you the dividing line between the time he was "Straight Edge" to when he discovered mind altering substances.

"Speed Force" with a cocaine driven subtext. Wertham was Right!

I was always quite fond of William Messner Loeb's version of Wally that followed Baron's run, still arrogant but smarting from all the hard learned lessons in that first year filled with hubris. It's funny that Barry has come back so aware of his own mortality when Wally's youth really couldn't accommodate that point of view in the earliest runs of his title.

[Earth 2 Chris]

I enjoyed it at the time, but even then, Wally's totally new characterization bothered me. Wolfman and others had established him and his family as ultra-conservatives, and Baron had him running around like a dog in heat. It was probably a more realistic take, but it was jarring.

The title didn't really shine until Waid came aboard. Loebs did some interesting stuff, but it seems kind of bland over all.

Chris

[samurainoir]

The title didn't really shine until Waid came aboard. Loebs did some interesting stuff, but it seems kind of bland over all.

Loeb's supporting characters were probably much more interesting than Wally himself. Particularly given the fact that it consisted of reformed villains like Chunk, and has-beens like Mason Trollbridge. I actually really liked the ret-conned parents, although I can't remember if that was mostly Baron or Messner-Loeb. The fact that his father was such a cad did really help add to Wally's overall motivations and probably explained a little of where he could have been heading as a selfish womanizing jerk without Barry's influence to temper him.

Waid really did kick the Heroic Journey into overdrive upon his arrival and the "Year 1" storyline that looked at Wally's childhood.

[david_b]

I enjoyed it at the time, but even then, Wally's totally new characterization bothered me. Wolfman and others had established him and his family as ultra-conservatives, and Baron had him running around like a dog in heat. It was probably a more realistic take, but it was jarring.

The title didn't really shine until Waid came aboard. Loebs did some interesting stuff, but it seems kind of bland over all.

Chris

I too loved Wally in both the vintage '60s Titans and the newer Wolfman/Perez series, and really hated to see him go. I collected the first dozen or so issues of the solo Loeb series, but I lost interest really fast. The art was alright, the extra-eating was a fun sidelight (which found itself into the short-lived series which NEEDED some good humor..), but I too didn't like the 'dog in heat', sleeping around adages..

It wasn't the Wally West I knew or much less liked..

Incidentally, I had also stopped reading the new Titan series by that time, a few issues after Perez left. I just had the overwhelming notion that the series had peaked a few years back, and just wasn't fresh anymore.

I understand Wally had grown up, and 'paid homage' to Barry in the Crisis series, but I also preferred his old Kid Flash uniform to taking on Barry's outfit.

david_b

[jds1911a1]

I was a fan almost from the Jump. I looked at the horndog wally as almost every guy I knew (I was a teenager myself at the time) and it had been a couple years since crisis #11, I needed a flash to read.

I think after a while the comic just got stale. The restoration of the JSA to the dc universe, giving Wally the chance to sidekisk with Jay was a big improvement. I really liked the Return of Barry allen story line (and if you never read that get the TPB it's worth reading

[samurainoir]

I really liked the Return of Barry allen story line (and if you never read that get the TPB it's worth reading

I loved The Twist on that storyline.

Although it was cool when Wally took on Barry's villains, I always appreciated that there was his own Rogues Gallery established. And I liked him taking on guys like Vandal Savage, and even goofier stuff like Kilg%re.

[jds1911a1]

I loved The Twist on that storyline.

Although it was cool when Wally took on Barry's villains, I always appreciated that there was his own Rogues Gallery established. And I liked him taking on guys like Vandal Savage, and even goofier stuff like Kilg%re.

me too I certainly didn't see it coming till the "I'm the flash panel". I liked Wally with his rogues too.

[samurainoir]

I was a fan almost from the Jump. I looked at the horndog wally as almost every guy I knew (I was a teenager myself at the time) and it had been a couple years since crisis #11, I needed a flash to read.

I think the horndog aspect was balanced out quite well in the Flash title itself where there is enough room for them to create a greater characterization and motivation behind Wally, but it was his appearances outside of his own title that probably was more problematic.

Given the fact that a team book like JLE needed to take "character shortcuts" with a large cast to service, and the fact that Wally's libido was played for laughs, at times he really did come off as a one note character. Although I guess if the Giffen era Justice League was a sitcom of sorts, then Wally would have been the equivalent of Joey (How You Doin')on Friends in that book.