Flash III: Wally West (original) (raw)

[[Post-Rebirth Costume - Flash: Rebirth #5]](bigimages/wally-rebirth.jpg)

Real Name: Wallace Rudolph “Wally” West
Other Aliases: Kid Flash, the Scarlet Speedster, the Fastest Man Alive
Known Relatives: Linda Park (wife), Rudolph and Mary West (parents),Iris West Allen (aunt), Barry Allen (uncle),Ira West (grandfather), Charlotte West (aunt), Edgar Rhodes (uncle), Inez Rhodes (cousin),Don and Dawn Allen (cousins),Bart Allen (cousin), Jenni Ognats (cousin),Iris (daughter), Jai (son)
Past Group Affiliations: Titans (founding member), Justice League
Base of Operations: Keystone City, Kansas
Hometown: Blue Valley, Nebraska
Past Occupation: Mechanic for the KCPD
Hair: Red
Eyes: Green*
First Appearance: (as Kid Flash) Flash (first series) #110, December 1959–January 1960; (as Flash) Crisis on Infinite Earths #12, March 1986
Origin: 10–15 years ago (1 year after Barry)
Identity: Secret during career as Kid Flash. Public knowledge during most of his solo career. Secret again, erased from memories and records (Flash v.2 #200, 2003).
Disappearance: Vanished in Infinite Crisis #4 (2006)
Reappearance: Justice League of America #10 & All-Flash #1 (2007)
See Also: Walter West
Flashes: Previous (Barry Allen) Next (Dark Flash)

Splattered with lightning-charged chemicals as a pre-teen, Wally West gained super-speed and became the sidekick to the second Flash, eventually succeeding him. Powered by the extradimensional Speed Force, he can not only move at near-lightspeed, but can transfer speed to and from others. He used to be able to vibrate through solid objects, but now doing so causes them to explode. Wally is the only speedster who can travel through time precisely without using external calibration (such as the Cosmic Treadmill).

For most of his solo career, his identity was known to the public. Actions by theSpectre have caused the world to forget (Ignition).

Detailed History

[[Kid Flash - New Teen Titans (1st series) 31]](bigimages/wally3.jpg)

Junior high school student Wally West, president of Blue Valley, Nebraska’s Flash Fan Club, was visiting his aunt Iris in Central City and her boyfriend Barry Allen. Barry offered to introduce Wally to the Flash—in costume, he explained to Wally the accident which gave him his powers, when suddenly it reoccurred, granting Wally the same abilities! Barry took him into his confidence, and made him his sidekick, Kid Flash. Wally was a founding member of the Teen Titans.

Unfortunately, the accident had a slightly different effect on Wally’s adolescent body. He developed a disease which would kill him if he used his speed. A blast of energy during the _Crisis on Infinite Earths_—the same war in which Barry sacrificed his life—cured Wally, but left him with a top speed roughly that of sound.

[[Updated Costume - Flash 50]](bigimages/wally2.jpg)

In honor of his mentor, Wally took the name and costume of the Flash. He went through a difficult period of emotional instability during which he used his powers irresponsibly, developed a reputation as a womanizer, and finally sought psychiatric help, As he matured—much of which he credits to his now-longstanding relationship with reporterLinda Park—and learned to fulfill his responsibility, Wally slowly developed confidence and regained his earlier speed.

[[Speed Force Costume - Flash 131]](bigimages/wally4.jpg)

Finally breaking through his mental block of replacing Barry Allen, he achieved full speed, only to find himself changing into energy. In the midst of a battle for Keystone, he sacrificed his life and his humanity to save Linda—and became the only person known to return from the other side of the speed barrier. Wally now has a direct connection to the speed force, and subconscious knowledge of new ways to use it, including the ability to lend speed to other objects and people (Terminal Velocity and aftermath: Flash #95–101, 1994–1995).

Wally now wears a costume made of concentrated speed force energy. Unable to wait for both broken legs to heal and inspired by a then-recent Justice League case, he gained enough control over the speed force to create a costume which would support him and enable him to run despite his injury (Flash #131, 1997).

[[Revised Speed Force costume - Flash 133]](bigimages/wally5.jpg)

Wally and Linda finally married, but Linda was kidnapped from the wedding by Abra Kadabraand retroactively erased from history (Flash #142, 1998). Wally’s sacrifice at the end of “Chain Lightning,” entering the Speed Force to defeat Cobalt Blue, appeared final. He was, in fact, drawn back into reality when Linda escaped her prison outside of time. Trapped alongside her in an alternate reality, battling first a blue-eyed version of himself driven over the edge by his own Linda’s death at the hands of Kobra, then Kadabra himself, he and Linda searched endless alternate realities before finally returning to their own and tricking Kadabra into reversing his spell (Flash #153–158, 1999). Restored to their own world at last, they immediately picked up where they left off, holding the wedding that afternoon.

Several months into Linda’s first pregnancy, Zoom attacked Linda to “teach” Wally about tragedy first-hand. Linda survived, but the unborn twins did not. In his grief, Wally made a deal with the Spectre to make the world forget who he was, hoping that Wally and Linda would be safe from the Flash’s enemies. What the Spectre did not tell him was that he and Linda would forget as well.

Wally and Linda have since regained their memories, though it took time for them to pick up the pieces of their their life and marriage. Miraculously, a time-travelling rematch with Zoom created a “fissure in time” that restored Linda’s pregnancy, just in time for her to give birth to twins Iris and Jai.

Crisis

When Wally, Jay and Bart attempted to trap the murderous Superboy-Prime in the speed force, he found himself being pulled out of this reality once more, though it did not seem to be the speed force pulling him. He appeared to Linda to say goodbye, but she insisted on going along with him. She, Wally, and the twins (who probably carry super-speed in their genes) all vanished together (Infinite Crisis #4, 2006).

It was previously thought that they had traveled, along with the other speedsters and Superboy, were taken to an alternate Earth (Flash: TFMA #6, 2007). As it turns out, the West family spent roughly a year on an alien world that had a history with Flashes. (Flash v.2 #231, 2007) Little is known of their life there.

Wally, Linda and the twins returned when seven members of the future team, the Legion of Super-Heroes, traveled back in time to resurrect someone using 31st-Century technology called lightning rods. The Legion appears to have been recovering someone else, but Wally was “riding the lightning,” and brought his entire family back (Justice League of America #10 & All-Flash #1, 2007).

Team Membership

As Kid Flash, Wally West was a founding member of the original Teen Titans. He stayed through three incarnations of the team, before quitting when he retired as Kid Flash (1966–1984).

When Wally took over as the Flash, he worked briefly with the Titans again (1986–1987), but then left to pursue his solo career. He was later invited to join Justice League International, and was a founding member of its European branch (1989–1994). When the team lost its United Nations sponsorship, Wally moved to the Justice League of America, and was a member until he disappeared in Infinite Crisis (1994–2006).

During his tenure in the JLA, Wally also joined two other teams: another stint in the Titans (1999–2000), and a tour in Justice League Elite (2004–2005).

Within minutes of Wally’s return, Hal Jordan extended an offer of membership in the newly-reformed Justice League of America.

[[The Flash - Early 21st Century]](bigimages/wally-future.jpg)

The Future

There are conflicting accounts on Wally’s future.

Several years ago, Iris wrote in _The Life Story of the Flash_that she would help him through “an unexpected, tumultuous marriage, through the marvel of his daughter, and through the tragedy of his son.” Many speedsters, including Jay Garrick, met Wally’s daughter Iris West IIwhile battling the legacy of Cobalt Blue, implying a degree of reality to this future, in which Wally is still alive when Iris is in her late teens/early twenties.

Of course one could hardly call his marriage to Linda unexpected, except perhaps the timing of the actual wedding, and Iris herself has said that some things she thought she knew turned out to be wrong. Although the aftermath of Linda’s miscarriage looks like it could fit the “tumultuous” bill.

In some accounts of Iris II’s life Wally has essentially given up his civilian life to patrol Keystone continuously at hyperspeed (The Kingdom, 1998; Flash 80-Page Giant #2, 1999). In others he has given up his humanity to the point where he is no longer confined to one plane of existence (Kingdom Come, 1996).

[[The Flash - 2054]](bigimages/hope.jpg)

Still another account, gleaned from a garbled record uncovered in the 30th Century, holds that Wally was “evolved” by the Speed Force into something beyond human, focusing his efforts no longer on crime but on problems beyond human comprehension. According to this record, he regained his humanity just as he was defeated by the gorilla “Mega-Rogue” and launched out of time and space (Flash 80-Page Giant #2: “A Flash of Hope,” 1999). However, it is unclear to what extent the record was interpreted correctly. It may have even been a garbled record of Walter’s battles against Gorilla City and the Replicant.

Text by Kelson Vibber. Do not copy without permission.

Top of Page Primary Sources

Art

Origin Tales

Profiles

Series Regular in...

Silver-Age Flash Appearances

Silver-Age Solo Appearances

Miniseries/Specials

Impulse Appearances

Notable Crossovers and Guest Spots‡

Significant One-Year-Later Flash Appearances

Notes

*Eye Color: During the Silver Age, Wally’s eyes were colored blue, like Barry’s. Early on in Wally’s own post-Crisis series, someone decided to give him green eyes instead (maybe to have some sort of visual distinction between him and Barry when their costumes were identical). This change was often forgotten by people on other series, such as JLA, and occasionally in his own series. After the introduction of Hypertime, Mark Waid decided to work in an explanation for the coloring errors as part of the Dark Flash saga: since hypertimelines can overlap slightly, Wally would occasionally share his eye color with hiscounterpart.

†Wally’s first appearance in The Flash #110 is reprinted in The Flash Archives Volume 2 and Showcase Presents: The Flash Volume 1.

‡The Flash is a core JLA member, so it would take up a lot of space to catalog all of his appearances in other series. I’m sticking to the following: (a) multipart stories where he played a significant part, (b) stories that cross over with his own series, (c) stories where he is the main character, and finally (d) stories in Flash spin-offs. I’m leaving the complete catalog to those dedicated indexes out there.