I was reading the excellent Absorbascon piece “10 Reasons Barry Allen Needs to Be the Flash Now” the other day and it reminded me of this piece, which I posted on the old dccomics.com message boards under the title “Barry Allen’s return as the Flash is inevitable, and here’s five reasons why” in early 2001. I recall it inspiring some spirited debate in the typical style of the dccomics.com message boards, probably much of which was along the lines of “u r stoopid.” Unfortunately they’ve changed the message board system over there a time or two since then and they don’t have archives of the old boards. Even digging around on archive.org came up empty in the date range I needed, but I was able to find a file in my archives dated 5/5/2001 where I’d evidently saved the post and incorporated my replies from the thread at the end. Interesting to consider this in the context of everything that’s come since — at the time, the Wally West Flash series was in the mid #170s, Geoff Johns had been writing the series for mayyyybe a year, Scott Kolins had done about half a year’s worth of issues, Bart Allen was alive and appearing regularly in his own series as Impulse, Identity Crisis was over three years away — and Barry Allen’s actual return in Final Crisis was seven years in the future.
“Barry Allen’s return as the Flash is inevitable, and here’s five reasons why (5/5/2001)
Okay, I’ll admit I’m a longtime member of the Bring Back Barry Brigade, but here’s my two cents:
1: Everybody knows comic book characters come back to life. Did anyone really think Superman was going to stay dead? No. It’s an accepted fact. As far as Barry staying dead being a ‘tribute’ or whatever, I think staying dead for 16 years proves the point. This is the same kind of logic that leads people to make grim, humorless comics and then claim it’s more ‘realistic’. This is, in fact, one of the Great Things about comics: it ain’t real life. In real life, people stay dead, in comics they don’t if there’s a demand for the character. To pretend otherwise is ridiculous. The lame X-Men ‘deaths’ and the reader’s lack of respect for them is more a reflection of bad writing (rampant in the X-books), not an indication that dead characters need to stay dead. Look at how many times the JSA has ‘retired’, and each time is was presented as ‘for good’. Seems to be the JSA is doing pretty well right now for characters that were ‘dead for good’. Why? Good writing.
2: Since Barry’s heroic death, so many holes have shot in the story that his NOT returning is more unbelievable than anything else. First the (excellent) Secret Origins story that changed Barry turning into dust (as cited by an earlier post) into Barry becoming the lightning bolt that originally struck him, then Waid later adding his speed force angle leading to Barry joining the force, and finally Marv Wolfman letting us all in on the ‘out’ he left in Crisis in the new introduction. We were told no one comes back from the force, but Wally has done so, and clearly Wally’s not more powerful than Barry. All that’s lacking is a reason, and the obvious one is this — if an evil speedster tried to kill Linda, Iris, and/or Fiona, this would be enough to draw Barry’s essence out of the force, this type of thing being the most traumatic events in Barry’s life. This would also introduce lacking conflict to Wally’s character, him wondering if Barry only came back out of lack of faith in Wally. This could set up Wally becoming a ‘Dark Flash’ a la Walter West, with that great costume Walt sported. Also, for years it’s been accepted that despite the book continually claiming so-and-so is the one true Flash or whatever, the readers have no problem and in fact enjoy seeing Jay, Wally, and every Flash conceivable running and fighting alongside one another. One more Flash would hardly confuse the matter more, and might even add to the fun. Hell, I still miss Johnny Quick. My (and many fans’) favorite stories are the ones that had Jay, Wally, and Barry teaming up to solve a big case, and my favorite Wally stories are the ones with Jay and company.
3: Wally’s book has basically been turned into Barry’s book bit by bit over the years. Considering the original slogan, “The costume’s the same…everything else is different!” is now very ironic. They upped Wally’s power level, got him married to a reporter, brought back Iris, gave him a ‘Kid Flash’ of his own, brought back the original logo, brought back the original costume (every detail is now as Infantino designed bar the belt, and I think the wings on the boots), and most recently (thanks Geoff Johns) brought back the last missing element: the police work and supporting police characters. All that’s missing is Green Lantern/Green Arrow drawn by Neal Adams in the back of the book, but then that could never happen because as we all know Hal and Ollie are dead — oh wait, hey look, they were bought back! Like comic book characters always are!
4: The ‘death’ event is played out, and as many have observed, it doesn’t work anymore. No one believes it. The ‘Batman Dies’ event was played as a joke, assuming even the casual reader’s savvy enough to know going in Batman’s not really dying.
But what events are working, and bringing new, genuine attention to characters that have been lacking excitement for years? That’s right, BRINGING THEM BACK FROM LIMBO. Doubt me? Hal
5: Comics’ audience size right now is terrible, and shrinking all the time. The number of people who have cable and receive the Sci-Fi channel is undoubtedly many times huger than the number of us who ever see those magnificent covers Bolland’s doing every month. We ‘know’ we’re the ‘real’ Flash fans, but those kids watching those Flash TV show reruns ‘know’ the Flash is…Barry Allen. DC thus once again blows another cross-marketing opportunity. If there’s ever a Flash movie, sheer economic forces will likely dictate that they bend towards the TV audience, not the comic fanbase, ’cause even if every comics fan out there went to see the movie it wouldn’t make it profitable.
I appreciate the countering arguments, but they sound weaker and weaker with every reiteration. Comics need to cut the crap if they are to survive, and this is an obvious hurdle: new readers don’t know who Wally is, even if it seems blatantly obvious to us. I don’t want to see Wally die, depowered, or become Kid Flash again, and lord knows I love the character too, but the problems are inherent in the fact that he’s not the Flash most people know.
2 comments ↓
No, I have to emphatically disagree on this. Barry was always a one dimensional character, created for the times when the secret identities were deemed much less important than the heroes themselves. He was always, to me, your basic comics code white American male, bland as a piece of wheat toast. I’m not steeped in all the comics history, but I have a run of some of the early 80’s mags, and the only interesting thing that sticks out in my mind is that he was always late for his dates with Iris. OK, we get it, fastest man alive can’t even hot-button it to get there in time for cocktail hour at Murray’s, oh what great winking-at-the-audience irony. Clark Kent with a crewcut and some Benny Goodman records. Basically, let me sum it up like this, Barry was an archetype, while Wally is a real, flesh and blood guy, with quirks and flaws like a real person. Maybe they’ve strayed too far away from what his original stewards Baron and Messner-Loebs tried to do when he was first introduced, which I feel was making him a man trying to digest and feel and process more than he could manage, (also since that time taking away his interest in Eastern philosophies and martial arts), but I still think as originally presented he was a wonderfully drawn character. It was this look-before-leaping aspect, his quick-draw nature, and his desire to see more, become more, that made him interesting. Mike Baron was a genius, bringing an American edge and depth to comics in a similar way to his British counterparts at the time, and to me, he made the Flash an exciting force to follow around. I feel that Wally inherits the speedster mantle from Barry as much as Hal Jordan inherits the title of one true Green Lantern from Alan Scott. He is the Flash, to me, and legions of fans. And if the editors and writers, (Johns, Waid WHOEVER), can steer away from making him less of Barry Allen with a goatee and more the multi-faceted character he was at his inception, then maybe I’ll pick up an issue every now and again. Bringing back Barry would cheapen his sacrifice from a dramatic standpoint and tarnish that nostalgic sheen of his years in service as the Flash. A great Flash, I gotta say, just not as fun a read as Wally West.
You’re putting wayyy too much weight on the Baron and Messner-Loebs runs. Wally’s interest in “Eastern philosophies and martial arts” appeared suddenly for the first Annual and disappeared instantly after Baron turned in the script and immediately forgot about it, and much of Messner-Loebs run was just off the mark.
Oddly, in the context of what came of the Johns run after the original piece was written, I do agree that at one time it wouldn’t have been necessary to bring Barry back, as Johns built the series back to incorporate most of the story elements that had disappeared. Sadly, they immediately screwed it up as soon as Johns left, and now Wally basically can’t be the one main Flash anymore — he’s a dad, and the story is about his kids, and he doesn’t have time for the JLA, and he’s back in the Titans for no good reason, and it sucks.
Frankly, it doesn’t surprise me that many people have a skewed idea of who the Barry character is, as he hasn’t appeared regularly in twenty years. You clearly don’t have any real familiarity with the character, as in “the early 80’s mags” Iris was already dead.
In any case, it’s a moot point, as the decision has already been made. What’s more important is what they’re doing with his character today, and guided by Grant Morrison and Geoff Johns I think we’re going to see some interesting stuff. The problem many people have is framing the whole thing as a “Barry vs. Wally” thing, which is as ridiculous as when it was “Hal vs. Kyle.” There’s no conflict, it’s not an either-or choice: we can have both!
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