The Strange, Convoluted Saga of Wally and Wallace West
Comic books are deeply, deeply weird. To me, that’s a feature, not a bug. In fact, one of my favorite pastimes is reminding people of how bizarre certain comic book stories actually are, lest those of us who are regular readers get too used to it.
Situations like this are fun for a laugh, but what’s more interesting is when the weirdness is unintentional, a result of bizarre editorial decisions or unforeseen real world circumstances or even from choices made with the characters in other mediums reflecting back on the source material.
For example, let’s look at the strange saga of Wally and Wallace West.
Wally West was first introduced in The Flash #110 in 1959 as the nephew of the Flash’s girlfriend, Iris West. By the end of the issue Wally gained superpowers in a freak (and lazy) recreation of the same accident that originally gave Barry Allen his superspeed, and for the next several decades served as the Flash’s sidekick, Kid Flash.
In 1986 Barry was killed off, and Wally took up his mentor’s mantle, serving as the Flash until 2009.
It was during these 25 years that Wally became one of DC Comics’ most popular characters, as readers watched him struggle with his inherited mantle and his imposter syndrome and learn to believe in himself, and watched him fall in love, get married, and eventually have kids. Many felt as if they had grown up with Wally. In an era where DC was attempting to tap into the theme of legacy as a brand, Wally West was the best and brightest example of the concept.
Eventually Barry Allen was brought back to life and reclaimed his position as the primary Flash (I wrote in more detail about the series of decisions behind this, as well as the mistakes made, here). A few years later, in 2011, DC Comics decided to reboot their entire fictional universe altogether, as part of an initiative known as the “New 52” (which I wrote about in more detail here). The New 52 was meant to be a fresh start, a chance for new readers to pick up a comic book and not need to know 60 years of fictional history to understand what’s going on within its pages. For many characters and franchises, this meant simplifying. In the Flash’s case, Barry Allen still wore the costume, but it was decided that he was still early in this career, with no marriage, no kids or grandkids, no sidekicks or partners. Wally West was essentially erased from existence.
It was a complex, controversial decision. On the one hand, the early New 52 Flash comics (written and illustrated by Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato) were probably the best stories the franchise had put out in over half a decade. On the other, though, Wally West was a very popular character who had already gone through years of mistreatment, and quite a few readers were unhappy to see him gone. His absence felt especially galling in light of the bias of the New 52’s uneven clean slate. While characters like Flash, Superman, and Wonder Woman were essentially rebooted from scratch, not all were treated the same way. DC Comics’ then-golden boy Geoff Johns was in the last year of a best-selling, decade-long Green Lantern storyline, and thus the entire Green Lantern mythos survived the reboot unscathed, with decades of history and dozens of characters going completely untouched in order for Johns to finish his story. Likewise, Grant Morrison — one of the medium’s most popular and beloved writers — was nearing the end of a five year Batman story, so Batman also survived the reboot with only the most minor of changes to his backstory and history, which included straining to keep all four of the various characters who had served as Robin over the years around1. Wally’s fate, in comparison, felt especially unfair to many. I believe there were even conspiracy theories of a grudge held against the character by DC head-honcho (at the time) Dan Didio.
So, here’s where things start to get really weird.
Two decisions were made right around the same time, in 2014, and it’s hard to know which one was the chicken and which was the egg.
One: The CW green-lit a Flash television show, and probably the most interesting bit of casting was the decision to cast black actress Candice Patton to play Barry Allen’s love interest Iris West, a character who had up until then always been portrayed as white in the comics.
I’m not sure if this was a planned decision to introduce some (much needed) color into the traditionally lily-white Flash franchise, or if Patton simply blew away the competition2 and the entire family was re-written to accommodate her (as black actor Jesse L. Martin was also cast to play Iris’ father Joe, an entirely new character), but either way, it meant a lot of changes for other traditionally white comic book characters when it came time to bring them into the series.
In the comics, Barry and Iris eventually had children and grandchildren who inherited Barry’s super speed and took up superhero mantles of their own; the change in race for the TV incarnation of Iris meant that when these characters (such as Impulse, for example) were cast on the show in latter seasons, black or mixed-race actors and actresses were brought in to play them. Likewise, in the comics Wally West had been Iris’ white, red-headed green-eyed nephew; when Wally was introduced as Iris’ long lost brother in The Flash’s second season, he was played by African-Australian actor Keiynan Lonsdale.
For the record, I really liked these casting decisions, and grew to love Lonsdale’s take on Wally, especially during the season he spent on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, but they were a significant departure from the way the characters had originally been portrayed in the comics.
Two: Also in 2014, DC Comics decided they were going to reintroduce Wally West to the comics as well, but rather than bring back the adult version fans had been clamoring for, they reintroduced him as a teenager, and spent the next couple years fleshing him out and building a relationship between he and Barry before having Wally gain superpowers and become Kid Flash again. Most interestingly, while the New 52 Iris West had remained white, this new Wally was introduced as mixed-race, the son of Iris’ white brother and his black partner.
It feels important to note here that this new Wally in the comics pre-dates Lonsdale’s by a little over a year, but he was introduced at almost the exact same time that Patton’s casting as Iris was announced, and I honestly have no idea whether this was synergy, or just complete coincidence3.
By 2016, the New 52 experiment had lost its luster, and DC decided to shake things up with the “Rebirth” initiative, meant to re-embrace the idea of legacy and many of the characters and stories the New 52 had left behind (because comic books are nothing if not cyclical). Of course, the perfect ambassador for this initiative was the original (white, adult, red-headed) Wally West; fans still missed him, and his entire run as the Flash revolved around the themes DC really wanted to push in Rebirth. It was time to bring him back.
Yet, the new Wally West/Kid Flash had also built up his own little fanbase during that time — and, possibly more cynically, DC likely didn’t want to take heat for getting rid of a “diverse” character, and were likely also reluctant to pass-up the synergy the character had with Lonsdale’s on the Flash television series. So, both characters needed to co-exist in the same stories at the same time, despite the fact that they were meant to be the same exact person — with the new Wally replacing the old as the nephew of Iris West and the son of Rudy West.
Interestingly, this wouldn’t be the first time DC had two characters co-existing who were the exact same person — Supergirl and Power Girl were technically both Kara Zor-El4, Superman’s cousin, only they were from different parallel universes (Power Girl took up the civilian identity “Karen” so that people weren’t just walking around calling them both Kara all the time).
DC didn’t take that route with their two Wallys. Instead, it was decided that the two Wallys would be cousins, both named after the same Grandfather. The original Wally was still Rudy’s son, while the new Wally was instead changed to be the son of Rudy and Iris’ younger brother, Daniel. To further differentiate the two (and to stop people from calling them “White Wally” and “Black Wally” — which, unfortunately, didn’t work ), the new Wally began to be referred to as “Wallace.”
This wasn’t treated as a new development — everybody just started calling him Wallace out of the blue and acting as if he had always gone by Wallace. When it first happened, for the briefest of moments it felt like DC Comics was gaslighting me.
Though it might be rare or unusual, in real life relatives sometimes end up with the same name, or sharing the same namesake, but it feels like a different level for a big corporate company supposedly invested in clear storytelling with big iconic characters meant to be instantly recognizable on toy boxes or movie posters to give two characters essentially the same identity, with only small differences to tell them apart. “Let’s make them cousins with the same name, only one goes by a shortened nickname” is, at least for comic books, one of the simpler solutions they could have come up with, but that makes it feel even more absurd; it’s creators doing the absolute bare minimum to take two characters who were supposed to be the same person and suddenly turning them into two viable takes who can co-exist.
It’s not a big, gonzo, purposefully absurd storytelling choice like the giant floating psychic island that shoots dinosaurs, but instead something totally different: an absurd situation that arose because of shortsighted marketing decisions from executives, shortsighted creative directions from editors, and choices made with these characters in other mediums bleeding over into the comic books. To me, one of the most fascinating things about comic books is seeing the way modern creators are forced to reconcile and reckon with the choices of executives and even other creators who came before. God bless any creator who can make it work, even when it’s clearly being held together with thumb tacks and bubblegum, as in the case of Wally and Wallace.
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I’ve recommended enough Flash stuff here in the past, so instead, let’s circle back to the giant floating psychic island that shoots dinosaurs.
The New Frontier is the magnum opus of the late, great Darwyn Cooke. His gorgeous art takes the iconography of the 1940s, 50s, and 60s and puts a modern spin on them, contrasting the juvenile, authority-pleasing stories put out during those decades with the actual politics and revolutions taking place during that era, to pretty fantastic effect. Also, there’s a giant floating psychic island that shoots dinosaurs out of its craters like cannonballs. You can’t go wrong, really.
New Frontier is only 12 issues, and available in either two trade paperbacks (Volumes 1 and 2) or a single hardback omnibus. There’s also an animated adaptation that’s well worth watching, even if it’s mostly a Cliff’s Notes take on the comic. It’s currently streaming on HBOMax.
WHAT’S UP WITH “WAS GARFIELD FUNNY TODAY?” THIS WEEK?
A full week of bad birthday strips nearly killed me.
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“Do You Know What I Love the Most?” is a newsletter from Spencer Irwin about his relationship with the stories he loves. Spencer is an enthusiast and writer from Newark, Delaware, who likes punk rock, comic books, working out, breakfast, and most of all, stories. His previous work appeared on Retcon Punch, One Week One Band, and Crisis on Infinite Chords, and he can be found on Twitter at @ThatSpenceGuy. If you like this newsletter, please subscribe and share with your friends!
And even this was complex, controversial, and mired in sexism. While all four of Batman’s male sidekicks/former Robins survived the reboot, his female sidekicks didn’t fare as well. Barbara Gordon, the original Batgirl, by that point had long since moved past the role and taken up the mantle of Oracle, but the New 52 put her back into her old costume and completely erased her two successors, Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown (they came back eventually).
Which is entirely possible; Patton is a surprisingly good actress trapped in a thankless role, and whenever she gets the chance to cut loose by playing more interesting versions of Iris West from alternate Earths or timelines she just puts in such fun, watchable, lively performances.
On the other hand, Kiersey Clemons’ casting as Iris West in the Snyder Cut and the upcoming Flash film is clearly inspired by Patton’s take on the role.
Technically Power Girl was Kara Zor-L, without the ‘E’, but you’d be forgiven for blinking and missing that — it’s not helpful for differentiating them in a practical way.