Wally West II

Wally West II is a fictional character in the DC Comics Universe. Originally introduced as a new interpretation of the original Wally West, as part of DC's The New 52 relaunch, the comic DC Rebirth #1 later established that he is in fact a new character of the same name (the original Wally's cousin).^[1]

Publication history

The "reintroduction" of Wally West to DC Comics following its 2011 The New 52 reboot, which removed Wally West from continuity, was first announced in January 2014.^[2] Originally conceived of as a biracial reintreptation of the classic Wally West character, Wally is stated in his introductory comics and creators as being the son of Iris West's brother Rudy, as in pre-New 52 stories.^[3][4][5] However, the original interpretation of Wally West, having been the starring character in the Flash for many years, was still missed by DC's fans, and so the company decided to bring the original Wally back into continuity in Geoff Johns DC Rebirth #1 (2016). Rebirth retroactively established that the new Wally's father was not Rudy, as previously stated; he was in fact the son of Iris's other brother, the recently introduced Daniel West (also the latest incarnation of Reverse-Flash).

Wally first appears in Flash Annual 3 (2014) in a story set twenty years in the future, when a jaded, older Flash (Barry Allen) reads about Wally's funeral and vows to change history.^[6] Tying in with the ongoing story The New 52: Futures End, the story The Flash: Futures End #1 depicts an encounter between Barry of five years in the future (when Wally is supposed to die) and the Barry of 20 years in the future, who is out to prevent it. In the course of the story, Wally ends up learning that Barry is the Flash and absorbs part of the Speed Force — the source of the Flash's abilities — during the battle between Barry and his future counterpart. He becomes a speedster but his hero career is short lived; he sacrifices himself to fix a wound in the speed force. Due to the effects of time travel however, this has implications for Wally earlier in his history. Around the same time, in the present-day narrative of The Flash, Barry meets Wally for the first time through Iris. Wally is struck by lightning and acquires super speed abilities; an apparition of his future self explains that, as a consequence of how his future self died repairing the Speed Force, all the power within him was able to travel back in time and use Wally's lightning accident as a catalyst. Wally's first act as a speedster is to use his powers to protect a classmate from a bully, using the same artistic elements as Professor Zoom's powers.^[7]

DC Rebirth #1, part of a company-wide event of the same name, marked DC's attempts to restore much of what it lost in the New 52 reboot, both in tone and in the stories of its characters. It features the original Wally West watching his younger cousin from outside of time, proud and amazed that he too has become a speedster, and reflecting on how they are both named for the same grandfather. The original Wally is brought back to reality by Barry, who remembers him for the first time since the reboot, meaning two Wallys now exist in the DC Universe. The older Wally agrees to share the identity of Flash with Barry in The Flash Rebirth #1. Meanwhile Teen Titans Rebirth #1, part of the same event, shows the younger Wally joining the Teen Titans superhero team as Kid Flash.

He meets original Wally when assisting Barry in dealing with a bridge accident, although the older Wally doesn't explicitly introduce himself to his cousin, simply identifying himself as an ally of the Flash, although the 'new' Wally accepts the older one after they work together to save Barry from a temporary infusion of Speed Force energy.

Alternate versions

"Futures End"

In The Flash: Futures End #1, the Flash from 20 Years in the Future is able to prevent Wally's death by killing Daniel West. After the Future Flash cripples his younger self in their fight and disappears into the past, Barry finds that Wally has been imbued with the Speed Force. He makes Wally promise to stop his future self and Wally dons a silver and red Flash suit, becoming the new Flash, and trains for years to travel back and stop the Future Flash.

In Flash Vol 4 #35, Wally arrives to see the Future Flash fight the present Flash. Wally is badly injured when he shields the younger Flash from high-speed rocks that the Future Flash flung. Wally absorbs the excess Speed Force energy that is tearing apart the present Flash and tells him to not give up and that he only learned to be a hero because of him. Wally dies and releases a blast of Speed Force energy that closes the rupture but unintentionally traps the present Flash in the Speed Force.

In other media

Television

• Greg Berlanti (co-creator and executive producer of the 2014 reboot of The Flash) revealed that elements of Wally West would be featured in the second season of that series.^[8] It was later confirmed that West will appear in Season 2,^[9] portrayed by Keiynan Lonsdale.^[10] He is an amalgamation of the original Wally West and Wally West II. This version, who is African-American like the New 52 version, is the long lost brother of Iris West, who she wanted to keep secret from her father.^[11] She eventually told him in "Running to Stand Still", and Wally appears at the end of the episode during the West Christmas party. In episode "Potential Energy", Wally is revealed to be a drag racer named "Taillights" who has been racing to pay for his mother's hospital bills. He later reveals that he enjoys going fast, having once been interested in becoming an astronaut or a jet pilot to really accelerate. In later episodes it is shown that he holds resentment for Barry, Joe's adopted son, because Joe didn't know about Wally and didn't raise him yet raised Barry, but eventually came to respect him better. Wally is studying to be an engineer in the automobile business as well as improving the speed of such vehicles. Wally is at one point kidnapped by Zoom in exchange for the Flash's speed, which Flash chooses to sacrifice in order to save him. After the trade and being saved a number of times by the Flash and realizing the connection he has to Joe, Wally used Joe's connection to thank the Flash in person for the impact he's had on his life. In "Rupture", when Zoom returns to the Prime Earth to conquer it, Wally and Jesse are locked up in S.T.A.R. Labs to avoid being kidnapped, but manage to escape when Wells attempts to recreate the accident that gave the Flash his powers. Barry disintegrates into a cloud of energy and hits Wally and Jesse when they're running in the hall. Wally appears unaffected by the incident. He becomes a vigilante who tries to stop criminals and metahumans to prove he was worth saving in the end. Joe and the Flash try to talk him out of it but realize he's too dedicated to be stopped, especially when he rescues the Flash from Black Siren. At a welcome home party for Henry Allen, Wally discovers Barry is the Flash when Zoom captures and kills Henry Allen to get Barry to come after him.

In the season 3 premiere entitled "Flashpoint," Wally appears as the Flash in the new timeline that Barry created after going back and saving his mother from Reverse-Flash. He got his powers from a lightning storm that hit his car that had an enhanced engine while racing. While Wally calls himself the Flash, everyone else dubs him as "Kid Flash." He works with his sister Iris to stop criminals in Central City, the more recent threat being another speedster called the Rival. Barry assists Wally in defeating the foe, but Wally is stabbed by the Rival in the process, and is left in a critical state as he lacks the healing factor that Barry has. Barry resets the timeline afterwards, supposedly changing things back to normal, but notices some ramifications when Wally tells Barry that Joe and Iris haven't spoken in months.^[12] When Jesse Quick returns to their Earth with speed powers, Wally becomes jealous of Jesse's powers and nearly risks his life in an attempt to gain super speed as they were caught in the same energy cloud. In "Shade," Wally tells Joe he has visions of him being Kid Flash and helping out people. Barry tells him they're memories from the Flashpoint Wally and was hesitant to tell Wally about his counterpart due to the injury he got in that timeline. Wally then starts having painful visions and hears Doctor Alchemy's voice, who promises to restore his old life back. Wally is then locked up in S.T.A.R. Labs to keep him safe from Alchemy, but is caused more pain and is corrupted by Alchemy into fighting Iris, who quickly defeats him with one punch. Wally convinces the team that the only way to stop Alchemy is to use himself as bait to find his location. Wally manages to lead Flash, Joe, and a SWAT team to Alchemy's location to take the villain down, but are ambushed by Alchemy's speedster ally Savitar. During the chaos, Wally is tempted by the power of Alchemy's stone and picks it up, encasing him in a large crystal. In the following episode, "Killer Frost" Wally emerges out of the crystal with super speed in a confused state until he is sedated by the Flash. They test his powers the next day as Wally is excited about his new abilities. Wally's speed is shown to be better than Barry in his early days, but Iris, Joe, and Barry refuse to have him fight crime immediately due to his inexperience. However, Earth-19 Harrison Wells agrees to train Wally in secret.

References