For the last month or two, I’ve been spotlighting an older post each Wednesday, sometimes linking to it from a newer article, sometimes just posting it at Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

The heck? Comment section said 0 and now there’s gobs of ‘em and all from 2009?

-_-;; I hates time travel.

I never said Barry fought all those people so maybe what you’re really asking is how legacy heroes and their predecessors are interchangeable, at times.

I think that any time the legacy hero is presented in new media as the original speedster, ring-slinger, etc. and especially when they fight the bad guys of the “actual” original, they represent that original character, to a degree.

That was the case (to varying degrees) with Wally/Flash in JLU and the very amalgamated John/GL from the same series.

The character becomes a sprinkle of the old and a dash of the new. Often, it’s a way of simplifying the comics origins and/or placating some reasonable and some rabid fans of those characters.

.-= West’s latest blog post: Hulk Fly! =-.

How did Wally act like Barry in the Justice League and Justice League Unlimited animated series?

Did Barry charge people for his services? Did Barry have to deal with bankruptcy? Did Barry “sleep around” and act immaturely? Could Barry lend his speed? Did Barry spend most of his adult life with his secret identity revealed?

I do agree with your assessment of the “illusion of change” in what amounts to minor details with an important exception – the way they use their powers to take on their respective challenges speaks to their individual personalities as characters. Of course the personalities are measured by their behavior in a story… While stories are limited to the imagination of the writer, cumulatively over time the stage is set for a sense of who that character is and how they behave – making them unique.

I liked Barry’s character better – but I think Wally had a better character engine.

That’s why in cartoons they’re interchangeable, virtually indistinguishable except to nerds like me, who can spot the differences in eye color or belts, or how snappy the banter is.

I think comic fans are often focused on those minor distinctions, because they differentiate the playing field and denote change. But they’re also pretty superficial. Barry fighting Grodd ain’t that different than Wally or Bart doing it. Sort of the ‘illusion of change’. Instead of the last 20 years of having Barry around (and likely being killed off in the 90s, like all his peers were), DC instead had Wally become more and more entrenched in his trappings. Which was a good thing for Wally’s popularity: The villains, the time travel, all that stuff makes the Flash work. (Which also explains the failure of the recent Incredibles-esque relaunch. Who wants THAT from the Flash?)