Ever since I’ve preferred Wally over Barry. The other thing about Barry was that I still respected him, the guy gave his life, that meant something. Maybe it’s just me, but bringing him back kind of diminished that sacrifice.

I kind of like what Rebirth is doing even if I’m not a fan of the pace at which it’s happening. I’m willing to give Barry a chance, but I’m hoping that DC does eventually give Wally more of its energies in the future. Maybe rather than a Kid Flash comic or a mini-feature with Wally there will be a 2nd comic featuring the rest of the Flash family after Barry is “re-established.” They could call it “Speed Force” or something of the sort. And each issue could have a sub-feature and rotate different members of the extended Flash family through the sub-feature. So some issues would have Wally in the sub-feature, others would have Bart, and heck even some could have Jay or Irey.

Ideally though I would like to see Bart get his own comic down the road with a sub-feature featuring Iris/Impulse. And honestly I’d like to see that even more than a Wally sub-feature. As much as I love Wally, between Waid, Johns, Messner-Loebs, etc. etc. he’s been put through his paces. What more can DC do to him, really?! Maybe it’s time to let him catch his breath so to speak. I may prefer him over Barry and may think he still has an ocassional story in him, but I don’t know that he has enough for an ongoing sub-feature without it becoming stale. And given the mess DC has made of the Flash since initially ending Wally’s run, it’s been one misstep after another. Maybe this is a blessing in disguise. If Wally doesn’t have his own sub-feature that means they can’t mess up his character any more than they already have. But hopefully DC will give us SOME resolution and not leave it as open-ended and arbitrary as they did when they made Bart the Flash. I think Bart’s run as Flash would have been much more successful had DC done a passing of the torch storyline. But that’s the coulda/woulda/shouldas.

Luckily this is a Flash blog, if it were Batman… well don’t even get me started on what DC is doing there. I love Dick as Batman and I’m quite annoyed that they’re planning on bringing back Bruce as soon as they are. Oh well.

The frustration for me has more to do with misfires and half delivered / subsequently aborted ideas than divergent taste from the status quo.

Despite that, I was willing to try out Barry despite my apprehension and nervousness over Wally’s role now that Barry was back. When Geoff and others said that Wally wasn’t going anywhere, I believed it. The Wally co-feature was a HUGE incentive for me to get the Flash ongoing.

With all my frustrations with Rebirth and DC’s handling of the character, I’ve really lost my enthusiasm for buying those comics or comics in general – as the ones I’ve been putting aside money and saving for were to tide me over until the Flash ongoing.

I still want to see if Geoff can pick up some momentum and make the Flash book just as good as Green Lantern, but I have my doubts and will be more conversative and careful on if I’ll buy it.

Bad move DC, very bad move. I just hope you notice the reaction and try to change that plan.

I’m a Barry fan – and I’m pissed. Kelson should be pissed. My rage, however, has absolutely nothing to do with who should be Flash. I’ve never wanted to see Wally fade away, I’ve never wanted anyone to be an alpha at the expense of anyone else. I don’t begrudge anyone else’s fear at losing the character they know and love but…

The fact is that DC has been completely off the rails with The Flash for sometime now and it is evident that they are still aimless in any plan for the sake of the characters or the fans. It’s as if they are looking to burn it down with the choices they’ve made – or neglected to make. Why would they perpetually generate so much fear and frustration with the franchise for so long?

They certainly seemed invested with the rollout of Rebirth and with that I got the notion that The Flash was going to be catapulted to the forefront of the DC universe. I was convinced that they might even pull off a movie. So where did the enthusiasm go? They’re pulling the plug on Wally and Bart now??? The only conceivable reason I can see that they would do this is because Rebirth didn’t perform the way DC had hoped. Maybe I’m completely offbase… but if Rebirth sales and reaction are the cause then we’re left examining why it didn’t perform as they anticipated. And thinking about that just pisses me off more.

I had no warning or online voice to vent over the loss of Barry during Crisis – and I sympathize with those who prefer Bart or Wally but at least at that time DC took direction with Wally. In my view we now lose Wally, Bart, AND get an unrecognizeable character in place of Barry.

Keep Barry dead. Or keep Wally in the speedforce. Or keep Bart dead. Whatever… but stop aimlessly running it into the ground.

I’m not going to be buying the Flash book. And it isn’t because Barry’s the focus of it. It’s because Wally isn’t in it. I was entirely ready to fork over 4 bucks for 8-10 pages of Wally West (even Wally West in a new costume that I don’t like). None of my 4 dollars was going to be for Barry, and it won’t.
To address a few points that weren’t made at me:

Yes, it is about what story is being told. But, in good writing, the way the story is told is driven by how the characters act, which ultimately means that the character staring in it is the most important part (at least to me). I mean a lot of my favorite issues of comics are dialog heavy issues where no action happens (Therapy issues of X-factor. Flash 32, Most of Starman). Don’t get me wrong, The Flash racing his imaginary friend in a race across space and time for the fate of humanity is a cool plot but the moments I ALWAYS go to from that arc are Wally wanting to give up then being told by Jay that he’ll “die saving the universe like Barry if you have to” and getting up and running, and all of the interactions with Linda. And flat out, you can’t do those with Barry. At all. He’s a different character (though it looks like Geoff is taking the “anchor” bit form Wally/Linda and heavily entrenching it to Barry/Iris, none the less). I have no doubt that Geoff will write interesting plots, he’s just going to do it with a character that isn’t interesting to me. So why would I read that?

I also don’t buy that Flash: Rebirth is “indexized” or anything like that. I mean flat out the purpose of this series is to entice readers to buy the Flash. Even more so than Green Lantern rebirth, there was no need in this case to bring Barry back because he was already back. The only purpose of the mini was to go ahead and Flesh out Barry Allen and introduce him to “a new generation” (as Didio likes to say). And They’ve had 5 issues so far that haven’t done it for me. Plus, as much as you can say Blackest Night is “for” the GL’s, Barry was the star of all of issue 4 and most of issue 5. Not to mention sharing the spotlight in an entire issue of the Green Lantern title. Realistically Barry’s been in a good 10 or so issues so far, and there isn’t anything there that makes me want to read the book.

For the Barry fans, I think that’s great that you have a book to look forward to. As a Wally fan, (and a huge Bart fan, I was just rereading Impulse LAST NIGHT) I’ve got nothing to look forward to. And I really feel like this is a purposeful directional move by DC. Now i’m not saying it’s a vendetta against me, but all of the heroes of “my” generation, who I like and are my favorites have for the mast part had bad years. Are being killed, mutilated, or worse shoved off into obscurity. I think trying to introduce a new fanbase to an old character is a great move, but not at the expense of another character that already has a base. I know it sounds melodramatic and people say it all the time, but this is honestly the move that is making me consider dropping DC comics (aside from Vertigo). I just don’t feel like they’re writing books for me, that appeal to me anymore.