Thanks to everyone who participated in our Favorite Flash Memory contest celebrating four years of Speed Force! 45 of you shared your stories of the Flash and Flash fandom, and 142 of you voted for the top four.

And now, the results are in!*

#1 with 36 votes: Wally East

My favorite memory of The Flash is him helping me through the end of a particularly bad training run. The run was just one of those sucky runs happens now and then. Toward the end, I started remembering how in a story I had just read (I can’t remember what story at the moment) had pushed harder and harder even though he wanted to stop. He didn’t let the pain stop him. He hit the wall and kept running hard. I thought about how Wally is just a regular guy with superspeed. If he could hang in, so could I since I’m a regular guy, too, just with regular-guy speed 🙂

Wally East wins our grand prize: a 1st Appearance Jay Garrick action figure, a Flash: Rebirth #4 variant cover signed by Geoff Johns, and a Flash: Rebirth poster! Congratulations, Wally!

Read on for the rest of the winners!

#2 with 24 votes: Chickenmonkey707

From a young age, I’ve always been intrigued by the Flash. I think early on, it was more about his costume than anything, because red is my favorite color and he just looked so awesome! Later on, I started delving more into his character and mythology. My favorite Flash memory is collecting the Mark Waid run on the Wally West Flash run, because it explored not only Wally, but the entire Flash Family. This intrigued me to no end, and I loved every page. Watching as Wally grew up, as Bart and Max lived a comedic domestic life in Manchester, watching Jesse and her father fight side by side until the very end, it was just an awesome feeling, getting so attached to this family of speedsters and seeing how they developed and grew. And of course, seeing Barry from time to time, watching Wally try his very best to find his way out of his mentors shadow. So, my favorite Flash-related memory is watching the Flash Family grow and develop into one of the greatest, most intriguing families in comic books!!!

Chickenmonkey707 wins a Justice League Unlimited 3 Pack featuring Heat Wave, Mirror Master and Barry Allen!

#3 with 23 votes: Keith Murray

I’ve got a Masters in Forensic Science and I run marathons. Later in life I discovered Barry Allen and realized what I had in common with him. Absent the super-speed… I pretty much AM Barry Allen. And that realization is my favorite Flash memory.

Keith wins a Flash v.3 #4 variant edition with a cover by Scott Kolins!

#4 with 17 votes: Tony Laplume

Mark Waid’s Flash has continual significance for me, but never moreso than in “The Return of Barry Allen.” This is the arc that brings Waid’s whole approach together. It’s not about Barry, actually, but rather the Reverse Flash’s attempt to play mindgames with Wally West, who has yet to fully embrace his mentor’s legacy, or his own abilities. He turns to the Zen master of speed, Max Mercury, as well as the original Flash, Jay Garrick, for inspiration and support, and it’s here where Waid truly revolutionizes comics, making them more cerebral, not in the way that Frank Miller and Alan Moore tried to make them “grow up,” but rather by bringing in a new maturity to the storytelling process, allowing his characters to breathe. Later, Waid perfected this in the pages of Impulse, also featuring Max Mercury (no wonder this minor figure became one of my favorites), and I’ve been trying to write like this ever since.

Tony wins an Action League Flash pack featuring Professor Zoom!

Thanks again to everyone who shared their stories or voted. You can read all of the stories on the original entry. Congratulations to Wally, Chickenmonkey707, Keith and Tony!

*OK, the results have been in for a week, and I just haven’t had time to collect the info, contact the winners and write up the post until now.

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