Today’s guest post is by Shawn Coots, a.k.a. @BitterWallyWest.

I don’t need to tell you what an amazing character Wally West is. If you’re reading this article, I assume that you, too, witnessed the most organic evolution of a comic-book character first-hand. Thanks to Mike Baron, Bill Messner-Loebs, Mark Waid, Geoff Johns and several others, we have 247 issues of an amazing book that I’ll always cherish. You’ve read the news by now; those days are gone. So, what are WE going to do about it?

I attended a DC panel at SDCC this year, asking the question so many others have asked before. Where is Wally West? Between @speedstersite and myself, we finally solicited the painful answer. Wally has been shelved indefinitely, in order to make the character of Barry Allen unique. Here’s the part of the story where I’ll avoid pointing out the many contradictions behind this strategy and simply say, there are no bad characters, only bad (or limited) writing decisions.

Unfortunately, the rampant fanboy-ism of posting long-winded and bitchy complaints on message boards solves nothing. As fans, we don’t own or curate these characters, DC Comics does. I can’t stress this enough. So how do we get what we want (which is Wally West in his own series, by the way)? I’m getting there. Continue reading →