Hal Pictures Green Lantern Butt's FOREVER!: I Miss Wally

Green Lantern Butt's FOREVER!

Now with Guy Gardner's Seal of Approval!

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

I Miss Wally

Dang it.  It has suddenly occured to me, that there are a whole passel of characters that DC has placed into limbo since the start of the whole 52 Universe.  Well, actually it occured to me quite some time ago...but it only dawned on me more recently that I really really MISS some of those characters.

I miss Booster, but at least he is still occasionally showing up, most recently in All-Star Western with Jonah Hex.  They work surprisingly well together actually.  I still miss Ted Kord, Ralph and Sue Dibny, Dmitir and Gavril, the Rocket Reds, as much as ever, but there are a lot of younger newer characters out there too.  Stephanie and Cass of course, Donna Troy, Connor Hawke and heck, I even miss Damian Wayne.

But man, I do miss Wally. 

Wally was one of the younger crowd, in the Teen Titans, and a sidekick, but dammit, he's been around forEVER, and it's just not fair.   I like Barry, and I'm glad that they brought him back...but did they have to get rid of Wally to do so?  Geoff Johns managed to bring back Hal and NOT kill off Kyle, even though that would have been the easy thing to do.  Instead, Kyle is still alive and kicking and has his own book! 

I suppose that Wally committed the cardinal sin of getting married and having kids...which is the kiss of death apparently.  Marriage, and kids, and being an adult are verbooten at DC these days.  Which is odd, when you come to think of it, because they are trying to appeal to a younger crowd...except that NONE of their books are particularly kid friendly, and the ones that were have been cancelled.  You don't suddenly wake up on your 18th birthday and immediately go out and start buying comic books.  Well...maybe some people do, but comics are usually something that you ease into at a younger age.

It also seems that a large part of the comic-book reading audience are older.  The ones who can actually remember the Silver Age. The ones who experienced the 90's for God's sake.  At least, I can console myself that they didn't kill him off.  But I sure do miss all of my lovely lovely continuity.  Trying to make sense of the current history is just so...frustrating.  It supposedly all happened within the last five years, but even over the last year and a half, it is confusing.  Different stories contradict other stories. 

There also seem to be a LOT of disgruntled writers...which can't be a good thing either.  I know that DC seems to be doing its level best to recreate the Marvel books of the 1990's, but is that really the best idea?  Bob Harras may be a perfectly nice person, but there was probaby a REASON that the Marvel bullpen rejoiced when he left. 

Marvel still drives me nuts, and I don't particularly want to read the fifteen Avengers books out there, but there are some decent books coming out, such as Young Avengers, and Hawkeye and Thor and Journey Into Mystery.  Still miss Nextwave though.  But at least they haven't dumped all of their history.  Except in the Ultimate books, which when you come to think of it, was the precursor to the 52 Universe, with the same characters, but sans all of the continuity.  I don't particularly like the Ultimate books either.  They had their chance to tell NEW stories, and just retold all the old ones, but bloodier. 

Man, I'm cranky today.flash photo Flashbutt.jpg

Lord knows Wally is no Green Lantern.  I mean, just LOOK at that behind!  But he was funny, and he was smart...at least occasionally...and he did some amazing things.  We need more Flashes.  We need the Justice Society, and the JLI.  We need Ma Hunkel.  We need Power Girl and Huntress back.

At least Geoff Johns brought back G'Nort.  And for that I thank him.




10 Comments:

At 4:33 AM, Anonymous Randy Jackson said...

The one good thing about all of the characters in limbo is that none of them are being used as cannon fodder.

But I really miss Wally too. He's always been one of my favorite characters, especially since he was a hero in his own right as Kid Flash and not a sidekick (the only early Titan that I think counts as a sidekick was Aqualad who existed solely to make Aquaman look good).

 
At 6:13 AM, Anonymous Bryan L said...

I miss Wally, too. I had no real love for Barry and frankly still don't. I ignored the Flash title until Wally took over, and after that I never missed an issue.

I think the best thing about Wally was that his humanity balanced his powers. Barry was always perfect, and boring (see: Superman). Wally, on the other hand, screwed up. I think that's really important when you've got a character that's basically godlike in powers (and, yes, Flash is one of, if not the most, powerful DC heroes -- it's just physics).

 
At 8:14 AM, Blogger notintheface said...

Wally is a way more versatile character than Barry. You can use him as the serious hero and comic relief, sometimes even in the same story, without it seeming forced. Not so with Barry, especially in the Nu52.

Look at how Barry's represented on the small screen. Except for Brave And The Bold, all Barry's TV appearances since 1986 have incorporated aspects of Wally (costume, personality, etc.) in them.

 
At 11:59 AM, Blogger SallyP said...

I completely agree with you all...except that I do like Barry. But still...I can see where he is a bit stodgy. I've always counted that as part of his charm.

On the other hand, Wally is NEVER stodgy, and yes, he can be played for laughs or straight. He was a hoot in the old JLE.

Plus, apparently I like redheads.

 
At 12:25 PM, Blogger Erin S. said...

There was a window for Wally and Donna to exist. It's been shown that Dick used work with Starfire, Arsenal and to paraphrase Jason: "that group they used to hang out with." But from what I've heard Flash and Wonder Woman don't have much wiggle room for either to exist. Donna for example could be Dianas' sister but why wasn't she mentioned sooner? If she was a Amazon why did Diana feel all alone?

Didn't Barry have kids too? Sure they were pretty much ignored but why can't they have Wally as the married one? Just have his family do their own thing if Barry HAS to be the single "cool" one.

If I was ever to go back to Marvel you mentioned some of the books I'd like to try. But overall I feel pretty burnt out trying to care about Marvel.

Hey I recall a couple of nice Wally West rear shots. ;P He also managed to go back in time to save loved one without taking a sledgehammer to the timeline.

 
At 1:23 PM, Blogger SallyP said...

Barry does seem to be making something of a mess of the speedforce lately, doesn't he?

Hell...I even liked Bart. I like Jay the best though. He's my favorite Flash.

 
At 7:27 PM, Blogger ShellyS said...

I miss Wally, too. I much preferred him as Flash over Barry. Wally, at least, had a personality.

 
At 12:40 AM, Blogger Moriarty said...

I'm going to echo all the statements above and say I miss Wally too. The Mark Waid run on Wally's Flash back in the mid-90's were some of my favorites from that era.

Aaaaand speaking of Mark Waid... if you want to thow one more Marvel book onto the pile of comics to read, Waid's Daredevil relaunch has been fantastic. For so long, everyone who's written DD has felt compelled to top the last writing team with just how awful they can make Matt Murdock's life. Waid's done the opposite and made DD, dare I say it, *fun*. You should check it out.

That and he's a redhead, so that should be right up your alley, Sally!

 
At 12:11 PM, Blogger SallyP said...

I keep hearing wonderful things about the latest Daredevil run...so perhaps I should actually go and buy the darned thing!

 
At 10:00 PM, Blogger Moriarty said...

While you're at it, you should check out the new Hawkeye series. It's fantastic too.

It's a strange, sad world when Marvel is putting out a couple comics that are... dare I say it... fun. And yet DC is going the angsty, brooding route. I want "my" Superman back -- the one who only has eyes for Lois. And while they're at it, bring back Ted, and Booster/Skeets, and Oracle.

/end rant

 

Post a Comment

<< Home