All throughout November, guest writers will be weighing in on fandom, specifically guest writers who identify strongly with characters, teams, or franchises online. Each piece will feature a personal look at why a writer gravitates to a character, what keeps their interest, and — most importantly — a set of reading recommendations for folks looking to better understand that character.

Today, our pal Joe Grunenwald has written about one of his favorite characters, The Flash, specifically Wally West…

I didn’t really get into The Flash (specifically, Wally West) until I was in high school. Sure, I’d dabbled in his comics off and on over the years. I’d watched the TV series when it originally aired, but I remember finding it a little boring to my seven-year-old attention span. I read some of William Messner-Leobs and Greg Larocque’s run around the time of the TV series (and to be honest I’m not sure if I put together that the character in the comics was not the same character on the TV show), and was a sporadic reader after then, jumping back on with Mark Waid and Larocque’s “Born to Run” storyline and sticking with the series through the end of “The Return of Barry Allen” storyline and the early issues of Mike Wieringo’s tenure. I drifted away again, coming back for issue #0, and then completely losing track of it for a few years. I liked the character fine, but he was far from my favorite.

When I got to high school, though, things changed. It was 1996, and my parents decided we should have the internet (specifically, America Online) at home. It wasn’t long before I was spending hours each night reading through threads on the DC Comics AOL message boards, and attending the regular DC-sponsored chats (I credit Bob Rozakis’s weekly ‘Ask the Answer Man’ trivia chat for the A I got in my Keyboarding class my freshman year of high school, as to win at the game you had to be both fast and accurate in responding).

It was in one of those DC-sponsored chatrooms that 14-year-old Joe was recruited into an online DC Comics club. Membership in the club basically consisted of hanging out in a different chatroom and shooting the shit about comics. There were rival clubs for some reason, so sometimes we would talk shit about them, because we were teenagers and, in general, stupid. And sometimes we would roleplay as DC Comics characters (which, thinking about it now, I’m realizing that it was basically Dungeons & Dragons with superheroes). We all had to pick characters, and I picked The Flash, not because he was my favorite, but because Nightwing and Robin, long my two absolute favorite characters, were both taken already. I liked Wally well enough; I liked his connection to Nightwing as a former Teen Titan, and I enjoyed the comics of his that I’d read in the past, and his appearances in the then-current JLA series by Grant Morrison & Howard Porter. Having selected Wally to play as, I figured I should bone up some more on his comics. I picked up The Flash #127, and I never looked back.

A lot of my favorite things about Wally West are probably the same favorite things anyone else would say about him. He’s an everyman, a kid from the midwest who ended up getting everything he ever wanted. He’s kind of a hothead, and he doesn’t always make the best decisions, but his heart is always in the right place. He’s a sidekick who grew up, took over for, and ultimately surpassed his mentor. He epitomizes the legacy aspect of DC Comics that to so many people makes them so appealing.

My absolute favorite thing about Wally - the thing that hooked me about The Flash #127, and that continues to hook me - is his relationship to the larger DCU. I already appreciated his friendship with Dick Grayson, and that he had ties to both the Titans and the Justice League. I also knew, from the “Return of Barry Allen,” that there had been previous speedsters and Flashes. But more than that, and though she’d appeared in previous Flash comics I’d read before, the three-part “Hell to Pay” storyline that spanned The Flash #127-129 really introduced me to Wally’s girlfriend, Linda Park. Their relationship took center stage in that storyline, and I pretty instantly fell in love with them as a couple. I loved the banter between them, the way they could playfully push each others’ buttons, and how Linda was clearly smarter than Wally. Those three issues put their relationship through the ringer, and the strength of their bond ultimately helped save the day. If I was invested in anything after reading those issues, it was the success of Wally West and Linda Park.

It turned out, I really like my superhero comics with a healthy helping of melodrama.

What follows is a selection of some of my favorite Wally West Flash stories. I’ve already mentioned some of them, and some of them will likely be familiar to casual fans; others may not be. They’re the ones that speak to me the most about the character and his world, and I hope reading them will offer an idea of what it is about Wally West that I think makes him great. -Joe Grunenwald

The Flash, Wally West, Reading Recommendations

Adventures of Superman #463 - Right off the bat with a wildcard choice, this is the first race between Wally and Superman. Wally’s still struggling with getting out from under Barry Allen’s shadow here, and there are times when Superman doesn’t really help with that. Plus it’s just a really fun story.

The Flash (vol. 2) #74-79 - Largely considered to be the quintessential Wally West story, the “Return of Barry Allen” storyline finally forced Wally to confront the legacy of his mentor, and to definitively move beyond it. It also reintroduced Johnny Quick, and reinvented a little-seen Golden Age character as the zen guru of speed Max Mercury, beginning the formation of the extended Flash Family that would eventually include Jesse Quick, Impulse, and...every speedster ever throughout time and space.

The Flash (vol. 2) #80 - This story reintroduced Frances Kane, Wally’s ex-girlfriend and the former hero/now villain known as Magenta, to Wally’s orbit. Essentially one long fight scene, Wally and Frankie’s reunion is intense and heartbreaking, and plays out on live television for all (including Linda) to see. As an added bonus, this is the beginning of a four-issue arc that also guest-stars Nightwing and Starfire.

The Flash (vol. 2) #0 - Following the events of the Zero Hour event, Wally tumbles through time on a “this is your life”-style journey that recounts his history in reverse before leading to a scene involving a young, pre-Kid Flash Wally that’s among the most powerful in the character’s history.

The Flash (vol. 2) #100 - The “Terminal Velocity” storyline is important for introducing the concept of the Speed Force to the Flash mythos, but the final chapter is key for pushing Wally further beyond the limits of his predecessor, and for solidifying Wally and Linda as the series’ OTP.

The Flash (vol. 2) #127-129 - See above.

The Flash (vol. 2) #152-159 - The “Dark Flash” saga saw a new Flash arrive in Keystone City following Wally’s disappearance. The mystery of who he was, how he came to be there, and what his relationship was to Wally (and Linda) propelled the action, and the story’s final chapter served up the melodrama in bucketfuls as a pair of doomed lovers said a tearful goodbye and another less-doomed pair finally tied the knot.

The Brave and the Bold (vol. 2) #8 - My favorite issue of Mark Waid’s second run on The Flash, in which Wally and Linda were parents to a pair of superpowered children, came not in the regular Flash title but in an issue of the team-up series Waid was writing at the time. This issue finds the West family paying a visit to Niles Caulder and the Doom Patrol as they try to figure out how to stabilize the kids’ powers. It’s a story that’s at times hilarious and terrifying, and with an ending that hits like a punch to the stomach.

The Flash (vol. 5) Annual #1, #45-50 - Wally West’s return in the DC Universe: Rebirth one-shot was wonderful, but it came at a price that was honestly just cruel: it separated Wally and Linda. Josh Williamson & Howard Porter’s four-part “Flash War” storyline, and the annual and handful of issues that acted as a prelude to it, finally addressed the implications of just what Wally had been through, and brought him back into the Flash Family proper (he’d been relegated to appearing in the Titans series previously). And there’s no need to dwell on what came after this for Wally.

Check out the full Fandom Files Reading List!

Check our our past reading lists: The Quarantine Reading List and The Extra Eisners Reading List!