Scott Snyder hints at big plans for Wally West

The Death Metal writer also explains why he selected Wܫally West to play a key role in the series finale

Wally West
(Image credit: DC Comics)

As Newsarama has argued in the past, Wally West (the first one) has been used as something of a punching bag at DC the last decade, which is why writer Scott Snyder choosing Wally to serve as the everyman who gets the rundown on the new status quo of the DC universe in the final pages of J𒆙anuary 5's Dark Nights: 🐬Death Metal #7 stands out.

Dark Nights: Death Metal #7 excerpt

(Image credit: Yanick Paquette (DC))

"Because I think he's a character who a lot of people love, I love as well, as a Flash," 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Snyder told Newsarama when asked why he selected Wally to serve that role. "And yet he's been really elastically pulled in different directions over the last year to try and make him something darker and almost more substantive in a cosmic way than ♓he was originally intended."

"I think those are great risks to take, but we really felt at this point that he's a character that we wanted to return to his r🐈oots because it's something different than you've seen him. You haven't seen him in that iteration in a while, and we have re꧃ally big plans for him that I can't reveal yet, but that are in Infinite Frontier that deposit him as the kind of restorative character of the story."

"Elastically pulled in different directions" is a little kinder than 'punching bag,𝔉' but it seems like Snyder is observing some of the same things we are🌌. 

Despite his place in DC history as of the most prominent teen sidekicks and co-founder of the iconic Teen Titans and then star turn in the '90s and '00s as the Flash in the monthly series and as a member of Grant Morrison's revered 'pantheon' JLA line-up, Wally was erased f𒅌rom DC continuity in 2011's Flashpoint and subsequent 'The New 52' reboot of the DC Universe. 

Former DC co-publisher Dan DiDio even spoke about his perceived hatred of Wally in an expansive interview. 

Wally returned, however, in 2016's 'Rebirth' revamp, and was utilized by writer Geoff Johns as the narrative centerpiece of the DC Universe: Rebirth special, or as the "restorative character of the story," the role Snyder says he'll play in Infinite Frontier #꧒0.

Wally West

(Image credit: DC)

It was all very meta-textual, but it seemed like Barry Allen and Wally's tearful remembrance-reunion as the climax of the Rebirth special sigꦫnaled a coming new golden age for the character. 

And for a short time, things were peachy. He got a new costume and new lease on life as part of a post-Rebirth Titans title uniting him with his friends-family, but things quickly started to turn sour for Wally again.

Wally began experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder due to the loss and the fact that no one but him even remembered his family-family - wife Linda Park and twins Iris and Jai - who did not return from the 'New 52' whiteout. The hero became a central figure in Tom King's 2018 PTSD-centric limited event series Heroes in Crisis, appearing along with his longtime friend/teammate Roy Harper as murder victims in the first issue.

For Wally fans who felt that was a gut-punch just two years after getting him back after a five-year limbo, it arguably got worse.

It was eventually revealed in the series that Wally wasn't just a victim, but the murderer too, albeit partly accidentally, although killing himself from five days in the future wasn't an accident.

Since then Wally has continued to be put through the wringer, most rec🍃ently becoming a sort of omnipotent-aware Doctor Manhattan/Metron hybrid, a condition apparently wholly removed by the reset machinations of Deat🅠h Metal #7. 

Enthusiastically 🐭playing percussion for an all-star hero band in the final pages of the Death Metal finale, Wally seems both cured of his emotionless omnipotence and his post-Rebirth PTSD.

And as 💙Snyder hints at, DC has really big plans for him😼. 

The publisher has already revealed the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:return ꦇof The Flash month꧙ly series in March will begin "The redemption of Wally West!" and new series writer Jeremy Adams' first story arc will deal with who will carry the Flash mantle - Wally or Barry.

But if things look all very rosy for Wally in Infinite Frontier, let's just say DC still isn't done 'elastically pulling' Wally in different directions, as readers of this week's 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Future State: The Flash #1 can attest.

This story is a good of a jumping-off point as any to check out 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:the best Teen Titans stories of all time. 

澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Michael Doran

I'm not just the Newsarama founder and editor-in-chief, I'm also a reader. And that reference is just a little bit older than the beginning of my Newsarama jou🧸rney. I founded what would become the comic book news site in 1996, and except for a brief sojourn at Marvel Comics as its marketing and communications manager in 2003, I've been writing about new comic book titles, creative changes, and occasionally offering my perspective on important industry events and developments for the 25 years since. Despite many changes to Newsarama, my passion for the medium of comic books and the characters makes the last quarter-century (it's crazy to see that in writing) time spent doing what I love most.