DC Learned the Wrong Lesson From Resurrecting 2 Dead Heroes (& Ruined Another 1)

DC Comics has been defined by change since Crisis on Infinite Earths changed everything 40 years ago. That story killed off Barry Allen, the spiritual core of Silver Age DC, and redefined its universe by focusing on legacy. With the Flash replaced by his former sidekick Wally West, it was only a matter of time before the two heroes most associated with the Scarlet Speedster would be on their way out as well. Hal Jordan and Oliver Queen would both be gone by 1995, replaced by Kyle Rayner and Connor Hawke. The ’90s were the decade DC broke its icons and the ’00s would be a time of renewal.

It all started in the year 2000, when Oliver Queen was resurrected as Green Arrow. This return was massively successful and four years later, Hal Jordan would return as Green Lantern, along with the Green Lantern Corps. Much like Ollie, Hal’s return was huge, leading DC to some tremendous sales success. There was one piece missing and it wouldn’t be until 2008’s Final Crisis that Barry would come running back on the scene. However, Barry’s return wouldn’t be nearly as popular as the other two, despite having a similar level of hype and impact. DC learned the wrong lesson from bringing back Ollie and Hal, and it cost Barry everything.

Hal and Ollie Are Very Different Characters From Barry and That’s Why Their Return Was Successful

In a lot of ways, Hal, Ollie, and Barry are the standard bearers of Silver Age DC. Barry was the beginning of the Silver Age, Hal was the ultimate the era’s sci-fi character, and Ollie had a major reimagining during these years, moving away from his Batman with a bow and arrow conception and becoming a completely new character from who he had been before. Eventually, Ollie and Hal became representations of the two sides of the United States in the tumults of the ’60s – Queen representing the more liberal, progressive side and Jordan as the conservative, staid side of things. This was possible because both of them were known first and foremost for their personalities.

Ollie and Hal had always had a spark to them that Barry often lacked. Ollie was the epitome of the flawed liberal, a person who believed in the right things but was still only human underneath it all. He made mistakes, he got mad, he hurt the people he loved. Hal was reckless to a fault, in that way that soldiers who had lost all fear of everything do. He made rash decisions and paid for them down the road. The fact that Jordan became a villain fit him, as he was always playing with fire and liable to get burned at some point. Ollie and Hal were a lot of things, but boring was rarely one of them.

Barry, on the other hand, was never actually all that interesting of a character. He was the epitome of a ’50s adult – straight-laced and boring. Flash comics were more about the spectacle of super speed than they were about interesting character-based stories. Barry never really progressed beyond being the most white bread hero possible and it hurt him a lot as the Bronze Age changed the way superheroes operated. By 1985, Barry Allen needed to die and it was honestly the only way to make him interesting.

DC seemed to look at the success of Hal and Ollie’s return and just assumed that it was because fans loved the old guard do much, but they worked because creators were able to modernize them easily. Barry is a character that the company had failed to modernize back in the day, so trying to do so in the ’00s wasn’t going to go much better. Hal and Ollie were always interesting characters, whereas Barry didn’t get interesting until he was killed. The eventual failure of Barry’s return was inevitable.

Hal and Ollie Should Have Returned but Barry Should Have Stayed Dead

The mid ’00s were the beginning of what I like to call the re-Bronze Age-ification of the DC Multiverse. The publisher was going out of their way to return things to a more Bronze Age direction. OIlie coming back was the beginning, with Hal’s return showing that Queen’s success wasn’t a fluke. It’s hard to blame the then-DC brass for thinking that Barry returning could be a huge success, but it ignored a simple fact about the three characters: Hal and Ollie were actual great characters who had lost their way, whereas Barry needed to die because he could never hang in the modern day.

Hal and Ollie fit into the modern day in a way that Barry never could. Barry never got his “Hard-Traveling Heroes” moment, never got that story that showed he could exist in a more realistic world. Barry was tailor-made for the Silver Age and bringing him into the modern DC Multiverse was a huge mistake. Hal and Ollie’s return didn’t just work because of nostalgia but because creators could make them compelling right away. This couldn’t happen with Barry and the character paid for it.

What do you think about the re-Bronze Age-ification of DC? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!

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