DC Rebirth's Wally West Doesn't Remember Having Kids

01/06/2017 09:48 am EST

Before Flashpoint, Wally West was not only The (a) Flash; he was husband to Linda Park and the father to twin speedsters Jai and Iris West.

Since his return from the Speed Force in DC Universe: Rebirth #1, West has made it pretty clear that he remembers Linda; he remembers his friends in the Titans; he remembers much of his life, including his relationship with Barry Allen.

But, from all appearances, Wally West simply doesn not remember that Jai and Iris ever existed at all. Series writer Dan Abnett, though, teases that might still be coming.

"I think Wally doesn't remember everything yet, and I think it would almost put too much of a strain on him and Linda if there was this potential of not just a relationship being broken but of a whole family being lost," Titans writer Abnett, who has been overseeing West's journey since Rebirth, told ComicBook.com. "I've deliberately downplayed that. However, I do think that's the sort of thing that will come back to him as things progresss. I think there are opportunities coming up pretty soon where he will see more of what he's lost and the implications of that. I just wanted to take it a step at a time, really."

The first step, as hinted at in DC Universe: Rebirth #1 and then toyed with in the first arc of Titans, is re-establishing a status quo for Wally and Linda. The relationship between Wally and Linda Park has been a focus of the first arc of the series, which concluded with #6 last month. While he was able to find his former wife, she doesn't remember him -- and unlike other members of the Titans, Speed Force lightning hasn't intervened to realign her memories for her.

The result has been a situation where the post-Flashpoint Linda knows that Wally believes he had some kind of relationship with her, and after an interaction with Abra Kadabra, she has to at least suspect that it's not all in Wally's head. Still, there was no rush for Wally to settle down in Keystone City and start trying to convince her to give him a chance.

"There's an extremely subtle balance to strike," Abnett said. "I think the obvious thing to do would be to give Wally his happiness back and by some miracle, Linda either recognize him or remember him or something so they can get back together and everything will be okay. On the other hand, you remember the start of their original relationship, which was extremely rocky for a long time and it was one of the great will-they-or-won't-they relationship. That is the appealing thing becuase there's obviously great drama and entertainment to be had in the course of that sort of progressive, not-smoothly-flowing relationship. The balance is making sure that it's not too much one or the other: we don't unnecessarily delay any potential reunion, but at the same time we don't remove its possibility completely. I think Wally's got to become her friend again, got to court her again, he's got to sort of get back into her life in a way that makes her interested in him. I think that's quite a good challenge to set up. I didn't want to make it too easy or too obvious."

Wally's story continues next week, when he meets one of the only other refugees from the pre-Flashpoint DC Universe in the form of Superman in Titans #7. The issue will be available in comic shops on Wednesday, or you can pre-order a digital copy now. You can check out a preview of the issue in the attached image gallery.

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