The Flash: Why the DCU Should Reboot with Wally West

A new era of storytelling for DC is underway, with James Gunn and Peter Safran stepping in to lead the movies and Max-exclusive television shows under DC Studios. This new “reset” DC Universe will include a mix of new and existing elements, something that has already been made clear with the recent casting of David Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan as Superman and Lois Lane. One corner of DC canon that has remained up in the air has been The Flash, as the long-gestating live-action The Flash movie made its debut last month. While reports have indicated that Gunn and Safran were open to bringing Ezra Miller back as Barry Allen / The Flash, the film’s shocking box office performance and Miller’s real-life legal troubles have thrown that into question.

No version of The Flash — whether Barry Allen or otherwise — is confirmed to be in the first wave of DCU titles, so there’s no telling what the future holds at this point. But one option that could (and in the eyes of some fans, should) be on the table could be introducing Barry’s comic successor, Wally West.

Created by John Broome and Carmine Infantino, Wally originally held the mantle of Kid Flash, before carrying on The Flash legacy after Barry’s death in Crisis on Infinite Earths. In the years that followed, Wally operated as The Flash from 1986 through 2009, with many of his appearances including his own solo book. After a brief hiatus (and a second, now-concurrent version of Wally introduced in the New 52 relaunch), Wally returned to the DC canon with great fanfare during DC Rebirth, and has headlined the main The Flash comic in recent years.

Sure, on the surface, it might seem weird to jump straight to Wally when other aspects of the DCU are starting out young — but in a way, it makes perfect sense. While Gunn and Safran’s DCU will be making some new swings, including casting the aforementioned Corenswet as a younger Superman, it has already been confirmed that the canon will be populated with other superheroes. That approach to canon could also probably be inferred by the information we know about The Brave and the Bold, the new Batman reboot that is confirmed to include Damian Wayne / Robin and other members of the “BatFamily.” If the DCU is far enough along in its canon for Batman to have as many as five Robins, then The Flash mantle could be established enough for Wally to carry it for some time. (This could also provide an easy way to introduce the very first Flash, Jay Garrick, who was almost-entirely absent from the recent The Flash movie.)

Using Wally to carve out the DCU’s Flash mythos could also help definitively separate it from the Flash-related storytelling that came before. For starters, it would provide a clean break away from Miller’s Barry, who takes on a decidedly different interpretation from the comics, and who (for better or for worse) will always be a tie to the ever-convoluted “Snyderverse” of storytelling. It would also provide a familiar, but fresh new angle for fans familiar with The CW’s recently-wrapped, long-running The Flash TV show, which chronicled Grant Gustin’s journey as Barry for the better part of a decade. While Keiynan Lonsdale portrayed a version of Wally on The Flash television show and other Arrowverse spinoffs, it also took some narrative liberties with his comic characterization, leaving fans still eager to see a fully-realized version of the character in live-action.

And on the topic of those fans — for a generation of DC consumers, who either read comics in the 1990s and 2000s or tuned in to various DC-related animated shows, Wally is seen as the definitive Flash. There is absolutely no shortage of Wally stories that could make good fodder onscreen, both in his attempts to vanquish evil, and in his personal life with his now-wife Linda Park and his multiple children. Based on the ten DCU titles that Gunn and Safran have announced thus far, it sounds like their approach to canon will involve spotlighting those emotional, quintessential stories that have yet to fully be told onscreen. It stands to reason that Wally West’s The Flash could easily join them.

Do you want to see Wally West as The Flash of the new DC Universe? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

The Flash is now playing exclusively in theaters.