Chapter Fourteen: The Fastest Man Alive – Part Two
Hi guys. After chatting with Wolvmbm I got to thinking about Flash. Maybe Wally West did do well in the post Crisis era but he's not the only Flash. To be honest I didn't even put much thought into the previous chapter at all. Part of it was because I didn't want to get into a multi chapter slog as happened with Wonder Woman and partly because… I didn't love Flash as much as I should. (I was only able to make this chapter after doing a bit of research.) That's wrong of course because every character deserve a shot in the sun. So yeah, here we are. ;-)
Barry Allen: Barry Allen vs. Wally West is like Super Mario Bros vs. Super Mario Bros 3. Yes, if they are judged by their own merits and their own merits only, the one might be better. If judged in terms of impact made and in terms of laying groundwork for all subsequent iterations of it, the other is definitely the greatest.
Yes it might seem that I don't like Barry or that I'm even glad he died. That's not the case. Anything I might have said earlier was just clown talk. It was Barry who saved superhero comics by inaugurating the Silver Age and it was Barry who not only brought back the Golden Age heroes but inaugurated the multiverse with "Flash of Two Worlds." To this day Flash #123 is still one of the most important and just plain fun to read comics ever made. Maybe things did get complicated at DC by the end due to the multiverse concept but it's not Barry's fault. Quite simply, Barry is still the official greatest Flash of them all. With perhaps the sole exception of Superman, he's the quintessential superhero. "Everyone likes him."
I would not change much but I would tweak a few things so… here we go!
Young Barry Alan idolized Jay Garrick and read all the Flash comic books he inherited from his from his dad—though by 2014 his grandfather. He believed in Flash the way other kids believed in Santa Claus though unlike with other kids nobody ever told him to stop believing. That was good because he didn't exactly have the best home life growing up as a kid; his father was never home, his mother was always depressed, and his grandfather died. In time he graduated to actual biographies on Flash but, however exaggerated and fictionalized they were, it was his dad's old comic books that stole his heart. Barry really means it that if not for him reading those comics and Jay Garrick showing him what being a hero truly meant he might never have become what he is now.
A strange thing that intrigued him, however, was Central City's disappearance—that's Jay Garrick's city. It was there with the Jay Garrick Flash busting bad guys when all of a sudden it just vanished sometime in the 1950s. Barry read every book he could find on the subject and came up empty. Barry then swore as boys are wont to do that he would not only become a great hero like Flash but he would find out what ever happened to Central City.
Most people laughed at this but he would not be dissuaded and ultimately kept both. Lacking superpowers he of course could not be the Flash but he could use his knack for science to fight crime in another way. Lacking powers he became a cop to fight evil in another way as a forensic scientist. That was until he was showered by electrified chemicals that gave him his speed whereon he decided to become a new Flash.
In doing research for this chapter, I came across Mark Waid's Life Story of the [Barry Allen] Flash and it said that after the thrill of being Flash wore off, Allen grew worried of disrespecting Jay Garrick by having taken the name without permission. While that makes for good story what doesn't is Waid's retelling of "Flash of Two Worlds." It's not his fault; he merely retold Grant Morrison's post-Crisis retelling but Morrison's version—everyone forgets that there ever was a Keystone City and the people of the city were all asleep for years—could have been better. So here Keystone City was merely stuck in a time warp instead of being asleep due to the villains wanting a hidden base.
Barry Allen of course quickly realizes he's in long lost keystone City and sets out to find Jay Garrick. After telling him what HAD happened, they combine forces to catch the baddies and rescue the city. The rest of Barry's life and death follows as originally happened. (I really do have to recommend Life Story of the Flash, it's the single best summary of the Barry Allen version.)
Jay Garrick: Like I said earlier Jay Garrick was reintroduced in Flash #123, "Flash of Two Worlds," one of the most important DC comics ever made for its bringing back Golden Age characters to the DCU and inaugurating the multiverse. Up until Crisis, DC said that Jay Garrick and Barry Allen lived in separate universes; post Crisis, Barry Allen didn't vibrate across dimensions but instead vibrated through the barrier that had separated Keystone from the rest of the DCU for so long. Of course that means they could get much more easily acquainted, they weren't just fellow superheroes but neighbors and good friends.
That leads to something that the actual DCU used very little… If the Jay Garrick Flash—along with the rest of his city—was cut off from the DCU for decades what was it like when he returned? Seriously, if he went into stasis shortly after the Golden Age and appeared just a little while into the modern age of heroes that could mean he went into stasis in 1951 (last "Golden Age" issue) and came out in 1997 (date suggested by a meticulously researched fan timeline Unauthorized Chronology of the DC Universe but moved forward to account for the sliding timescale). Think of it; you're minding your own business when all of a sudden you find out its forty six years later!
DC never took advantage of it but what if? Over at Marvel, Captain America's being a "man out of time" become part of his character. Decades have passed and he worries that he's obsolete, he doesn't know what to do, and even after he carves out a new place for himself, there's always something separating him from everyone else, always the man apart. I'm not saying Jay should be a man out of time but he and others do make a city out of time. The closest DC ever came to it was a story where a gang of hoods start stealing and then selling Keystone City junk at collector's markets as ridiculously high prices. (Flash 80 page giant #2) Unless cultural mores don't change in the DCU, however, technology and fashion are the least of it.
I mean think of it, Jay crosses the bridge to visit nearby Central City to see what life in the 21st century is like. He walks into a store and asks for some cigarettes and people look at him like he's crazy. He sees two women kissing and he raises an eyebrow. He compliments a polite Negro on being a credit to his race and the previously well behaved "boy" storms off. His JSA friends would have gone through the same thing but they had the luxury of having decades to get caught up with the times as those times happened while Jay has to deal with it all at once.
While such disorientation would likely happen to any long sleeper what's different is that it's a whole city of long sleepers. Many Keystoners would likely turn into xenophobic reactionary nuts (villains anyone!) and even those who could adapt to the modern outside world would have no need to with how they are surrounded with like minded people. Keystone probably would develop a conservative streak to avoid any more change, at least until they could process all the change that's already taken place. I can easily imagine a very old fashioned city where city ordinances forbid r-rated movies from playing in theaters, the lottery is illegal, and it's safe to let your children play outside at night in part because everyone's so nice and in part because all the citizens are armed.
Jerry Ordway tried that in his Power of Shazam comic; Shazam the wizard placed a time warp spell on Fawcett City to keep outside evils at bay. Ordway failed in this respect as Captain Marvel's city came across more as clean than old fashioned.
There might perhaps be a need to retire Garrick though. It's one thing to see him active in the 1970s when he would have been in his fifties but it's quite another to see him active in 2014 when he'd by over ninety years old. Even taking into account the idea that he was in a time warp or his aging slowed, and that in real life there are those who maintain active lifestyles at that age, he's still have to be physically in his sixties. It's kind of mean to have a man that old doing the work the next generation should have taken over a long time ago.
There are some parts of the New 52 reboot I really like and the fact Jay has been rebooted as a young man is one of them.
Wally West and Jesse (Quick) Chambers: I bring them together because their paths are very similar in this. Raised by an earlier speedster to one day become heroes, both Wally and Jesse eventually take up their mantles. The former of course managed to retire from civilian life when he inherited a reformed villain's money upon said man's death. (Day job? Wally mocks the idea of day jobs!) He was effectively a "fulltime" superhero with his girlfriend/wife Linda Park bringing in the paychecks. Jesse on the other hand, managed a double life as a heroine and as a corporate CEO.
As I said, Wally and Linda eventually married in the actual comics in 2000. (Vol. 2 #159) They also had two kids, Jai and Iris who inherited a portion of their father's power. Thing is, being a father is one of the biggest responsibilities any man can have and Wally would feel that burden that much more keenly. His own father, Rudolph West, was said to be a hard man from whom he received little love; as nice a guy as our man is he would doubtless try to give Jai and Iris the love he never got from his father. This only becomes stronger with how his Uncle Barry showed him exactly what a father should be like. That in the end is probably why Wally was so close to his uncle, retroactively speaking.
If a man isn't willing to give 110 percent to his children, he has no right to call himself a father. My own mom quit her job when I was born and why not? My dad was making good enough money to cover any losses. By the same token, if the wife is the better wage earner and there are children, then there is no logical reason why the husband shouldn't be a stay at home dad in order to look out for them. Who else would look after the children, daycare? My dad can be a mean old cuss but I would have much rather been raised by him as a stay-at-home-dad than strangers whose only interest in me would have been the fees I could bring.
That's something I didn't quite like about Geoff Johns' run on Flash; giving Wally a day job and a secret identity. Wally's public identity and lack of a day job set him apart both from other heroes and more importantly from Barry Allen. It also made no sense concerning his fatherhood. I can understand Wally wanting a secret identity by that point to keep his kids safe but to have a day job when he's already a full time hero, a Justice Leaguer, a husband, AND a dad? Not even he's fast enough! So…
Wally West has been Flash, both in name and in spirit, for years. Nobody doubts his worthiness to the name. Even Captain Cold, in a sort of reverse respect, has stopped going easy on him for being a sidekick and started fighting him like he fought Uncle Barry. Like I said, when he took up his uncle's name he at subconsciously tried to be a bad Flash for fear that he might one day eclipsing his beloved uncle. When a villain tried to disgrace his Barry Allen's memory, however, he forced himself to not only be as fast as his uncle but faster. At long last, his childhood dream of growing up to become Flash has true, he's made it! And it all changes when he gets Linda pregnant with twins.
He looks around at the kids of superheroes and gets worried. Some kids are killed by their father's villain (Arthur "Aquababy" Junior by Black Manta). Some grow up hating their fathers for loving their sidekicks more than them (Hector Hall towards his dad, Golden Age Hawkman). Wally eventually calls in fellow speedster Jesse Chambers with whom he has worked with in the past and lays out a plan.
Wally has no need of money whatsoever; he's set for life financially. What he will need is time as there is no way he can keep up with all the responsibilities he already has and be a good father on top of it. He wants to a good father to his kids, a better father than Rudolph West was to him. With how the babies stand to be born with superpowers, he, not Linda, will have to spend a lot of time with them lest they start sonic booms by crawling at super speed. Wally asks Jesse Chambers if she can be Flash.
She at first isn't sure but Wally knows she can do it. She's really the only one as Johnny Quick is dead by that point and Hermes is too out there. Jay Garrick is an old man and just isn't as strong as he used to be. Wally reassures Jesse that he'll still be there to give her back up when she needs it and he still plans to serve as a Justice Leaguer. (It would be almost criminal for him to have the power and not use it to help others somehow.) Day-to-day superheroics in Keystone City and Central City, however, will be in her hands.
Jesse agrees and dons a modified Kid Flash costume, adding a black jacket and red sunglasses. After Wally introduces her to the public and there gives her an official stamp of approval, Jesse takes over as Flash IV. She quickly earns the name as how now Wally is only a part-time super hero in order to focus on his family and… because she's just that good. Jesse arguably stands to be an even better Flash than Wally as she not only has her father's speed but also her mother's super strength. All across America, little girls sign up for track and little boys put up posters of their mutual girlfriend in their rooms.
It comes full circle when, after a few years pass, little Iris successfully petitions her father to be Jesse's sidekick. Iris dreams of being a superhero and after getting permission begins formal training under "Aunt" Jesse as Impulse. Flash IV gladly welcomes her apprentice and the two lovely ladies together race the lightning. It warms Wally's heart; it's him and Uncle Barry all over again. As for Wally, the fact that both his kids, Jai and Iris, have gained full control of their powers and go to school means that he has enough free time to resume active superheroics. He makes sure, however, to tell everyone that Jesse will keep her codename. The world's big enough for two Flashes.
That's not to say that he's spent all that time just playing Mr. Mom. Like he told Jesse when he first made the arrangement, he stayed busy with the Justice League and whipped the rookies into shape. Wally sometimes felt a little out of place, taking his uncle's place on the team but uncertainty evaporated when Kyle Rayner joined as Green Lantern. Wally knows that Hal had to leave Earth to deal with some intergalactic threat with all the rest of the Corps and that this Kyle is the best replacement that the Guardians could come up with on such short notice but… argh! The new Green Arrow is even worse in that respect. Wally just hopes that he wasn't such a rookie when he took up the name Flash…
What can I say, I like women in spandex! It's worth remembering that in "real life" Wally already gave Jesse his name when he was wheelchair bound, even if sadly it was a hoax to get Impulse to take things more seriously, so there is precedence. (Vol. 2 #131)She would have also stood to be a much better Flash IV as she had already been an adult superhero for years when Bart Allan took up the name Flash because he was a guy and he had been artificially aged to adulthood.
Besides, Flash is a gender neutral name and, at the risk of sounding sexist, super speed is somewhat more feminine than manly strength. It's easier to imagine a female Flash than a female Aquaman/Aquawoman. We already saw Wally's daughter as Kid Flash in the possible future of Kingdom Come—which is where the costume design came from—and one Elseworlds, Superman/Batman Generations showed a very convincing Flash IV. She wore a modified Kid Flash costume and was dating that continuity's Kyle Rayner Green Lantern.
Hermes/Max Mercury and Impulse: This is another double header. It all goes back to the Quality Comics' Golden Age super hero Quicksilver. He was a very vague character with neither a real name nor an origin; all that we knew was that he was fast. Debuting less than a year after Jay Garrick, he was a Flash also-ran and never caught up. In fact, when Mark Waid found him, he'd been languishing first in Quality limbo and then DC limbo for decades. That of course meant that Waid could reinvent him anyway he wanted without contradicting anything.
In real life, Quicksilver became Max Mercury, zen master of sped, and mentored various speedsters, including Barry Allen's grandson Impulse. Here though…
Hermes/Mercury was always a little more active in the mortal sphere than his fellow Olympian gods. He was a fun loving rogue and always ready for another journey. With Zeus forbidding any more direct interference in mortal affairs in the wake of Christianity, however, that changed. Hermes learned the hard way that good old days were over when he saw the mortals smashing his statues to powder and burning down his temples. Worse, their new god not only shielded the turncoat mortals from his attacks but when he tried to fight the new god himself… well, there's a reason that from then on he swore to always wear a disguise when in the mortal world. Yes it was partly to operate in the human world without breaking Zeus' laws—and more importantly not provoke the Divine (with a capital "D") to anger.
He ultimately adapted well to all this, disguises were nothing new to trickster Hermes, after all. Also, while he missed the temples and incense, hearing applause from mortals for whatever heroic identity he'd created for that adventure had its own charm. It continued through the centuries, every generation he'd appear somewhere new, don a disguise, save the day, and enjoy the cheers of the crowd before saying goodbye and moving on.
In the 1940s Hermes adopted the name Quicksilver and became a "superhero." He ultimately revealed his real name to speedsters Jay Garrick and Johnny Chambers, giving the new fellows training in their speed. Hermes was closer to Garrick, though, with how his uniform was meant to honor him. This continued with the later Flashes though straight laced scientist Barry Allen never quite liked him. The more relaxed Wally West had an easier time though.
In the Flash family, Hermes found perhaps, some of the only real worshippers he had left and took them under his protection. It's not every day he would play Yoda, but he'd appear at irregular intervals to give advice or comfort in times of need. He tried to cheer up Wally after his uncle died in the Crisis, for example. When there's myth or magic involved, Hermes played backup.
Meanwhile, in the future Iris Allan, mourned her late husband Barry. She didn't mourn him forever as she was pregnant with his children. She lived a happy life with her kids the Tornado Twins but things took a turn when Don Allan's son Bart was born with a condition that caused him to age at an extreme speed. Remembering Wally and Hermes, Iris arranged for her grandson to be sent to the past so that perhaps he might be saved.
For his part, Hermes was having a fine time. The Flashes were keeping the brand alive, he could walk openly for the first time in centuries, he palled around with Wonder Woman, and he was once again serving as Olympus messenger to the mortal world, the superhero community in particular. (He shares that with Diana, especially after she becomes a goddess.) Thus when some punk kid named Impulse shows up and says you have to take care of me, he's thrown for a loop.
I'll be honest, I only know very little about Impulse—most of it's from DC wiki. I read a few Young Justice comics and maybe three Flash comics he starred in. From what I do know, it would be nice to see Hermes tearing his hair out with having to raise Bart Allan. ("I don't believe it. The kid's giving me gray hair and I'm supposed to be immortal!") What would make it more difficult is that Hermes would know that he behaved the exact same way when he was a boy. In such a set up Hermes would wind up going to see his bother Apollo and apologize for stealing his pet cows when he was a baby. That one's an actual myth you know.
Beyond that, I just don't know enough about Impulse to say anything authoritative about him. I know he started out as bordering on ADHD; one comic I read has him playing Truth-or-Dare and curling up into a ball and whimpering when he's dared to be quiet. I don't know how seriously Young Justice can be taken but even if exaggerated that does reveal something. It was eventually called out when he made the decision to grow up and became Kid Flash.
All I can say was that his becoming Flash IV was a mistake. While Impulse seemed to be maturing his getting the name Flash the way he did felt artificial and forced. He disappears and returns later having aged to adulthood so that means he can be Flash? Doesn't work, especially with how he was ultimately de-aged and turned back in to a teenager.
I don't fault the writers for the last part; part of a shared universe is that maintaining consistency with other writers means that things can change instantly. (And of course, the editors make their decisions.) Still it seemed to be all for nothing. Who knows, maybe here Impulse will not only become Kid Flash but after growing up become a heroic version of Zoom! ("Hey Grandma Iris, what do you think of my new Reverse Flash costume?" "Take off that filth this instant young man! Right now!)
Johnny Quick/Liberty Belle: I really have no thoughts for either Johnny Quick or his wife Liberty Belle for the simple reason that I don't know enough about either version to say anything definitive. I know that Johnny Quick eventually died and that Liberty Belle eventually retired from active superheroics. I have one issue of JSA (2000s version, #54) where she's gone on to become a cool old lady.
It's Thanksgiving and the other Golden Age heroes' wives are now old wrinkled and gray haired but Libby look like she's in her fifties. When asked about her relative youth—she was so pretty in her costume!—she just said that nothing fights wrinkles like super strength. That was nice as was her badgering her daughter to get married. "Sweety, Hour Man II is cute and he cooks!" I'd have liked to see more of that.
Author's Notes: I hoped you liked this and thanks to Wolvmbm for reminding me of my duty. For now however I'll be getting back to work on Aquaman, or more precisely Atlantis. It will draw some inpsiration from Peter David's Atlantis Chronicles but go in own direction. After that's the Martian Manhunter, and then Captain Marvel. Past that, the Justice League and then… only God knows. For now however, long live the King of the Seven Seas!
Sir Thames: Hello good sir and thanks for you kind words. :-) Yes I have heard of the New 52 and as to my thoughts... mixed to favorable. Somethings I don't like such as losing Wally, or Captain Marvel being some punk kid. Some things I do like such as Superman and Wonder Woman dating, a chance to latch on to the story without having to know decades worth of back issues. (There are limits to how many comics a man can read!) All in all, I'm cautiously optimistic and willing to give it a shot.
Wolvbm: Thanks for the kind words! It'll be Aquaman, than Manhunter, and then either the League and its related teams or Captain Marvel.
Michael Weyer: Well sometimes there's not much to do though as Wolvbm reminded me, you can always find something else. ;-)
Ultimas: You'll like what I have planned for the hook hand. :-D But I must say, what you said about the Manhunter sounds nice. Can I use it? Oh and what do you think of Impulse showing his Grandma Iris his new costume? :-p