Wally West 'graduated' to Flash role in 1987

Word Balloons #1216: Speedster replaced his mentor Barry Allen for around two decades

May is graduation season, and I’ve been on hand for a few this year! So in this week’s column, I’ll take a look at a character best-known for graduating into a new superheroic identity! 

Kid Flash was Wally West, introduced as a sidekick to Barry Allen, the Silver Age Flash, back in December 1959’s “Flash” #110. 

This Kid Flash, who soon dons a striking yellow costume and red lightning bolt, was a founding member of the Teen TItans.  

When Barry Allen died in “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” it was up to Kid Flash to take on the mantle of the Flash. 

West was the primary Flash for more than 200 issues in the late 1980s into the 2000s, with writers including Mike Baron, William Messner-Loebs, Geoff Johns, and Mark Waid. 

The artists on this run are also an acclaimed group, including Butch Guice, Greg LaRocque and Mike Weiringo.

There are dozens of recommended Wally West stories from issues #0-247 of the “Flash” run. But today, I’ll focus just on the first featuring the hero as the Flash – 1987’s “Flash” #1. 

Writer Mike Baron joins artist Jackson “Butch” Guice for this launch of the former Teen Titan into the lead of the “Flash” feature. Larry Mahlstedt is the inker. It’s Wally’s birthday, but before he can celebrate, he’s pulled into an emergency situation as a science-fiction author needs a heart transplant – but there’s no way for the heart to get there in time. 

Wally doesn’t have the unlimited energy of his predecessor, needing to consume huge amounts of calories to spark his superspeed. And while he’s faster than any human – around the speed of sound – he’s not able to reach the massive speeds reached by Barry Allen at this time. In this first issue, West is tasked with transporting the heart needed for a transplant across the country in the midst of a huge storm – with a supervillain on his trail. This issue was later adapted for an episode of “Young Justice.” There are lots of great details in this issue, and Guice does a great job of creating the feeling of speed in the static format of a comic-book page. West appears as a flawed young man who is ultimately heroically striving to meet the standard set by his mentor.  

Over the next 247 issues, we see West grow as a character under a variety of creative teams building on each others’ work, crafting one of the best long runs of one character in one title of the era.

Matthew Price, matthew@matthewlprice.com, has written about the comics industry for more than two decades. He is the co-owner of Speeding Bullet Comics in Norman, Oklahoma.