Line #61 Trivia/TheFlash


1	!!Trivia with Their Own Pages
2	[[index]]
3	* [[ReferencedBy/TheFlash Referenced By]]
4	[[/index]]
5	----
6	!!About the DC Comic Book series and characters.
7	* AscendedFanon: Fans had been suggesting since Creator/JoshuaWilliamson's run to rename Wallace West II "Ace West" in order to make distinguishing him from his older cousin easier. Jeremy Adams' run decided to introduce this as an AffectionateNickname Wally himself calls him (which turns out to be an EmbarrassingNickname), and begins telling others about it to encourage its usage.
8	* BeamMeUpScotty: Eobard Thawne is popularly associated with the line "It was me, Barry!", used to [[MemeticTroll memetically illustrate]] his sheer levels of [[EvilIsPetty pettiness]]. However, Thawne has never actually said the line verbatim - it's a paraphrase of a longer monologue.
9	* CreatorBacklash:
10	** Both Creator/MarkWaid (Bart's creator) and Creator/GeoffJohns (the guy who wrote the story where it happened) have made it ''very'' clear that they hated Bart adopting the Kid Flash codename.
11	** Artist Brett Booth was ''very'' vocal about his displeasure with Wally's initial absence from the New 52. In an example of this working out for the best, when DC decided it was time to reintroduce Wally, they approached Booth about taking over art duties on the series.
12	** Ironically, Geoff Johns himself was displeased by Wally's treatment in the New 52 and went as far as to make the original Wally the main character of ''DC Universe: Rebirth'', using him as an AuthorAvatar to rail against the New 52.
13	** Mark Waid has made no secret of his disdain for DC's treatment of Wally, the character he helped define.
14	* CreatorsFavorite:
15	** Mark Waid has made it clear that Wally is his favorite Flash, though he never disrespected the other Flashes or anything.
16	** Geoff Johns' favorite character ''overall'' is Barry Allen, and he's the guy who brought Barry back. Years later, he would also say Wally was his favorite.
17	** Joshua Williamson has said that his favourite has always depended on his age; as a child it was Bart Allen as Impulse, as a young adult he loved Wally's time as the Flash, and as he approaches middle-age it's now Barry Allen.
18	** Each of the above three have also spoken about who their favorite villains are. Mark Waid's is Abra Kadabra, Geoff Johns' is Captain Cold, and Josh Williamson's is Zoom (both Thawne and Zolomon). This is readily apparent in their runs, where Waid turned Kadabra into Wally's arch-enemy, Johns turned Cold into a VillainProtagonist for long stretches of the book, and Williamson made extensive use of both Zooms.
19	* CreatorsPest:
20	** Wally West is this for former DC co-publisher Creator/DanDiDio, which he [[https://www.gamesradar.com/former-dc-publisher-dan-didio-on-the-new-52-vs-rebirth-and-why-he-hated-wally-and-dick fully admitted to]] shortly after his ousting from DC. Apparently because he believed Wally's LegacyCharacter and former status as a sidekick meant he was 'subservient' to Barry and ultimately only an extension of Barry, despite Barry himself being a Legacy Character too.
21	** Jay Faerber, who wrote the ''Titans'' comic in the early 2000s, was ''really'' not a fan of Jesse Quick, outright describing her as a character who didn't fit with the other Titans. Despite the fact Devin Grayson wrote him an out beforehand with Jesse quitting the team, he decided to keep her around so that she could become an impulsive and immature jerk who has an affair with her mother's fiance.
22	* ExecutiveMeddling
23	** When ''Titans'' and ''Young Justice'' was merged to create the 2003 ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'' revival, Bart was renamed "Kid Flash" and given a new personality, removing his ADHD-driven, humorous personality to turn him into a brooding teenager who kept wanting to be taken seriously. Geoff Johns has made it ''very'' clear that this wasn't his idea and he actually hated it and commiserated with Mark Waid about it. Bart's been acting more like his old self since his resurrection, which was also written by Johns (and by that time, Johns had much more clout at DC).
24	** Previously, Wally's Crisis-era depowering fits with the general trend to bring top-level heroics down to less fantastic levels.
25	** Treatment of Wally West and the rest of Flash Family not named Barry Allen is unfortunately disappointing due to higher ups.
26	** Wally's Rebirth suit having an open top for his hair. Brett Booth has said he wanted to have it closed, but the higher-ups wanted it open (probably to help distinguish him from Barry, since eye colour is hard to show in all-but close-ups and Wally's lightning color is subject to DependingOnTheArtist).
27	** It's become something of an open secret that mid-way through Joshua Williamson's run, roughly around the time of ''Flash War'', he began to get many of his ideas interfered with by editorial, and many of his planned ideas were stalled or rejected. He intended for ''Flash War'' to be his big finale and would have featured the return of the Flash Family, but editors nixed this (supposedly because Barry Allen shouldn't have a Flash Family) and instead had him stay on the book for several more arcs. It's notable because this is about when fans turned on his run, and it wasn't until he was freed from their interference that fan reception warmed up again.
28	* FollowTheLeader:
29	** It's hard to imagine comic books without speedsters. Jay Garrick was the very first.
30	** The Speed Force. After it was introduced, the concept of a MetaOrigin that blends sci-fi with fantasy mysticism has became a fairly common trope across other superhero franchises, such as ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' with the "Web of Life and Destiny" that unites the Spider-Verse, to the Gamma rays-connected Green Door from ''ComicBook/ImmortalHulk'', to more low-key ideas like in ''ComicBook/XMen'' comics depicting ComicBook/{{Cyclops}}' EyeBeams being energy from a 'Punch Dimension'.
31	* FountainOfExpies:
32	** As The Flash was the first hero with the SuperSpeed gimmick (other heroes existed beforehand with the power, but it was always alongside other powers; Jay Garrick was the first with the gimmick of only having SuperSpeed), the speedster archetype itself all come down from copying this.
33	*** This in large part is how and why the modern Flash Family became a thing. Besides the Silver Age retooling of the character creating Barry Allen and Wally West, before them, Quality Comics' Quicksilver and DC's own Johnny Quick were created as copies of Jay Garrick, the latter of whom was subsequently brought into the Flash umbrella and eventually established as having been a fan of Jay Garrick. In the 90s, Mark Waid revived Quicksilver (who had fallen into Public Domain), changed his name to Max Mercury, and used him and Johnny (as well as Johnny's then-recently introduced daughter, Jesse) to introduce form the modern Flash Family.
34	** Hunter Zolomon has become this for ''any'' version of newly created (or recreated in case of ''ComicBook/New52'' Eobard Thawne) evil speedsters, including the other adaptations of Reverse-Flash.
35	** Daniel West is the first to be inspired by Hunter; he believes his entire life is a big tragedy due to his father's abuse and his greatest desire is to go back in time to fix where everything went wrong for him. He has a connection to the Speed Force, but his powers are also time-based, allowing him to rewind time a few seconds back.
36	** The TV show adaptation of Eobard Thawne heavily borrows from Hunter with a few twists; he is an EvilCripple who becomes an ally to Flash and trains Barry to improve him as a hero albeit with less sadistic ways. The only true difference is that Thawne (during his impersonation) is revealed to be EvilAllAlong, and was never ''truly'' a friend to the Flash.
37	** The aborted movie adaptation of ''The Flash'' also features Thawne as a paraplegic scientist.
38	** Barry Allen ''himself'' can count as an example, his changed origin heavily resemble Hunter's, with his father killing his mother (though in Barry's case, Henry Allen is framed) and Barry using this tragedy as a motivation to join law enforcement and solve his case. The TV show even uses this to draw parallels between the two characters.
39	** Eobard Thawne's New 52 version is basically a CompositeCharacter of himself and Hunter; he has Hunter's TimeMaster powers and his TilMurderDoUsPart origins. This has fortunately been undone by ComicBook/DCRebirth though.
40	** August Heart as Godspeed takes it to a whole new level by being a CompositeCharacter of Hunter's two versions:
41	*** Just like Hunter, he is introduced as part of the police department and a close ally/friend of the Flash. His push to villainy is fuelled by Barry's refusal to contemplate killing his enemies (like Professor Zoom). He also has a tragic failure in his past that motivates him and wants to show the Flash that there is a [[PayEvilUntoEvil better way]] to handle his enemies.
42	*** And like the TV show version of Zoom, he wears a similar suit (only with reverse colors), uses clones to mislead people on his secret identity and hunts down other speedsters to gain more power and become the greatest speedster.
43	* MarthDebutedInSmashBros: The Flash's theatrical debut was in 2014's ''WesternAnimation/TheLegoMovie''.
44	* OldShame:
45	** Van Jensen, co-writer of the most divisive run on The Flash, admits that he's extremely disappointed in himself and he's only satisfied with his back-up issues featuring Nu Wally.
46	** Geoff Johns clearly didn't like how his pushing of Barry negatively effected Wally, and ''DC Rebirth'' was conceived largely in-part to try and undo this.
47	** Tom King has made it clear he regrets ''ComicBook/HeroesInCrisis'' and what it did to Wally, and even applauded Jeremy Adams for retconning that story to fix it.
48	* RenamedToAvoidAssociation: Max Mercury was initially named Quicksilver, but the character dropped into obscurity after the Golden Age. By the time the character was rebooted in the '90s, Creator/MarvelComics had already made significant mileage with ''their'' speedster named ComicBook/{{Quicksilver}}, and so the character was renamed.
49	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
50	** In the ''The Flash: Rebirth'' collected edition and on Twitter, Geoff Johns' pitch for the 2010 Flash series is included, and features a more substantial role for Wally in the form of a backup story written by Johns and drawn by Scott Kolins. However, as the pitch concludes by noting it would be leading into ''ComicBook/{{Flashpoint}}'' in 2011, it appears that much of this dropped due to the ScheduleSlip the final issues of ''The Flash: Rebirth'' suffered from.
51	*** Creator/EthanVanSciver also said in a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ2PBzNlTNI live-chat]] that there were plans for a book called "All Flash" before Flashpoint, which was to focus exclusively on Wally and his kids. However, the editors got scared of that the phrase "All Flash, No Substance" would be used to insult the book. According to Sciver, that phrase alone killed the book.
52	*** There were also talks about [[https://speedforce.org/2009/12/all-barry/ a Kid Flash series focused on Bart]], scripted by Sterling Gates (who would later write for the Flash TV series) as part of the post-Flash Rebirth status quo, but it was scrapped by DC in favor of only one Flash book, focusing on Barry.
53	** Artist Ethan van Sciver started making commentaries on comics on his [[https://www.youtube.com/user/fascistfrog/playlists Youtube channel]]. When talking about ''The Flash: Rebirth'', he revealed that he planned to create [[TheFamilyThatSlaysTogether a family of evil speedsters]] for Professor Zoom, including a wife, a daughter (called [[PunnyName Mara Thawne]]) and Impulse's nemesis Inertia, as he believed that Thawne wasn't intimidating enough if he had to face the whole Flash family by himself. However, the New 52 ended that idea.
54	*** Van Sciver, who designed the Black Lanterns for the ''ComicBook/BlackestNight'' event, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tvOtwoHUpA also revealed]] that before editorial approved ''The Flash: Rebirth'', it was "quite possible" that Johns would have brought back Barry as one of the main Black Lanterns. This would also give Wally Barry's place as deuteragonist of the story alongside Hal Jordan.
55	** Johns planned to make Jai West the new Turtle, and Irey's EvilCounterpart. This never came about thanks to the New 52.
56	** Prior to Wally's New 52 reintroduction, Brett Booth posted several ideas for Wally's costume on his personal blog - Whilst mostly resembling the costume Wally had been wearing prior to the reboot, one major difference was [[http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OqeBA5lD4Ew/TmwKahX6nHI/AAAAAAAACIs/S1b8Bry1yjw/s1600/WallyRunRed.jpg the use of black on the hands and the waist down]] to give Wally a costume that whilst resembling Barry's, would allow the reader to easily distinguish between the two Flashes at a glance; and an alternate color scheme on the same costume, [[http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1T5Z-NsGi2s/TnTZSGKEJuI/AAAAAAAACI0/1QQxkSPDxa4/s1600/WallyRunBlue+%25281%2529.jpg replacing the red and gold other with blue & silver]]. Ultimately, Booth would use different designs when he got to introduce a future version of New 52 Wally as the Flash, and when he got to design Wally's new costume upon his return in ''ComicBook/DCRebirth''.
57	** There were [[http://www.bleedingcool.com/2014/01/12/late-night-fun-the-flash-video-game-that-might-have-been/ plans]] for a ''The Flash'' game made by [=BottleRocket=] and Brash Entertainment. The game was cancelled in 2008 when Brash went belly up. With a story written by Marv Wolfman, it would have starred the Wally West Flash and had him deal with his famed RoguesGallery. In-game footage from the alpha had ''very'' obvious nods to Sonic (beyond the running part, there were dash pads and grinding) and the Spider-Man games. It was also highly possible to play as other speedsters from the Flash Family. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLE51D8DC24EBCBFA5&v=-fGs1QcUWsg According to this video]], the game initially started out with the idea of having the Flash help out in other legendary DC city locations, like Metropolis and Gotham City, but curtailed it back to just Central and Keystone City. Instead, it would focus on the Wally West Flash during the first year of his superhero carrer, justifying the need for tutorials and such as Wally would be getting the hang of being the Flash. The Flash would deal with his Rogues Gallery before facing down the ultimate villains of the game, Gorilla Grodd and Professor Zoom. There would also be an online multiplayer mode that would allow players to race against other speedsters with the possibility of even bringing in Superman.
58	** Iris West was slated to [[https://www.cbr.com/flash-iris-west-allen-nearly-killed/ be killed]] all the way back in Flash #176 in 1967, six years before Gwen Stacy was killed in ''ComicBook/TheNightGwenStacyDied''. The cover proposed for the issue was instead used for #184 with an altered storyline.
59	** Since the early 2000s, there had been plans for a film adaptation of ''The Flash'', with Creator/RyanReynolds attached to star as Wally West. He's long since aged out of the role, but he's remarked on it a few times since then as he was a big fan of the character, and by the time a Flash movie became possible, DC had shunted Wally away to use Barry instead.
60	* ScienceMarchesOn: Jay Garrick's original origin story had him receive his powers after accidentally inhaling "hard water" vapors. Hard water is a real thing, but it's just water with a high mineral content. This was later retconned to be heavy water, which is essentially water where the hydrogen atoms are all deuterium. Heavy water ''does'' have physical effects on living beings, but these are both quite harmful (like irreversible sterility in animals), and would for a human necessitate weeks of intentional exposure before any effects can really take hold.
61	** There also exists tritiated water, often called "super heavy water", water with radioactive tritium isotopes which might have been what the writers were ''actually'' referring too, given that The Flash was created during the infancy of nuclear research, and that for decades after, super powers coming from radiation became a superhero cliché. Of course these days we know that ingesting a radioactive substance wouldn't give you any powers, but would probably either kill you or cause serious health complications.

Context Trivia / TheFlash