Where’s Waldo: Wally West Returns In Flash Annual #3

I have been to two San Diego Comic-Cons and one Boston Comic Con since DC kicked off their New 52 reboot (and one just before, when most of DC’s plans for the characters after the reboot had become public), and there has been one question asked almost more than any other: “Excuse me, sir? You, the middle aged guy with the ponytail? Where the hell are your pants?”

But that is not the most asked question. It is vastly surpassed by, “If you see a woman in a Batgirl costume, can you give me a quick heads-up? And also pretend to be me, Dan DiDio?”

But even more asked than those everyday questions is: “What happened to Wally West, and are when we going to see him again?” It seems like you can’t swing a dead cat at SDCC without hitting a pissed-off Wally West fan, or being screamed at by outraged furries.

And the answer has always been something along the lines of, “Barry Allen is The Flash now, and that’s that.”  Despite the fact that Wally West was The Flash for just about as long as Barry Allen ever was, and that there were two generations of comic book fans who only knew Barry as Flash if they’d read Crisis On Infinite Earths, it has seemed for about two and a half years that Wally West had been consigned to the quarter bin of history.

Except, yeah: apparently he’s coming back in The Flash Annual #3.

So here’s the cover:

…and that’s all we know. Now, the natural instinct might be to assume that that’s Wally in the black suit, but there really isn’t any reason to actually think that. After all, all the story announcing Wally’s return says is that, well, Wally is gonna be returning. The guy in the black suit could be anyone: Wally, Reverse Flash after a trip to a personal stylist, Barry himself after cap of mescaline at a Cure concert, anybody.

Hell, there’s no reason to believe that Wally will even have any powers in this issue, or that he’ll bear any resemblance to the Wally West anyone remembers from the past 20 years. There’s a kid on that cover spray painting a wall; if I had to hazard a guess, that’s probably him. And for all the squalling and screeching for Wally’s return since the New 52 reboot, I doubt anyone was really considering he might return the way he was in the original Teen Titans: a preteen kid.

Honestly, I’m hoping I’m wrong about that kid with the can of Rust-O-Leum. Because I personally would love to see a return to a Wally West from years ago. Specifically, from 28 years ago, when he debuted in the post-Crisis world as written by Mike Baron: young, a little arrogant, with speed limited to the speed of sound, a raging metabolism, and trying to simultaneously live up to the example of Barry Allen while becoming his own man. Baron’s version of Wally was as complex and interesting as any I’ve ever seen, and he was able to do it because at the time, he had no history. New Flash writers Robert Venditti and Van Jensen have the same opportunity, and I’m really hoping they make the most of it.

Because otherwise, I will be online at a DC panel at SDCC, shouting, “Why didn’t you leave Wally West dead with some dignity? And where the hell are my pants?”

(via USA Today)