Ryan Daly and Bass review the origin of the third Flash, Wally West, from Secret Origins Annual #2. Then, Ryan and Nicholas Prom discuss the second Flash, Barry Allen.
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- Check out Bass’ Lonely Hearts Romance Comics Podcast at: http://fireandwaterpodcast.com/show/lonelyhearts/
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- Check out Nicholas Prom at Comic Reflections at: https://comicreflections.wordpress.com
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“Premonition” (Theme for Secret Origins Podcast) written and performed by Neil Daly.
Additional music: “Always On the Run” by Lenny Kravitz; “Born to Run” by Bruce Springsteen; “If” by Rudyard Kipling (read by Paul Scavitto).
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Halfway through this episode and loving it! Wally West was also “my Flash”. I started during the Messner-Loebs run and followed it through to Wally’s eventual disappearance. In fact, Wally is one of my top five favorite comic book characters! Hearing Bass’s love letter to Wally warmed my heart. We should get Bass on more FIRE & WATER PODCAST NETWORK shows! He’s one of the family now!
Quick note on Wally’s costume, in his own series he wore a costume identical to Barry’s for the first 50 issues. In issue 50 he got the white lenses, shiny suit, and pointed lightning belt. Therefore the cover featuring both guys looking similar is about right. The only real difference is that Wally would probably been a little skinnier than Barry.
The dramatic reading of the poem…. Wow! Great job, Paul!
Just realized what that cover looks like!! Remember the ROBIN III: CRY OF THE HUNTRESS mini-series with the ridiculous covers? They had those parallel lines with a slider which you could move to simulate a moving image. These Secret Origins lines look like that! Except there is nothing to slide to move the image. Ha!
Exactly! I wonder if it was a gimmick cover that fell through and it was too late to change the art. I always figured I’d gotten the nasty newsstand version and the comic book shop elite had the cover that actually worked. I guess not!
This is one of my favorite issues of Secret Origins, probably because I’ve always been a huge Flash fan. I’m kind of split on which Flash is “mine”, since I did read the Flash title for several years pre-Crisis, and followed Wally from beginning to end.
Wally’s backstory presentation here is interesting, since the actual character of Wally West was radically changed post-Crisis by Baron. Sure, he still looked the same, but Wally went from one of the most morally conservative heroes in comics under Marv Wolfman, with a very Cleaver-esque set of parents, to a womanizing, money-loving super speed gigolo with a VERY dysfunctional family, including a Manhunter for a dad! Jason Todd may be the only other major DC character at the time who got such an extreme personality adjustment.
Messner Loebs SLOWLY reconciled the two a bit. His Wally seemed like it could be that same kid from New Teen Titans going through a weird phase in his life, which may include some psychoanalysis. Of course Waid really took the reins of making Wally his own man, and finally putting the ghost of Barry behind him, as you guys pointed out. And then DC just undid all of that by bringing Barry back. Sigh.
I do think the angle of the “post-hypnotic suggestion” Barry may or may not have planted on Wally’s powers COULD tie into the idea of the Speed Force, which definitely seems to be floated in the second story, for the first time. Waid HAD to have this in his back pocket when developing the Speed Force. I think that circular origin works, but I do admit, the lightning bolt talking to Barry is just…weird. I think Flemming was REALLY going for a Silver Age vibe here, and probably a bit of the Mopee story as Nicholas mentions. The middle section with the Rogues is just a nice little vignette encapsulating the entire Silver Age run of the Flash series.
I do love the ending, despite the flaws of the set up. Take out those unnecessary additions and you have a wonderful coda to not only this tale, but to Barry’s life and career. Remember, the “Trial of the Flash” was MASSIVELY maligned by about every comic reader at the time (including this one) because it just wouldn’t end, and no one at DC would make a creative team change to save the book, for some odd reason. So this was a nice, final good-bye to the character in a way. Little did we know….
The cover, yeah, Shag is right (Heaven help us!), it does remind me of the Robin III mini. The lenticular/flicker/Secret Wars shield effect. But it just doesn’t work.
Nice to hear Bass on another F&W show. There’s something about his voice that reminds me of Diedrich Bader with a French accent. And that is not a bad thing!
Chris
To me, this is easily the greatest single issue of Secret Origins and two of the greatest Flash stories of all-time.
The Wally West origin basically set-up the William Messner-Loebs run and everything that came after it. It is a shame that the wonderful work that Messner-Loebs did on The Flash (vol.2) gets such a short shrift from Bass. Mike Baron and Jackson Guice did fun stuff in the first year (and introduced a lot of NEW stuff), but Messner-Loebs and Greg LaRouque were brilliant. It was a lot more than “Whiny Wally” and it really did lay the foundation of everything to come, including the current Flash TV series. It is sad that it is not in print.
As historic as the Wally West origin was, the Barry Allen origin was a total mind-bender and kind of the perfect ending for the character.
I’ve said this many times before, but lots of people have a kneejerk reaction to a given power set (magic most commonly) and mine is super speed. I can suspend an awful lot of disbelief, but when a dude’s ability is to hit you a thousand times before you can even perceive he’s in the room, you’ve got to throw him at Galactus to make things interesting. Some writers get mileage out of exploring the science of superspeed, but they usually sidestep the true consequences of the power, and there’s still the issue of whom to have them fight. Too often, it’s just another superspeedster with a similar bag of tricks, so whoop de do. Also, speedsters tend to get by on applications of that one power, so you better be buying fast things, because that’s all they’re selling.
I was introduced to Wally West through New Teen Titans and his few animated appearances. I never liked him. He was whiny, judgmental, and so thoroughly derivative of his mentor that the only quality he had to offer was a better costume. I did pick up an early issue of the ’87 series relatively new as a discounted dinged copy at a comic shop. It featured Vandal Savage and I liked that guy immediately. I dug the Butch Guice art and Mike Baron leaning into Wally being a jerk through his adulterous affair with Speed Demon’s better half. It was enough to get me to buy a few more Millennium period issues off the newsstand, but my interest faded quickly. I tried the book repeatedly during Mark Waid’s run, especially stretches from #80-86 & #92-102. Not only couldn’t I get past my dislike of Wally, but it seemed to me Waid was writing something closer to a stealth Superman family with all the speedsters. I also sampled Morrison/Millar, and liked what Geoff Johns did with the Rogues, but still no love for Wally or Asian Lois Iris Lane West. I did appreciate that Wally showed legacy heroes could work in the DCU, but at the same time, Wally himself had nothing going for him besides being the kid sidekick that grew up to take the mantle. I’m glad his development helped keep Barry’s seat warm and heavily informed his personality expansion beyond Silver Age 2D into something sustainable across multimedia, but ultimately Wally West’s greatest service was as a beta test for creating a truly iconic Flash out of a lucky bum placeholder.
It is because of this issue I started buying Flash. I hadn’t like Wally much in New Teen Titans I had thought of him as “boring” so I had no reason to read him as Flash. Also as a kid I wasn’t a fan of the Silver Age Flash. Not sure why, I didn’t dislike him, just wasn’t my thing. So I had bought zero issues of Flash’s post Crisis. But I was collecting S.O. and thus bought this issue. I love the time loop of in the second story, I always love a good time loop. I loved the Wally West story enough to start buying the Flash comic. This for me is where the “legacy hero” peice of Flash began. It’s also the first place I ecountered the poem “If”….
Just my thoughts on this book at about 1/4 though the episode… I’m enjoying the episode very much.
The cover is a fine idea that just didn’t work in practice. Have had a lot of those, myself.
Nicholas’ question “Why wasn’t SO just a reprint book?” made me chuckle, because of course the first DC series to bear the title SECRET ORIGINS was just that–a reprint title. And it has one up on this later version, because IT FEATURED AQUAMAN!!
Great episode (IBID).
So, I’m reading along in my copy as I listen. I have about an hour left in my listening. I love the coverage of the first story AND the story is as good as I remember. Such joy. But I had to stop the pod cast and reread the second tale. I remember this as being an “ok”story with a clumsy time loop in it. It’s just bad…
I started with Barry, and Wally as Kid Flash. Wally was okay, though annoying, in Marv Wolfman’s hands. I gave the Baron run a try; but, the jerk factor was too much and I bailed. I mostly missed William-Messner Loebs and only really warmed to Wally under Waid.
Loebs is a highly underrated writer. His Journey series was fantastic, though little-seen. His work at DC was always top quality, even if he seemed to be working in worlds that weren’t necessarily his personal interest. His talent is showcased well in this story. I love his use of Kipling, a favorite writer of mine (Imperialism and colonialism notwithstanding…). Kipling is best remembered for the Jungle Books; but, his poetry was amazing.
The Human Thunderbolt stuff is fun and the idea of Barry travelling in a circuit was an interesting one.
I enjoyed the Secret Origns annuals far more than I did the average book. They seemed to be a step above a regular issue, which is what you expect; but, rarely got, from an annual.
The Flash tv series was a favorite, when I could find it. I remember stumbling across about the last third of the firt Trickster episode, thanks to it being pre-empted. That used to drive me nuts. I ended up getting bootlegs so I could watch the episode in full, in the days before dvd sets (the Trickster vhs hadn’t come out yet).
Wally’s story does one thing really well, aside from showcasing his relationship with Barry; it shows his love of Iris. Mark Waid picked up a lot on that, in Flash: Year One. It was an element I really enjoyed, as it showed the human side of the character, which is often missing in superhero comics. Too often relationships are cliched or just window dressing.
Wally and Barry are two different approaches to superheroes, products of their time. The Silver Age Barry stories are puzzles which the Flash solves, via science (or pseudo-science) and speed, with plenty of visual gimmickry. His villains are gimmick crooks to provide new obstacles for Barry to overcome. Wally is a product of an era that was more introspective and more character driven, with stories often building to grand finales. Barry is about the wonder of speed and science, while Wally is about living up to a legend.
That Flash storyline that Nicholas mentions, where the Rogues have to find and defuse the Top’s bombs, was one of my first Flash stories (first or second one I ever read). It is a great story worthy of collecting. In fact, there are several stories from that era that are worth collecting. The art is (I think) Irv Novick, who along with Dick Dillin, tends to be overlooked; but, who dead some great work on the Flash. The Rogues were well used, in this era.
By the by, in regards to the Wally’s father as a manhunter being shoehorned; this issue included a house ad for the upcoming New Guardians (short-lived) series, that was the follow up to Millennium. Man, it took a while to escape that thing!
Another great episode talking about one of my favorite characters.
The cover is something of an oddity. I wonder if they planned it to be a lenticular cover but then didn’t get the budget request so submitted it as is.
I have found the Wally story to be a timeless character piece. We knew who Wally was in the Titans. We knew he felt he had to keep on being the Flash to honor Barry after his death. And we knew he would feel completely inadequate. So seeing him try to hash through all those emotions felt very real to me. Who hasn’t had an ‘imposter syndrome’ in their lives?
I grew up a Barry guy. I read a lot of Bates era stuff, especially in the Clive Yorkin/Death of Iris years. Even though I was spinning a rack at a 7-11, I would look for them. That was really my first foray into subplots as opposed to ‘one and done’ stories.
That said, Wally is my Flash. There was something about those late 80s DC books, fresh out of Crisis and post-Legends which had an energy to them. The whole universe seemed invigorated. And seeing Wally grow from Baron to Messner-Loebs to Waid just worked for me. It helped, I suppose, that I was moving from adolescent to young adult during those books as well. Like many, I was pretty upset when Barry returned and Wally was pushed to the curb. And the new Wally isn’t my Wally.
I’ll always have the back issues I suppose.
And as someone who lives for twist endings and the Twilight Zone, I thought the ‘Barry becomes the very lightning bolt which made him’ was a lousy turn. It actually makes me feel good that you liked it so much Ryan. I’m glad it worked for someone!
Thanks for another superb listen, loved guest hosts Bass and Nicholas (best laugh ever!).
This was certainly a mixed bag – a great Wally story and one of the worst ever Barry tales. The imposter syndrome made sense, and was an early indication of the sheer smarts and empathy Bill Loebs brought to Wally and his world. Loebs’ de-jerking of Wally from the Baron run felt organic, and his building up of such cast members as Chunk, Mason Trollbridge and the magnificent Mary West showed his knack for character. And Loebs gave us two of the finest Flash stories ever in Party Time (#19) and Freefall (#54).
Wally is my Flash. And so is Barry. Pre–death Barry – the angst-driven post-Rebirth guy, not so much. As Ryan said, Flash doesn’t need spurring on to do good, he’s simply a good guy. Murdering Nora and throwing Henry into jail is just cheap melodrama.
Am I the only person who liked the Trial of the Flash? The only thing that could’ve made it better was the death of the awful Fiona Webb. And the trial’s length wasn’t a matter of DC not knowing what to do with the Flash, it was a deliberate move on the part of writer/editor Cary Bates, who was open about wanting a comic book trial to take as long as a real-life one. If memory serves he even had a legal eagle pal advising.
Anyway, what Anj said. I hate the human thunderbolt angle – what’s the fun of Barry living his life again, when he could be in heaven? (Mind, wasn’t he seen in Heaven in Deadman and Green Arrow stories?) And becoming the lightning that empowers him, and talking to himself, and telling him to make a choice … pardon me, I think I left my stomach somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean while delivering a heart. Even Mopee is better than this.
I don’t mind the Speed Force as it was introduced, a cross between Heaven for speedsters and a lightning cable, but as time when on and it became an all-purpose magical dimension – no ta.
You know the Mopee business, that would be halfway acceptable if it were Wally’s origin – heavenly helpmate recreates superhero origin, explaining the coincidence of things. But Barry never needed it, just as he doesn’t need this steaming pile of retcon.
Another explanation for Barry having the exact same chemicals in his home as those that originally empowered him – if he ever lost his powers, he’d want to try to recreate the accident.
And doesn’t 172 seem an awfully low figure of saved people for someone who’d been around as long as Wally?
Martin, you are certainly not the only one who likes the Trial of the Flash. My interest in comics as an adult kicked off in ‘The Flash’ and kept me coming back every month through the Trial storyline in the last 30 or so issues before the run finished at 350.
So, Barry is my Flash, but like Ryan (nice observation about the first incarnation you encounter is the one that sticks with you) I feel the Flash book was best written while Wally was under the cowl, in the Waid and Johns eras. I also love Wolfman/Perez on Wally and Barry, whether in a Titans book or in Crisis.
Through yours and Anj’s input in the Waiting for Doom podcast I find it interesting that you both have negative recollections of the ‘Barry becomes his own thunderbolt’ idea even though all three of us seem to have come through the same type of background as longtime readers of The Flash . The idea appealed to me immensely and years later is THE thing I remember about this issue (I have no lasting impression of the Wally story). It’s a moment in the Flash canon that is definitely in my highlights reel (even if perhaps as an interesting adjunct). But listening to the recap it seems likely that it is just the concept which has stayed with me rather than the approach or the detail in the story, so I would agree with Ryan’s concluding assessment about the idea being worthy but that not everything about the story is.
I suspect I’m remembering the book through rose coloured glasses… maybe it’s not a bad thing that I haven’t re-read it recently !
Ryan, thanks for giving us the opportunity to relive this issue via this very fine podcast episode !
Oh, and one more thing. I think the “doorman” is Dexter Myles, curator of the Flash Museum, and a long-running supporting character in the comic.
Chris
I was thinking that too, though I couldn’t remember the character’s name.
Flash fan here, we’ve been over that before when we talked Jay Garrick…
As for my favorite Rogue, I’m going to say Mirror Master because 1) he was my first – the first Flash story I ever read was the one with his giant hand coming out of a mirror on the cover – 2) his tricks are extremely varied and fun, he’s no one-trick pony.
But of course, if we’re talking about the Rogues divorced from the Flash book, then it’s Captain Boomerang, an integral part of the Suicide Squad.
I’d have to go with Captain Cold, of the actual Rogues that are a loosely-formed team. I think it has a lot to do with Challenge of the Super Friends.
I like the Trickster, but that’s really only because of Mark Hamill’s turns as the character, which is vastly different than the comic.
Of the other villains, I’ve always really liked the Reverse-Flash. I was buying the book when Barry was forced to kill him!
Chris
I’d agree with that, especially the Death of Iris and the subsequent battle with Prof. Zoom. Those were sme great comics.
Cold is one of the better used; but, I do like the possibilities brought by Mirror Master. What I don’t understand is the headgear; what exactly is that supposed to be? It sort of looks like boxing headgear; but, only “sorta.”
Count me in for Captain Boomerang, in Suicide Squad.
One of the great things about the Rogues was that they were a bunch of blue collar criminals who hung out together. Batman’s foes might team-up; but, they tended to hate each other as much, if not more than Batman. Spidey’s had similar vibes. You could see these guys going bowling and having a few beers, or spending a night at the fights (before trying to rob the box office). The Justice League Unlimited episode, with Flash and Orion, really captured them well (greatly aided by having Mark Hamill do the Trickster). It also did an excellent job of capturing Wally in his own environment, rather than with the Justice League (somewhat mirroring the Tick episode, where he has to go into the world of the Sewer Urchin).
Seriously, how could you not put a trigger warning at the front of this. Just… so… many… PUNS!
I really hope that this rumor of a cancelled Showcase Presents line isn’t true. I love those books, and I still don’t have my third and fourth (and fifth and sixth) volumes of JONAH HEX yet.
The Secret Origins Podcast has been my introduction to the universe of Podcasts! Since January I’ve been binge listening to all of your Secret Origins Podcasts and I am now caught up. Both you and your guest co-hosts have been a great source of entertainment during my daily commutes to work and back home again. I remember reading and collecting the 1980’s Secret Origin series among the hundreds of other DC and Marvel titles I had at the time. Today I’m 51, married and the abundant number of white long comic storage boxes I once had in my basement are now in someone else’s basement. But the in-depth discussions of each Secret Origin issue I’ve listened to for the past few months have taken me on a nostalgic adventure. Good times! Keep up the good work. I look forward to listening to future episodes. P.S. If it helps you to know, I have subscribed to your podcasts via iTunes. And thanks to the Fire and Water Network, I have subscribed to the First Strike: The Invasion! Podcast and eagerly awaiting the JLI Bwah-Ha-Ha! Podcast. And oh yes! You also got me listening to Teen Titans Wasteland. Hilarious!
The last Showcase Presents, Blue Beetle, was released early last year. A Blue Devil volume was planned, but never released. I think DC has simply run out of material that can be affordable collected in that format and will sell enough copies to make it worth the effort. Even the latter Batman ones were only selling about 1,500 copies, and they inevitably hit the 1976 royalty wall. At least DC has moved into economical color edition, as opposed to Marvel’s pricier Epic Collections.
Regarding the media adaptation of rogues galleries, I think they’re what you make of them. Mr. Freeze wasn’t any farther removed from Flash’s gimmick villains than being associated with Batman could take him, but his thoughtful, heartfelt new origin provided by Batman: The Animated Series made him a classic. Then Batman & Robin forced him to share a movie with Poison Ivy and a metric ton of puns, but Spider-Man 2 became one of the most revered comic book movies by borrowing heavily from Freeze for its single and not always marketable villain, Dr. Octopus. I’d go deeper into Flash’s rogues, but they have their own issue coming.
I don’t own the second Secret Origins annual, so I was looking forward to not having to read it, but then I remembered that I do have the 1989 trade paperback with the awesome Brian Bolland cover that collects “Mystery of the Human Thunderbolt.” Which puts me in a mindset where I’d rather look at a Peter Cannon story instead, and the critical mass here in not motivational. I would have been fine reading a Bill Loebs story, and it’s stupid that they reprinted Barry’s origin years after he’d died and Wally was starring in the series. I will say that I like the annual’s cover as an interesting, eye-catching failure versus the alternative of featuring the uninterrupted base art of Flash running through negative space, which I could not care about at all. It works much better if looked at from a distance.
Besides his family, Illegal Machine’s greatest passion is cars. I don’t believe he’s ever owned a red one, and in fact says mockingly words to the effect of “everyone knows red cars are the fastest.” We just did that Atom episode where various people suggested their favorite Atom costume and tweaks of such, whereas I feel it’s one of the finest of the Silver Age and mostly should be left exactly as Gil Kane designed it over 55 years ago (allowing exceptions only for brief bouts of savagery, alternate futures, etc.) I cannot stand Hal Jordan, but his threads are perfection. Meanwhile, when people go on and on about what a classic Barry Allen’s suit was, I think of “faster red” cars. I tend to think of yellow, white, and light blue as the color of really fast stuff in nature, and they also work as flashes of light. One of my big turn-offs about the Flash is his being a monochromatic blob of scarlet, which makes sense on a Daredevil, but is too plain and basic for a flashier hero. I will say Wally’s simple 50th anniversary revisions made him considerably sleeker, but he still had it better as Kid Flash.
The Flash is indeed a primordial from my childhood, featured on both Super Friends and his handful of shorts from 1966. I also bought a single Flash comic off the newsstand Pre-Crisis, which featured an interesting story by Cary Bates with appealing art by Carmine Infantino enhanced mightily by Dennis Janke. I point out its quality because I clearly have no interest in Runs-Fast-Man on such a basic level that not even good material could turn me on to the character. In fact, when I was going back and reading older DC comics from “before my time,” I found I preferred Barry as both a soloist and as a JLA member over characters I was much more into at the time, like Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Atom and Hawkman. Barry was a good guy not assigned arbitrary, irritating personality traits just to be more like Marvel, and I appreciated that. After he died, Allen became DC’s Captain America, the pure hero everyone admired and aspired to be. He also benefited from the Gwen Stacy effect so much he actually returned after decades away and no great successes to speak of for a decade or two prior to his initial dismissal. As many have pointed out, unlike archeologists and newspaper reporters, forensic scientists have become more relevant with time, and Barry’s story engine is stronger now than when he left (and was always more powerful than Wally’s.) My one criticism is that I’ve known a lot more black dudes named Barry than white ones, and a brown complexion would look so much better with a red cowl than pale pink does. Missed opportunity there.
Okay, I finally read the blasted story after putting it off until a whole other SO Podcast was in the feed, and I liked it better than I expected. I again must complain that the trade could have ended triumphantly with Barry saving Iris to make space for Wally West. Someone should start a Revisionist ’80s Podcast to pull cold cases of unnecessary period alterations and cover this origin story. As mentioned, the O. Henry aspects of Stan Lee’s Marvel origins were also in play here, and I wonder if Broome influenced said formula? I do like that Barry is a Midwestern square who reads comic books, but Fleming didn’t need to go full Peter Parker with the melodramatic nerd raging. All the stuff with the hostage situation and the policeman romantic rival gets a resounding “why?” The rogues are a bunch of goofuses and the pseudoscience is especially dubious, but these short tales were all more fun than I feared going in. I also kinda like completing the “circuit,” but agree it’s all too Moopee, and works better as apocrypha than canon. Finally, Murphy Anderson was totally the MVP here, given the state of Infantino’s art by this point.
I’m VERY late getting to this, so I’ll say no more than simply to place my vote AGAINST the paradox of Barry Allen’s Flash creating his own origin. Hate it, hate it, hate it. Not just the execution, but the paradox itself. Give me the original, no frills, version.
You’re not alone, Mark. Lots of people hated the paradox angle of the origin.
Hey, Ryan! A comment over four years after the airing of this episode must seem strange! But, as I told you on Twitter, I just found the series, and I am working my way through it. Today (08/26/2020) is when I finally got around to listening to this one, and it features my favorite issue of the whole series namely because it focused on Wally West, my all-time favorite character.
Something from Wally’s segment in this issue that has always stayed with me are the suggestions/revelations made by the psychiatrist during his talk with Wally. You and Bass hit on this a great deal, but one thing that didn’t come up was how the psychiatrist poked at Wally a little by suggesting Barry was a stern, unforgiving jerk. When Wally pushes back on this idea, the doctor then asks why he (Wally) is making Barry harder on him in death than he (Barry) would have been in life. This, of course, leads into the revelation of that Wally might suffer from imposter’s syndrome.
I bring this up because it hints at the idea that in order for one to overcome imposter’s syndrome and feel like he/she is worthy in his/her own right that one has to let go of the idealized version of one’s mentors and see them as flawed human beings. Not to tear them down or disregard their teachings, but to be free of the impossible set of expectations such idolization puts on the person doing the idolizing. One of the ways Wally moves past his mental reservations is by finally seeing Barry as capable of making mistakes, something that really becomes apparent in Identity Crisis.
For better or worse, the Wally segment fits best when read in conjunction with his ongoing series. Speaking of which, I will disagree with Bass on one point: I think one should read the “whiney Wally” stories at the start of the run because they show how immature he was – essentially an oversexed fratboy acting out to cover up his own insecurities – and the reader sees him develop into a mature adult over the course of the series, completed by his becoming a husband and father. This is an aspect of the series I have always loved and appreciated.
I don’t have much to say about Barry’s segment on this episode. I always liked the idea of him becoming the thunderbolt that gave him his powers, and I thought Barry was given a good death in Crisis and should have stayed dead. If only just out of respect for the fine work done on Wally over the 20+ years of his tenure as the Flash.