WALLY WEST

Name:	Wally West
Aliases:	Kid Flash, The Flash
Hometown:	Blue Valley, Central City, Keystone
Marital Status:	Married, Linda Park
First Appearance:	(as Kid Flash), The Flash #110 (vol. I), (as The Flash) Crisis on Infinite Earths #12

In the beginning

Barry Allen was the second heroic speedster to take the name Flash. The first, a war veteran named Jay Garrick, was long forgotten by all save Barry who, when late one night at his work in a police station, was doused in electrified chemicals and was imbued with the greatest power - the power of speed. He found that he could run and move at sensational speeds and could vibrate his molecules through walls. He could outrun gravity up the side of a building and could skim over water like it was land. He was the Flash - he was the fastest man alive.

Soon the Flash became quite a successful hero and a prominent member of the Justice League. He was adored by fans around the world. But none adored him more than a restless, small-town boy named Wally West. Wally was the founder and sole member of the Blue Valley, Nebaska branch of the Flash fan club. Trapped in a world too slow for Wally, he used to dream and wonder about what it would be like to meet the Flash, to be the Flash. Little did Wally know that soon his dream was going to come true.

Wally's favourite time of year was when he went to visit his Aunt Iris in Central City, home of the Flash. Iris was a newspaper reporter for the Central City Times and was going out with a meek police scientist named Barry Allen. Wally, though was disappointed by his visit to Central City - he didn't see the Flash anywhere and Iris' 'policeman' boyfriend was just a police scientist and didn't even carry a gun! Wally, though, became extatic when, upon hearing that Barry Allen was 'a friend' of the Flash's and that Barry would organise a meeting between them in his office. Barry secretly changed into his Flash identity where neither Wally nor Iris could see and met Wally in his police laboratory. Wally was full of questions, the biggest of which was 'where did you get you powers?'. Barry started to explain about the chemicals he was doused in when, by what appeared at the time to be luck but was later revealed to be much more, lightning struck a chemical cabinet in Barry's office and doused Wally in electrified liquid blessing him with his one greatest wish - to have the speed of the Flash.

Kid Flash

After Barry, still having not told Wally his identity, gave him a quick lesson on the ways of being a speedster and superspeed tricks, he created a Flash costume for Wally, almost identical to his own and insisted that Wally become his sidekick. Wally wanted the code-name 'Speedy' but Green Arrow's sidekick had already got that one. Eventually he settled on 'Kid Flash' and joined the Flash in his crime -fighting life in Central City. For a year, Barry and Wally fought crime successfully and together vanquished many of Barry's greatest villains. The next summer, once Barry truly trusted Wally, he revealed his identity to him and they made a pact not to tell Iris. Soon after that, when they were fighting a matter-changing machine, Wally's costume was changed dramatically into a sleeker, leaner, yellower version of the Flash suit. Kid Flash had come into his own.

Wally occasionally teamed up with other young heroes with similarly amazing powers like he did and when they were forced to team up when the Antithesis captured their mentors they thought that it would be a good idea to stay together as a regular team. The Teen Titans were formed as Wonder Girl, Kid Flash, Aqualad, Robin and later Speedy too. Barry wholeheartedly approved of Wally doing this and encouraged him to make ties with his Titans.

Barry and iris got married and Barry told Iris the secret of his identity and Wally's. Soon the couple were happily married and settled down and both Wally and Barry were accepted heroes. When the Titans disbanded though, Wally went to study physics at college and gave up his Kid Flash identity. Soon he was happy there until Raven, manipulating him, forced him into joining her new incarnation of the Titans with Robin, Wonder Girl and many new heroes. Wally soon settled into the Kid Flash identity again.

Wally, though, had great problems during this era. His powers were causing him intense pain when he used them often - a side effect of his altered metabolism before puberty and because Raven had altered Wally's emotions to force him into the team, his heart wasn't totally in it. When he eventually discovered Raven's manipulation he seriously considered quitting and did when his girlfriend Frances Kane asked him to. He returned to college to try to find a cure for his condition. At this time, Barry Allen discovered that his fiancee Iris was alive in the 30th century, having thought her dead by the hand of the Flash's ultimate villain Professor Zoom. Barry left for the 30th century to be with her, leaving Wally alone and confused. Weeks later the time destroying villain the Anti-Monitor arrived to purge all reality. He kidnapped Barry and used his powers to access all space and time. Barry escaped the clutches of the Monitor's aide the Psycho - Pirate and destroyed the Anti-Monitor's greatest weapon - his Antimatter Cannon. Barry ran too fast in the process, though, and perished, turned into pure speed. The Psycho - Pirate appeared on Earth weeks later and gave Wally the news of Barry's death. Distraught, Wally attacked the Anti-Monitor with Earth's other heroes except not in the guise of Kid Flash but as The Flash. The Anti-Monitor was vanquished but dealt Wally a crushing blow - he could no longer run at light speed - his max was the speed of sound and he had to consume vast amounts of food to give him the energy required to run. Wally moved to Central City to become the Flash but he was not quite ready for the job.

The third Flash

Wally was an insecure Flash for the beginning of his reign. People expected a Barry Allen but got a loud, arrogant youth with little idea of how to be a hero. He gave up his secret identity and ran through girlfriends on a near daily basis. His power levels, though no longer giving him pain, fluctuated greatly, and were not the most reliable of weapons. He has lost the abilility to vibrate through objects and the people of Central City didn't accept him too well.

During the Invasion, Wally's powers left him for good and he was left useless as a hero. Experiments and help from leading scientists gave Wally his powers back and faster too. He could top Mach 8. As public resentment of him grew, Wally left Central City and extended his operations to include Keystone too. Soon Wally would think of Keystone as his true home town.

It was at this time that Wally first met Linda, a roving TV reporter with a great eye for a story. The two of them crossed paths often but weren't exactly the best of friends. Wally was strapped for cash and had to move in with his lawyers and be supported by his friends Piper and Chunk and is girlfriend Connie for a while. He gathered huge debts. After the machinations of Vandal Savage led the world to think him dead and his eventual return, his speed was upped again and he adopted a new version of the Flash costume more in line with Wally's way of thinking. It was sleek and sexy. He had also heard rumours that the villain the Icicle, recently deceased, was going to leave him his fortune in his will. Things were looking up for Wally.

Wally then went into the employ of the IRS to help pay off his debts. With them he helped capture criminals wanted for fraud and regained trust as a hero and a life. When the Icicle did leave Wally his millions and Wally started seeing Linda Park as a girlfriend it finally seemed as if his life had been sorted out.

The Return of Barry Allen

Wally had lived in Barry's shadow all his life and even the people of Keystone City hadn't fully accepted him as the Flash especially now that the first Flash, Jay Garrick was back and active. Things were about to change.

Barry Allen was the second Flash but always the most loved. He was a sterling, fine, proud man who never put a foot wrong in his life. He was the quintessential good guy. When he gave his life to save the universe and was changed into pure speed, Wally took over the Flash costume but everyone still remembered Barry - Wally was not accepted. Jay Garrick, the first Flash returned as well and soon Wally was a minor hero again. He couldn't run as fast as Barry and he couldn't escape his shadow.

Wally was oblivious to anything else when he was fighting the deadly Dr Alchemy. He didn't notice that in a lane nearby lightning struck and a glowing man fell out of the darkness and sped away. He didn't notice him leaving in a Flash.

That night Wally and Linda were having a Christmas drink with the first Flash, Jay Garrick and his wife when there was a knock on the door. Wally opened it and got his best Christmas present yet - he got Barry Allen back, back from the dead.

At first Wally was skeptical - he thought he had gotten over Barry's death and yet here he was. Hal Jordan authenticated him with his Green Lantern ring and Jay seemed to accept him but Wally still wasn't sure - Barry still hadn't mentioned his aunt, Iris. While he was being introduced to everyone, the Pied Piper, a reformed criminal and Wally's friend came along and Barry lept upon him. Wally set him free and joined Barry on a raid against the criminals that the Piper tipped them off about.

Barry was at first shocked by Wally's new costume but joined him to save Jack Giacomo anyway. The two of them rounded up the assassins and saved Jack's life but Wally was still skeptical. After the fight Barry sped off past the old ferris wheel that he proposed to Iris on. Wally followed him and found him by his ex-wife's grave. Now that Barry seemed real, Wally realised that he was the authentic Barry Allen and joined him for a run.

The international high-tech terrorists the Combine had hit Keystone. They had derailed a train and stolen millions. They didn't count on having three Flashes to stop them, though. Wally and Jay took out the villains atop the train and cleared the way for it as it crashed though downtown Keystone and Central. Barry arrived as the train hit midtownand Wally and Jay could do nothing save clear people out of it's way. He called Wally and Jay to help him stop the Train by spinning force at it and together they did it. Everyone wanted Barry's autograph. Jay phoned Wally to tell him about the Warehouse that the police reckoned that the Combine were in. Wally found Barry in the lane that he reemerged in and took him to where the police were barricading the warehouse. The three Flashes stormed in against the terrorists but Jay was taken down. Barry went in close to take them out and was partially succeeding when Wally was crushed under a tonne of rubble. Barry was enraged and destroyed the Combine totally. But Wally wasn't dead. Indeed he could hear Barry shouting. The leader had cried that he killed the Flash when he took down Wally and Barry attacked him saying 'No you didn't Punk - I'm the Flash, understand - I'm the Flash!'.

Wally hadn't seen Barry in days and Jay was quiet as well. He was still disturbed by Barry's actions at the Warehouse but put them down to stress. Jay visited QuickStart enterprises, home of Johnny Quick the superfast Golden - Age hero. He warned Johnny that what he thought was happening was happening. Johnny seemed worried, put on his costume and suggested that they call Max. The two of them sped off. Wally and Barry met up again when they were tipped off about the Combine hide-out by Piper. They zoomed to the twenty-sixth floor and confronted the leader of the combine who turned out to be a programmed hologram. They got trapped in a force field that they couldn't break out of. The situation was hopeless.

Johnny and Jay concluded their search for Max Mercury in the subway station where he worked. They forced him out of retirement and he begrudgingly agreed.

Barry knew that the only way out of the field was for them to vibrate simultaneously but Wally had lost his power to vibrate. Barry jump started him, partially shorted the force field and escaped but Wally was still stuck half-in the force-field. Barry stared at Wally and Wally screamed at him for help. Barry grinned evilly and sped away leaving Wally to his doom. With a great act of perserverence Wally escaped and collapsed. His entire life as the Flash was for Barry and now he didn't know who it was for. He abandoned his Flsh costume and turned on the TV where Barry was announcing that The Flash was dead. wally knew that it was true.

Barry went on to confront more heroes. He attacked Green Lantern in the Flash Museum and defeated him. He wrecked Keystone and was as least like a hero as can be.Wally fell into the pits of depression. Barry attacked a building site in Central Central City and started to kill the people there. Jay, Johnny and Max simultaneously came out of retirement and fought him. They seemed like they were winning. Max's agility and Jay's experience were helping to wear the evil Barry Allen down.

The depressed Wally visited the lane that Barry emerged in. He was again wondering if it could be Barry and how Barry could appear. When he overheard a tramp reading a book about Iris West. Twenty dollars later the book was Wally's. Inside the cover of the book Wally read the name of the author - Iris West, Wally's dead aunt.

On the building site Barry had had enough of Jay. He knocked him off the site and blew it up. Jay disappeared in the flames as everyone looked on. Wally appeared in his Flash Costume again. This time it meant war.

Max and Jay started to teach Wally new Speed tricks but Wally wasskeptical about Max. Max was the Zen Guru of Speed and spoke in riddles and psychology. Wally felt prepared for battle and ran off to combat the man he now knew wasn't Barry. He had learnt something knew from the book about who the impostor was.

Barry attacked the police department and stole their weaponry to free the prisoners. Again Jay and Johnny confronted him and knocked him down. The Flash went to the Flash Museum, wrecked by the fight with Green Lantern. Jay's fight became more violent and he winded Barry. Max and Johnny strived to return the freed inmates to their cells as Jay ripped of the evil Flash's Flash insignia. Enraged, the Barry-fake thumped Jay with all his might crippling the old man. He knocked over Max and attacked Johnny then sped away to his final confrontation at the Flash museum but not as the Flash he pretended to be but as the man that Wally knew he was - Eobard Thawne - The Reverse Flash - Professor Zoom.

Thawne lept at Wally nearly crushing him. He told his story of how he came from the 25th century, idolising Barry, about how he gave himself speed and how when he found out he was the Flash's greatest villain he went mad and thought that he was the Flash. He told of how he was going to kill Barry and Wally. He and Wally had a super fast fight. The two of them were bruised and sore. Zoom nearly killed Wally but was stopped by Johnny, Green Lantern and Max. He ran away from the fight. Wally gave the book that he found to Jay to keep and returned to finish off Zoom at the TV studio where he was attempting to kill Linda Park, Wally's girlfriend. As Zoom disappeared again, Wally realised that Max was right - he was living in Barry's shadow, the only thing stopping him from being faster was that he didn't want to replace Barry. Wally realised that couldn't - he was his own man - his own Flash. He ran off at unimaginable speed and attacked Zoom. He forced Zoom onto the Cosmic Treadmill and returned him dazed and an amnesiac to his own time with an abiding hatred of the Flash.

When he returned to Keystone he destroyed the book that he had found - he didn't want to know his future and returned home knowing that he was the Flash and he was fast.

Reckless Youth

Wally knew from the book that he had found from the future that his aunt was coming back to their time to be with him but he never expected the return to be what it was. Linda Park was investigating a mysterious 'Snake Cult' in Keystone which she thought was led by the super-villain Kobra and they were both preparing to move into Wally's newly bought out-of-town mansion together. When they entered the house for the first time, though, they were met by a surprise - Iris Allen was waiting for them, distraught. Her and Barry's grandson from the 30th century was in their time and out of control. His superfast metabolism that the government had been investigating was killing him and had aged him into a twelve year old with the mind of a three year old. Iris had freed him and sent him back in time to be with Wally West - that was his destiny. Wally found Bart Allen and cured his speed - ailment and took him under his wing to teach him how to be a hero. The two of them didn't get along well, though. Bart was hyperactive and excitable and very impulsive. He didn't want to learn Wally's lessons. He had been raised in a VR environment due to his accelerated aging and had little experience of the real world - it was all just a game to him. He was about to become instrumental in Wally's plans.

Terminal Velocity

Kobra, leader of a world-domineering cult had moved on Keystone. In enormous power plants, his minions were leeching power out of every possible avenue and attacking the Flash at every given opportunity. Bart met all of Earth's heroes during 'Zero Hour' and had adopted a name 'Impulse' for himself and made his costume more hero-like with the addition of a mask. Wally, though, had disappeared. He had been sucked into time by the cosmic entropy that Parallax and Extant had summoned and disappeared into the time stream having run at speeds never before known to man. He became pure speed. While he was on his journey through time, he was stopped at different points in his life as if tugged through space by some force. He arrived at his origin and at other instrumental times in his career as Flash and was eventually given a glimpse of the future - a glimpse of Linda, his love, being blown apart by Kobra and his men. Linda had had death-threats from Kobra before and though he had new-found jubilation at his reinvigoration, he was dismayed - he could not change the future.

He chose not to tell Linda or indeed anyone about his knowledge and instead started to run Kobra out of Keystone, hoping to avert the tragedy that was coming. He started to help Bart train faster and with the help of other speedsters, Kobra's plans looked like failing. Bart was still unreceptive to Wally's training so Wally told Jesse Quick that she was going to be the next Flash just to make Bart train harder. He deceived Jesse and this made her angry at Wally when she found out. Wally, unfortunately, was experiencing change. When he ran fast he turned into almost pure speed - a shining body of energy. He felt like he was losing his humanity. Max Mercury decided to impart to him some knowledge of how the speedsters work. He had theories that there was a speed force that when you run fast you can brush up against and be flung through time. The Speed Force is where all the speedsters velocity comes from, where Johnny's formula accesses and where Barry is now. Max told that he had almost touched this force many times only to be sent through time and that soon Wally would feel a calling to the force just like he had years ago.

Kobra realised that he was not going to win the fight if it continued like it was. He activated the machine that he was planning to use early and sparked off a fault in the earth's crust underneath Keystone, causing an earthquake and nearly destroying the city. Linda tried to stop him but Kobra turned his lasers on her and started to fire. Wally sped to stop her with all his speed and did halt the laser but he went too fast. He was sucked into the Speed Force and left all the speedsters on their own with Kobra to deal with.

Bart and Jesse both attempted to rout Kobra out but were vanquished by his mighty weapons. Linda and Max made a valiant attempt but Kobra grabbed Linda and activated his next weapon of Doom. In a spark a flash of lightning appeared and took the form of a man. He healed Jesse and Bart and destroyed Kobra's machines. He paused in front of Linda and took the form of Wally then disspeared. The speedsters stood in silence. Had Wally returned from the Speed Force with new or extra powers? Linda knew that he had. He was in her arms alive and improved.

Wally could now vibrate through objects, though not without causing them to implode. He could lend his speed to other moving fields and could run unphazed at phenominal speeds - he was a great hero once again.

Dead Heat

Wally was now mainlining the Speed Force and was discovering new tricks every day. He was on his way to becoming a master of speed. It was to everyone's surprise then, that all the other speester's powers suddenly failed one sunny day, tragically in the case of one of the Kapitalist Kouriers. Wally was insistent to investigate this but he was attacked by speed ninja's with super-fast powers. He, Jesse and Jay went to meet Bart and Max but found Max kidnapped and Bart threatened by even more ninjas. After they had been fought, the crew investigated Max's documents and found something surprising - talk of a Savitar speester that he fought years ago, that had started a cult of speed and that was after the ultimate knowledge of the speed force. It seemed that Savitar had returned.

Max returned from Savitar's grip with the knowledge of where his castle lair was. Wally, Johnny, Jay, Bart and Jesse all headed there leaving Max in the hospital. Savitar was a master of the force. He fought Wally and Jesse to a stand still and his aide the former Lady Flash was just as brutal. Savitar could lend speed to immovable objects and could metabolise his wounds causing them to heal. He brutally killed Jesse's father Johnny Quick and provoked Wally into a rage until he destroyed Savitar's castle. Savitar sped off and Wally followed. Wally and Savitar raced around the world each attacking each other to the point of exhaustion. Wally evetually formulated a plan - he sped so fast that the evil Savitar was sucked into the power of the Speed Force and dissapeared. Wally had won.

Cobalt Blue

Wally's wedding day had finally been reached. He had been sparked into proposing by Linda's apparent death at the hands of the Black Flash, the manifestation of the death of the Speed Force. Wally's wedding was overshadowed by the return of Kobra and so he spent a lot of time sorting hi out. The biggest blow came when someone attacked Wally and he was caused to forget the entire existence of Linda Park and Linda was kidnapped and sent back in time to before she was born. She had been wiped out of existence.

Days later, the Flash Museum was destroyed and all that was left was a glowing blue crystal. Wally investigated and was attacked by a mysterious villain called Cobalt Blue that had attacked him when he was Kid Flash. Cobalt Blue knocked Wally to the ground outside Barry Allen's grave and removed his icy mask. He had the face of Barry Allen. He was Barry Allen's twin. Cobalt Blue told his story. He was given to the Thawne family at birth when he was separated from his real parents - Barry Allen's parents. His family were con men, all embued with marvellous powers that came from a bue flaming gem that they carried. He despised his family and searched out the doctor that swapped his family. He found out that he had a twin - Barry Allen and went to follow Barry. Soon he saw Barry turn into the Flash and was consumed with the basest rage and jealousy. he ignited all his family's powers in him, adopted the guise of Cobalt Blue and swore to eliminate the Flash. He was given a prophecy by his grandmother Thawne before he left - that his legacy would consume two flashes and kill Barry Allen.

Wally told Cobalt Blue that he was too late, Barry was dead. But even Wally knew that Barry had lived in the thirtieth century for a while and that Cobalt Blue could still kill him - he had to stop the legacy of Cobalt Blue.