My missing Wally West Flash books

Immediately following the Bart Allen run as the Flash I decided to quit collecting the Flash book.  Waid’s ”Incredi-Flash Family” was so unappealing to me, that I decided that it was not worth the cost of a complete Flash book collection.  Needless to say, I have never read most of Wally’s run during this era and only own the last few books of the end of his run that I picked up while excited about Flash: Rebirth and the return of Barry Allen to the DC universe. 

Jump forward to the present.

Barry Allen is the Flash again.  DC has decided to focus mainly on him.  Flash: Rebirth was really good, and the new series is fresh and different which is interesting because the writer is the same one from Wally’s best era of writing (Geoff Johns).  I found most of the issues 12+ or so issues that I didn’t own and decided it was time to get them now that I could get ‘em for a buck each in the back issue bin at my favorite local comic book store.  The best part?  I was able to get them with store credit cash, which means I traded for them and got them at a great deal.   It was just like I planned, I was able to complete my Flash collection and get my missing issues cheap a few years later.  SCORE!!!

Or did I score?  I’ve only read the first three issues so far when the West family took on the octopus monsters and already I’m feeling like “The Griffen” is a classic Rogue in comparison.  I enjoyed Bart’s run as the Flash, but I have to wonder why they even bothered to bring back Wally West for this dreck?  I hope the story gets better soon.  I have to keep asking myself if this was really Mark Waid that wrote this or did he hire someone to do it for him?  This is the same guy that wrote “Terminal Velocity,” “Superman: Birthright,” and “Kingdom Come?”  If DC wasn’t planning on bringing back Barry Allen at this point, this was the final nail in the coffen for Wally West.  And if they were planning on bringing him back at this point, what was the point of bringing back Mark Waid to write this stuff?  Did someone own him some free work to cash in on?  How did such an amazing writer fall so far with a character that he loved so much?

I’ve read a lot of internet blowback about Irey West as the new Impulse, but the characterization of the two kids in “The Wild Wild Wests” story was just horrible.   Every cliché about kids was executed in this and the sad part is that I can see what Waid was trying to do, and seeing him just miss all the way around.   His intentions were bold, he just missed the target completely on this one.  Hey, not everyone spins gold all the time and I have no doubt that Waid has some epic stories in his bank of talent still.  I don’t want to be too hard on the guy for this one.  It just validates my original decision to drop the book.  I’m just sorry that I didn’t pick them up for even cheaper than I did.

Message board poster and friend, Worldsfinest, warned me not to get them, but I didn’t listen.  Oh well, at least I own the entire collection at this point again.  Wait… I’m missing 240 and 241!  Let’s hope they don’t suck.