Source
r/DCcomics•
Sentry459

[Discussion] Finally got around to finishing Heroes in Crisis. Wtf did I just read?

Comics

Wally electrocuted a bunch of people with a Speed Force explosion and his first thought was to.....frame Harley and Booster and run to the future? What? I'd heard this story did Wally dirty, but this was straight up character assassination, what the hell was DC smoking?

It's a shame because I was actually enjoying the book until the part where it actually had to explain the mystery and the whole story fell apart. The Sanctuary/interview panels were hit or miss (and an irresponsibly inaccurate portrayal of talk therapy), and there were times where it felt like the writers were trying to be "profound" with the dialogue, but overall what they were trying to do worked for me until the climax.

So what has the aftermath of this trainwreck been? Has Wally been rehabilitated or redeemed since HiC or is he a pariah now?

Posted Feb 22, 2022, 12:47 PM UTC

2835
BIG_ASS_THOT24•

Wallys been completely redeemed. The speed force electrocution was down to savitar and wally was mind controlled into covering it up

30
WerewolfF15•

If I recall it was less mind “control” and more the devil (in this case Thawne) whispering in his ear and influencing his actions. His will was still his own it’s just that his will was guided by an outside force. Unless I’m misremembering which I could be.

10
BIG_ASS_THOT24•

Idk it was described as being able to get people to do things they would never usually do so it’s up for debate

8
Sentry459OPBlue Lantern•

That's such a Thawne thing to do.

-1
Sentry459OPBlue Lantern•

Oh I see! Wally being manipulated into it makes way more sense than him suddenly becoming a master criminal. And I'm glad they retconned that whole "it's a constant struggle to contain the Speed Force and not turn into an electric chair" thing, because that didn't even sound right.

2
DementiaPrimeWhite Lanterns•

It has been all retconned out. Reverse Flash and Savitar were both revealed to be involved in it.

13
klhyx•

Congratulations, you made it until the end! I stopped before, I couldn't bear it anymore.

If you want to feel better, you should read Jeremy Adams' Flash, it's a great run and retconned HiC in the best way. And also the end of Flash Rebirth serie, by Joshua Williamson.

13
Sentry459OPBlue Lantern•

I watch the show but I've never really read Flash comics much, it always seemed a bit daunting with all the lore and legacy characters and so on. Will I be able to understand Adams' run without having kept up with the recent Flash arcs?

2
klhyx•

Well, the Flash in Adams' run is Wally. How much do you know about him? If you, at least, know something about his own family and his first tenure as Flash, you can read and enjoy the run.

I know nothing about the show, I'm sorry.

0
Sentry459OPBlue Lantern•

I know the basic gist I think. Barry's nephew, Kid Flash, then he became the Flash post-Crisis. Then Wally got completely shafted when Barry was resurrected, then Flashpoint deleted(?) him, and I read the 2016 Rebirth thing where he emerged again on Earth-Prime. But I had no idea about him having a family with Linda, that caught me off guard in HiC.

2
klhyx•

I think this covers the basics. Flashpoint changed the timeline, erasing 10 years of history, including Wally's wife and kids. Also, his tenure as Flash and his own sidekick, Bart Allen, Impulse.

In Rebirth he came back and rejoined the Titans for a while, then headed to the Sanctuary.

After HiC there's a mini, "Flash Forward", where basically Wally saved the Multiverse and his twins, getting them back to his own reality and making Linda remember their time together.

Impulse also made a come back in Flash Rebirth.

You can still miss some cameos, but, imho, that's all you need to know before starting Adams' run.

Feel free to ask me whatever else you'll need!

1
GaiusEmidius•

The problem is that when Tom King had the idea there were no set characters. DC editorial decided which characters would fill which role.

And they chose Wally.

8
Sentry459OPBlue Lantern•

Oh DC. sigh

3
Xero36O•

Read flash #768-#776. It’ll make aloooot more sense. The explosion wasn’t wallys fault. Oh and read infinite frontier as well. red arrow has a huge part to play when he comes back to life.

7
Sentry459OPBlue Lantern•

ROY'S BACK?? That's a relief, Wally causing his death didn't feel right at all.

1
Xero36O•

Oh yea. Infinite frontier 0-6 has his resurrection and backstory after the events of death metal… teen titans academy has him returning as a titan if you’ve been keeping up on that comic series.

2
hydrohawkx8•

He's been completely redeemed as others say. In fact like 99% of it is now not his fault as he was more like a conduit that other villains used to cause the whole thing.

That being said I was on the same boat as you. I was enjoying the whole mystery of the killer and the interviews but then the reveal came and I just felt numb

7
darkseidis_•

The Wally redemption arc in Flash Forward -> Infinite Frontier -> Flash 768-771 + the annual has kind of made it one of the best long form stories I can remember recently. I definitely recommend you keep going with those. The 2021 annual is one of the best single issues I’ve read in a while.

7
michaelawagner•

Dideos final attempt to murder Wally’s character?

6
Sentry459OPBlue Lantern•

DC's seemingly fanatical hostility towards (post-Silver Age) legacy characters is honestly depressing. I miss Kyle being relevant, but at least they didn't make him a killer ;(

3
WerewolfF15•

I like the story in concept but it’s just not executed well. The whole idea of a massacre at an place to treat the mental health of those in the super community is interesting. But there’s lots of dumb decisions made that kills the story. In particular the use of Wally as the culprit is a really bad choice.

5
Doc-Rockstar•

M I guess I am in the minority here, but I loved it. I just left to go back and re-read it again with a new set of eyes.

5
Omn1•

Not only has Wally been totally redeemed, Wally is currently doing the best he's been doing since before Barry came back.

His children are back, his marriage is restored, and he's the main flash and focus of the main flash book.

(For reference: as explained in the final arc of Williamson's Flash, Wally's actions during Heroes in Crisis were the result of the Reverse Flash influencing him, and as per the first arc of Jeremy Addams' (fantastic) Flash run, the energy burst wasn't him either; it was Savitar trying to escape the Speed Force after his 'death' in the original Flash: Rebirth).

Unrelated: Something that always stings about HiC is that I do think it genuinely has one of the all-time great Superman speeches early on.

5
Sentry459OPBlue Lantern•

Unrelated: Something that always stings about HiC is that I do think it genuinely has one of the all-time great Superman speeches early on.

The one about not knowing who he even is underneath his performative identities? I liked that as well. Felt like a cool way of addressing an aspect of the character people have debating about for ages.

3
Omn1•

That one was good, but I meant the one about trauma and superheroes.

2
Sentry459OPBlue Lantern•

Ohhhh when he was addressing the public about Sanctuary. Yeah that was good stuff.

2
PropertyAdditionalWally West :Wally:•

The flash titles basically spent the next year trying to fix what HIC did to Wally, Thawne was manipulating him, the speed force was out of control due to another evil speedster, Roy sacrificed himself to stop that speedster with Wally.

So yeah I’d say Wally is in the clear, most books have avoided bringing up what happened (TTA did it but then also introduced Roy so it doesn’t look THAT bad on Wally)

5
tired20something•

Still no clue as to why that guy had the toy dentures inside him.

4
Sentry459OPBlue Lantern•

Oof, I forgot all about that! Guess the writers did too lmao

3
insurgentsloth•

It was part of the clue planting wally did to incriminate Harley so batman would further suspect her

1
SensitiveOrangeWhip•

i thought that whole series was total junk. and i love DC

3
MatthewHecht•

You read the worst comic ever.

1
turvoorRa's al Cool :RAC1::RAC2::RAC3:•

Tom King trying to write profound dialogue but it just comes off like an edgy 13 year old? Noooooooooooo that would neeeeeeever happen

1