- Adorkable: This is a trait shared by all of the Flash Family to some extent. Jay Garrick in the Golden Age was a goofy dork who pre-powers was an insecure science major. Barry is a socially awkward, clumsy nerd, with his lack of punctuality, terrible humor, his love for comics and anything related to science, and his Wide-Eyed Idealist makes him even more adorkable. Wally's often childish tendencies make him an endearing goofball (for proof, see the time Linda and Frankie bonded over making fun of his diet, which amounted to "what a child would eat if they didn't have parental supervision", or his reaction to getting a haircut) and he was a huge Ascended Fanboy as a child who is pretty much living his childhood fantasy as an adult. Bart is often adorableness personified, especially with his small stature, tendency to wear clothes too big for him, and easily distracted nature as a result of his ADHD. Even Jesse is an endearingly bossy big sister to Bart, is a self-described bookworm, and takes herself way more seriously then she should but can't resist being playful with her powers.
- Alternative Character Interpretation:
- Hunter Zolomon. Does he truly believe that tragedy will make Wally better, and is merely too mentally unbalanced to realize that he himself could be a hero as he meets his own criteria for a great hero? Or is he just a sad, broken man looking for an excuse to attack Wally's friends and family because Wally didn't help him? Or is it a mix of both? The comic where he becomes Zoom has him note in his internal monologue that he feels like his grasp on reality is slipping away, giving evidence that he really is just that crazy. There is also the entire suicidal undertone to his story. Hunter reaches his goal when Wally takes the necessary step and kills him. He dedicates his entire life to trying to get Wally to kill him which just shows how much he's given up on his identity for the sake of "helping" his probably only friend.
- Is modern Barry a flawed, but ultimately heroic person trying to learn from his mistakes or is he a broken shell of a man who is willing to cheat his way to happiness at the expense of others?
- A major source of the Barry-Wally conflict. On the one side, they see Barry not as the Nice Guy he's supposed to be, but just someone who acts nice so people forgive him, but is actually selfish, self-absorbed, and unable to trust anyone with anything. On the other side, they see Wally not as the charismatic Deadpan Snarker he's supposed to be, but an arrogant Jerkass who treats people badly, is needlessly rude and often cruel to people even if on the inside he cares. Essentially, it comes down to Barry being a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing vs Wally being a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, and debate on which is more justified.
- Angst? What Angst?:
- You'd think Barry and Iris might occasionally think of their children Don and Dawn, and the fact the two of them are dead, every once in a while, but nope. Even in the continuities where they remember the two exist at all, instances of acknowledging the twins are vanishingly rare.
- In "Finish Line", Joshua Williamson's last arc, when Barry meets Max and Jesse in the Speed Force, they immediately forgive Barry for Flashpoint, claiming he's already suffered enough for it (something that is demonstrably not true). So, they forgive him for accidentally erasing them from existence and trapping them in the Speed Force for years and forgetting about them, which according to Jesse also caused her father to become permanently erased from history as he was already dead prior to Flashpoint, never mind that Jesse was married and had just had a child right before Flashpoint, too. While it's probably better we didn't get more guilt-derived angst for Barry, one can't help but think Jesse (who's never been one to mince words or easily forgive slights) would be a lot angrier.
- Anti-Climax Boss: Paradox, a villain Williamson introduces in Flash vol 6 issue 50, and who gets built up as a supreme threat over the next three years, being so evil and dangerous even the Reverse-Flash looks like a hero compared to him. But when he finally starts doing something, he's defeated in a few issues via time-travel.
- Arc Fatigue: The Rebirth era suffers from prolonging the return of the Flash Family. Johnny Thunder mentions the missing Justice Society in DC Universe: Rebirth #1. Jay briefly returns in "The Button", but little else happened until, over 20 issues later, with Bart Allen returning, complete with his pre-Flashpoint memories...and not interacting with the Flash cast at all, instead leaving to re-establish Young Justice. Jay Garrick returned in Doomsday Clock but not really appearing in anything else due to editorial plans shifting. It would take until the last arc of Joshua Williamson's run, about 4 years later, for the Flash Family to be finally brought back.
- Ass Pull:
- The Rogues' Heel–Face Turn, which had been developed organically over the course of the Post-Crisis Flash era, is revealed to be the result of Heel–Face Brainwashing, just so that Geoff Johns could quickly revert them back to their Pre-Crisis characterization.
- Barry's return is never actually explained, though this might be chocked up to the general incomprehensibility of Final Crisis.
- Barry creating the Speed Force itself with his accident. Besides the fact it's obvious Fan Wank canonized by Geoff Johns to promote his favorite character's importance among the Flash mythos, but the logistics of it are completely at odds with the very nature of the Speed Force in any other story. It's said elsewhere to be a fundamental aspect of the universe itself, at one point explicitly stated to be what makes the passage of time possible, so for it to also be a creation of Barry makes little sense.
- The 'other Forces' (Still Force, Strength Force, etc.) introduced during Flash War could have been used to explain certain characters' abilities like the Speed Force didnote , but are instead treated as previously untapped resources and the way they work are at odds with anything from the DCU. They conflict with the concept of the Speed Force being a fundamental aspect of reality, and the concept of it being created by Barry's accident.
- Eobard Thawne's ability to subtly influence and hypnotize people using the Negative Speed Force, making him responsible for every Out-of-Character Moment in the Rebirth era; it's never been indicated to be a power of his, it has absolutely nothing to do with other Speed Force powers, and its introduction is sloppy and cheap as a reveal.
- Audience-Alienating Era:
- Right after Infinite Crisis, Wally was lost to the Speed Force along with his family and this led to Bart becoming the Flash due to Plot-Relevant Age-Up. Due to the character losing his individuality and Fun Personified nature, even his own fans hated it. This series ended as a massive failure, to the point that they had to kill Bart to forget it ever happened and everyone involved with Bart's character has stated active dislike towards it. The creative team of the book said they had no intention writing for DCU ever again due to a terrible experience.
- Wally was brought back from the Speed Force after Bart's death, but this time the book, once again, faced criticism due to his twins turning out to be Base breaking that some accused of being a Spotlight-Stealing Squad. Mark Waid left DC completely after an editorial clash and the book had to live on life support for a year with fill-in writers until Barry was brought back. Mark Waid says it's probably one of his works he was severely disappointed about.
- Barry's return has met this reaction from many, particularly those that loved Wally's character, but also non-Flash fans. With Barry's return brought about a sudden demotion of Wally into an extra at best (until being erased completely), while Barry's character was given several controversial rewrites, including giving him a Darker and Edgier backstory involving his mother's murder which many felt was unnecessary, to promoting him as the 'most important' of the Flash legacy that was felt as a disservice to the rest of the Flash family, who all in-turn were given a sharp Demoted to Extra status. General comic and DC fans dislike it for missing the point of the DCU and bringing back a character whose death was highly regardednote , and whose resurrection was considered altogether unnecessary. Not helping is that Barry's return also brought back Eobard Thawne, which led to the removal of other villainous speedsters like Hunter Zolomon, Inertia, the Black Flash and Lady Savitar. That Thawne came back with retcons to his history and powers, as well as the retcon of him basically being responsible for everything bad that's happened to Barry, doesn't help him from being seen as a overpowered.
- The Robert Venditti and Van Jensen run. Neither of the writers had any Flash lore beforehand and unlike Manapul and Buccellato run, they were given the task of reintroducing important characters like Wally West and Eobard Thawne. They dropped the ball completely, with incredibly divisive changes to Wally West and an extremely inconsistent Professor Zoom. Add on to that Brett Booth's divisive 90s Image-inspired art, coming right after Francis Manapul's acclaimed pencils. In the end, the series' sales reached bottom again and DC Rebirth had to come in and fix the damage.
- For Bart Allen's character, it seems to be everything from 2003 onward, with only a minor respite in the middle. First, he became Kid Flash, abandoning his individualism and established dislike towards that name. At the same time, he became a know-it-all smartass, rather than an impulsive joker. Then Wally disappeared and he became the fourth Flash via Plot-Relevant Age-Up, losing any semblance of fun and aging him out of his own generation. While an attempt was made to give him a new status quo, he died before anything could be done with it. Things were okay when he was brought back in Final Crisis, returning to his more fun self, and for a while everything was okay, despite the lack of focus on him...then the New 52 happened. This version of Bart isn't even called Bart Allen, and he has no connection to the Flashes or the Speed Force, his backstory has been altered to be Darker and Edgier, and his characterisation flips on a dime with the only constant being how annoying he is. The New 52 version of Bart is named Bar Torr and his powers come from being stranded on a planet (it's never explained how he actually got them), he's a rebel leader who abandoned his crusade against his oppressors once his long-lost sister was injured (apparently he didn't know civilian casualties are a thing when you fight in civilian-populated areas) and his fun personality is an act...until it's not...until it is again, and apparently all of this was part of his plan or something. This version of "Bart" has been abandoned by DC, and is universally loathed by Bart's fans, Flash fans, DC Comics fans and just comic readers in general.
- Most of Williamson's run is not this, as his run largely tries to be an Author's Saving Throw for the franchise, but there's a lengthy stretch between Flash War and Finish Line that many felt became this. While reception to the previous stories was mixed-to-positive, fan reception to the Other Forces and Year of the Villain tie-in arcs were decidedly not positive, as many found the stories to be an annoying distraction from the pressing issue of the missing speedsters. During this period, Wally West also got sent off to Sanctuary, which led to the heavily-despised Heroes in Crisis storyline, adding to the problems. This however isn't generally blamed on Williamson at least, as most realise he was affected by heavy Executive Meddling and the issue more lies with editor Brian Cunningham refusing to let the Flash Family return, and Dan DiDio's infamous hatred for Wally West.
- Awesome Art:
- For some fans Scott Kolins is the definitive Flash artist due to his contributions to Rogues and his mark on the famous Blitz storyline.
- Howard Porter is a very popular Flash artist, from his time on the Geoff Johns Wally run to his more angular, scratchier style in the Rebirth series.
- The post-Rebirth (2006) run by Geoff Johns is where Francis Manapul developed the chalkier, water coloured look he'd become famous for.
- Manapul would go on to pencil and color the first half of the New 52 run, where his penchant for intricate-yet-still-readable, beautiful layouts further developed.
- Carmine Di Giandomenico's work on the Rebirth series, which has sharp angles and a sci-fi look to it, while being versatile in terms of tone. Plus, how beautiful his lightning looks.
- Base-Breaking Character:
- Barry Allen, since his revival, might be the most controversial of the main Flash Family line. Pre-revival, there wasn't much negativity towards him besides "he was kinda boring compared to Jay and Wally" and was still generally liked for being a good father figure and mentor to Wally, but since his revival, there's been a split between people who think he's great and deserves to be the main Flash, and like his Nice Guy Adorkable Nerd characterisation, vs people who think he's incredibly toxic and reductive towards to Flash mantle that should have been passed on, and find his character's promotion to be unfair to the other Flashes (especially after Flashpoint). The fact he got a Darker and Edgier backstory, was responsible both in-universe and out for the sidelining of the Flash Family, and his massive Creator's Pet treatment really doesn't help.
- Wallace West/Kid Flash III (New 52 version of Wally West, prior to Decomposite Character treatment) was controversial from the start for being a radical reinvention of Wally, but later rewrites of his character and his evolution into Kid Flash, as well as separating him from the original Wally (now retconned into being cousins, leading to him being referred to as Wallace), allowed him to be Rescued from the Scrappy Heap. With that in mind, many still dislike him for being redundant and a Replacement Scrappy for Bart Allen.
- Jai and Irey West, Wally's kids. Some considered them an annoying Spotlight-Stealing Squad that killed Wally's tenure, but others adored them and Wally's relationship with them and the new dynamic they brought into his life. Despite the controversy, their erasure — along with the children of most superheroes — has been commonly cited as a problem with how DC comics have been mishandled, however some fans are still completely okay with their removal.
- Godspeed. For some, he gets fan interest for his cool costume and name, winning out on Rule of Cool alone. For others though, his arc was too rushed and poorly handled, and his obvious status as an expy for Hunter Zolomon earns him scorn and ridicule. Later the character goes through some character development and a semi-Heel–Face Turn which has earned him some fans who want to see him become something of a loose Anti-Hero ally, while others consider him beyond redemption and find the idea of the Flash having a Darker and Edgier ally to be completely ill-fitting the tone of the franchise or just unnecessary.
- Captain Cold, and to a lesser extent the Rogues. For some, they're a great part of the Flash mythos, and are appreciated for their badassery and Noble Demon traits, as well as the Friendly Enemy situation they had with Wally. For others, they're ridiculous characters with stupid gimmicks, and it makes no sense for someone as powerful as the Flash to have a problem with them (even though cold is the Flash's Kryptonite Factor), and Cold especially gets too much Character Shilling.
- Broken Base:
- Mostly between Barry and Wally fans; Jay fans are mostly spared this, as there's a general consensus as to where and what he should be.
- Pro-Legacy Character fans vs. those who see it as a Uniqueness Decay. For some fans, having more than one speedster, and especially more than one Flash, makes the brand on the character weaker and the titular character less special, and would prefer there just be only a single Flash. For others, the legacy is half the appeal of the franchise, and the Flash Family's teamwork works well as they have distinct personalities and skills. This is largely a sub-issue of the larger Wally-vs.-Barry divide, as Barry fans seem to prefer the 'simpler' single Flash story, while Wally fans prefer the teamwork-focused Flash Family story.
- Barry's return, and every subsequent story between that and DC Rebirth. A good portion of fans enjoyed these stories for how they reinvented the franchise and modernised Barry's character, along with Francis Manapul's Awesome Art. However, many dislike how Barry's run caused Wally and the greater Flash family to be Demoted to Extra and subsequently erased all together, along with the aforementioned reinvention of the franchise being seen as far less interesting, and consider this chapter a major Audience-Alienating Era.
- Adding Nora Allen's death to Barry's backstory. For some, it is a horrible retcon that needlessly darkens Barry's character, is a total cliché that is done to death in comics, and unlike when Wally was given Abusive Parents (which rarely came up after Waid took over, but it is often compared to), it has swallowed Barry's character to the point it's rare for a story (or adaptation, to the exasperation of even more fans) to not somehow relate to it or factor in his angst. For others though, particularly fans who were introduced in the Gateway Series that were built on it, it is something that gives Barry more nuance and tragedy as it shows even someone with a traumatic childhood can grow into an upbeat idealistic Nice Guy, while it also justifies any of his dickish moments. The divide seems to line up with the Wally-Barry divide, so this is in-part down to Barry fans who think it gives him the same depth Wally's been afforded, vs Wally fans who think it changed Barry from the idealized mentor he was depicted as previously, though there are Barry fans who hate that it's taken over his character.
- Johns turning a lot of reformed Rogues evil again. Many feel that some were more interesting as a bunch of reformed anti-heroes. Others prefer them in their villainous roles and feel they're cooler as a bunch of Anti-Villain types. A third group don't mind them going back to their villainous routes, but dislike that Johns had them lose their friendship with Wally and gave a needless Cerebus Retcon that turned them into victims of a botched Mind Rape attempt orchestrated by Barry Allen before his death.
- Gorilla Grodd's transformation from a megalomaniac with Mind over Matter powers who happened to be a giant talking gorilla, into a savage giant gorilla with a bestial viciousness who happens to also have mind powers. Partially under Johns' pen (though he's not the only writer responsible), Grodd had his savagery dialled up until he became a vicious monster who can and will demolish opponents physically, and solves problems with brute force, with his mind powers being mostly so he can Mind Rape them after. For some fans, this is a Rescued from the Scrappy Heap transformation that made a goofy character genuinely menacing. For others, however, Grodd lost his fun factor when he stopped trying to turn everyone into apes, and feels like he Took a Level in Dumbass as he seemingly forgets about his mind powers outside of using them for Mind Rape, and no longer engages in any kind of long-term planning, all just to make him Darker and Edgier.
- The Rebirth run by Joshua Williamson. Though there's smaller disagreements about how much the run retreads old ground or its treatment of the Rogues, a major cause of debate is Barry Allen's characterisation, best exemplified by the reactions to "Perfect Storm" and "Flash War". Both focused on exploring the flaws of Barry Allen, calling attention to how he's developed many toxic and selfish tendencies thanks to how much favoritism he's allotted by higher ups. Either it did a great job at this, and perfectly demonstrated Barry's problematic behavior and gave him much needed Character Development, or it's another example of Barry's flaws going untreated, as he largely gets away with nearly dooming the others to being Grodd's slaves because his ego wouldn't let him step aside and doesn't suffer significantly for the personal damage he causes others. Then there's a third contingent who feel the stories presented Barry with artificial and inflated flaws just to make him look bad and create a Conflict Ball. Ultimately it's down to how well you think the story was handled and how you feel about Williamson's apparent dislike for modern Barry.
- Flashpoint. Quality of the story and the resulting after-effects aside, fans are split on how this reflects Barry Allen. For some fans, it was a forgivable mistake and would rather blame Executive Meddling for making it worse than it was intended to be by using it as a way to start the reboot; for others, it's an utterly selfish move on Barry's part and a sign of him being utterly reckless with his power, while also being easily avoided had he just consulted with Wally or Booster Gold (who are both much better at dealing with time travel).
- Like a lot of characters from his generation, Bart Allen has been in a weird position, age-wise, as writers in the late 2010s/early 2020s don't seem to be at a census as to how old they are/should be. A lot of fans are vocal about wanting to see Bart explicitly reach adulthood (especially as the teenaged characters introduced during his generation on Marvel's side have all aged to college/adulthood), and even be given another chance at being The Flash, but others are still not over how it was botched the first time and prefer to keep him as a kid, or just don't like the idea of sidekicks graduating like that.
- Should The Flash costume come with the blank white eyes? For a long time, The Flash was one of the few masked heroes that had normal eyes when wearing his mask, however in recent times there have been several notable versions of the character that have the stylized white eyes, such as Wally West in the Justice League and Justice League Unlimited shows. Common consensus is that the white eyes are Wally's thing, and the original mask design is Barry's.
- Can't Un-Hear It:
- Eobard Thawne tends to be read in the voice of either C. Thomas Howell from the DC Animated Movie Universe, Tom Cavanagh or Matt Letscher both from The Flash (2014) or Liam O'Brien from Injustice 2. For those familiar with Zoomposting (and DEATH BATTLE! to an extent), Valentine Stokes is usually the one they think of instead.
- Fan favorites for Barry Allen's "voice" include Grant Gustin (the Arrowverse), Charlie Schlatter (The Batman, Justice League Action and Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?), Neal McDonough (Injustice: Gods Among Us), Josh Keaton (DC Super Hero Girls), or Taliesin Jaffe (Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe and Injustice 2). This also includes Michael Rosenbaum, thanks to Justice League: Doom, Infinite Crisis, and LEGO DC Super-Villains.
- Speaking of Michael Rosenbaum, there are many people that picture him as Wally West instead thanks to Justice League. Jason Spisak of Young Justice (2010) fame is also a popular choice for him.
- For Jay Garrick, John Wesley Shipp's take from the Arrowverse is the most popular. If not him, there is also Travis Willingham from Injustice 2.
- Jason Marsden's performance as Bart Allen from Young Justice (2010) is the most remembered.
- When it comes to the Flash's Rogues, there's one definite constant: Mark Hamill is the Trickster.
- For many fans, Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell are the definitive voices for Captain Cold and Heat Wave.
- For Gorilla Grodd, there's with the late Powers Boothe (Justice League), John DiMaggio (Batman: The Brave and the Bold), David Sobolov (Arrowverse), or Charles Halford (Injustice 2).
- For Zoom, most fans hear either Tony Todd or Teddy Sears.
- For Savitar, most fans hear either Tobin Bell or Grant Gustin.
- Most fans hear either Neil Sandilands or Peter Capaldi as The Thinker.
- Catharsis Factor: While a complete Conflict Ball situation, there is something enjoyable about Wally finally telling Barry off for a lot of his shit in the prelude to Flash War.
- Character Rerailment: Bart, when he returned from the dead in Final Crisis, got back his ADHD and Fun Personified nature.
- Complete Monster: See here.
- Common Knowledge:
- The Speed Force and its relation to the Science Hero Flash characters. Most DC fans know of the Speed Force but see it as a poorly explained handwave for all the scientifically impossible things that The Flash can do. However, many seem to be ignorant of the fact the Speed Force is explicitly a mystical phenomena (in fact, this was a major part of why when it was introduced, so many characters refused to believe it really existed, and Wally's acceptance of it is partially why he's so damn powerful). It is actually well explained during Waid's run and several of the runs that follow, its just in adaptations and comics from the late 2000s, the New 52, and Rebirth era where how it works has became inconsistently depicted.
- It is similarly commonly used to blame for making the Flash "OP", however the Speed Force itself is considerably newer than that, and speedsters had been doing ridiculously over-the-top feats since the Golden Age. The Speed Force just explained how they did so without breaking every rule in thermodynamics.
- "Wally's return derailed Wallace's character direction" is commonly cited as an excuse to bash the former in the perpetual Wally-Barry fan-war, even though this was not something that actually happened. It is true that Wally's return changed Wallace from being "Wally West's reboot self" to "Wally West's cousin", but this really has zero impact on his character's direction and usage since Rebirth saw him do pretty much exactly what he was being set up to do. He gained speed powers, became Kid Flash, joined the new Teen Titans incarnation, and became Barry Allen's surrogate son. There wasn't even any Divergent Character Evolution since the character as-he-was beforehand was so different from Wally West, and it's arguable that making him the original Wally's cousin (and switching to calling him "Wallace") was a move that led to him being Rescued from the Scrappy Heap. In fact, Wallace actually appeared more frequently then Wally himself did during the Rebirth period.
- Really almost anything that's presented on the TV series or films that differs from the comics, particularly when it comes to the lesser known aspects of Flash lore. While changes in adaptations are expected, it's surprising to see how commonly comics readers will cite show-original ideas or assume their depictions of things are accurate. Of note, Jesse Quick is often assumed to be an Earth 2 resident and Trajectory is her "Reverse-Flash", when she's actually a Legacy Character to her father and completely unconnected to Trajectory (who is a minor hero connected to Lex Luthor).
- A more egregious case is just how fast the Flash can be, and the assumption this makes them a Story-Breaker Power and/or that the writers rely on the Idiot Ball to avoid it. Because a few of the Flash's, mostly Wally West's, biggest feats are known of among casual fans, it's often assumed that they should be able to handle any threat; after all if they can cross the distance of space to return to earth fast enough to outrun instantaneous teleportation, then they shouldn't have trouble fighting Captain Cold. What's missed here is that they don't not have trouble with the aforementioned feats, and pretty much all of their Awesome moments came at a great deal of duress and effort on the Flash's part, in fact in many cases they performed these feats while just barely avoiding being sucked into the Speed Force itself (meaning they were actively pushing themselves beyond their limits), something that they can't possibly do for every fight. This would be like expecting someone to be giving 110% of their effort 24/7.
- The Speed Force and its relation to the Science Hero Flash characters. Most DC fans know of the Speed Force but see it as a poorly explained handwave for all the scientifically impossible things that The Flash can do. However, many seem to be ignorant of the fact the Speed Force is explicitly a mystical phenomena (in fact, this was a major part of why when it was introduced, so many characters refused to believe it really existed, and Wally's acceptance of it is partially why he's so damn powerful). It is actually well explained during Waid's run and several of the runs that follow, its just in adaptations and comics from the late 2000s, the New 52, and Rebirth era where how it works has became inconsistently depicted.
- Creator's Pet: On one side of the Barry-vs.-Wally fandom rivalry, this is the main issue for Wally fans. Since his return, Barry has been pushed as the forefront of the Flash franchise, treated and touted as the iconic Flash, and the only character to receive any kind of attention. Pretty much every outside media has focused solely on Barry Allen, to the point it's treated as if he is the only Flash, with Jay Garrick at-best getting acknowledged as the AU Flash, while Wally, if he appears at all, is relegated to being Kid Flash. Understandably, fans of Wally (and the larger Flash Family) do not appreciate this, especially as adaptations have gone so far as to take Wally's stories and character developments and give them to Barry, in order to eliminate any need for Wally within the work, which many feel like an attempt to erase Wally for Barry's sake. It doesn't help that, as this happened, Barry himself Took a Level in Jerkass and became Unintentionally Unsympathetic, making it hard to accept the loss of other beloved characters for his expense.
- Creepy Awesome: Eobard Thawne and Hunter Zolomon. Take the idea that the Flash's powers can often allow him to do whatever the plot requires, then apply it to a villain who has no ethical constraints about how to use them. Godspeed similarly, due to being an Expy of Hunter, and unlike the Reverse-Flashes, he also has a creepy-yet-cool suit.
- The original Reverse-Flash, The Rival started out wearing a darker variation of Jay Garrick's costume while hiding his head and face under a featureless black mask, and when he returned decades later, he instead looked like a pale, zombified Jay Garrick with glowing white eyes.
- Cry for the Devil:
- Eobard Thawne is a Complete Monster no doubt, but one version of his origins show his past, and with the crap he had to put up with from his parents, and his brother, it's not a surprise he turned out the way he did.
- Also, Axel Walker of all people manages to get a moment- namely his Disney Death in #54 of the Rebirth run.
Barry: Ugh. Trickster?
Axel: Over...Here...Flash...You got me. Good one. My bodacious bod is going bye-bye. But do me a favor and get my friends out of here before we bring down the house?Barry: Trickster...I can...Axel: You keep saying...You want to...help me? The Rogues...are the only family...I got. Save them! Please! Ugh......I never wanted to be a hero...I just hoped for a little justice, y'know?Barry: Hold on, Trickster! I'll come back for you.Axel: Would you shut up and go?! For once in my life, I didn't...Ugh...want to be the punchline. Wanted to be big man on campus.Barry: Trickster!Axel: I just wish...I could think up something...funny...to...go out on...Barry: Trickster?! NO! Axel?! Hold on...I'll find you...I'll find......you. Axel...I'm sorry...- James Jesse gets a sympathetic backstory in the Rebirth run, thanks to his monstrously awful parents, and what he goes through at Wolfe's hands. Doesn't justify his actions, but it does give him Woobie points a'plenty.
- Diagnosed by the Audience:
- Due to Personality Powers, ADHD headcanons are particularly common with a lot of the Flash Family, but Wally West, Bart Allen, and Jesse Chambers especially it seems popular to interpret as suchnote . With Bart, it's so commonplace that it's often just stated as fact among the fandom, which makes the fact there isn't actually an official confirmation somewhat surprising.
- Like a lot of Super-Speed characters Jesse shows clear signs of ADHD. She is a workaholic to the point of hyper-focusing, with next to no social life (and from what we see, not much skill in social situations either), has a short temper and is shown as being easily frustrated, has terrible time-keeping skills on her own, but is also very studious and hyper-focused on the JSA, as well as having a perfectionist streak and a demonstrative tendency towards depression (especially when she fails to meet her own goals). Interestingly, these are ADHD traits, but not the traits commonly displayed by Wally and Bart, or the ones commonly displayed by Super-Speed possessing characters.
- To a lesser extent, Barry has been headcanon'd as ADHD or autistic (Bart as well, autism headcanons aren't uncommon either), owing to his nerdy personality, inability to keep track of time, and his deep knowledge of science that goes well beyond what he'd need for his job, as well as his issues with socialising and depression. Due to Composite Character often being in play, these details can be much more common with certain adaptations due to Barry often taking aspects of Wally and Bart, including these behaviours.
- Ensemble Dark Horse:
- The biggest would have to be Jay Garrick (pre-Flashpoint). While he's mostly a supporting character, even within JSA, and doesn't really develop, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who doesn't like him. As a mentor character, he's one of the more popular, and people are always glad to see him whenever he appears. And, like Wally West, he's come to symbolise more in the Rebirth era, specifically referred to as someone who brings hope.
- Jesse Quick, being (for a while) the only female speedster, being something of a Cool Big Sis to Bart and something of a Distaff Counterpart to Wally (who's costume choices also make her something of the Ms. Fanservice of The Flash), and has a unique skillset among the Flash family. Despite her few solo appearances, she has a pretty well-developed personality and personal lore, including a realistically troubled relationship with her parents, and connects the Flash franchise to its Friendly Fandoms buddy the Justice Society of America.
- Max Mercury is well liked for similarly being a likeable mentor figure like Jay, but with more mystery to him as he's supposedly been around for centuries under different names, and also being a huge Deadpan Snarker who hides it behind his 'Zen master of Speed' persona, as well as having a heartwarming fatherly relationship with Bart and Jesse.
- Irey West, especially in her original incarnation as the (Kid) Flash of the Kingdom Come universe. It's not hard to find fanfic and fanart of her either as Impulse, Kid Flash or the Flash.
- Thaddeus Thawne, like the other Reverse-Flashes, is well liked for being an evil double of Bart with a surprisingly Tragic Villain backstory that makes him sympathetic, especially when one remembers that he's Just a Kid. This is enough so that a large number of fans detest his increased villainy, including killing Bart, and the Fate Worse than Death he briefly had as punishment for it.
- Evil Is Cool:
- The Reverse-Flashes, especially Eobard and Hunter, are very well-liked by fans for being absolutely terrifying villains, since Super-Speed has so many Fridge Horror applications for them to use, such as snapping your fingers to create a sonic boom and going back in time to murder your enemies' loved ones.
- Captain Cold is a Badass Normal who's insanely competent, to the point he can build his cold gun out of pretty much any tech he can improvise, yet he's also a Noble Demon who loves his sister and believes heavily in not hurting innocents and minimising bloodshed as much as he can. Despite the goofy name and costume, he's one of the most effective at fighting the Flash (be it Wally, Barry, Jay, Bart, or whoever) due to his weaponry making him an effective Man of Kryptonite against them, and he knows it.
- Fan-Disliked Explanation: "Barry Allen created the Speed Force". The explanation doesn't really make any sense and puts needless extra importance onto Barry that many felt contributed to making him a Creator's Pet, so it only gets echoed by fans during Barry-vs-Wally arguments and is generally seen as a really bad argument for Barry's sake. This is seemingly shared by most DC creators, as it was retconned out as soon as Geoff Johns was no longer writing the book with a new explanation of it being how motion in the universe moves (though this too was quietly dropped later), and it's only ever been referenced once in the comics since, by Johns himself in a book that was questionably canon and subsequently ignored again.
- Fandom-Enraging Misconception:
- Calling Wally West "Kid Flash", or otherwise acting like he's second to Barry. While its up for debate about which one is better, it's not OK for many to treat Wally as if he's never reached/surpassed Barry's level, or downplaying his history when he was the Flash for over two decades and the bulk of the Flash lore comes from his tenurenote . Former DC co-Publisher Dan DiDio expressing this sentiment is/was a major reason why Wally West fans really hate him, as many believe it demonstrated how little about the franchise he actually knew or understood despite his insistence on meddling with it.
- Similarly, asking why/suggesting that Wally should change his name to avoid confusion with Barry, or otherwise acting as if the fact they're both called "The Flash" is some big confusing mess. It's not an issue for Hal, John, Kyle, Guy, Simon, or Jessica, nor was it an issue during both Barry and Wally's tenure to have Jay Garrick referred to by the same handle either.
- Another is also treating Wally like his only positive over Barry is the fact he's faster, commonly with remarks about how just being more powerful doesn't "make him a better character". While "better character" is highly subjective, Wally is remarked for undergoing an extensive character arc, growing from a cocky and arrogant Sad Clown into an upbeat and fun hero, and its the fact he's such a Dynamic Character that made him popular. The fact he's more powerful is less what makes him cool so much as a bragging right because his greater power was earned through hardship.
- Also about Wally, claiming that the DCAU incarnation was nothing like his comic self. While Wally in the comics, as a character who had severe Character Development over his run and was a solid Dynamic Character, and how he was initially in the DCAU, a cocky Deadpan Snarker and Casanova Wannabe, isn't how he acted during Waid and Johns' runs, it is how he acted in Barron and Messner-Loeb's runs — it's just he grew out of it by the end of the latter's run. He was still a goofball who could sometimes be a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, and his role in JLA was often Comic Relief, but he had became more serious than that version. And, as a result, is so different that people that only read his newest appearances or his earliest Silver Age appearances, and skim through his most famous, the Waid run, he will seem like a completely different character.
- Due to the below-mentioned Fandom Rivalry, it is very common for comic fans to get annoyed at people who talk about things from the TV series as if they're part of the comic book lore, particularly the show-original ideas and characters, or characters who were heavily retooled to the point of being In Name Only (such as Zoom or Jesse Quick). Assuming that Jesse is from Earth 2 and/or that her personality is akin to the TV counterpart, or that Zoom is just an Invincible Villain or misunderstanding his powers and motivations, often results in Flash fans having to go on at-length explaining why this is wrong.
- Underestimating the Rogues. The Rogues are a Badass Normal team who are surprisingly very powerful individually, due to how their gimmicks have been taken to such ridiculous extremes to compensate with the Power Creep, Power Seep afforded to the Flash. Not understanding this, believing they're merely Joke Character Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain types, is an easy way to make Flash fans sigh.
- Bart Allen's fandom has became increasingly vocal about how his character is misrepresented by people. A lot of people treat Bart as an innocent Fun Personified sweet kid, and particularly enjoy dialing up his Woobie nature, which has bled into how some write him in canon. It's somewhat lost that Bart in-canon was a Rebellious Teenager who butted heads with Wally, Max, Jesse, and pretty much anyone who he cared about, and had a mischievous, bratty side to him, and most of his interpersonal fights had him as the aggressor. Bart is ultimately a sweet natured boy, but he also daydreamed about putting his best friends in wood chippers when they annoyed him, and would actively pick fights with his cousin any chance he could. And this is exactly why his fans liked him, and so they dislike that he's been watered down and misrepresented as a rather Flat Character (not helped is that much of this comes from exaggerating Bart's Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny! tendencies and presenting him with a very Hollywoodised idea of ADHD, whereas his original solo series presented him with a much more realistic depiction of the condition, adding some complaints about misrepresenting a neurodivergent character's condition).
- Calling Wally West "Kid Flash", or otherwise acting like he's second to Barry. While its up for debate about which one is better, it's not OK for many to treat Wally as if he's never reached/surpassed Barry's level, or downplaying his history when he was the Flash for over two decades and the bulk of the Flash lore comes from his tenurenote . Former DC co-Publisher Dan DiDio expressing this sentiment is/was a major reason why Wally West fans really hate him, as many believe it demonstrated how little about the franchise he actually knew or understood despite his insistence on meddling with it.
- Fandom Heresy: Praising Dan DiDio is a sure-fire way to earn a lot of scorn from Flash fans who didn't join the fandom from the TV series or New 52 run. Even some who did if they went and read the earlier material after and enjoyed it. As DiDio is responsible for the Audience-Alienating Era the franchise went under, he's directly responsible for the mistreatment of Wally West and the rest of the Flash Family, and his tendency to troll and taunt Wally's fans at conventions, giving him any praise is seen as an attack on Wally and the others (which to be fair, as the praise mostly comes from the most vitriolic of Barry's side of the Wally/Barry fan-war, it often is).
- Fandom-Specific Plot:
- There is a lot of fanon surrounding Wally, especially in fanfics. His father being horribly abusive, (which does have some basis in canon but not to the up to eleven qualities in fanworks), is common.
- There's also him having a weird child-parent relationship with the Rogues due to the fact that they don't hurt kids in most continuities. This relationship includes them kidnapping him to take him to fun parks, and Flash/Barry being perfectly fine with the enemies that try to kill him on a daily basis kidnapping his nephew.
- For works set when Wally is an adult, a similar trend tends to come up where Wally and Rogues are Friendly Enemies to a much bigger extent then the comics. In-canon, Wally was friends with the Rogues when they retired, but when they came out of retirement they went back to being opposed, albeit with heavy Villain Respect and frequent Enemy Mine situations. In fandom, though, Wally is still having them over for BBQ and beers on the weekends even while they're slugging one-another in the week, usually with some handwave that they square their jail time off via the Suicide Squad and so there's no standing warrants, or that Wally isn't a cop and doesn't see a need to arrest them when they're not actively committing crime.
- A lot of fans seem to believe that he went to high-school with James Jesse (Trickster I) and Hartley Rathaway (Pied Piper). While Piper was later retconned into being closer to Wally's age once they became friends Wally was already well into his twenties by this point and the Trickster has always been consistently older than him.
- If there's a fanfic about a late teens/early twenties Wally having to overcome insecurities chances are the climax (or an event a little before the climax) will take from his epic beat down of Brainiac-ified Lex Luthor in the Justice League cartoon by having him running around the world multiple times in the matter of nanoseconds to beat the villain, only to overuse his energy and fall into the Speed Force leading to his supporting cast having to reach in and pull him out. This got an amusing Fandom Nod (or possibly just a Mythology Gag) when it was used in the first arc of Titans (2016).
- Max Mercury's Mysterious Past has led to fanon spreading, especially since the idea of a Wild West-set super-speedster is a cool concept. Of note, it's become increasingly popular to give him a Race Lift and depict him as Blackfoot Native American, rather than a white man adopted into their culture and becoming their champion; as his fandom is already left-leaning, such a change is often well-received when brought up by fans.
- Fan Nickname:
- Jesse Quick's unpopular third outfit, after the leather jacket and Zettai Ryouiki outfits, is referred to as the 'Q-boob' outfit, for how the 'Q' weirdly circles one of her, well, boobs.
- When first introduced, the New 52 Wally West was called "Nu Wally" to distinguish him from the Pre-New 52 version. After the original Wally's return, NuWally (the most common nickname for him), Small!Wally or, if the person in question is trying to be cutesy, Smol!Wally (which is pretty much the same as the second). Some fans have suggested calling New 52 Wally by the name Ace instead (as in Wallace) but it hasn't picked up much steam. In an ironic bit of inversion, he was often just called by his full name "Wallace", rather than have him use the Wally nickname, which shortly after became Ascended Fanon.
- The Flash: Afterbirth is sometimes used to differentiate between the original miniseries and the 2016 one-shot.
- Fanon Discontinuity:
- Fans and writers alike agree on pretending Bart never became the Flash. Some go as far as to pretend he was never Kid Flash either. Now thanks to Rebirth, it seems everything that happened to him after the end of Young Justice is no longer canon, and almost nobody is going to complain about that.
- And now it's unanimously agreed within fandom that Robert Venditti & Van Jensen's run on the Flash never happened. Nope!
- Before that, the retcon that the Rogues never truly reformed, but were brainwashed into it by The Top, has largely been ignored both because it soils the Heartwarming Moments that came from their previous friendship with Wally, and because the story paints Barry Allen under terrible light. The fact it ties in with the very-hated Identity Crisis (2004) doesn't help.
- Titans (1999) #25-onward is pretty much ignored as far as it goes for Jesse Quick's character, largely as she ends up becoming very out-of-character, loses her previously-shown competence and budding relationship with Nighwing, and the much-hated Phillip storyline. Note, when Jesse joined the cast of JSA right after, all that was said is the time was a disaster and she was now suddenly close again with Libby.
- Naturally, fans completely ignore Heroes in Crisis and Flash Forward (2019), due to the total character assassination given to Wally. This...really doesn't need to be explained if you know anything about those stories.
- Josh Williamson's run is now likely going to be remembered for Wallace and Avery, maybe Godspeed, but probably nothing else. The Other Forces saga (a massive Arc Fatigue that nobody wanted), the reworking of Hunter Zolomon (who gained completely different powers, personality, and motivation, that he pretty much became a completely different character), the Took a Level in Jerkass treatment of Captain Cold (who lost his Anti-Villain and sympathetic traits until he became a cold blooded killer, missing the entire appeal of the character), and of course, Barry Allen's characterisation (which attempted to put an end to his Karma Houdini status after Flashpoint and the numerous other Unintentionally Unsympathetic things he's done, but due to the failure to have him actually grow he just came off as a toxic asshole who we're still supposed to root for despite never learning), are especially things fans hope to forget.
- "Barry Allen created the Speed Force" is this for most fans, and evidently most writers as it's never been brought up in-canon since, except one time where Geoff Johns (who established it in the first place) referenced it. It contradicts how the Speed Force was portrayed beforehand, and how it's portrayed since, and the ways to explain how it works makes it a Voodoo Shark.
- Fashion-Victim Villain:
- Rainbow Raider. His suit is a gaudy rainbow coloured body suit with big glasses that make him look like a rejected Elton John costume come to life. This is felt in-universe too, and Rainbow Raider is a major Butt-Monkey among the Flash villains because of it (among other things).
- A lot of the Rogues in general, especially since it contributes heavily to their poor reputation outside of the Flash fandom. No matter how cool he might be, Captain Cold is still a man dressed in an inuit-furred blue bodysuit with a droopy hood, and its hard to really see him as particularly threatening based on that. Likewise, many of the others wear garish bodysuits that tend to be unflattering in their design, and as a result many of them have gone through redesigns over the years to make them more cooler looking.
- Franchise Original Sin:
- Modern Barry taking elements from Wally's character has sometimes been defended as this. As a Legacy Character, Wally naturally took after Barry in some ways, with a similar origin and wearing an identical costume at first, and as he goes through extensive character growth, he starts to resemble Barry in some superficial ways (being a married man with a reporter love interest, and a more mature and level-headed disposition). However, the similarities between him and Barry are pretty much limited to things that were bound to happen (getting married and growing up) or were unplanned developments that were lampshaded (and despite being a reporter, Linda and Iris were very different characters who didn't even practice the same kind of journalism: Linda was a TV anchor and Iris was a newspaper journalist). Conversely, the traits Barry's taken from Wally have resulted in Barry regressing as a character as he became a less mature, less competent man.
- Similarly, the Darker and Edgier backstory given to Barry (which is controversial among fans), as Wally had a similar retcon introduced with Abusive Parents. However, the Wests weren't intended to be abusive (while Rudy's treatment of Wally has long since fallen into Values Dissonance, at the time he was just seen as a crappy father, and this was before such backstories were particularly common for superheroes anyway), and despite the grimness, it was actually used to make Wally's previous stories as Kid Flash more Heartwarming in Hindsight as it added a stronger bond between Wally, Iris, and Barry (and despite this, the abusive parents backstory was rarely brought up after Waid took over). By contrast, Barry's dead mom backstory lacks any retroactive heartwarming traits, and has slowly dominated his character to the point that now even his costume ring is explained as being directly linked to Nora Allen's death.
- Friendly Fandoms:
- Naturally, with Green Lantern, due to their similar status as long-running B-list franchises within the DC Universe that have a lengthy Legacy Character system, and the fact in-universe, Flash and Green Lantern (no matter which is using the name of either hero) are actual best friends. Naturally, this endears fans of one to the other; in fact, many often point to Green Lantern as being what DC should do with Flash in terms of how it treats multiple heroes using the same name.
- With Alternate Company Equivalent being in play, The Flash and Spider-Man similarly have a lot of fandom crossover. Both are red-clad wisecracking and optimistic Kid-Appeal Character types who's happen to also be quite emotionally mature at times, and are defined by being Working Class Heroes and strong Character Development. In fact, one can point to the two sides of Spidey's character, his Peter Parker persona and his Spider-Man persona, as being quite similar to Barry Allen and Wally West.
- Fans of Wally West tend to also be Nightwing fans, naturally, due to the characters' status as best friends and their decades-long intimate bromance. But also, Wally's fanbase tend to also be fans of Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown, and specifically their respective runs as Batgirl, as well as Tim Drake-as-Robin fans, due to the natural shared bond of being Legacy Character heroes (and more importantly, being Legacy Character heroes despised by Dan DiDio who suffered as a result).
- An interesting one seems to exist between Wally West fans and Mary Jane Watson fans. On the surface, both are red-headed and charismatic characters who "replaced" a blonde-haired character (Barry Allen and Gwen Stacy, respectively) whom many perceived as a Flat Character, and avoided Replacement Scrappy due to extensive Character Development that made them become the Breakout Character of their respective franchise. They both appeal to many of the same tropes and are both a Creator's Pest due to fandom loving them while editorial seem to despise them. More-over, both exist to encourage the idea that comic books should move on and allow their series' to grow and change (IE, passing the torch to legacy characters, settle down with the love interest, etc) and that they shouldn't be beholden to a status quo that existed in the 60s just-because.
- Gateway Series:
- The Brian Buccellato/Francis Manapul run brought in a lot of new readers, due to launching with the New 52. Though the quality is contested by older fans, this run's simpler take on a single speedster (Barry Allen), based largely on Geoff Johns' rewrite of Barry, accompanied by Manapul's highly regarded artwork, made it easier for newer fans to jump into. The fact it largely inspired the 2014 TV series likely adds to this as many would have jumped onto the series from that.
- Josh Williamson's Rebirth run became something of this for some of the more complex aspects of the Flash lore. It starts with a relatively simple opening arc that's new reader friendly and over the course of the run, it reintroduces many classic elements and characters that had been gone for some time, becoming the primary way for some newer fans to become intimately aware of this stuff without reading the older work.
- Growing the Beard: Vol. 2 of Wally's series started getting stubble with William Messner-Loebs's run, in which Wally started toning down his cockiness and his girlfriend Linda Park was introduced. Then Mark Waid came on and the beard had officially grown out.
- Harsher in Hindsight: Wally's second writer, William Messner-Loeb, added a social justice bent to the comics, which featured Wally going through Character Development that redeveloped his political leanings from midwestern conservative to socially left/left-leaning centrist. The event that starts this is Wally being rendered homeless, experiencing first-hand the harsh realities of homelessness and the casual cruelty often inflicted on them, and ends with Wally and Piper setting up a charity for the homeless using the money Icicle left him. Sadly, after years of struggling financially, it came to the internet's attention in the 2010s that Messner-Loeb himself was now homeless, after having been living in his car for some time.
- Hype Backlash: Newer fans of Barry, such as those introduced during/after his return, during the New 52 run, or from the TV series, don't see the big deal about Wally, despite the latter being praised as the most iconic character to have taken the identity of the Flash. Due to Wally's fans going on at-length about how great he was, Barry fans tend to get pretty annoyed at his fanbase, and him in-turn, especially as he is far more abrasive and has a shorter temper than Barry. What didn't help was that Wally was the last character to be restored after being erased during the New 52note , which meant that his fanbase grew louder and more tireless, and thus more obnoxious to outside viewers. There is also the fact that Wally's main appeal is he's a Dynamic Character who went through extensive Character Development during his run. While any random Barry story can tell you what you need about his character, Wally's character changed so much that it can be hard to pick up what was great about him from just a single story.
- I Knew It!:
- New 52's Wally West being black. It was played as a twist, but many, many fans knew this was going to happen, since the Wests in the planned Flash TV series are black, and the fact that Brett Booth said Wally was on the cover of Flash Annual #3, which many correctly assumed was the graffiti artist who nothing was shown of. The issue has massive Just Here for Godzilla status, so why wouldn't they show Wally's appearance?
- Wally West's return in Rebirth. The way Geoff Johns giggled like a school girl with Flash writer Joshua Williamson at the Rebirth panel, the foreshadowing in Titans Hunt, leaks, and just the idea that Rebirth was supposed to re-establish legacy made it clear he was coming back.
- It's the Same, Now It Sucks!:
- Both the second TV series and New 52 comics heavily relying on Speed Force antics tired fans when it came to speedster villains or anything related to the Speed Force itself (beyond it being the source of superspeed) so when it was announced that the Rebirth series' first arc would be dealing with yet another evil speedster, fans mostly reacted with unamused groans. Even though Godspeed's unique design attracted some interest at first, his story and motivations turning out to be very similar to the fan-favorite villain Hunter Zolomon's caused this reaction and further confirmed the how speedster villains beyond Reverse Flashes are unnecessary.
- The reveal of Black Hole's leader being revealed as Raijin and Meena's Face–Heel Turn also faced this reaction not only by old fans but also by TV show fans who had started reading comics. From Raijin's "evil organization", his Theme Naming to his design, it's very clearly inspired by both comics and TV show versions of Savitar. Meanwhile there are obvious similarities between Meena and Christina Alexandrova by the same extension.
- A contributing factor to Barry Allen's Base-Breaking Character status is how, despite there being several Flashes, he's the only one shown any love outside the comics since the 2000s. Having been the lead of both TV shows, and the Flash of the movie 'verse, along with the many DC animated movies, fans of the other Flashes who could have at least tolerated Barry were miffed that DC insisted on adapting his story repeatedly over the others, especially Wally West, considering that Barry was also getting all the focus in the comics. The brief exceptions (the DC Animated Universe used Wally West, Smallville used Bart/Impulse, and Young Justice (2010) features Wally West as Kid Flash) do little to help as they largely started before this trend occurred.
- Jerkass Woobie: Part of Wally's character arc is he starts like this; as Kid Flash he was the token jerk of the New Teen Titans and his initial arcs after becoming The Flash were him being a jerk to women and arguing with his mom. Over the course of Messner-Loeb's run, it became clear Wally's life was pretty miserable due to his shaky financial situation and the problems with his parents. By the end of Loeb's run, Wally had gone through enough character development that the Jerkass part had faded, allowing Waid to instead write him as a solid Woobie.
- Captain Cold and Golden Glider. Jerks as they are, they were horribly abused by their father, who's cruel treatment of them left Leonard so emotionally broken he developed a cold and unemotive exterior that contributes to his "cold" image. Lisa, though more openly emotional, is still clearly affected by it herself and became a bitter, angry and violent person, not helped by the fact she also lost her boyfriend, The Top, who despite being an asshole had been able to make Lisa so hopelessly in love with him that she blamed Barry for his death and swore to hurt him as much as she could.
- Many Impulse fans see Inertia as this at the very least, based off the Mercury Falling arc. As much of The Sociopath as he would later prove to be, he was raised without any real love and groomed to be a monster; when he's exposed to genuine care and affection be people who think he's Bart, it nearly breaks through to him and he's clearly tempted to pull a Heel–Face Turn, showing that much of his evil is truly just down to being love-starved. There's actually a good deal of alternate universe fanfic and fanart branching off from this point.
- Peek-a-Boo. She just wanted to help her sick father and gave up a promising medical career to care for him, but thanks to her powers being Blessed with Suck, she was unable to donate the organ he needed and he was so far on the waiting list he'd have died before he got the organ he needed. She only turned to crime to save him, and because of her powers when Wally stopped her, rather than get a fair trial she was sent to Iron Heights where Warden Wolfe had her beaten and abused to keep her from potential release. While she made bad choices, she suffered massive Disproportionate Retribution which caused her to be unable to be there when her father passed away. She was, however, still trying to steal an organ, and blamed Wally entirely for what happened to her, but its hard not to see she has a point to her Then Let Me Be Evil speech about how she only became a Rogue because that's what the city called her.
- Hunter Zolomon/Zoom, whose life is just messed up. His Dad was a serial killer who killed his mom, and things just got worse from there; at the FBI, his Father to His Men superior, who was also his father-in-law and mentor, was killed in action because of a mistake Hunter made, causing his marriage to break down and his promising career to be cut off, while also leaving him with a crippled knee. After moving to Keystone, he was ground zero for a number of supervillain attacks, leading to a brutal attack from Grodd that left him paralysed from the waist down, all because Grodd wanted to hurt Wally. Then even when he begged, Wally refused to use time travel to fix all this, and Hunter's own attempts turned him into Zoom. He's still a disturbed monster who takes enjoyment in hurting others, but it's because he's now convinced that Misery Builds Character and thinks he's actually helping heroes like Wally by attacking his wife.
- Just Here for Godzilla: After The Flash: Rebirth, the majority reason a lot of people have kept up with The Flash has been for when Wally shows up. After DC Rebirth this evolved into being for when Wally shows up, when Wallace shows up, or to wait for when the larger Flash Family (particularly Jay Garrick) finally show up. To really illustrate this effect, sales numbers put out by Diamond show that, while the book just features Barry, the average sales number is 20K unites, but when Wally is featured (such as the first annual, "Perfect Storm", and "Flash War"), then the numbers jump up to 50K average, a 150% increase in sales.
- Love to Hate: Eobard Thawne. Much like The Joker, he's an incredibly popular villain in large part because of just how much of a Complete Monster he is, and how he often shows the truly terrifying possibilities Super-Speed has when in the hands of someone who's not as altruistic as the Flash Family. He's also a major source of memes.
- Memetic Badass:
- A post explaining why "the motherfucking Flash" is the greatest hero ever began on Slashdot, and got reposted everywhere
. - The Rogues. It helps that they each have a lot of epic CMOA achievements, but it's often noted how a bunch of Badass Normal bank robbers just trying to get by, somehow manage to challenge someone as powerful as the Flash, and have a much higher win/loss ratio than more serious threats like Vandal Savage.
- Jesse Quick and a lead pipe. In an issue of Justice Society of America, Jesse manages to one-hit KO Zoomnote , with nothing but a lead pipe after pulling a I Am Not Left-Handed on him. It's since lead to jokes whenever her name comes up on discussions about the 'order' of who's fastest among the Flash speedsters, with the general agreement that if you give her a lead pipe, she can take down anyone.
- A post explaining why "the motherfucking Flash" is the greatest hero ever began on Slashdot, and got reposted everywhere
- Memetic Loser: Barry Allen, especially thanks to adaptations, has increasingly became this. It comes down to a few points. Firstly, it is common knowledge (and not in a Common Knowledge way) that Wally West is the faster and more successful Flash but Barry was pushed because he's a Creator's Pet, and it's his fault why the New 52 happened, so all the Darker and Edgier misery the other heroes suffered is entirely because of him (Dr. Manhattan retcon be-damned). Secondly, the TV series' over-reliance on the episodic formula of having Barry get beat up by the Monster of the Week once or twice, then during the climax have a pep-talk from his team mid-battle before he finally defeats them in a very anti-climatic way, has contributed to the popular perception that 'The Flash' is a whiny man-child who needs a pep-talk every week to do anything. Thirdly, the DCEU Flash, also Barry Allen, has so far only had a single prominent appearance in a highly contested and financially under-performing installment, where he was depicted as the rookie of the team who's shown at one point literally tripping over his own feet, making him appear completely incompetent and idiotic, not helped by his neurotic nature.
- Not helping Barry is the aforementioned Zoom Posting, where Barry is basically Thawne's personal Butt-Monkey.
- Memetic Molester: Starting the early 2020's, it became common to depict Thawne using his powers for perversely sadistic crimes, such as masturbating Barry when the latter was making out with a girl.
- Memetic Mutation:
- "IT WAS ME BARRY!" Used as the absurd punchline to some story told by Professor Zoom, usually to parody the idea of Zoom being responsible for every bad thing in Barry's life.
- "THAT WASN'T ME BARRY!" has been used in response to various criminal allegations in regards to Ezra Miller, where Zoom is utterly horrified and is urging Barry to get some help.
- The "the motherfucking Flash" rant above is in itself a meme among Flash fans.
- He could explode their heads with his pinkie! note
- Barry messing up timelines, often with disastrous affects. In-universe he only does this twice. Flashpoint is considered a definitive fuck up on his part in most circles, even though he was mostly trying to fix Thawne's meddling, but that doesn't matter to the fans. He's forever an (comedic) inconsiderate jerk who messes with timelines for lulz. NOT helped by his Arrowverse counterpart, who has messed with the timeline on multiple occasions. In fact, Arrowverse Barry arguably caused the use of this meme to be taken up to eleven.
- "IT WAS ME BARRY!" Used as the absurd punchline to some story told by Professor Zoom, usually to parody the idea of Zoom being responsible for every bad thing in Barry's life.
- Memetic Troll: This is the premise of the "It was me, Barry!" memes parodying The Reveal in Rebirth that Thawne has been behind every terrible thing that's happened to Barry. People began making insanely petty bad things in Barry's life that Thawne was responsible for, like splashing water onto Barry's pants to make it seem like he peed himself or pooping in Barry's underwear when he tried to silently fart. It helps that Thawne actually is so immensely petty that it'd actually almost be in character.
- Mis-blamed:
- The relationship between Wally West fans and Geoff Johns is a tricky one, as many blame him for bringing back Barry Allen and pushing him so hard as The Flash that Wally got Demoted to Extra and then erased from continuity all together, and for his involvement in the TV and movie adaptations which have contributed to pushing Barry as the iconic Flash in outside media. However, Geoff Johns is more the trigger man in this scenario; The Flash: Rebirth was a project that artist Ethan Van Sciver, by his own admission, had been pushing pretty much since he and Johns made Green Lantern Rebirth together, and Editor-In-Chief Dan DiDio gave it the go-ahead. Geoff Johns wrote the story and Barry's return, and put forward a lot of his personal ideas for rebooting the character, but it wasn't him campaigning to bring Barry back or to toss Wally aside (Johns had instead wanted to give them co-ownership of the Flash title, ala the Green Lanterns). For his part in this, Johns has became something of The Atoner, personally bringing Wally back in DC Rebirth.
- Josh Williamson's run got a lot of heat towards the second half, with many expecting it to go down as a Audience-Alienating Era. However, a lot of the problems of the run were down to Executive Meddling, which prevented him from doing the things he wanted (such as restoring Wally and the Flash Family to prominence). Once the figures behind the meddling left shortly before the end of his run and he got to do these things, it wasn't uncommon for some fans to ask that he continue now that he's free to do what he wants.
- Moe:
- Jesse Quick, due to her Amazingly Embarrassing Parents and light-hearted Wanted a Son Instead interactions with her parents, and nature as a cheerful Bookworm, Depending on the Writer.
- Linda Park, Depending on the Artist, is often presented as a short-statured but really cute girl with nerd glasses and a wardrobe taste that varies from being tomboyish and oversized to overly formal and dressed up. When her and Wally were in the midst of their early Will They or Won't They?, Wally himself remarked that she was really cute, and that was what he found attractive about her compared to his other love interest at the time, Connie.
- Moral Event Horizon:
- The first Reverse-Flash crossed it when he killed Iris Allen (although she got better).
- Rudy West crossed it when he tried to kill his own wife as part of a scheme to make Wally join the Manhunters.
- Gorilla Grodd when he ate an entire country in JLA: Classified.
- Blacksmith crosses it when she causes Fallout to give Joan Garrick cancer, sll just to get Jay out of Keystone.
- The second Reverse-Flash crossed it when he caused Linda Park to miscarry.
- If Inertia didn't cross this when he got Bart killed, then he without a doubt crossed it when he killed the infant son of Weather Wizard.
- Captain Cold in the Rebirth run when he kills Turbine. If not then, then he definitely crosses it during "Year of the Villain", when he takes over Central City, kills Commander Cold and tosses the guy's head at Barry's feet.
- More Popular Replacement:
- The third Flash, Wally West, is considered by a lot of readers to be an improvement over his predecessor, Barry Allen. In fact, he is seen as the Flash by a considerable chunk of the fanbase and it's not uncommon for modern interpretations of Barry to incorporate some aspects of Wally's personality to his own in an attempt to make up for this (which, generally, isn't super popular with fans). Notably, since passing the torch back to Barry, the average sales of the book have declined, giving an indication of which one's more popular.
- Evan McCulloch, the second Mirror Master, is a cocky Violent Glaswegian hitman with a hefty Freudian Excuse, who, upon acquiring the Mirror tech, proved to be much more imaginative with what one could do with it than Sam Scudder had ever been, and proves to be a much more effective threat. As a result, like with Barry and Wally, adaptations that instead feature Sam Scudder (or at least leave Mirror Master unidentified) will composite them both, and the New 52 reworked Sam Scudder's skillset and capabilities to be more like Evan's.
- Linda Park is largely agreed to be Wally West's OTP and very few people would ship him elsewhere note . As such, people straight-up forget that Connie Noleski exists, or that Wally had originally been paired with Frankie Kane/Magenta, or his short-lived age-inappropriate romance with Tina McGee, but if they do remember any of those, they still largely agree that Linda was the better match.
- My Real Daddy:
- William Messner-Loeb for creating Linda Park, modernized the Rogues into a group of genuine friends and antiheroes, gave Pied Piper his socialist beliefs and sexual identity as well as placed him as Wally's best friend, and also gave Wally a serious kick in the teeth in terms of Character Development, to wash off the Jerkass characterisation he'd been given beforehand. His run suffered from mediocre sales though, and so it's often forgotten.
- Mark Waid introduced the Speed Force, Impulse, Max Mercury, reintroduced Jay Garrick, brought Jesse Quick into the fold and developed her relationship with the boys, formed the Flash Family, and developed Wally and Linda's love story, from them first becoming official to their wedding.
- Geoff Johns is something of a 'step-dad' as his run also saw the reintroduction of the Rogues as well as creating Hunter Zolomon/Zoom, and later brought back Barry Allen with his updated backstory, but outside of Zoom these additions aren't as universally beloved.
- Joshua Williamson didn't create Wallace, but he was the one who had him Rescued from the Scrappy Heap via establishing him as not Wally West rebooted, streamlining his characterisation, and giving him serious Character Development, never mind fleshing out his relationships with Barry, Wally, Iris, and Williamson's own creation, Avery Ho.
- Jeremy Adams is the newest among them, and while still getting his feet wet he deserves some note for developing the Park-West twins in such a manner they've been far less controversial than they were previously. In part he's written them as far more realistic children, they've not had quite as much spotlight stealing focus, and Jai got his own codename in Surge while Irey has expressed interest in getting her own instead of using Impulse II. And as they're more realistic kids and Wally is a more realistic parent, it's brought out major DILF vibes with him.
- Narm: The Flash using his speed often looked more ridiculous than cool in the Silver Age because of awkward posing. His first appearance on the cover art Showcase #4 is a good example, where Barry looks more like he's jogging than anything else.
- Narm Charm:
- Gorilla Grodd, full stop. A hyperintelligent psychic gorilla from a secret society of intelligent apes is such a purely goofy Silver Age thing... yet Grodd has managed to last into modern times as a legitimately badass villain thanks to some great writing and characterization.
- The Speed Force Mantra that Johnny and Jesse use for their speed is ridiculous in concept, and was Adapted Out of the CW show to make Jesse just a straight-up Distaff Counterpart, but it gives them a distinct way to activate their powers, and after being reimagined as a placebo, it ties in perfectly with the spiritualistic and psychosomatic nature of the Flash family's powers. Also, it's just kinda cool to shout out a trigger phrase and kick-start their powers, even if it's a math equation.
- Never Live It Down:
- Related to the above meme, Barry messing with timelines. The fans will likely never let it go. This is largely motivated by the fact DC themselves tried to forget it happened immediately after, and as an unintended consequence of Dan DiDio's preference for Darker and Edgier and Younger and Hipper, and using the reboot to wipe out characters he personally didn't like; by making everyone else's lives miserable while Barry himself becomes a young man again, and some even being, essentially, erased from reality, Barry became a massive Karma Houdini for ruining the lives of the entire universe.
- Wally's status as Barry's former sidekick and a Legacy Character, as well as his early years struggling to live up to Barry's legacy. The Return of Barry Allen (from 1992, only five years after COIE) had Wally come to terms with replacing Barry and surpassed him in terms of power, after which he went on to spend the next two decades growing as a character and having adventures that developed the Speed Force lore, and had the franchise develop and shape around him as the lead. According to some Barry fans (including Dan DiDio), though, Wally was always chasing Barry's coattails and never surpassed him, and every bit of character growth he got is ignored.
- Wally being conservative Pre-Crisis. In Wolfman/Perez's New Teen Titans, Wally was characterised as being a midwestern conservative, which at the time wasn't really a big deal outside of being an attempt to flesh his characterization out and to contrast him against a team of liberals (and Hawk), and was based on the fact Barry Allen was explicitly a conservative. It didn't come up much, and when he became The Flash, he went through Character Development that saw his political views drastically change thanks to the influence of Pied Piper and Linda Park, with Messner-Loeb, Waid, and Johns all characterizing Wally as left-of-center. However, for some reason it gets brought up a lot in the new-10s by fans, far more than it does with Barry, despite his conservativism being a much bigger part of his character.
- Wallace starting off as an attempt to replace the original Wally West. Despite his Divergent Character Evolution and significant Character Development that has made him a much more likeable kid, and the return of classic!Wally who then became a Big Brother Mentor to him, and the Sudden Name Change to differentiate between them, some fans can't get past the fact he was created in a poorly conceived attempt to erase the original Wally West. This seems to be a Vocal Minority though, as much of the original Wally's fandom have happily embraced Wallace and accept the "he's his younger cousin" idea as it doesn't really contradict any major canon (Iris and Rudy's other sibling was pretty much a non-character, so replacing them with this extra branch of the family isn't an issue for anyone), especially thanks to the Heartwarming Moments the kid has brought. This also goes both ways, though, as some of the more extreme Barry fans have complained about how DC should have made him a permanent replacement and just never revived Wally, and claim that in doing so they tossed aside Wallace's character just to please Wally's fanbase. What makes this extra weird is that Wallace's character got more panel time than Wally did, by virtue of being regularly in both The Flash and Teen Titans as well as spending a lengthy tenure in Deathstroke (Wally by contrast was written out of Titans when he began appearing in Flash, only to be sent off to Sanctuary), and has pretty much followed the character arc he was set up to do already (become Kid Flash, have Kid Flash adventures), so the accusation They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character is demonstratively not true, making it seem more a case they just wish the original Wally never returned out of spite.
- Newer Than They Think:
- The Flash generating a lightning trail. This only really started being an explicit thing by the late 90s/early 2000s; originally they would just leave a red blur or have wind-trails to indicate they were moving, but the yellow on their costume began being depicted as leaving a 'lightning effect' on the otherwise red blur. Again, this was just meant to be the blurred image of the yellow moving so fast. At some point however it became a canon detail that they generate a lightning effect from their running, and it's since then became such a big part of their character it's gotten exaggerated to the point that even when standing still, they have a ridiculously huge lightning storm emanating around them, striking at everything, and can weaponize their lightning to attack from a distance.
- The Speed Force itself is an example of this, first being introduced in 1993, and at first it was something most of the cast didn't believe existed. In fact, Barry Allen had no idea it existed until he was revived, but thanks to the New 52, TV series, and DCEU, it's now treated as if it was something he was fully aware of from the beginning. Almost any reboot or adaptation now, be it an official product of DC or a fanfic universe, will typically include the Speed Force as the explanation for his powers right from the beginning.
- The Speed Force's reputation for being non-stop retcons, New Powers as the Plot Demands, and an inconsistent mess, resulting in the Broken Base of if it was ever a good idea in the first place. This is borderline Common Knowledge, as the Speed Force during Waid's era didn't have much new introduced after the basics were established (it was the source of their power, it acted in ways based on how they perceived it, and it served as the Speedster's 'heaven', drawing them into it as they used more of it's power, but Wally West could circumvent this through The Power of Love). Morrison and Millar's run did add the 'energy suit' ability and the Black Flash, but even this was respectfully just an enhancement of one of the Flash's already present and long-established Required Secondary Powers and a physical representation of it's status as their afterlife. However, after Bart Allen became The Flash, the Speed Force became a writer's punching bag, being repeatedly mis-written and mischaracterised (many writers choosing to write it as a scientific anomaly and energy source, ignoring its mystical nature), and exploited for any quick plot that was needed, until it became so vaguely defined that many fans got sick of it.
- Linda Park and Wally West's romance didn't actually start until 1992, after he had been the Flash for about half a decade. She also wasn't his first intended love interest, as he'd originally been paired with Connie Noleski and Frankie Kane, alongside a few other teased options, and in fact Linda was originally just conceived to be a hostile reporter who he just ended up gelling really well with. It wasn't until Waid took over that she was settled as the love interest.
- Similarly, Jesse Quick is the Distaff Counterpart of the franchise and the Flash's answer to Batgirl or Supergirl, but she too was only introduced in 1992, and didn't become a fixture of Flash until a little later (she was introduced in a 1992 Justice Society of America miniseries).
- Not Badass Enough for Fans: The Rogues are often subjected to this, though mostly from people who are unfamiliar with the core Flash comics. It's common for them to be assumed to be Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain, people that the Flash can deal with without a problem, mostly because they're largely normal men (and Golden Glider), who only tend to commit robberies rather than anything more malicious, and are fighting against someone with Super-Speed that can often get exaggerated to a ridiculous degree (the fact the Flash is a Memetic Badass among some circles because the general belief that Super-Speed is a Story-Breaker Power doesn't help with this). What's overlooked is how ridiculously effective they actually are in a fight, despite their lack of superpowers. Part of this is just ignorance of the fact the Rogues' various gimmicks are, like the Flash's Super-Speed, taken to a ridiculous degree, to the point they each individually range from being a One-Man Army (such as Trickster, Captain Cold, or Golden Glider) to a Person of Mass Destruction or Physical God (like Weather Wizard, Abra Kadabra, or Mirror Master) and as a result end up effectively nullifying the advantage Super-Speed gives. For instance, Cold's gimmick effectively makes him a Man of Kryptonite to the Flash, while Glider is shown being fast enough to effectively catch them by surprise, and Weather Wizard causes such a great deal of chaos during a fight the Flash has to concentrate more on containing their fight then actually fighting them, never mind how vaguely defined Mirror Master's abilities are, which he's weaponised to have basically god-like power. While they're goofy and genuinely sympathetic, they are far from ineffective.
- No Yay:
- Flash/Reverse-Flash relationships are largely built on a one-sided obsession that turned extremely toxic, resulting in this. It's easy to read into Eobard's obsession with Barry as a straight up crush, and there are Memetic Molester jokes at his expense over it, but this is firmly something used to make him even creepier. Hunter's obsession with Wally is at least a little better, as while still toxic and harmful his one-sided view that they're still friends is used to both make him sympathetic (since it reminds readers he's a Tragic Villain and Fallen Hero), but also even creepier that he doesn't see how he's fallen.
- Eobard Thawne has long had a crush on Iris West, and has repeatedly tried to usurp Barry as her husband as part of his twisted attempts to replace him. Naturally this is not cool with people, especially as nowadays, much of Eobard's actions would look like Attempted Rape by fraud.
- Savitar, being an old-world would-be God-King, once tried to offer to spare Jesse Quick in his war against the Flash Family and instead planned to take her as his concubine and Sex Slave. Jesse herself reacted with appropriate disgust at such a suggestion, and it adds to Savitar's particular brand of grossness among the evil speedsters.
- To a much lesser extent, Wally/Jesse is seen as this by some fans. A couple times they've gotten a Ship Tease and it's apparent Jesse had a one-sided crush on Wally early on, not to mention Jay Garrick and Max Mercury have both expressed being a Shipper on Deck (though this came up, respectively, before Linda and Wally got together, and when they had their memories of Linda Park erased, as they're otherwise definitely both pro-Linda/Wally), but a lot of fans view them as Like Brother and Sister, especially when combined with their mutual older sibling-like dynamic with Bart Allen. The fact Jesse is friends with Linda and that she herself has a nice relationship with Hourman II also helps.
- Flash/Reverse-Flash relationships are largely built on a one-sided obsession that turned extremely toxic, resulting in this. It's easy to read into Eobard's obsession with Barry as a straight up crush, and there are Memetic Molester jokes at his expense over it, but this is firmly something used to make him even creepier. Hunter's obsession with Wally is at least a little better, as while still toxic and harmful his one-sided view that they're still friends is used to both make him sympathetic (since it reminds readers he's a Tragic Villain and Fallen Hero), but also even creepier that he doesn't see how he's fallen.
- Obvious Judas: In the Rebirth ongoing, August Heart as Godspeed. He's the first new character to be introduced, in a Remember the New Guy? manner, with a convenient Freudian Excuse right away...
- Older Than They Think:
- Wonder Woman was the first comic book of DC to establish a multiverse. However, Wonder Woman's multiverse was both filled with original inhabitants and settings, behaved far differently when it came to how different parts of it interacted with one another and was mostly thrown out in favor of Flash of Two Worlds, with Wonder Woman's book itself just arbitrarily abandoning Earth Two, moving onto an Earth One Wonder Woman and then having Earth One Wonder Woman meet her Earth Two counterpart in a similar fashion to Barry Allen meeting Jay Garrick.
- Having the New 52 version of Wally repackaged as the original Wally's cousin rather than him in a rebooted universe, thus creating two Wally's, caused some bemusement and confusion at having 'two' characters with the same legal name. It's actually a pre-established trend among the Allen-West family to do this, as there's both Bartholomew 'Barry' Allen and Bartholomew 'Bart' Allen, as well as Iris West and Iris West II/'Irey' West (and to a lesser extent, Irey's brother Jai), so it's really just a common trend of their family to name children after relatives. Wally II even begins going by 'Wallace' rather than Wally, following the pattern of having the younger ones opt for nicknames or alternative given names to separate themselves from the older relative.
- While most of the core comic fanbase knows differently, that Barry Allen isn't the first Flash is often not known to newer people or more casual fans, if they're unaware of Jay Garrick and the Justice Society of America. More commonly, the fact Barry is explicitly a legacy character to Jay and not just 'coincidentally shares the same name and powers', ala Alan Scott and later Green Lanterns, is sometimes assumed to be an invention of Post Crisis DC, but even going back to Barry Allen's first comic, he was inspired by Jay Garrick (who to him, was a comic book character), and after gaining similar powers, purposely named himself after the character. Due to The Flash: Rebirth giving Barry a completely different motivation, as well as New 52 and The Flash (2014) following this while erasing the Jay Garrick link completely, it's became forgotten by some people (including former publisher Dan DiDio) that Barry Allen was as much a Legacy Character as Wally West is.
- The Flash Family are a cornerstone of Wally West's run and as such are sometimes assumed to have been a creation of it, to the point some pro-Barry Allen fans (again, including those Running the Asylum) often declare that the benefit of Barry Allen is the lack of them, as it makes the Flash "more special" by not having other speedsters causing Uniqueness Decay. But the Flash Family was a concept that started during Barry's tenure in the Silver Age, where he teamed up with Jay Garrick regularly and had Wally West as Kid Flash, both things that started as early as 1960. Even before that, during the Golden Age, Johnny Quick was another speedster who worked with Jay Garrick and the other heroes. Other speedsters are older and more iconic than the Speed Force.
- For some reason there's a strange amount of arguments about Wally's animated adaptations being Fun Personified Chivalrous Pervert types, due to a misconception that this personality was invented for the DCAU and so shouldn't be credited to Wally of the comics, or seen as the same characternote . Generally it's down to newer fans (read, nu!Barry fans) only being familiar with Wally post-DC Rebirth and some snippets of Waid's run (because it's the run primarily recommended to people), and so they're unfamiliar with the Barron and Messner-Loeb run, where Wally was more of a cocky womanizer, and the fact Wally went through extensive Character Development. This could be seen as adaptations playing Never Live It Down with Wally, since him chasing skirts was something he stopped doing once he began dating Linda back in 1992; Greg Weisman, creator of Young Justice (2010), has explicitly said he never read beyond Barron's run (which is why the Speed Force, Jesse Quick, and many other aspects are annexed), so he's only familiar with the Wally West on the 80s, which is why he's a cocky Casanova Wannabe in the show.
- One-Scene Wonder: Though Flash Forward (2019) is generally not well-liked thanks to the Audience-Alienating Premise and behind-the-scenes issues, one aspect that people generally seemed to like was Lightspeed, the Linda Park of one of the many alternate earths Wally visits who, in her world, is their speedster superhero and wears a feminised version of Godspeed's (already well-liked) costume. When Infinite Frontier teased that Linda had developed a Speed Force connection, fans were excited by the prospect of Lightspeed becoming canon to the main universe.
- Replacement Scrappy:
- Irey became Impulse in The Flash: Rebirth and then proceeded to be essentially shooed offstage, another victim of Schedule Slip, until the New 52 reboot erased her entirely. This irritated Bart Allen fans who remembered how much better he'd been written back when he was Impulse, before he was shoved into the Kid Flash role.
- Post-Rebirth, Barry replaced Wally as the title character, despite the latter being the most popular incarnation of the Flash. It also doesn't help that DC decided to demote Wally's role to the point where his current status in their new reboot wasn't even shown for two and a half years.
- Modern Barry also ends up being this for his original self. After returning, Barry got a new, Darker and Edgier backstory as a result of a Cosmic Retcon, becoming responsible for a number of events that made him Unintentionally Unsympathetic. By comparison, the classic character was liked by fans for being a martyr figure within the DCU, having been a dorky dad figure for Wally in flashbacks, and a few time-travel related events resulting in many Like a Son to Me moments that the new Barry lacks.
- The New 52 incarnations of Wally and Bart for their pre-Flashpoint incarnations. Noticeably, once the classic, original Wally West was brought back without disposing of Nu-Wally, people were much more willing to give Nu-Wally a chance because he wasn't replacing Wally anymore.
- The New 52 Eobard Thawne is hated by fans of every Reverse-Flash.
- He's hated by Eobard Thawne fans because of his inconsistent characterization, with some writers portraying him as someone who believes he is a good guy, and others as a jerkass. His overall villain plan is full of plotholes and contrived reasoning, as opposed to his original self, who had the simple goal of making Barry's life miserable since he couldn't kill him.
- Hunter Zolomon fans hate him because the New 52 Eobard attempts to blend both Pre-New 52 Eobard and Hunter into a single character, but the former's traits are much more noticeable. Unlike Hunter, Thawne has no sympathetic traits or an excuse for his insanity, nor does he have an interesting relationship with the Flash.
- Daniel West fans hate New 52 Eobard because DC promptly Dropped a Bridge on Him to make way for Eobard. Daniel didn't even get to die in the pages of The Flash, he was offed in Suicide Squad. Though the nature of his death lends itself very much to He's Just Hiding, the fact that DC wasted Daniel, who had an interesting tie to the Flash in the form of the Wests, as well as a more sympathetic origin and potential for redemption pisses his fans off.
- Bart's brief tenure as the Flash, which was thankfully reversed. Bart-as-the-Flash was a moody, unlikeable I Just Want to Be Normal guy who spent his time being shitty to Jay Garrick (who had loved him like a son and taken him in) or hanging out with an asshole roommate while refusing to use his powers. Fans of Wally didn't like that he'd been Put on a Bus with his wife and kids while fans of Bart didn't like how he'd changed so much as a character.
- Even the Reverse-Flashes suffer from this, and amusingly, much like with Barry and Wally, it's the more established character "replacing" the popular legacy who gets the brunt of it. The Flash: Rebirth brought back Thawne, but Final Crisis: Rogues Revenge discarded the two new Reverse-Flashes, Zolomon and Inertia, with the former being depowered and the latter killed off after suffering a heavy degree of Villain Decay. Fans of Zolomon didn't like how the character, who had a sympathetic Tragic Villain origin and an interesting and unique motivation, as well as a We Used to Be Friends dynamic that added a more personal touch to his and Wally's rivalry. It doesn't help that Thawne and Zolomon are very different characters, so people who liked Hunter were miffed at him being dropped (made worse by him not returning for years, and when he did, he had been severely overhauled).
- Patty Spivot for Iris West as Barry's love interest in the New 52. Iris and Barry are one of DC's biggest and most classic couples, so fans of Iris and Barry/Iris especially didn't like Iris being Demoted to Extra while Patty took her place.
- The second Trickster for the first. While James Jesse was a Noble Demon and The Chessmaster who Obfuscated Insanity who's gimmicky style made him a veritable Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass, Axel Walker was just a punk rich kid who became a villain out of boredom and came off as a Bratty Half-Pint, and just didn't measure up. Didn't help that in the New 52, James was nowhere to be found while Axel became the apparently only Trickster (until Rebirth, anyway).
- Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
- New 52 Wally once DC Rebirth established that he and the classic Wally West are two different people. Though Josh Williamson's run is overall quite controversial, one element almost universally agreed upon is Wallace's Character Development greatly improved under his pen.
- Godspeed, after he became The Atoner and went through a Hazy-Feel Turn, with some finding the idea of a darker, looser-connected member of the Flash Family, similar to Red Hood for the Bat Family, to be an interesting concept.
- Jai and Irey, Wally's kids. Outside of the more fringe Barry fans who hate anything remotely Wally West related, a lot of the controversy around them initially has been forgotten due to fans having had worse to complain about, and their revival has been largely well-met for the Heartwarming Moments it brings. Jeremy Adams' handling of them, where Wally has explicitly told them not to join him in superheroing, helps as it avoids them being a Tag Along Kid type Spotlight-Stealing Squad.
- Ron the Death Eater:
- There's a weird tendency of some Barry fans to exaggerate Wally and Bart's arguments to make it seem like Wally was a jerk to Bart, while also projecting a positive relationship between Barry and Bart that didn't exist. In-canon, Wally and Bart had a classic Sibling Rivalry and were Vitriolic Best Buds, being mean and antagonistic to each other face-to-face but also making it clear their liked and cared about each other. But to some fans, they hate each other, and in particular Wally was so cruel to Bart, who never did anything to deserve it (despite him often being the aggressor in their fights in-canon; in fact its something of a running gag that when they meet, Bart will immediately insult Wally, but then behind his back will speak fondly of him). This tends to coincide with gushing about how Barry was such a Nice Guy to his beloved grandson who adores his grandfather in return — which ignores that in-canon, Bart resented Barry for being both quite aloof to him after he returned and for the Character Shilling he got, especially as Bart was much closer to Wally and didn't like the idea people had that Barry was the "real" Flash.
- Barry and Wally both tend to get this from the more rabid fans of the other, which isn't helped by the fact Barry's Character Shilling in the 2010s led to a lot of Unintentionally Unsympathetic behaviour, or the fact Wally was a Jerk with a Heart of Gold at the beginning of his run, or the fact both suffer greatly in terms of Values Dissonance regarding some actions from the Silver and Bronze Ages.
- The Scrappy:
- Axel Walker, the second Trickster, who notably averts Sequel Displacement as fans much prefer James Jesse. Unlike James, who's a lighthearted prankster and a Magnificent Bastard with some mental problems, Axel was just a bored teen psychopath who stole his tech and decided to become a criminal For the Evulz. He got to replace James as the Trickster in New 52 and got pushed during Rebirth, but you're unlikely to find a fan who really cares for him, and next to the other Rogues introduced by Geoff Johns, he's considerably more forgettable, even though he's the only one to be used after.
- Patty Spivot (as mentioned up above), starting with Geoff Johns's reintroduction of her, which starts with Barry telling his coworkers (and by extension, the readers) how she's totally the best CSI ever. When Patty does reappear, she spends most of her page-time talking about how much she dislikes Central City, and hinting that she's got a crush on Barry, who at this point was still Happily Married to Iris, leading to the hint of a love triangle. Then Flashpoint happened, and she became a major character in the rebooted Flash run.
- Girder isn't a highly regarded villain, since beyond being a powerhouse with a distinct design, he's a run-of-the-mill Dumb Muscle villain who's only defining personality trait is he's a rapist with a creepy Straw Misogynist personality.
- Sacred Cow: The Mark Waid run, which not only defined Wally West as a character but also revolutionised the Flash mythos, and is in general just considered one of the best runs of comics ever. It will always top recommendation lists subsequently, and anyone who claims to dislike it is generally side-eyed as likely just being a troll or contrarian.
- Sequel Displacement:
- Despite the fact that he was the first, Jay Garrick is nowhere near as well known in popular culture as Barry Allen.
- For a long while, Sam Scudder was pretty much forgotten about next to his successor, Evan McCulloch, as far as the Mirror Master went. While Sam created the mirror tech, it was Evan who realized how much of a Physical God he could be with it and was the one to use the powers most memorably, not to mention he had a much more interesting Jerkass Woobie personality and backstory, and a distinctive voice thanks to his Scottish origin. Notably, when Evan was Exiled from Continuity by the New 52, Sam Scudder became a Composite Character who suddenly gained all of Evan's skill and imagination.
- Jesse Chambers is a much more popular and prominent character than either of her parents. Though they probably had their fans from the All-Star Squadron days, both are more more known for being her parents than anything they did themselves. Her father especially, as at least her mother has became a minor Ensemble Dark Horse among Justice Society fans for adding more women to the pre-modern line-up.
- Strangled by the Red String:
- Barry's romance with Meena Dhawan in the Rebirth comics. She starts dating Barry one issue after her introduction and gets killed by Godspeed in the following issue all the while being portrayed as "romance of the century". The eventual reveal of her being Not Quite Dead and working for an evil organization falls flat on its face as neither her character nor her relationship with Barry managed to create resonance with the readership.
- In a case that's largely well-liked, Jesse stands out for how her romance was handled compared to Jay, Barry, and Wally. While each of them have relationships with their respective 'lightning rod', Jesse and Rick Tyler had a few scenes together in JSA where they casually chatted, where Jay and her mother would look on with Shipper on Deck smirks, cluing in the audience that this is meant to be a Ship Tease. After a time-skip, Jesse was suddenly married to Rick and the two could not keep their hands off of each other. Yet, despite this, it's actually reasonably well-liked by fans because of how happy Rick makes Jesse and their relative lack of drama. Still, it feels somewhat lacking how Jesse didn't get to have a serious romantic arc compared to the boys, and that she fell into the trend of female superheroes not getting civilian love interests.
- Take That, Scrappy!: While Barry isn't really hated (except as a Replacement Scrappy) as he is, the fact that he caused Flashpoint, which caused the New 52 gets him a lot of crap from people who don't like it. So, of course, Future Flash, a future Barry Allen, says that if it wasn't for him, Wally would be married and have two kids, and that it's his fault Wally is dead. While the latter is more of guilt for not saving Wally, it's uncanny how this dialogue matches up with complaints about Barry's actions.
- The Rebirth run in general has done this a lot with Barry, as it finally gives him consequences for Flashpoint that actually affect him negatively and has characters give him What the Hell, Hero? talks over it. This starts with the "Sins of the Father" arc where Wallace tells Barry off for his ridiculous notion that keeping Iris in the dark 'protects' her, "Running Scared" which lets Iris find out both that Barry is the Flash, and that he erased their previous life and all her history. In "The Perfect Storm", Barry's flaws are given a deconstruction that showcases a lot of the problems with modern!Barry, particularly his Protagonist-Centred Morality, as well as analyses the flaws in putting him at the centre of the Flash mythos at other characters' expense. This is doubled down on in "The Flash Age", with villain Paradox going on a rant where he says the only reason Barry is the most written about Flash, despite not being the first or last, is because he died — and that he should have stayed dead. Obviously, it's controversial among fans of Barry, but for those that have gotten sick of the way DC pushed him, it is enjoyable for him to finally get put to task.
- Tear Jerker:
- Barry's death in Crisis on Infinite Earths.
- Zoom attacking Linda and causing her to miscarry. And in Rogue War, Wally's anguish when the two Reverse-Flashes brought him back to the same period.
- They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Much of the New 52's changes resulted in this, as the franchise became very different.
- Until they were made a Decomposite Character with Divergent Character Evolution, this was a major reaction to the New 52 version of Wally West, who became a biracial black kid instead of a red-head in his 20s like he'd been for decades. The issue is less about the Race Lift for the most part (and the fans who do have issue for that reason are a generally unpopular Vocal Minority within the fandom), but the fact Wally is introduced as a petty criminal, who outright hates the Flash, as well as being only twelve years old (and thus, not having any of his previous Character Development or relationships). It was seen that the character was made as different as possible for seemingly no reason other than spite, and the portrayal of him after the race change was seen as relying so much on stereotypes and clichés that many felt the character became a racist caricature of black youth. What's more, the decision to change Wally West specifically has been criticized since redheaded males get very little representation outside of Evil Redhead or Redheads Are Uncool characters (all stemming from centuries-old prejudices) and are in real life a huge target for bullying, and while many understand the need for more black heroes there's concern about the fact redheaded heroes are being erased for it, not helped by the fact Wally's red hair is often used to insult him by people on the opposite side of the Flash Fandom Rivalry.
- All of "Bart's" origin in the New 52. The only similarity is that he's from the future, and he now has a very nineties-feeling Darker and Edgier backstory. His name is now Bar Torr and he got his powers from being stranded on a planet...no, there is no other explanation. His powers aren't at all connected to the Speed Force, and his happy personality is all an act — he's actually an aggressive, edgy rebel leader from the future. He started a rebellion to liberate people from his oppressors...only to immediately turn on said rebellion when his sister is injured in the armed rebellion he started, giving the implication that he only cared about casualties when they affected those close to HIM. He's thus given the alias Bart Allen, purely by coincidence tying him to Barry in the most tangential way, and sent back in time. When he discovers his past, he turns on the Teen Titans and this was all apparently part of his plan somehow. All of it has been criticized for Scott Lobdell fundamentally not understanding Bart Allen as a character.
- Jay Garrick going from a Happily Married Cool Old Guy to a single young man trying to find his way in life.
- Barry himself, while still the main character, went from an endearingly awkward but idealistic police scientist in his 30s/40s to a young 20-something who's idealism is more talked of then genuinely employed. The perversions Thawne made to Barry's past before Flashpoint became a permanent fixture of Barry's character and were made a core part of his identity as the Flash, giving him a Dark and Troubled Past that many believe he didn't need, especially as it slowly became the basis of his entire characterisation. It was also used to expect sympathy for his character even when he began acting like a Jerkass, leading to him becoming Unintentionally Unsympathetic to readers.
- The Rogues becoming Metahumans, something that was so controversial Geoff Johns intervened to undo it. The main issue is that the Rogues being a Badass Normal crew who employed crazy tech to fight the Flash was seen as the bulk of what made them interesting and entertaining, and changing them to metahumans as well as changing how their gimmicks worked in some cases greatly ruins them. It's not helped that the line-up swapped James Jesse for his less popular replacement Axel Walker, while Mirror Master's More Popular Replacement Evan McCulloch was tossed aside in favor of the original, Sam Scudder. About the only change welcomed was reviving Golden Glider, but the changes made to her were less popular.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
- Christina Alexandrova, the villainous Russian speedster who briefly called herself Lady Flash and pined after Wally West during the early days of his solo book, had the potential to possibly be Wally's personal Arch-Enemy speedster given the two worked as foils towards one another. Contrast Wally's strong personality and desire to do right by Barry's memory while forging his own path, to Christina's lack of personality and constantly switching identities based on whomever she was serving or infatuated with at the time. At some point, she was even positioned to be Jesse Quick's arch-enemy, after Savitar tried to force Jesse into becoming Christina's replacement and Christina's subsequent attempt to Murder the Hypotenuse caused the death of Jesse's father, giving them a very personal hatred. However, Christina has been completely absent since she tried to bump off Linda Park on her and Wally's honeymoon and hasn't appeared since.
- Jerrie Rathaway, Hartley's little sister, hasn't appeared since her first (and only) appearance in 1989, not even getting mentioned after Hartley gets framed for the murder of their parents.
- After Barry came back, a major problem with Wally fans was how this happened to him. Despite being popular enough to carry the series for decades and a beloved hero, he was Demoted to Extra with Barry remaining the only Flash. However, the fact the two operated in different cities and had very different approaches (Barry being a Science Hero who used his brain to figure out how to implement his comparatively limited speed powers for a number of applications; Wally being an uneducated Guile Hero whose understanding of the Speed Force allowed him to use it for other purposes outside of 'moving fast'), they could have held two very different-feeling books. After Wally finally came back in DC Rebirth, there was a lot of potential opportunities for Wally to focus on fixing the timeline, finding his missing family, or in any way progressing his character, but was instead relegated to being a Designated Monkey and Cosmic Plaything who was dismissed and demonized for making any attempt to improve his situation.
- Jesse's AU nibling, the non-binary Jess Chambers/Kid Quick, also the Flash of the Future State Justice League, who was an immediate Ensemble Dark Horse upon their introduction, due to providing more LGBTQ+ representation within the Flash franchise, expanding Jesse's branch of the Flash Family, and having a really cool design. Yet despite the immediate popularity, DC have so far failed to do anything with them, even as their fellow Future State JL teammates Jon Kent, Yara Flor, and Jace Fox got solo books. Joshua Williamson has expressed interest in developing them further, but so far nothing has been done.
- Weather Wizard's baby son Josh, who is legally adopted by the Flash family, is a very cutely drawn infant who melts a lot of hearts every time he is on page while having interesting powers and the potential to have interesting interactions with his father and The Flash family once he gets older. His Collateral Angst fate while he is still a toddler pissed off a lot of readers.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
- Linda's possession by an ancient Irish bard named Seamus O'Relkig could have been a fascinating story, given their natures as two storytellers from vastly different time periods. Instead, it's soon revealed that Seamus is just the Kilg%re in disguise, and up to that point it was mostly used for comic relief to cause Linda embarrassment.
- Ashley Zolomon potentially joining Wally's True Companions at the end of Rogue War. After Zoom introduces them to each other, Linda and Ashley realize they are similar. Ashley helps Linda to get to hospital with Piper and she becomes Secret Secret-Keeper for Wally by the end of story arc. Unfortunately this set up isn't followed upon and Mark Waid completely ditches Wally's side cast for the twins once Wally comes back after Infinite Crisis.
- Despite Finish Line reviving the Flash Family and solicits teasing a "Reverse Flash Family" and a "Legion of Zoom", the story didn't feature a team-up of evil speedsters, as Thawne instead just recruited a couple Rogues, Grodd, and the Turtle, then later a mishmash of random and forgotten villains. This is actually discussed, with the claim being that Thawne didn't trust other evil speedsters whereas the villains he did recruit, he pulled out of time in order to have control over them. Still, many fans believe it was a wasted opportunity to unite the Reverse-Flashes, with many speculating why this very obvious plot still hasn't been utilized.
- Wally's kids disappear with him and Linda, only to return with a Plot-Relevant Age-Up and joining in the heroics. As a result, we never got to see much of Wally adjusting to parenthood, nor how him and Linda managed a pair of infants. Their speedy aging had basis with Bart having undergone something similar, but by having the kids join in on the heroics, many felt it wasted the opportunity to just explore Wally balancing parenthood and heroics.
- Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
- Barry Allen post-Flashpoint, given that, however one looks at it, he is responsible for destroying the universe twice over after a poorly thought out attempt to stop Professor Zoom from murdering his mother. While his motives to save his mom are understandable (given she explicitly lived out her life before dying of natural causes until Thawne stepped in), Barry's effort to do so was extremely clumsy and half-assed. This is especially frustrating given the Flash Family repeatedly showed they were willing to support him and Barry has friends in the hero community with experience in time travel. But as a result of Barry's actions, the universe and all of his friends are made practically unrecognizable thanks to Pandora and Doctor Manhattan, while the rest of the Flashes were banished either to the Speed Force or some unknown region and then replaced with doppelgangers (Bar Torr, New 52 Wally, Earth-2 Jay Garrick). Even worse is that, once the original Wally escapes from the Speed Force he's entered a world where his wife and childhood friends don't remember him and his children are missing. Barry essentially destroyed the lives of his friends and loved ones and, while he does show regret for what's happened to the Flash Family once he was made aware of it, he's yet to acknowledge the damage he caused to the universe (if not Multiverse) as a whole, nor shown any regret or make an effort to truly fix the damage. All this while still being written as a Nice Guy and toted as DC's main Flash when he's probably a Karma Houdini of the highest regard. It undermines the 'positive' vibe of the initial New 52 run greatly that all of Barry's Lighter and Softer Younger and Hipper antics are essentially the result of him destroying everyone's lives in a reckless stunt he's now forgotten about.
- One major complication with Barry was Rebirth being subject to heavy Executive Meddling and Schedule Slip. Barry was made aware that Wally's life had been fucked up from the very beginning, and shortly after that Wally was not the only speedster trapped in the Speed Force, even meeting Jay Garrick again. But because higher ups negated plans to focus on Wally repairing his life in Titans, something that was shown to be causing Wally a great deal of stress and crippling depression, Barry looked as if he was ignoring his nephew's crisis, and because Doomsday Clock got delayed and Wally got pulled into Heroes in Crisis, Barry appeared to have been sitting on his ass after The Button instead of actually doing anything to help Jay or the others, made even worse by Flash War explicitly calling Barry out for this, only for him to continue doing nothing until Superman ended up being the one to save Jay and the others from non-existence. While it wasn't intended, the repeated delays and vetoes painted Barry as extremely uncaring about other people's problems, even while he knew they were suffering.
- The New 52 Wally West, when he was first introduced. The writers wanted to add some "wrinkles" to Wally's backstory so people would feel more sympathetic towards his Trauma Conga Line experience. It faced a massive backlash because the writers seemed to completely miss the point of Wally's character, Wally himself coming across as a massive jerk and the added race lift led to accusations of racism on the writer's side instead. When they tried to fix the situation (by mostly ignoring it and pretending character development happened off-panel) it was far too late; this time Wally came across as acting bipolar: on one page being this happy go lucky kid and on another being back to mopey for no reason.
- August Heart as Godspeed. He's clearly meant to be an Anti-Villain as an Expy of Hunter Zolomon but his motives have been all over the place with his sudden Jumping Off the Slippery Slope not helping his case. Most fans agree that August should have received more background work like Zolomon did, but it's a little too late now. It doesn't help that he comes across as a Smug Snake, and seems to have a fundamental misunderstanding of police work.
Tess Ate Chai Tea: The epitome of shitty cop work: bragging about ignoring the evidence in favor of making assumptions about possible suspects and jumping to unsupported conclusions. - Barry Allen post-Flashpoint, given that, however one looks at it, he is responsible for destroying the universe twice over after a poorly thought out attempt to stop Professor Zoom from murdering his mother. While his motives to save his mom are understandable (given she explicitly lived out her life before dying of natural causes until Thawne stepped in), Barry's effort to do so was extremely clumsy and half-assed. This is especially frustrating given the Flash Family repeatedly showed they were willing to support him and Barry has friends in the hero community with experience in time travel. But as a result of Barry's actions, the universe and all of his friends are made practically unrecognizable thanks to Pandora and Doctor Manhattan, while the rest of the Flashes were banished either to the Speed Force or some unknown region and then replaced with doppelgangers (Bar Torr, New 52 Wally, Earth-2 Jay Garrick). Even worse is that, once the original Wally escapes from the Speed Force he's entered a world where his wife and childhood friends don't remember him and his children are missing. Barry essentially destroyed the lives of his friends and loved ones and, while he does show regret for what's happened to the Flash Family once he was made aware of it, he's yet to acknowledge the damage he caused to the universe (if not Multiverse) as a whole, nor shown any regret or make an effort to truly fix the damage. All this while still being written as a Nice Guy and toted as DC's main Flash when he's probably a Karma Houdini of the highest regard. It undermines the 'positive' vibe of the initial New 52 run greatly that all of Barry's Lighter and Softer Younger and Hipper antics are essentially the result of him destroying everyone's lives in a reckless stunt he's now forgotten about.
- Unpopular Popular Character:
- Bart Allen; during the height of the Flash Family days, he was the Annoying Younger Sibling of the group and it was rare for a scene to play out that didn't involve someone expressing annoyance and frustration with him. This however was exactly what made fans love him. Doubles as this among his friends in Young Justice too.
- Captain Boomerang. In-universe not even his fellow Rogues like him, but fans consider him a memorable and likable villain.
- Pied Piper in some ways; outside of Trickster none of the Rogues liked him, he was neglected and disliked by his family growing up, and Wally and Linda were the only friends he ever had, and outside of Wally most other heroes didn't really trust him. Fans meanwhile generally love the guy, and many consider him to be an essential part of Wally's Power Trio with himself and Linda.
- Wally West. Being a Cosmic Plaything and Creator's Pest left the feeling that the universe itself hated him, and despite his lengthy career as the Flash and the fact he has surpassed Barry in feats, power, and accomplishments, Character Shilling resulting in indirectly insulting him, combined with being erased from existence resulting in people in-universe forgetting his career, resulted in many heroes treating him like he was an inferior copy of Barry. Obviously, fans who have read his run feel quite differently.
- The Un-Twist:
- August Heart is Godspeed. Yep, the guy who repeatedly mentioned wanting to enforce harsher justice, had a Freudian Excuse and was literally the only named adult male character with superspeed...is in fact the adult male supervillain with superspeed. Shocking, we know. It doesn't help that, after he was "attacked" by Godspeed, he says it's possible it could've been Dr. Carver...whose powers look like the exact opposite of Godspeed's (Godspeed's lightning is brighter than Barry's, whereas Carver's powers emit black wind), making it impossible that he could've mistaken them. In fact, the only reason some people didn't think it was him (the other candidate was Meena) was that it was too obvious.
- From the same run, Ramsey Rosso being Bloodwork. What, you mean the coroner turned out to be the villain based on blood?! Shocking...Again, the only other candidate was a woman Barry knows who could only be a suspect because the actual answer was too obvious.
- In the prelude to Flash War, it was pretty commonly guessed that the motivator for Wally to turn on Barry was finding out about his kids, whom were erased from existence by Flashpoint. Then Flash War starts and...yep, Hunter informs Wally of his kids, and that's why he goes to war with Barry or rather, he goes to war with him because, by Hunter's claim, the only way to save them would be to get rid of the Speed Force, something Barry won't allow.
- Values Dissonance:
- Rudy and Mary's treatment of Wally was once portrayed as "bad but well-intentioned". By modern standards, their attempts to get Wally to "come down to Earth" would be considered emotional and verbal abuse, especially considering the negative effects it had on Wally's self-worth. Likewise, Rudy has been shown in canon multiple times to be physically abusive of Wally, hitting him for minor offenses (such as spilling soda or chasing Barry and Iris' car to wave goodbye) and Mary has been very emotionally manipulative towards him, often victimizing herself so he'd feel guilty and do whatever she wants. This isn't even getting into Rudy's various cons, him forcing Wally to keep quiet about his adulterous tendencies (until Mary found out by walking in on him and some woman) and his involvement with the Manhunters. It's little to no wonder that Rebirth writers have taken to referring to the two as being outright abusive, rather than trying to sugarcoat or justify their treatment of their son like earlier writers did.
- The Silver Age comics are the Trope Namer for the Japanese Ranguage trope. Not only would such a portrayal be hard to present without receiving backlash for racism by the New 10s, but in that same panel Barry jokingly refers to Iris as his "child bride". Suffice to say, a joke like that would never fly by today's standards.
- Pied Piper coming out of the closet was a pretty revolutionary move for an early 90s comic. However, his attire (but not his personality) makes him look like a stereotypical example of Camp Gay, and Wally's initial reaction of literally running away to think about this revelation before returning to and accepting his friend can come off as extremely goofy and over-the-top for a modern day reader.
- Vanilla Protagonist: Barry is often seen as this. As a Silver Age character, there was never really much to him beyond "he had powers and wanted to be a hero", and as he died during the bronze age, he wasn't developed to the level the other Flash family are. As a result, when he returned, many found him quite boring, and the attempts to flesh his character out more haven't made him endearing. Also as a result of this, Barry ends up as the only member of the Flash Family to lack a 'niche'; Max Mercury is the Old Master, Jay Garrick is the Team Dad, Wally is the Deadpan Snarker Dynamic Character, Jesse Quick is the Cool Big Sis, and Bart is the Fun Personified Tag Along Kid. Conversely, Barry's not really got anything distinctive, so he just comes off as The Generic Guy. This is likely a contributing factor to his return leading to them being Exiled from Continuity, as he didn't really fit with the rest of them, and as a result it would make any story featuring them result in Barry being ignored and overlooked. Notably, whenever someone complains about the Flash Family's existence, they accuse them of making the Flash concept less special, because apparently, the only thing Barry had going for him as a character was his powerset.
- The Woobie:
- Hunter Zolomon is the Woobie of Flash series and the Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds variety to boot. The poor guy's life is basically one big Trauma Conga Line, starting when his father murdered his mother and was then shot by the police. Things then got worse when his own hubris got his father-in-law killed, causing his divorce, and himself crippled. Still, he was more of an Iron Woobie, with such things only furthering his commitment to justice, until he's paralyzed by Gorilla Grodd. His transformation from a bitter limp cop to Wheelchair Woobie makes the final straw, makes him extremely angry and bitter, and he attempts to go back in time to fix his life. Unfortunately, since he isn't a speedster, all he manages to do is give himself Time Master powers...which slowly (from his point of view, in reality it's less than a second) drive him so insane that he becomes convinced that it's his destiny to become the next Reverse-Flash and make Wally's life more tragic. Throughout his career as Zoom, he's genuinely unaware that his attempts to help his friend are actually causing him great harm.
- Pied Piper. Neglected by his rich parents, grew up with a disability that they didn't even notice, and was for a while rejected by them when he came out about his sexuality. He fell into crime and was further exiled by his parents, especially when his criminal career took on a socialist, anti-capitalist trend. When he turned over a new leaf, he was constantly distrusted by heroes because of his past life, despite Wally vouching for him. He was also targeted by The Top for his sexuality, who tried to frame him for assassinating a rigged-to-win presidential candidate who had been making wolf-whistles against the LGBT community during the election. Then he was framed for murdering his parents after he'd patched things up with them, leading to him being sent to Iron Heights where he was abused by the warden and guards, until he finally broke out, and was briefly brainwashed by The Top again. When he finally reconnected with his best friend Wally, the two were Demoted to Extra by the lengthy Audience-Alienating Era and we've barely seen him since.
- Barry Allen falls into this territory by the time he came back from the dead with Thawne retconning his childhood and killing his mother and then, Flashpoint happened.
- Wally West was already one due to the crap he overcame—neglectful parents, mental blocks, power loss, crippling insecurities, lost his beloved Aunt and Uncle at different times, wife miscarried after being attacked, etc.—but what happens to him following Flashpoint really takes the cake. After Flashpoint, he gets sucked into the Speed Force, and since everyone's had ten years or so of their continuity removed, he has no Lightning Rod to pull himself out of it. He tries several times to find someone who remembers him but even Linda, his wife, has no memory of him. When he's finally freed by Barry, the two break down crying as Wally has lost many of his memories and so doesn't remember what, but knows that someone stole their memories, but doesn't know who or what, and doesn't know exactly what they took.
- Minor character Fallout grieves over the deaths of his wife and daughter, who died when he tried to get close to them upon first transforming into his nuclear form.
- Magenta can also qualify, as her mother believed that she was possessed by the devil, and the cause of the car crash that claimed her father and brother. She was pretty much pushed into heroics by her then boyfriend Wally West, and was later exploited and brainwashed twice, first by a doctor at STAR Labs who created her split personality as an assassin, and later by Raven during one of her jaunts on the dark side. Her fragile psyche and damaged mental health can be attributed to the times that she's fallen in with the Rogues, or any other villain the Flash has fought, such as the Cicada cult.
- New 52 Wally. He's a twelve year old kid who was abandoned by his father when he was a baby, who's mother is missing and may even be dead, just had his Uncle Daniel (the only father figure he's had up to that point) carted off to prison by The Flash, and is now living with an Aunt Iris (that he's implied not to know very well) just so he won't be taken by Social Services. Spray painting the Flash Symbol and then putting an anti-sign (most likely to relieve both anger and stress) is completely understandable from his point of view. Given everything he's been through it's surprising that that's all he did. He also seems to feel at least a little guilty about causing his Aunt trouble.
- Lightened somewhat when it was retconned that Daniel was actually his biological father, meaning he only lost one father figure. Still, that's a lot for someone his age to go through.
- Bart. Dear god, Bart. Especially after the poor kid is traumatized by seeing himself die on Apokalips.
- Jesse Quick, which has actually caused her to struggle with depression. She's the child of two divorced former heroes who had very different ideas of what she should do with her life and put immense pressure on her, she had no friends growing up, was quietly in love with Wally but he only saw her as a friend, she lost her dad to a Heroic Sacrifice to save her, and was left to run his company, was over-stressed and over-worked, and had terrible luck with her dating life. Eventually her life imploded around the time of Blitz to the point she didn't even feel worthy of her powers anymore. Joining the JSA helped her immensely, but then she got trapped in the Speed Force by Flashpoint.
- WTH, Costuming Department?:
- Jesse Quick has not had a good time of it.
- People generally liked her first two outfits (leather jacket and Zettai Ryouiki), but her third was ugly, to say the least. It was a red leotard that had a 'Q' on it, with the 'Q' weirdly circling one of her breasts, and being composed of a white circle and lightning bolt. Her goggles were now ugly sunglasses, and she wore these really ugly yellow boots that seemed to prove that you can't do Zettai Ryouiki with yellow boots and nothing to break them up.
- Her fourth outfit, while generally seen as better than the previous, is also this. It's basically just a read shirt with her Jesse Quick symbol on it and yellow shorts, gloves and boots. A lot of people derided it for looking like she was going to do the dishes. It's also not helped that, at least when drawn by Ethan Van Sciver, there was a significant amount of cleavage and a significant boost to her bust, while Brett Booth would draw it as a midriff-baring outfit.
- Her fifth outfit, introduced right before Infinite Frontier, once it settled on a streamlined look, which attempts to be a healthy mix of her Liberty Belle look and her early 90s costume, both of which were well received yet look off when mixed together. While some like that she's wearing pants now, the orange tights with yellow knee patches are a garish look, as is giving her a top that has Barry's New 52-era symbol instead of the Quick family logo or any of Jesse's own previous symbols. The return of her wearing a bomber jacket over her suit is at least largely accepted, but the decision to give her a mask that looks more like something a Golden Age character would wear.
- Barry Allen:
- The New 52 suit, specifically the line work. While everyone admits it looks cool when he's actually running, a lot of people just thought it was way too busy for normal scenes. His Rebirth suit is basically this suit, but toned the line work way, way down.
- The DC You suit. While many didn't like the busy line-work on his previous costume, this time, it was even busier, with the lines being much more prominent and distracting. At the same time, he had streaks of dark red on parts of his costume, making it look like he literally just smeared random red paint on himself. His eyes, which have always been visible through his costume, now had some kind of lens over them, making this more resemble a costume Wally West would wear. And his symbol was changed to more closely resemble the TV show's, which funnily enough changed to more resemble the comic's in its second season.
- Eobard Thawne's New 52 suit, which is basically Barry's DC You suit, but worse because of off-colors and "extreme" additions, like the busy black lightning and weird take on his symbol.
- There's a significant Broken Base on it, but fans are split on Wallace West's original Kid Flash/The Flash design by Brett Booth, which was silver and black with red highlights. Though some really like it for being distinct, others find it a poor match for the Flash and disliked how Brett Booth drew it.
- Jesse Quick has not had a good time of it.
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