Since Wally West returned in DC Rebirth, there have been two Wally Wests in the DC Universe but has that become too confusing?
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Teen Titans Academy #13, on sale now from DC Comics.
Wally West is the Flash again. However, not only is he not the only Flash in the DC Universe now, but he’s also not the only Wally West. Before his triumphant return in 2016’s DC Rebirth, the New 52 introduced its own Wally West. Since then, there have been two Wallys in the Flash Family and the original is finding it a little bit confusing.
The Flash has joined Teen Titans Academy and he was looking to be a better cousin to his cousin on the team in Teen Titans Academy #13 (by Tim Sheridan, Tom Derenick, Peter Pantazis, Matt Herms, and Rob Leigh). The current Kid Flash, Wallace West, has been a part of the active roster Teen Titans team as well as a student of the new academy. Until now, he didn’t have to deal with his older cousin all the time. Now that Wally is a teacher, things have changed.
Up until now, the two Wally’s have had a pretty clear way to distinguish between one another, besides being the Flash and Kid Flash that is. The older of the two goes by Wally and the younger goes by Wallace. Apparently, that just isn’t cutting it for Wally No. 1 though. For some reason, he just doesn’t think it’s all that great. However, his alternatives didn’t exactly roll off the tongue either. He bizarrely suggested the likes of “Wall” and “Lacey” as hip new ways to refer to his younger cousin. Other even worse alternatives included “Wa-Wa” and “Al.”
In between all the silliness though, does the Flash have a point? Is it too confusing to have two Wallys in the DC Universe and are their names still too similar? It was fine when Wallace was simply the New 52’s Wally. Even when there were two of them running around the DCU, they never met frequently enough for this to be a problem. Now, however, they look to be working together a lot more frequently. Now, With Barry missing, Kid Flash will be teaming up with his cousin the Flash more often, which means they’ll be hanging around out of costume more often too.
Overall, the current system still works. Readers have known the current Flash as Wally West for years. There will be no confusion about his name any time soon. As for Wallace, it’s a subtle difference but an effective one. If anything, it shows the differences in their characters. Wally has always been the fun jovial one and his name still having that light-hearted sixties quality to it makes it work better for him. Whereas Wallace is more serious and straightlaced. His name hasn’t been abbreviated like his cousin’s, reflecting the sometimes more mature nature of his character. In this issue, he certainly seemed more mature than his grown-up cousin, as Wallace was more concerned about the rules than Wally was – and Wally’s a teacher!
For two characters with the same name, in the same family no less, the Wally/Wallace difference is an effective way to differentiate between the two but this moment wasn’t about that. The Flash wasn’t really coming up with bizarre alternatives to find a better name for the young speedster. He was doing it to try and connect with his cousin. Despite being in the same family, having the same powers, and even the same mentor, this is one of the longest times they’ve ever really hung out together. They’ve never really connected in a meaningful way until now and Wally just wants to change that. This is further evidenced by the fact he wanted to bring Wallace on the Titans’ Earth-3 mission. Therefore, there is no problem with their names. The problem is with how close they are as a family.
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