While Wally West may once again be the DCU’s Fastest Man Alive, he reveals a glaring weakness while at his new job.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Flash #773, on sale now from DC.
As the Fastest Man Alive, Wally West is able to read vast volumes in the blink of eye, retaining enough to perform crucial tasks in his never-ending defense of the DC Universe. Given the cosmic nature of the Flash’s adventures, Wally has a particularly uniquely informed perspective on space and time, quietly making him something of a scientific genius in his own write, always ready to unleash a timely Flash Fact. And as Wally starts his new civilian job working under Mister Terrific, he quickly reveals that he has one especially glaring weakness that becomes apparent to his colleagues: He is not handy with computers.
Precisely because of his operational scientific knowledge and firsthand experiences delving into the cosmic side of the DCU, Terrific hired Wally to work for his company’s advanced laboratory in Central City, offering the flexibility to maintain his superhero responsibilities and a healthy paycheck to support his family. While Wally’s expertise proves invaluable helping Michael Holt’s business design and develop new technologies to use, he is embarrassed in front of his new co-workers when he is asked to work with a standard computer, admitting that computers have always been something of an obtuse mystery for him. And in a world becoming increasingly digital, especially working a tech company, the revelation marks that the Fastest Man Alive may be a bit behind the times as made clear in The Flash #773 by Jeremy Adams, Will Conrad, Alex Sinclair and Steve Wands.
By Wally’s own admission, he’s more of a gearhead than a computer-minded engineer. While Wally has held numerous civilian jobs across his superhero history, one of his most prominent was working as an auto mechanic for the Central City Police Department. While Wally found a quiet, professional comfort in working on standard police-issued vehicles, his engineering and mechanical expertise has similarly gone to advanced technology heights, helping construct and occasionally repair the Cosmic Treadmill, allowing him and other speedsters to travel to alternate universes and divergent timelines. This made Holt’s job offer something of a dream come true for Wally, well-paid to design and tinker on devices and experiments involving the timestream and multiverse.
Fortunately for Wally, he recalls that his son Jai informed him that computers had become considerably more intuitive than the elder West recalled working with them. To his credit, Wally finds the layout on Holt’s computers to be user-friendly and accessible, requisitioning copper rods on the latest project for the lab in a matter of minutes, relieved that technology has finally become easy for even his more mechanical, analog approach to handle. And rather than having to endure further embarrassment in front of his co-workers, Wally is called away to address a supervillain attack on the other side of Central City.
Unaware if modern computers even require the use of a mouse, this begs the question when exactly was the last time Wally West used a computer in any aspect of his daily life. For someone more content relying on a solid workbench, Wally’s computer-based ineptitude is a bit understandable if somewhat surprising for the scientific superhero. And while Wally is able to decipher how to operate a computer at his day job in short order, his first day at work provides a humorous character trait that just goes to show that even the Fastest Man Alive is not entirely up to speed with the world around him.
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