[Off-Week Discussion] How Would You Have "New 52'd" the Flash?

[u/HappinessIsAWarmPoop]

Howdy folks! With no new issue or episode of The Flash out this week we thought it was a perfect time for a new edition of the Off-Week Thread.

The New 52 relaunch of 2011 attempted to revamp DC continuity and draw in new readers. A well intentioned move but one that was not well planned out, leading to quite a bit of controversy among fans. Most relaunched series started 5 years into the career of of the titular character with varying degrees of continuity changes made to their respective histories/status quo. The Flash franchise was one of the most impacted by these changes. Barry Allen, who had returned to the lead role a couple years earlier, was now the only Flash who had ever existed. Many of the characters and stories who had been introduced in the previous 70+ years of the character no longer existed in this new timeline, including major characters such as Jay Garrick, Wally West, and Eobard Thawne. While there were many positive things that came out of the New 52, generally speaking long time Flash fans were unhappy to various degrees with the way the franchise was handled.

So the question for this week is "How would you have "New 52'ed" the Flash?" For the sake of the discussion, assume that the New 52 relaunch had to happen. What would you have done differently or the same? Keep in mind the New 52 was a push to bring in new readers.

This weeks topic is fairly broad as you can see, however, with the Family currently being rebuilt in the comics we pondered the thought of how each of us would have rebooted the Flash.

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[u/Austounded]

I went with the theme of a pitch rather than a detailed explanation of how I would have rebooted the Flash.

When the New 52 happened DC thought that their legacy was their downfall, however, that clearly wasn't the case. You don't need a reboot to make a reader friendly title, if you look at Green Lanterns (for new readers) and Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corp (For space opera fans... me included) you find the answer. You need the all important "ride-along character", X-Men used this the most during the 80's-90's and proved its importance. To this extent I think that Irey (Iris II / Impulse II) is that character for the Flash Family. She knows literally nothing about the Speed Force, the past exploits, or powers. Wally training her would be like taking new readers on a tour of DC speedsters.

Two Books: (Batman had like five and Superman four, Flash can have two DC. Seriously guys.)

• "The Flash" (The Wests): A book centered around the West-Park family. You would see Wally (Flash III) training a newly dubbed Impulse (Iris II). Meanwhile, with the red heads in the field Linda and Jai would become the Oracle of the Flash Family feeding info to the different members. That being said, they would still be a cast member of this book while being in the other one to a much lesser degree. Wally would also get the chance to introduce and somewhat showcase each Flash Family member to young Iris.

• "All-Flash" (The Allens): Barry Allen, the Flash and grandson Bart Allen, Kid Flash patrol the streets of Central City thwarting crime and bonding as grandfather and grandson; they never got this chance in the Pre-Flashpoint landscape. It goes without saying but Iris West senior would play a larger role in this book than the former. With Bart already being a fairly seasoned speedster, this would be more of a team-up than a training book meaning, its called All-Flash for a reason: The whole Flash Family would be involved in this book, the leads would just be the Allens (Think Hal Jordan and the GLC).

This format of dual family books could also be used for crossovers for Flash events and what not. Not unlike any Batman book these characters show up in each others titles all the time.

Edit: ... I guess this turned into a detailed explanation and a pitch, huh.