Sorry it took so long to get this one up but i wasn't quite finished with it when I had to go to work.
anyway,....
Today in
We're going to look back atall the times Wally West has seemingly gone to his final reward in a special feature i like to call....
Wally West of course is no stranger to death He's faced it time and again and in most cases he's beaten it.
First off, Flash #49
Wally as The
FLASH vs Vandal Savage
Vandal Savage has returned. the immlortal supervillain last faced Wally in Flash 14. at the conclusion of that Savage had planned to kill Wally by injecting him with an overdose of the Super-speed Drug Velocity-9
instead, one of Savage's "junkies" had stabbed Savage with the deadly syringe and as a result the Drug has caused Savage's immortality and vitality to be slowly stripped away. So savage wants revenge.
But not just any revenge
Ohhh Nasty diss there! (Wally's been unfavorably compared to Barry several times since he took on the uniform by both friends and foes alike!)
Wally accepts the challenge and finds Savage has abducted all of Wally's closest friends and family (including Wally's dog Mercury (I almost forgot about that mutt!)
The trap is simple
All Wally has to do is basically beat Savage to the draw.
at first it seems Wally has it won he gets off the pad just as Savage has his weapon drawn but before Wally can make use of his speed powers
Ouch!
Fortunately for Wally, a previous encounter with an alien Artificial Intelligence known as the the Kilg%re left him with n implant that was programmed to save him if he was mortally injured (one-time-only)
Next we look at Wally's first run into light-speed in the time-spanning event known as
During a battle with the 64th century Magician Abra Kadabra Wally is pulled into the Future by the various ripples generated through the time stream. Waverider and a future version of Rip Hunter tell Wally that time is being pulled apart at both ends.
waverider's Temporal powers seem to have no effect on the anomalies
and so, just like that Wally follows in Barry alleys footsteps right to the end running right out of existance leaving his empty uniform behind
except that wasn't ruly the End of wally West (look back at my examination of the two Zero issues from last year to see how Wally ended up after he disappeared in Zero Hour.)
Wally's next near-death run occured a mere five months later in the Flash storyline Terminal Velocity in
Short version:
As Wally was returning to his own time he found himself seeing images of the immediate future. And none of what he sees is good. he sees his own life end as he gets pulled permanently into what is becoming known as the Speed Force (the true source of power for all the Speedsters and he also sees something worse. he sees the death of his girlfriend Linda Park at the hand of the Terrorist Cult-Leader Kobra (not to be confused with that other snake based terrorist group in the army comics...(and did DC ever sue Marvel over that bit?)
At first it looks as though Impulse saved the day for wally and Linda but just as Wally relaxes Kobra manages to fire off one last shot from the laser cannon and it's aimed directly at Linda
Wally manages to save Linda but he can feel the pull of the Speed Force and know that he can't hold out much longer and so...
.........
OK OK! Stop crying! You know he didn't stay dead after that!!
Linda rallied the gang and fought Kobra's forces ruining the Leader's plans. Kobra was going to pull out but not before he took his revenge on Linda for foiling his scheme just as he did Wally reappeared from the Speed Force Glowing with Kinetic energy. Wally kicked Kobra's @$$ and smashed his weapons.
Next we move on to DEAD HEAT
Wally has a new High Speed enemy and it's NOT the Reverse Flash!
His name is Savitar. a Middle Eastern airforce Pilot who became empowered by the Speed Force at worshipped it forming his own religous cult around the mystical energy.
Savitar's goal isn't just to become one with the Speed Force, he seeks to hoard it all to himself without sharing it with those he finds "unworthy"
Savitar's goals seem within reach. and it's only at the last minute that Wally is able to defeat him., by giving Savitar what he wants
(Actually Wally wasn't really in danger of dying that time until later when his bond with Linda was threatened by John fox's attempt to win her heart.)
Still, Wally wasn't safe from death and this time, Death would actually take a physical form,....
The Black Flash
The problem is that the Black Flash missed it's target on the first Pass and a bolt of lightning took Linda's life instead of Wally's.
Unfortunately the Black Flash comes back for another try and Wally has to find a way to out-run the Super speed version of Death
Happily, Wally's able to continue on through time and actually snatch Linda away from her own death in time to marry her.
and then she's erased from existence!
Shortly after Linda’s Disappearance, Wally and the Flashes of the next Next thousand years would face a mysterious enemy with vendetta against Barry Allen.
The enemy, Cobalt Blue. the first Cobalt BVlue is revealed to be Barry’s own lost Twin Brother stolen at birth and raised by a criminal family named Thawne. (yup, Baryy Allen’s own Brother is the direct ancestor of his worst enemy.
the problem is Cobalt Blue’s plan succeeds and as Wally watches in horror….
and suddenly, Wally is faced with…
after fighting a battle with the Anti-Monitor and failing to stop it’s plans Wally realizes his best bet is to save Barry from Cobalt Blue’s final attack. he pushes Barry out of the way and wrestles across the world with Blue. Wally moves up to Lightspeed using his direct connection to the Speed Force to overpower Cobalt Blue.
And of course Wally had no reason to avoid joining the Speed Force as his memory of Linda was wiped away so was his anchor to living.
Shortly however Linda would escape her captivity and Wally would find her in an alternate universe. it would take some time for them to get back home and pick up where they left off (the Wedding)
Of course there’s one more Near death (and now I’m thinking I should have re-done that banner!) we need to discuss
In Justice League (Unlimited)
In an alternate timeline it seems Wally was killed by The President Lex Luthor. Superman Batman and Wonder Woman decided to take down Luthor once and for all and Superman himself killed Luthor with bios heat vision. The justice League called the Justice lords in this Alternate universe then took over the world and, when they had found out the existence of the Justice League universe we have all known they decided to trap the League in the Justice Lord universe and take over the League’s universe. the plan failed due to an agreement made by Superman and the Lex Luthor of this Universe. still, Lex didn’t stay “reformed” for long and soon found himself symbiotically melded to Brainiac. after a force Battle with the Core members of the Justice League unlimited (the original seven)….