For the past decade, life has been rough for Wally West. Temporarily, the Flash was removed from the DC Universe in the New 52 era. He returned in the subsequent DC Rebirth era; however, life back in the DCU proved increasingly traumatic for Wally, most notably during the Heroes in Crisis crossover event. Thankfully, the Scarlet Speedster got a fresh start at superhero and family life during DC's Infinite Frontier era from writer Jeremy Adams.
In an exclusive interview with CBR, Adams discussed writing the joy that eluded Wally's adventures for years, reflected on Wally's civilian job, and teased what's to come for The Flash.
What I love about your Flash run is it's the happiest we've seen Wally West in about a decade. That guy has been through the wringer. How is it finding the joy in the Fastest Man Alive?
Jeremy Adams: That's been my favorite because I wanted the chance to explore Wally. I love and get him. I'm a father with two kids.
To a degree, it is a throwback comic book, like the kind that I grew up with, having powers and going on adventures. It's not going to be maudlin nor particularly dark. It's going to be fun and exciting and Doctor Who-y. That's been a blast. I know it's a throwback comic. I've gotten some criticism about it but it's mostly positive with people seeing it's like an old-school comic book with people opening it up and seeing the Flash going on an adventure. You're going with him. You're going to have fun. As long as I'm writing Wally, he'll never get hurt again. [laughs]
I don't know if that's a threat, like, "You better not let me off him or he might get killed..." [laughs]
I'm having so much fun. I've planted Easter eggs in my run so far for a lot of stuff that's going to happen. You've seen the grown-up Irey, there's some Gold Beetle stuff and other stuff that I've planted. My dream is people buy it enough so that I can do it bimonthly because I can't even wait a month for it to come out. There's too much story that I want to tell. I've had a lot of fun and I'm excited and the way I've planned it is to do big, exciting, crazy stuff and then doing a few issues of grounded stuff and then back to crazy fun back and forth. I think it's all fun but I want to create that tension where we can go anywhere in time and space and also have him go back to work. I love all that stuff.
Is that how Wally getting a job for Mister Terrific ended up happening during the Heat Wave interlude?
My editor Mike Cotton was like, "Can we take a breather?" And I'm not really a breathing kind of guy, but I saw the wisdom in what he was talking about.
We were talking about how [Wally] used to be a mechanic but he's the Flash, the reality is -- and it's my voice in Mister Terrific -- he doesn't belong in a Jiffy Lube. [laughs] He has all this other experience and I feel like people don't think about that with Wally. They think Barry [Allen] is the scientist. Wally has all this experience, not just as an engineer, but as a superhero who has done incredible things and all that learned knowledge is going to be helpful.
Having him in Mister Terrific's lab is a great way to hint at other adventures that could come. If you're working at S.T.A.R. Labs, something is probably going to break and I feel the same way about Mister Terrific's labs -- who I found myself really enjoying as well and hope I can bring more into The Flash. I give him a little more emotion than he usually has, a little more swagger, but I have fun with that. I love Irey, Jai, and Linda and I can't wait to explore them more. I've already turned in scripts for next March, but I've already got another year planned. Who knows if they'll let me do it for that long! [laughs] I hope so. It all comes down to sales and I hope people keep buying it because I'd really love to do it for a long time.
Written by Jeremy Adams and illustrated by Christian Duce, The Flash #774 goes on sale Sept. 21 from DC Comics.