All in my opinion, of course.

I like Wally West better as a character, I like his costume more. (I think the belt looks better than Barry's, small detail, yeah).

Barry was there as the mythical godlike super-hero who sacrificed himself to save all.

Now he's back, and has the Flash really changed? The book had gone through YEARS of mishandling, was bringing Barry back really the right thing to do?

I'm not reading the book anymore. I'd like to, but it just isn't interesting enough for me. I also thought ''Flash:Rebirth'' was mediocre at best.

There's been ONE Flash book that has got me interested, and interested enough to pre-order it from Amazon (I generally get the more expensive books from Amazon, works out cheaper with the exchange rate).

That book is the Geoff Johns Flash Omnibus, which collects material from his Wally West run.

I still think that giving Wally kids was possibly a mistake.

So, what do you think?

Am I wrong? Is it great to have Barry back? Is his book a step up from previous attempts, and is there a bright future ahead for the Flash with Barry as the lead?

I can't see myself disagreeing with anything you said. You're absolutely right.

I'm a Silver Ager.
Just like the previous generation had to accept Hal Jordan and Barry Allen in place of Alan Scott and Jay Garrick,
I was willing to accept Kyle Rayner and Wally West.
I don't see why they can't all exist together, or seperately on seperate earths.
But the PRIMARY ones should be Kyle and Wally.
My predecessors had to eat it, now it's my turn. I accept that.

I can accept bringing back Hal and displacing Kyle; Hal was terribly mishandled.

But Barry died a hero's death. He became the first Patron Saint of the DC Universe. He had more meaning in death than he ever had in life.

I prefer Barry Allen, just as I did Hal Jordan.

Wally West had gotten messed up by having kids. I agree that was a mistake.

I actuallly don't care for all these "let's kill _______" stories they do. Barry Allen was a founder of the Silver Age, and I liked his character.

I would keep all the young sidekicks young. Freeze them at about college age. Not to go all Byrne-like, but there's zero reason to make these characters progress through life. I've got my first Flash comic book, and it's fro 1977. 34 years ago. And my first Teen Titans is from 1980. 30+ years ago.

It's okay to have a young character that stays young. If you have to "Nightwing" him, Nightwing him. But Wally West is better as the guy who looks up to Barry Allen.

I am enjoying Barry's new series quite a bit. Plus, he's a fellow comics fan so he has my loyalty.

I think bringing Barry back just smacks of desperation and shows how no story actually matters in the DCU (or Marvel, for that matter).

It just illustrates the way Big Two superhero comics are neutered because there are no actual stakes in any of the stories. Anyone that dies will be brought back, so why get concerned to begin with?

As always, it comes down to the editors. These are the guys who decide who's writing and drawing the books. They pick according to either who's hot, or who their buddies are or if the situation really turns out bad, who DiDio wants or a friend of Johns. It was Johns buddy who wrote that horrific piece of trash with Arsenal on drugs in an alley beating up homeless guys with a dead cat---I'm not joking.

Whether it's Wally, Barry or Jay, you obviously need a good writer but even then, the editor wants something to happen, they have to tie it into the next big miniseries or next big event and said writer can easily be crippled by all this crap. I'm fine with Barry coming back, it's just that so far, there hasn't been anything good done with him or memorable. Wally was great and Johns had a terrific run with him, he knew what to do with him and did it. After he left, everything went to hell what with Bart coming in, dieing, etc. Ridiculous and not worth anyone's time.

I get the feeling that Didio made Johns bring back Barry in the same fashion just like Hal because that worked so well but I don't really think Johns heart was in it and it showed. Now they've got that new big event with "Everything you know will change in a Flash". zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I say get rid of the editors. Back in the '70's, there were a bunch of writer/editors who focused on their own books and was able to focus on their own books. Plus an editor in chief who just oversaw things. Worked well. Have the editor in chief not be in charge of screwing with stuff and planning the next big event. Have a guy like johns just make sure each of the storylines in the regular books are of a certain level of quality---and maybe have an art director who assembles top notch artists for the job. We see books coming out in the wrong order with these big storylines (Cap-Rebirth), we see surprises blown in the eleventh hour unnecessarily (Brevoort and various leaked storylines regarding the FF death). These "editors" don't know their jobs and often do more harm than good, imo.

True -- but there are some who say that when you have the books be more self-contained and such, sales drop. Some say they're just giving readers what they want, judging from what readers actually buy.

Oh definitely, the readers are often part of the problem. Now, big events are all anyone knows unfortunately and between the new readers and the speculators, there have been some bad habits formed. Quality has been shown the door, unfortunately.

Monk said recently that characters dying and later being resurrected has in itself become a conceit of the genre. I think he's right. Look, even when we were little we didn't really believe that Batman was going to be killed and never come back. The appeal was in how Batman would escape the death trap, or how he'd come back after everyone thought he was dead.

I agree there are usually no stakes in DC and Marvel's stories anymore, but that's down to a lack of creativity among the writers and editors. A great story could be done about something we've seen a hundred times before ... they just mostly don't hire people who can do it, or mostly don't allow people to do it.

That said, I gave up on the new Barry Allen era (and I had loved the Barry Allen Flash once upon a time) after a couple of issues.

It's a conceit that I'm no longer willing to go along with and it's part of the reason I stopped collecting.

I feel it's different than the "death trap" thing you bring up above -- DC/Marvel don't announce a huge storyline to the media and build out a year's worth of plots around Batman being stuck in the Penguin's latest death trap.

It would have been better to never start killing characters. You could always assume "Well, they might die, and that would be terrible."

But with the dying and coming back frequently, that's what made it a joke. I was amazed to learn Jean Gray came back.

And it wasn't Barry Allen -- not even close. Not even close to being the last straw or anything like. There is a long, long history of superheroes dying and coming back.

And as for Barry Allen's "sacrifice?" Pretty much all of Crisis on Infinite Earths is gone. There's no story that it goes with anymore, in continuity. So there's no reason for him to be gone.

This.

And that's the problem. There shouldn't be big events like that. If any one thing has ruined the hobby more for me it's this.

For me, anything, whether it's a character dying or being resurrected, a giant crossover or event, or just something that's hyped to the Nth degree, all comes down to whether or not I enjoy reading the comic they put out. I don't feel the need to follow every issue they put out, and if I can't enjoy a story because I don't have every tie-in issue, then I drop it.

It's just become tedious -- I read older books and they're simple adventure stories told in a few issues. Light, easy to read fun.

When everything is the biggest epic to ever happen, none of them feel epic.

This is pretty much where I'm at. It's really about the individual issue in my hands. If its indecipherable or doesn't resonate with me in any way or make me want to pick up the next issue, it has failed. It just has to be a good comic. Period. I might check something out due to hype, but that won't be enough to keep me buying.

Oh and Wally West without kids would be my preferred Flash. Barry died a "good death" and Wally was handled well... they should have left it alone. Seems they were just trying to rehash the GL Rebirth magic.

My Barry is dead. He was mishandled in the 80's and turned into a tragic character for the last couple of years of his life, but he's gone now.

Like the golden age fans that claimed that the Superman of Earth 2 was not the golden age Superman, I can believe that any use of Barry Allen post-Crisis is a different Flash from my own.

So I don't care.

If you told me that Thomas and Mary Wayne were now found to be alive, it wouldn't surprise me.

Even though I was no fan of ending the parallel worlds ala Crisis,
I was deeply moved by the deaths of Supergirl and the Flash in
those two Crisis issues.

Barry went out a hero. He should have been fondly remembered, and often,
and DC should have made other stories about him that happened BEFORE
his sacrifice (in moderation, of course), but he should have remained dead.

As others have mentioned, though, since DC has pretty much erased the
results of Crisis, it hardly matters if Barry is back. I have to agree with
Robert Swanderson, here, that the Flash we knew never came back.

Fixed?