Wally West & Iris Finally Reunite in DC’s Flash Comics

WARNING: This article contains SPOILERS for The Flash #45

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The latest issue of The Flash finally sees the returned Wally West reunited with his beloved aunt, Iris West. This follows nearly two years of stories where the original Kid Flash intentionally kept his distance from the wife of Barry Allen. Not an easy task, since Iris was more of a parent to Wally West than either his biological mother or father.

That’s the good news. The bad news? Their reunion leads to a new twist, sure to spin off into the coming Flash War comic event promising to leave no member of the Flash family the same

RELATED: The ‘Flash War’ Will Decide DC’s Main Speedster

The relationship between Wally and Iris West was a cornerstone of the classic Flash comics, and quite a departure from the modern version fans will know from the TV series, where the two are brother and sister (both Wallys actually exist in the current DC Universe). The original Wally was the only child of Iris West’s brother, Rudolph – a jealous and insecure man, who put down Wally’s dreams of a life outside of his small town. This inevitably led to a… strained home life for Wally and his mother, with Iris offering Wally support, and encouraged his interest in superheroes, particularly The Flash.

Wally would eventually come to admire Iris’s friend, Barry Allen, who arranged a meeting with ‘his friend, The Flash’ that led to Wally accidentally receiving the same superspeed power. And so Kid Flash was born, eventually taking up the mantle of The Flash and keeping it even after Barry’s resurrection. Until Barry created DC’s New 52 in the Flashpoint event… and Wally disappeared.

DC Universe Rebirth #1 revealed Wally’s fate and how he had become trapped outside of reality by the same forces responsible for reshaping The DC Comics Universe into what became known as The New 52 Reality. Dragged through the barrier by Barry Allen, Wally set about trying to rebuild his life in a world where he had never existed. He discovered that his touch could restore the memories of people he had known well, allowing him to rebuild his relationships with his friends in the original Teen Titans.

Wally was reluctant to approach his aunt Iris, however, after he failed to restore the memory of Linda Park – a reporter who, in the world before, had been his wife and the mother of his two children.

Barry finally persuaded Wally to try revealing himself to Iris in the final pages of The Flash #45. The good news is that Iris does indeed remember her favorite nephew after she takes his hand. The bad news is that her touch triggers a psychic episode in Wally, revealing that parts of his memories of his time as The Flashhad been hidden away from him.

Doubtlessly this will be explored next month, as the long-anticipated Flash War event begins in earnest.

More: Hunter Zolomon’s ZOOM Returns To Start DC’s Flash War

The Flash #45 is available at comic shops everywhere and from DC Comics.

About The Author

Matt Morrison
(1844 Articles Published)

Matt Morrison has been writing about comics since before the word
“blogging” was coined. He got his start writing for the
legendary DC Comics digital fanzine Fanzing,
before receiving his own column, The Mount. Since then he has gone on
to write for over a dozen websites, including 411
Mania, Comics
Nexus and The Cult of Nobody. He holds both an MS in Information
Science from the University of North Texas and a BFA from the
University of Texas at Arlington. Known as a font of comic book
history trivia, he has delivered lectures on the history of American
Comic Books, Japanese Manga, Doctor Who, and Cosplay at over a dozen conventions
and served as an Expert In-Residence for a course on Graphic Novels
for Librarians at the University of North Texas. In addition to his
work for Screen Rant, Matt is currently the Editor In Chief of
Kabooooom.com and writes reviews for No
Flying, No Tights – a graphic literature and anime review site
aimed at teachers and librarians. He also maintains a personal blog –
My Geeky Geeky Ways –
which hosts his extensive episode guide for the television series
making up The Arrowverse as well as his
comedic Let’s Play videos. What little spare time he has is
devoted towards acting, role-playing, movie-riffing and sarcasm. You
can follow his adventures on Twitter, @GeekyGeekyWays.

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