Wally West/ William Messner-Loebs

General Discussion Comic Books
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I don’t remember the exact years…nineties, was it? This writer William Messner-Loebs had Wally from shortly after Barry Allen’s death for what was a run of several years. His Wally was an uncomplicated young man who had become the fastest man alive. He was naive, luckless and often scrounging to get by…he often had to crash with his contentious mom.

There was an easy wit to the stories, William M-L had a wry and affectionate way with his cast, and the story lines were inventive and surprising.

It may be I’m remembering this too fondly, but I wish I’d kept that run of comics…compendiums were not so inevitable back then. Anybody else recall my old pal Wally from back in the day?

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It’s really a remarkable run, and the first to establish Wally with his core identity in a post-Barry Allen world. William Messner-Loebs’s work on Wally spans from The Flash #15-61, 1988-1992.

Historically, it’s often overshadowed by the Mark Waid run which comes directly after it, but I don’t think Waid would have been able to work with Wally the way he had without Messner-Loebs’s groundwork.

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