The true return of the fastest man alive.
"Sorry I'm late."
— Wally West, the Flash
The Flash is a comic book series published by DC Comics as part of the DC Infinite Frontier initiative, retaining its legacy numbering (hence the name of this page), with this run proper beginning at issue #768. It is initially written by Jeremy Adams and drawn by Brandon Peterson.
After the events spanning DC Rebirth to Dark Nights: Death Metal, Wally West, the first Kid Flash and the third Flash, is ready to put down the cowl and retire. However, before he can make that decision, his mentor Barry Allen, the second Flash, throws a wrench into his former protégé's plans. Barry has been offered membership in the multidimensional Justice League known as Justice Incarnate, but before he can go, he wants to know that his native universe will be safe, so he passes the reins of the Flash to Wally once more.
This run marks the return of Wally West as the central Flash in the comics since Barry Allen's return in 2008. This status quo was set up by Infinite Frontier #0, but its premise has been a long time coming. Wally's return to prominence was one of the big parts of the DC Rebirth initiative, as well as teased in several arcs of The Flash (2016), while the return of his family was a lingering plot point for the entirety of Rebirth and was eventually resolved in Flash Forward and Death Metal, with Wally's family now returned and their histories with him fully restored.
The series crossed over with Suicide Squad and Teen Titans Academy for the War for Earth-3 storyline, which sees the casts of all three titles visit the Mirror Universe of the DCU to retrieve Amanda Waller. The series later tied into the Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths event, which saw Wally and Ace West searching for the missing Barry Allen.
In March 2023, DC revealed
that Adams' run will end with the landmark The Flash #800. The book will be succeeded by a new series by Simon Spurrier and Mike Deodato, Jr., The Flash (Dawn of DC).
The Flash (Infinite Frontier) story arcs with their own pages include:
Tropes found in other issues of The Flash (Infinite Frontier) include:
- 10-Minute Retirement: Invoked by the Gold Beetle in Issue #2 after Wally tells her that he's retired as a superhero. She scoffs and mentions that in the history books, he still goes on to help fight in multiple crises.
- Arc Welding: The first arc ties the events of Heroes in Crisis to Savitar's supposed death during 2009's The Flash: Rebirth; he actually managed to escape into the Speed Force. And that he was who actually caused the Speed Force explosion at Sanctuary, not Wally losing control.
- Art Shift: In the first arc, the different segments are drawn by different artists with noticeably different styles. For example, the present day parts are drawn by Brandon Peterson, which look somewhat computer rendered and have heavy outlines around everyone. The prehistoric segment in the first issue is drawn in a way that invokes Bronze Age sword and sorcery comics like Conan, while the future segments with Wally in Bart's body are drawn with cartoonish proportions that emphasizes the fun nature of Bart's character.
- Artistic License – History: Cavemen were not alive at the same time as dinosaurs.
- Artistic License – Paleontology: The dinosaurs in the first arc, besides living alongside cavemen, range from an oversized, featherless Jurassic Park-style "raptor" to a 1950s brontosaurus dragging its tail.
- Ascended Fangirl: Gold Beetle is a very big Wally West fan and makes no secret of that when she meets him in Bart's body and gets to work alongside him to stop a giant Dominator.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: After Wally reunites with Hartley Rathaway and the two start catching up as they discuss dealing with Mayor Wolfe deputising the Rogues, they quickly become distracted after learning that they both work for Terrificorp and start planning having their lunches together until Linda reminds them of the more pressing issue.
- Back from the Dead: #799 features the surprising return of Robby Long, the son of Donna Troy and Terry Long, and Cerdian, the son of Tempest and Dolphin. Robby was seemingly killed off alongside his dad and half-sister Jennifer in John Byrne's Wonder Woman run, while Cerdian was thought to be killed along with his mother during the Spectre's destruction of Atlantis in Infinite Crisis. Granny Goodness appears to have snatched the boys away during the moments of their deaths and tried to raise them into being her soldiers. While they aren't addressed by name, she calls Robby "a Lord of Chaos whose mother didn't understand what he truly was," and Cerdian as "lost in the destruction of an undersea attack." Robby's description is the most blatant, considering his evil adult self from the future called himself Lord Chaos. It even revealed that Mr. Terrific's son, long thought died with his mother when he was in her womb, was saved by Granny.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: It turns out that Mayor Wolfe was being heavily influenced by the Lords of Order when cracking down on the Flash and issuing things like late night curfews.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Doctor Fate repeatedly tells readers to do things (mainly rotating the comic) in issue #776, to help him and Wally navigate the dimension they're in.
- Breather Episode: While the run is mainly focused on arcs where Wally travels to exotic locations and tackles huge problems there, issues 772-774, 780-782, and 787-789 are about Wally facing relatively small threats in Central City and spending time with his family.
- Been There, Shaped History: It's implied that a dinosaur exploding with Speed Force energy at the end of the first issue is what caused dinosaurs to go extinct.
- Body Surf: The first arc sees Wally jumping through time into the bodies of his family, including ending up in the 31st Century in the body of his cousin, Bart Allen, and into World War II into the body of the original Flash, Jay Garrick.
- Brought Down to Normal: The series re-retcons that Jai West was depowered after Irey took his connection to the Speed Force to save his life during the events of the Flash: Rebirth miniseries. Previously, once the twins returned, Jai inexplicably not only had a connection to the Speed Force, but outright superspeed that he hadn't had before.
- The Bus Came Back:
- After not being used in a canon story in over a decade, Savitar returns at the end of the first arc.
- Pied Piper hasn't been used much since Flashpoint, with only occasional glimpses into his relationship with Detective Singh, which was largely from the perspective of Singh telling Barry about Hartley. He returns to the Flash books proper in this run, and #789 has Linda welcome Hartley "home"... despite Hartley having never left Central City.
- The Call Knows Where You Live: Wally is planning to retire when Barry offers him his mantle. When they try to disconnect him from the Speed Force, it turns out...they can't, and Barry theorises that Wally was specifically chosen by the Speed Force! The Speed Force itself ends up further preventing his retirement by enlisting Wally to help it fix itself.
- Came Back Strong: Wally is given an extra boost of Speed Force energy thanks to the Speed Force itself zapping him again. Barry is terrified of what it may mean, but Wally's insistent he's fine and he's not letting it worry him. Issue #779 reveals that the extra boost was meant to be given to Jai, finally stabilizing his connection to the Speed Force.
- The Cameo:
- Oft forgotten character Mopee from the Silver Age makes a cameo in issue 771.
- In the same montage, the JSA appear, including Rick Tyler/Hourman.
- Superman, Jessica Cruz, and the Spectre make brief appearances during the Eclipso arc, with Jessica seeing the glaive that contains Eclipso traveling through space, Superman trying to lift it once it lands in Central City, and the Spectre congratulating Wally for a job well done and telling him how to heal his son at the end.
- Canon Immigrant:
- Gold Beetle appears in the second issue of the run, but first appeared in the future timeline seen in DC Future State.
- An interesting variation; Klarion the Witch Boy is a comics character who has existed for decades, but was used prominently in Young Justice (2010), where he was reinvented as a powerful Lord of Chaos and a Physical God who's firmly evil, rather than a mid-tier spell-caster who's more of wildcard. Klarion shows up here, and he's written and treated the same as his cartoon counterpart, indicating the book was canonising the cartoon version's characterisation.
- Childish Older Sibling: Well, cousin, but this is Wally's status when he's with Wallace. He's very flippant and casual about his superhero work, in contrast to Wallace who is more highly strung. However, it's fairly obvious that this is Wally's way of mentoring Wallace — by giving him the reins and forcing him to think on his feet, rather than spoon feed him any solutions. Also, he just likes to tease Wallace a lot.
- Commuting on a Bus: Barry Allen joins Justice Incarnate and hands the reins to Wally, though he says he can come back if he's ever needed. Barry reappears during the Dark Crisis tie-in arc.
- Continuity Nod: When Linda gets superspeed and needs a quick speedster outfit, she pulls one together that has Jay say "Judy" with a smile. This is a reference to the then-unreleased The New Golden Age, wherein it's established that Jay and Joan had a daughter who was Jay's sidekick, the Boom, who wore a very similar outfit.
- Continuity Snarl:
- Wally is surprised when he ends up in the future and the adult Jai has his powers again. Jai already had his powers back — admittedly without any explanation — when he and Irey aided the rest of the Flash Family in the "Finish Line" arc of The Flash: Rebirth. Wally was watching that encounter and even helped Barry out with his Doctor Manhattan powers, so this shouldn't be news to him.
- In the second arc, Wally and Linda are discussing money, specifically how Wally needs to get a job, followed by a job search. This comes with a handful of issues with previous continuity, both Post-Crisis and New 52/Rebirth era.
- Wally claims he's never accepted a handout, and point-blank refuses to seek out charity from his billionaire friends. Putting aside how in Rebirth he had an apartment paid for by Bruce Wayne as a favour, but Wally also once famously became homeless in the late 80s and eventually founded a charity, so the anti-handout mentality is somewhat ill-fitting.
- Linda's suggestion that heroes should get paid for what they do is dismissed by Wally as selfish, but this is actually how he himself operated in the 90s/early 2000s; he had been a paid employee of Justice League Europe, then later a paid employee of the Barry Allen Foundation, a charity he started that helped the homeless and paid for damages caused by supervillain activity while paying him a living wage so that he could focus on heroics without needing to worry about rent.
- When job-hunting, he has to lie about issues with his resume because he can't just explain to them that he's the Flash. Putting aside that Wally famously operated without a secret identity for much of his adult career, but his identity was shown to be a matter of public record during Flash Forward, due to being arrested and charged with the Sanctuary massacre. Similarly, Jay Garrick is still operating publicly as the Flash.
- Cool Big Sis: Power Girl briefly acts as one for Jai, teaching him super strength trick and being supportive and encouraging as he starts learning to be a superhero.
- Corrupt Politician: Gregory Wolfe, who runs and wins the election for mayor and decides to deputize the Rogues and try and take down the Flash. He also got money from the mob and is a meta himself. Deconstructed, when the Rogues tell Wally that, despite those things, he's enacting his promised policies and did win a fair vote. Thankfully, Wally and Wolfe manage to come to an agreement.
- Covers Always Lie:
- The covers for #771, both the main cover and variant, indicate the focus of the story will be on Sanctuary, and Wally and Roy's history together. Wally only arrives at the Sanctuary time period at the very last page, which would then become the focus in the Annual issue instead. Meanwhile, the Annual's variant cover showcases Wally standing alongside all the speedsters he's body-jumped into, something the annual doesn't focus on but 771 does, so there might have been a mix-up.
- The annual's variant cover also has some issues, as it shows Bolt among the speedsters Wally jumped into, when it was actually Wallace West. It also shows Jesse Quick dressed in her 2010 outfit, but in the story itself Wally jumped into Jesse's body during her Liberty Belle tenure and so she/he was dressed like that; in this case, it's possibly a matter of Jesse's 2010 outfit being more recognizably Jesse as the Liberty Belle costume was also used by her mother, and/or a matter of the fact Wally perceives himself as himself in the speedsters' outfits, and the Liberty Belle outfit (which is a unisex military-styled attire) looks somewhat more comfortable then most of Jesse's other outfits.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Issue #775 features Wally wiping the floor with the Atomic Skull, Dr. Light, Giganta, Gorilla Grodd, Killer Frost, King Shark, Major Force, the Pied Piper, Prometheus, the Rainbow Raider, the Trickster, the Ultra-Humanite, and Weather Wizard, in only a handful of pages. This is possible because the first arc of the run ended with Wally getting a power boost, which he lost at the end of the Eclipso arc when he used the extra Speed Force energy to heal Jai.
- Death Faked for You: It's revealed in issue 799 that Granny Goodness kidnapped Robby Long, Cerdian, and even Mr. Terrific's unborn son before they were thought to have died to use against the heroes.
- Depending on the Artist: Wally's Flash suit can vary, and unlike prior runs, he's no longer generating one with the Speed Force as an excuse. Initially, it was drawn to be his classic 90s suit, however it was also sometimes (more often on covers) drawn to be his post-Flash: Rebirth, DCAU-inspired suit, albeit in normal Flash red as opposed to its prior maroon colour. The Flash: Rebirth outfit was eventually adopted as his main look, both because Fernando Pasarin became regular penciller and draws it that way and because Wally wears it in guest appearances in other titles.
- Dramatic Irony: Green Arrow is still upset about Roy Harper's death and is passive aggressive as Hell about it to Wally's face. He at one point notes that maybe if Wally had decided to retire sooner, Roy would still be alive. With absolutely no clue that Roy is alive again and keeping a low profile because not even he understands how he came back. This isn't even getting into the fact that Roy wouldn't have been at Sanctuary in the first place if it hadn't been for Ollie's treatment towards Roy and willing ignoring of Roy's previous attempts to get help for his addiction problems.
- The Dreaded: No one wants to tell Linda Park that her husband got sucked into the Speed Force and is now bouncing around time and the Multiverse. At the end of the story, no one wants to tell her that Wally's back, but he was passed out and out for awhile. In fact, Wally figured out she called them.
- "Eureka!" Moment: After downing some of Ollie's homemade coffee, Barry realizes that the Speed Force is trying to expel something out of it and is using Wally to do so. It ultimately shunts Wally to Sanctuary.
- Faking the Dead: The ending of Heroes in Crisis had Booster Gold propose a Stable Time Loop by cloning a dead version of Wally in the future and leaving it for the Trinity to find at Sanctuary. Yet for some reason, neither Booster nor Blue Beetle, Batgirl, or Harley Quinn suggested they could clone everyone else who died at Sanctuary. It turns out Gold Beetle went and did it for Wally, saying she didn't clone Arsenal because she saw ahead and recognized he was going to come back anyway.
- Fanservice: The first issue's prehistoric segments, which show a very fit Wally West in nothing but a loin cloth.
- Fast Ball Special: Jai does an improvised one when he and Irey are helping with the events of Dark Crisis. He trails behind Irey when she's using her speed, but her coming to a sudden stop means inertia flings him forward. Jai has her intentionally do this (after she'd accidentally done it once already) to fling him into a group of bad guyus while using his powers.
- Flirtatious Smack on the Ass: In #785, Linda cheerfully does this to Wally while the speedsters are escaping from Pariah's dream world, tells him to hurry up ("move your tail!"), and winks. Wally is very surprised, and smiles a panel later.
- Gone Horribly Wrong: The plan to disconnect Wally from the Speed Force does not work out. Instead, it disconnects everyone except Wally from the Speed Force, with Wally ending up body-surfing through time.
- Happily Married:
- Linda is explicitly identified as Wally's wife. While she got her memories back before, whether this means the Cosmic Retcon of Death Metal reintroduced their marriage proper or if they just got married before the series isn't clear.
- The adult Irey seen in the future forgets to take off her wedding ring when she meets Wally. He is very eager to know who she has married and all she says is he's great but Wally hates him.
- Headbutting Heroes: The first issue shows that Oliver Queen is still quite upset about Roy Harper's death, blaming Wally for the incident. However, when Barry calls him out on this and says that he wants to save his former sidekick, Ollie realizes he's being a dick and helps out.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Arsenal sacrifices his life to take down the time bubble and shunt Wally and Savitar back to the present.
- He's Back!: In the climax of the first arc, Wally is back in his classic Flash suit and has been specifically chosen by the Speed Force to defend it. The comic doesn't even try to pretend like Savitar has a chance against him after this.
- Hilarity Ensues: In the first issue, Wally gets thrown back in time to the prehistoric era...where a dinosaur accidentally gets superspeed. Cue a chase sequence.
- Hitler's Time Travel Exemption Act: The idea of shooting Hitler is discussed, but denied by Barry and Mr. Terrific as Hitler is hopped up on Speed Force energy and doing that will cause an Earth-Shattering Kaboom.
- Honorary Uncle: Hartley Rathaway is "Uncle Hartley" to the West kids.
- Hopeless with Tech: Wally claims to be bad at using computers whenever he's asked to use them at work. It makes him seem weirdly old, as if DC's sliding timescale isn't in effect and his recent past is still the 1990s/2000s.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Irey befriends a girl at school who is a very bad influence on her. The girl makes Irey tagalong on rule-breaking trips, pins the blame from things onto Irey and convinces her to sneak out of the house. Irey just thinks she's cool.
- Kidnapped by the Call: Wally isn't just accidentally thrown across time, he's deliberately chosen by the Speed Force to solve whatever's going wrong with it.
- The Knights Who Say "Squee!": In issue #786, Stephanie Brown and Cassandra Cain become big fans of Irey because of how she puts Damian Wayne in his place.
- Legacy Character: Thanks to Rebirth having reintroduced Jay and Wally, Wally is once again the third Flash. It also confirms that Irey will, indeed, become Kid Flash in the future, if not the Flash.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: Barry Allen is trapped in an illusion that resembles Pre-Crisis Earth-One during the Dark Crisis tie-in arc. In the dream world, Barry routinely stops his villains from doing small-scale villainy with Wally's help as Kid Flash, and he's raising the Tornado Twins and baby Ace.
- Never Found the Body: The fate of Adolf Hitler after Wally and the Golden Age Ray are able to get the Spear of Destiny away from him yet the plane they're on explodes.
- Mercy Lead: Wally allows Savitar a three second head start before chasing after him - Wally quickly catches up to the villain.
- Mythology Gag: The last issue of "Blink of an Eye" opens with a 9-panel grid layout and Wally talking about his hardships and the lessons he's learned. It's an obvious call back to Heroes in Crisis using that same layout for its confessional scenes, given the story is about Wally moving on from the events of that series.
- Oh, Crap!:
- After bouncing between the prehistoric era, Bart's time and Jay's time, his next arrival is not where he wanted to be — as Professor Zoom in the middle of the original Legion of Doom circa Challenge of the Super Friends.
- Savitar when he realizes the three second head start he was given really doesn’t mean anything to Wally.
- One-Steve Limit:
- Irey is trying to work out a new codename, since she's apparently not going by Impulse anymore, which happens to coincide with Bart Allen using the name again. She eventually goes by “Thunderheart”.
- Wally and Wallace still share the same first name, and their names are still extremely similar given Wally just uses a nickname. However, Wally brings up Wallace's nickname of "Ace" from their childhood, something that Wallace is usually called instead now.
- Parents as People: After seeing Irey grown-up as Kid Flash in the future, Wally begins to see Irey as his little girl and is hesitant to see her grow up or take part in superheroics. However, when Dr. Nightmare's creations run amuck and Irey's dream constructs are the only thing that can combat them, Wally gets to see that, while she may be growing up, right now, Irey is still his little girl, if a very capable one.
- Pungeon Master: Wally is really leaning into his dad status with his humour, a lot of which consists of really, really lame puns and dad jokes. The only person who seems even slightly amused by them is Linda.
- Retcon:
- The series establishes that Barry still wore his classic suit when Wally got his powers. Previously, it was retconned that Barry had always worn his armored suit post-Flashpoint, with even Wally's memories altering to accommodate that retcon and only Hunter Zolomon (and his complete immunity to the effects of Flashpoint) even remembering Barry's original suit, so this series had to un-retcon it.
- The 2021 annual retcons what caused the explosion and subsequent deaths at Sanctuary were the result of a Speed Force surge and not Wally losing control of the Speed Force, which was in itself a retcon of how the Speed Force and speedsters work.
- Issues 796 completes the undoing of Heroes in Crisis by revealing that, barring Roy and Poison Ivy since they were brought back anyway, all the corpses were clones, just like "Wally"'s corpse was and Gold Beetle saved the real people.
- Issue 799 reveals that Robbie Long didn't die in an accident with his father and half-sister, Cerdian didn't die during the Spectre's attack on Atlantis, and Mr. Terrific's son wasn't stillborn thanks to Paula's death, but all three were saved by Granny Goodness for one of her plans.
- She's All Grown Up:
- Wally is taken aback when Gold Beetle asks him to introduce her to his son Jai, who he notes is like 10 currently. According to her, Jai grows up to become very hot.
- When Wally is pulled into the future, he meets the now adult Irey West. He notes that she's grown up to be beautiful.
- Shockwave Clap: Power Girl teaches Jai how to do this in issue 786, and he has great fun with it, taking down scores of Nazi zombies.
- Sibling Rivalry: In issue #777, Jai blackmails Irey about her misbehaviour at school to get "video game time" out of her. His journal indicates he's still a bit resentful about her having superspeed while he's normal.
- Significant Wardrobe Shift: Wally ditches the Rebirth suit and returns to his Flash suit from the 90s, the one most associated with his time as the Flash, with a three-pronged lightning bolt, white lenses and a full cowl. Not only does this signify his return as the Flash, but it also, from a meta perspective, indicates the change in his treatment from DC. When Barry initially returned in 2008, artist Ethan Van Sciver, when designing a new look for Wally to differentiate him from Barry, was specifically told not to change the colours of his suit beyond shades or to give him something like an open cowl, for fear that it would indicate that he's not the Flash anymore and was being demoted to a sidekick role. He sported both of those in Rebirth, which did come with Demoted to Extra status compared to Barry. Here, he's as Flash-y as Flashes get and is now the protagonist of The Flash once again.
- Sitcom Archnemesis: Maxine Baker becomes one for Jai. While Maxine and Irey are best friends, she doesn't like Irey's "weird brother" and her influence on Irey usually gets the two in trouble, with Jai along for the ride. He calls her his arch-nemesis when they meet in their superhero identities during Dark Crisis.
- Snap Back: Linda sports long hair again, her appearance before Infinite Crisis, while Wally briefly went back to his iconic Flash suit before donning his pre-Flashpoint suit.
- Spoiler Cover:
- Despite every single cover of the first arc featuring Wally in his original Flash suit, he doesn't actually wear it for most of the arc, only in the last issue. However, it's still treated like a big reveal despite this.
- Issue #771 shows Wally once again at Sanctuary, spoiling the ending of the issue where Wally possesses his past self seemingly before he killed everyone.
- Surpassed the Teacher: The adult Irey notes that she's probably more powerful than Wally. She's able to effortlessly siphon off the excess Speed Force energy Wally is carrying while having a casual chat with him, and later on somehow manages to run in the vacuum of space.
- Superhuman Trafficking: Attempted by Mammoth, Shimmer, and the Calculator in #778, who kidnap Irey and Maxine Baker with the intent to sell them to governments that would like to use them as weapons.
- Superman Stays Out of Gotham: Issue #800 features a story focused on a group of criminals playing poker, trading stories about why they stay out of Central City, and why the city rarely has to deal with threats from other supervillains.
- Take That!:
- The Flash #772 and #773 have Wally repeatedly say he doesn't have computer skills, a seeming middle finger to Wally accessing and sending out files from Sanctuary in Heroes in Crisis.
- The Flash #786 has Jai dissing Roy Harper's baseball cap, which mirrors fans' disdain for the accessory that originated in Red Hood and the Outlaws and was pointedly discarded at the beginning of DC Infinite Frontier, but kept making appearances in Teen Titans Academy.
- Talking the Monster to Death: Wally talks Heat Wave out of his rampage, and promises to have a friend look into Rory's condition.
- Time Stands Still: The "One Minute War" storyline sees the Flash Family teaming up to fight off an Alien Invasion taking place at super speed in Central City.
- Transplant:
- Mister Terrific/Michael Holt, traditionally a JSA character who had more recently led his own team, The Terrifics, is now a supporting character here. Somewhat justified by the fact he'd been asked to help with the initial problem, and evidently decided to stick around to help Wally out.
- Buddy Baker/Animal Man and his family have moved to Keystone City, and his daughter Maxine is now Irey's best friend.
- Troll: Wally's interactions with Ace, when they're not having a serious conversation, namely amount to teasing him and downplaying any issues they may be facing. However, this is a downplayed example of Trickster Mentor, as Wally is essentially giving Ace the reins and forcing him to think on his feet and learn how to be a better superhero.
- Tuckerization:
- An in-universe example. Linda's fiction novel is very blatantly based on her real life, and the characters are named after people she knows. Her author self insert is Beth Hunter, which is fine. However, her ex-husband is named Rick, which is the name of her real ex-husband. The adventurous hero who gives her a new lease on life, inspired by Wally, is William "Billy" East. He's part of a spaceship crew, including Leo, who is based on Leonard Snart, and Rathaway, who is Pied Piper. The villain they face is Ka-Drabra, who's... Abra Kadabra.
- While the spelling is different, Wade, Wally and Linda's third kid, is named after Flash writer Mark Waid.
- Ultimate Job Security:
- Wally nets himself a job working at Terrificorp thanks to Mr. Terrific himself. Being friends with one of the smartest men on the planet and fellow Justice Leaguer nets him special perks, including just cause to bail from working so he can do heroics as the Flash.
- Pied Piper was similarly hired by Mr. Terrific, and he and Wally decide to have their free lunches together.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Heatwave appreciates what Wally did for him when he thought he was dying, but even once he learns that Wally didn't know that he was drafted onto the Suicide Squad, he has no problem attacking Wally with the rest of the Rogues.
- Wham Shot: In issue #795, Wally wakes up in Flash World, joined by Gold Beetle, first speedsters Ugh and Swoosh... and the now-not-so-dead heroes and villains of Heroes in Crisis.
- Whole-Plot Reference: The "Blink of an Eye" arc, where the Speed Force causes Wally to Body Surf throughout time and space, with the task of fixing surges of Speed Force energy (and with a sprinkling of The Mirror Shows Your True Self being inverted for good measure), is basically DC doing their own version of Quantum Leap.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Issue 773 has Wally convince Heat Wave to stop his attacks on the city by arguing the Mick has the power to "build things up" and give his life "purpose and meaning" if he gives up arson. Mick accepts.
- You Should Have Died Instead: Oliver states that if the world was fair, Roy Harper would be alive and Wally West would be dead, as Wally cause the explosion that killed Roy.
- Your Days Are Numbered: The second storyline has Heat Wave learn that he has terminal cancer and he won't be able to recover from it. So, he's going on a rampage. It turns out the cause of this cancer is the asbestos in Mick's fireproof suit◊.
