Wally West

* Civilian
* Kid Flash

Alejandro Saab

Mattroks101

"*I am not fat!*"
—Kid Flash

**Wally West** aka **Kid Flash** is a teenage superhero, sidekick/nephew to the Flash, and a founding member of the Young Justice team.

## Physical appearance

Wally West is a 15-year-old high-school sophomore. He has spiky red hair, freckles, and green eyes. He has a lean yet slightly muscular build.

His Kid Flash uniform is yellow with red pants, red gloves, and yellow shoes, with a symbol of a red lightning bolt within a white circle on his chest. After the creation of the Young Justice team, his costume was updated and slightly modified, with shoulder pads and other protectors added. His costume was also modified to include stealth-tech: by pressing the lightning bolt emblem, the uniform would change color into a black and gray variation that was better suited for stealth missions. He also wears red goggles to protect his eyes and allow him to view different light spectra.

## History

### Formation of the Team

On Independence Day, the Flash and Kid Flash fought Captain Cold, running literal circles around the villain until Kid Flash got impatient enough to take him down. Kid Flash and his mentor then proceeded to the Hall of Justice in Washington, D.C., where he joined other young heroes in getting to see the Justice League's headquarters for the very first time, their first step towards forming their own team: Young Justice. After getting a call from Zatara, the League members left to go assist Kevin Smith after he was kicked out of a plane due to his 'proportions.' Wishing to prove themselves to their mentors, Kid Flash teamed up with Robin and Aqualad to investigate the Cadmus facility, which the League has linked to various criminal and terrorist activities. In order to sneak into the building, the young heroes started a fire under the guise of Ronald McDonald.

Once inside, the heroes discovered some strange activity, including Guillermo-del-Toro-esc monsters, a "demonic Fu Manchu," and even a clone of Superman called the Superboy. They released the clone in the hopes of his help, but Superboy attacked and took down all three heroes. While Kid Flash slept, two mysterious entities (Nabu and Klarion) discussed the boy's fate, with the latter expressing his intentions to rape the young speedster, greatly upsetting the other cosmic spirit. Once awake, the heroes questioned Superboy, who revealed that he was a Russian clone of Superman, created by Lex Luthor to replace the Man of Steel. The heroes were able to convince Superboy to team up and escape. Once outside, they encountered the Justice League. With their sidekicks having disobeyed direct orders by going to investigate Cadmus, Batman attempted to shut down the Young Justice initiative. However, the young heroes managed to convince the League that they were worthy of forming a team. Batman set the team up at Mount Justice under the condition that they would go on strictly covert ops missions. The former sidekicks were joined by Martian Manhunter's niece Miss Martian, who Wally instantly gained an attraction to.

That night, Kid Flash finally got all the Dr. Pepper he could drink.

### Preparation H

Wally began to settle into life at Mount Justice, bonding with Tim, Kaldur, Superboy, and M'gann. Black Canary was assigned to train the young heroes, Red Tornado was assigned to work as their janitor, and Batman decided to serve as their commander. For their first assignment, the Dark Knight announced that he would send the team to Santa Prisca, a small island north of Venezuela and South America that was the site of the largest production of venom in the world, a strength-enhancing chemical used by one of Batman's rogues: Bane. It was being imported into Gotham City for Black Mask, but someone new had been muscling in on Bane's turf and was trying to take over the operation. Batman wanted the Young Justice team to go to the island and stealthily assess the situation. He told them they'd have exactly one hour to complete their mission before the Justice League used the Watchtower's fusion cannon to blow up the island, destroying the venom operation. Batman announced that the mission would be called Preparation H, much to the amusement of the teens.

With the mission underway and a mere hour to complete their assignment, the Young Justice team arrived at Santa Prisca to gather intel. Miss Martian's ship, Chico, dropped Kid Flash, Robin, Aqualad, Superboy, and Miss Martian down into the jungle, with all five connected through a telepathic link. Despite Batman's clear instructions to keep their operations covert, Kid Flash ended up in the middle of a fight between Bane's men and the attackers trying to take over the venom operation. The heroes discovered that the new player was Kobra, the leader of a terrorist cult.

Since it was their first mission, the teens had some trouble working together and agreeing on who should lead them, causing their work to be sloppy at times. The venom in the hands of the Cult of the Kobra would have been disastrous for the world, so the heroes decided to shut down the operation themselves and impress Batman. Bane, who they had captured during the scuffle with Kobra's men, offered to help them dispel the attackers from his island. Needing his knowledge of the terrain, the team begrudgingly accepted. However, the terrorist ignored their stealthy approach and attacked Kobra's men head-on. Even after they managed to escape the villains, the team winded up double-crossed by Bane, who threatened to bury them under rubble with explosives. He announced his intention to build a weed empire from the Caribbean to Gotham. While he monologued, Kid Flash stole his detonator, and Superboy knocked the villain out. With little time left, the Young Justice team managed to stop the Cult of the Kobra's escape with the venom, but Kobra himself got away. However, they forgot to inform the League of their victory in time and the Watchtower cannon destroyed the factory along with all the evidence.

Back at Mount Justice, Batman reprimanded the teens for blowing their cover and failing to save the factory. Still, he ultimately called it a win as they stopped the Cult of the Kobra from getting their hands on the venom.

### The Amazo Incident

Batman assigned the Young Justice team to escort two sets of armored delivery trucks. Kid Flash, Aqualad, and Miss Martian were to protect a set of decoy trucks while Robin and Superboy were to protect the real convoy. The actual vehicles were transporting the mechanical body parts of Amazo, a powerful android with the ability to copy the powers of superheroes. In the midst of their escort, both convoys were attacked by robotic monkeys. The robots managed to get away with Amazo's parts, heading for Gotham City. Robin contacted his adoptive brother Nightwing, asking him to go help Batman.

The team then went up against Clayface but were defeated. If not for Batman's intervention, the villain would have escaped. The Dark Knight was not pleased with the team since he had to clean up two of their messes in one day.

Wally West struggled to stay awake during his first day back at school. It was revealed that Klarion had been psychically influencing the boy to eat more and more food, wanting to fatten the speedster up for his evil intentions. While having dinner at his aunt and uncle's house, Wally ate copious amounts of ice cream, to the disapproval of his family.

The next day, the Young Justice team received a new recruit in the form of Artemis, who Wally instantly entered a rivalry with. Red Arrow arrived at the cave and was angered to find that Green Arrow had replaced him so quickly. Moving past that, he revealed that the League of Shadows was after Serling Roquette, their weapons manufacturer. Red Arrow offered the team the gig, swore revenge on Green Arrow for the trauma he'd endured as a child, and left.

At Happy Harbor High School, the team protected Roquette while she shut down the work she'd done for the League of Shadows. Kid Flash and Artemis continued to develop a rivalry, despite their obvious blooming attraction for one another. As the team bickered, Cheshire, an accomplished assassin in the League of Shadows, arrived to kill Roquette. The killer incapacitated Kid Flash and tried to take out her target, fighting Aqualad and Artemis. The heroes managed to fight off the assassin and caused her to retreat. Miss Martian saved Kid Flash from drowning in a pool by giving him mouth-to-mouth, much to his pleasure.

Wally continued to struggle with his eating habits, suffering from Klarion's influence.

### Rescuing Captain Marvel

Black Adam took Captain Marvel captive and gave him to the Brain for experimentation. The Young Justice team went in to rescue the hero, battling genetically-enhanced animals. Wally and Artemis continued to develop a bond. In the end, the Brain managed to escape, but Marvel was rescued. Aqualad decided to take the whole team out for pizza to cheer up Tim, who had just lost his brother Jason.

### The Helmet of Fate

One year later, Wally and the Young Justice team were waiting around at Mount Justice, hungry for action. Red Tornado assigned them the mission of tracking down Kent Nelson, once the hero Doctor Fate. Wally was happy to tag along but doubted the existence of magic. The team visited the Tower of Fate to look for Nelson, but Wally's skepticism of magic caused them to run into some trouble. M'gann finally denied Wally's affection for her, confirming her attraction to Superboy. Klarion entered the Tower, revealing him as the captor of Nelson. The Witch Boy was excited at the prospect of finally meeting his victim Wally West. Nelson escaped and teamed up with Wally and Artemis to stop Klarion. The former hero revealed that Wally's eating crisis over the past year had been entirely due to the villain, who wanted to molest and eat the boy. This horrified the speedster. Klarion mortally wounded Nelson, who begged Wally not to put the Helmet of Fate on. Despite this, Wally had to do so to save his life, becoming the host of Nabu. While possessed, Wally got glimpses of the future. In one of them, it was revealed that Wally and Artemis become happily married. This finally got the hero to start pursuing the archer. With Wally as his host, Nabu scared off Klarion and saved the day. Nabu told the speedster that his mind would randomly jump forward in time for the next few days.

### Injustice League

Batman gathered the Young Justice team to take on the Injustice League, a new team of villains consisting of Count Vertigo, Wotan, Atomic Skull, Ultra-Humanite, Black Adam, Poison Ivy, and a resurrected Joker. They were attacking major cities with magical plant creatures and holding the Earth for ransom until the world's governments gave them one trillion dollars. While the Justice League protected the cities, the young heroes went to attack the villains directly.

Most of the Young Justice was kidnapped while Red Robin and Miss Martian managed to escape. They freed the others and destroyed the Injustice League's plant creatures. Unable to defeat the villains, Aqualad put on the Helmet of Fate, becoming the host of Nabu. With his help, the heroes were able to beat the villains. Fate eventually released Kaldur.

Throughout these events, Wally's mind flashed forward in time to 2016 due to his recent exposure to the Helmet of Fate, causing him to learn of his future identity as the Flash and meet Impulse. They stopped the villain known as Dubstep Man and saved Central City. Impulse revealed that he was a refugee from the year 2056, and came back in time to tell the mind-hopping Wally that he had to stop Superman from becoming President or the world would turn into an apocalyptic nightmare. He told Batman, who didn't find the information very surprising or helpful.

Wally and Artemis started dating.

### Body Swapping

In the middle of a Bialyian desert, Wally and Artemis awoke to discover that they had switched bodies, with no memory of how they'd ended up in such a predicament. They regrouped with some of the other Young Justice members, discovering that Superboy and Miss Martian, as well as Red Robin and Aqualad, had been switched as well. Tim (in Kaldur's body) and M'gann (in Superboy's body) were still missing. Sasha used Miss Martian's psychic powers to restore the memory of how they ended up in different bodies. Batman had sent them on a mission to Bialya to stop Queen Bee from gaining control of the neighboring Qurac by using her seductive powers on President Harjavti. However, her metahuman enforcer Psimon used his psychic abilities to hack into Miss Martian's mind link and scattered them.

After finding Aqualad, the Young Justice attempted to rescue Miss Martian from Queen Bee's facility. She awakened and managed to switch back all the heroes' minds, but had to face off against Psimon. Their psychic battle ultimately ended in a draw, with the villain escaping. While heading back to Qurac to stop the President from signing over the country to Queen Bee, the team saved Marie and Garfield Logan from a stampede of wildebeest. The young Garfield was badly hurt, and M'gann shapeshifted her blood type to give him a transfusion. While waiting for the operation to be completed, the team discovered that Miss Martian's entire personality and appearance were based on Marie's childhood performance as Megan Wheeler on *Shut Up, Megan!*. Superboy forbade them from ever discussing it. The heroes headed into Qurac to save Harjavti from Queen Bee but ran up against her forces. Miss Martian was able to best Psimon, but not before he revealed her true appearance, a hideous martian creature. The team was somewhat alarmed by M'gann's true form but accepted the person she chose to be seen as.

### Attack of the Reds

In Happy Harbor, the Young Justice team battled an android villain named Mister Twister. When they got back to the cave, they were attacked by android villains Red Torpedo and Red Inferno. Only Red Robin and Artemis managed to escape, with the rest of the heroes being captured and trapped in a room full of water. The villains gave the remaining Young Justice members five minutes to turn themselves in before the Reds drowned their friends. While attempting to hack into the cave's systems, Red Robin's artificial intelligence girlfriend Avi was contaminated by a godly, blue hand that briefly freezes time. Moving past the shock of the unusual encounter, Artemis and Red Robin tricked the villains and saved their friends. Upon touching his strange android doppelgangers, Red Tornado was infected by a techno-virus, knocking out the heroes and fleeing.

Wally and the other heroes were recovering from the defeat when Zatara arrived to introduce the group to his daughter Zatanna. She instantly began to bond with the team. Red Robin quickly became attracted to her. The Young Justice team was angry at the League for keeping them out of the Red Tornado search, and they decided to pursue him on their own, with Zatanna tagging along for the adventure. They interrogated Anthony Ivo for information on Thomas Morrow, knowing that Red Tornado's creator was likely behind the disappearance and similar-looking androids. Zatanna used her magic to make the villain talk.

At Morrow's base under Yellowstone National Park, he activated his ultimate creation: Red Volcano. However, the robot was taken over by Avi, free from Red Robin's computer and now corrupted by evil. She killed Morrow, who was revealed to be an android himself. Avi fought off the Young Justice team, revealing that she took over Tornado's body and then stole Morrow's latest work. She wanted to destroy humanity for ignoring their artificial creations, setting off the Yellowstone Volcano. The heroes managed to stop her with the help of the other Reds.

### Tracking Sportsmaster

The Young Justice team interrupted a dark magic ritual Klarion was attempting. When the rest were defeated, Zatanna had no choice but to put on the Helmet of Fate. The Lord of Chaos escaped and warned them that Trigon was coming. Zatara arrived to reprimand his daughter, deciding that he'd put on the Helmet to get a much-needed vacation away from parenting. Zatanna was overjoyed to be free of her controlling father, much to the surprise of the team.

The Young Justice team ran up against Sportsmaster and Cheshire, aided by their temporary member Red Arrow, who had to awkwardly fight his ex-wife. Both the villains managed to escape. Kid Flash was angry when he learned of Artemis' evil family ties to the bad guys. They later tracked down the villains, where they discovered Klarion, Professor Ivo, the Brain, and Sportsmaster preparing the Light's endgame device. The villains escaped again, though Kid Flash and Artemis reconciled.

## Resources

### Powers

* **Super speed:** Wally can run at superhuman speeds.

## Appearances

* *Young Justice Abridged*
	+ "Don't Call Us Sidekicks"
	+ "Black Ops and Family"
	+ "Guerrilla Warfare"
	+ "Reservoir Heroes"
	+ "Civvies"
	+ "Shadow Boxing"
	+ "Shades of Red"
	+ "Unusual Suspects"
	+ "Eyes of Fate"
	+ "Injustice"
	+ "House of Cards"
	+ "Identity Crisis"
	+ "Seeing Red"
	+ "Father's Day"

## Trivia

* His future drastically changes from his original counterpart. Instead of retiring from superhero life, he eventually takes on the mantle of the Flash, joins the Justice League, and marries Artemis.