Wally West (Earth-16)

*This article is about the first Kid Flash, Wally West. For his successor, see Bart Allen.*
**Kid Flash** (real name **Wally West**, November 11, 1994-June 20, 2016) was a founding member of the Team. He was the nephew and former sidekick of Barry Allen.

## Personality

Wally was the Team's class clown, a hyper-active teen speedster who was quick to crack a joke or sarcastic remark. He was often impatient and impulsive, causing him to be reckless. He was also girl-crazy, a trait that went away over the years when he started dating Artemis.

Five years later, in 2016, he took things a bit more seriously and was definite about quitting the superhero life for him as well as Artemis.

## Physical appearance

When the Team was formed, Wally West was a 15 year-old high-school sophomore. He had spiky red hair, freckles and green eyes. He had a lean yet slightly muscular build.

His costume was yellow with red pants, red gloves, and yellow shoes with a red lightning bolt within a white circle. After the creation of the Team, his costume was updated and slightly modified, appending shoulder pads and body protectors due to his often use as a human cannonball. Furthermore, his new costume was integrated with stealth-tech; by pressing the lightning bolt emblem on his costume, Wally could change the color of the uniform into a black and gray variation that is better suited for black-ops missions. He also wore red goggles to protect his eyes, though they also came with the added advantage of allowing him to perceive different light spectra.

Five years later Wally had grown noticeably taller and seemed to have outgrown his freckles from his younger days.

## History

Wally discovered his uncle Barry Allen was the Flash. Being the Flash's biggest fan, he begged his hero to let him become his sidekick. Barry refused, but that didn't stop Wally. He replicated the experiment that gave Barry his powers in his family's garage. He blew up the garage and ended up in the hospital. Barry felt guilty for leaving notes that Wally could work on.

After he came out of the hospital, Wally manifested the powers he desired. Barry reluctantly agreed to let him become Kid Flash, but only if he did exactly as he said.

### 2010

Kid Flash, along with Aqualad, Robin, and Speedy all believed that they were being inducted into the Justice League. When it became apparent that this wasn't happening, Robin, Aqualad, and Kid Flash broke into Cadmus Labs where they discovered the Genomorph project, as well as Project Kr, aka Superboy.

After a quick quarrel with Superboy, the trio convinced Superboy that they were on his side and could show him things that he never would've seen in that pod. Superboy helped them to take down Blockbuster, the former scientist who locked him up in the pod. Superboy, Kaldur'ahm, Robin, and Wally told the Justice League that they refused to be sidekicks any longer, and were gifted a headquarters and a new member for their covert ops team.

Red Tornado agreed to be the Team's supervisor, while Black Canary agreed to be their trainer.

Artemis joined the Team just before they were assigned a mission by Red Arrow, formerly Speedy, to protect a scientist who was forced into making a weapon called the Fog for the League of Shadows. At first, Wally showed a disliking towards Artemis because he believed that she was the reason for Speedy not joining the team. Their feelings towards each other eventually changed.

Soon after, the Team went on a mission in Bialya, where they encountered Psimon and had their memories of the previous six months blocked. Miss Martian, along with the help of Superboy, broke the locks on their minds and defeated Psimon.

Mount Justice was later invaded by androids created by T.O. Morrow, the creator who made Red Tornado. Artemis succeeded in freeing the rest of her teammates and defeating Red Torpedo and Red Inferno. However, Red Tornado was overridden and knocked the Team unconcious and saved his "siblings". The Team was informed that Aqualad knew there was a mole the whole time, and everybody believed that Red Tornado was the mole.

The Team was introduced to Zatanna, whom Wally swiftly hit on for a second and then left alone, and went on an unauthorized mission with her to find Red Tornado. The team discovered that Red Tornado had not actually betrayed them, and that he had convinced Red Inferno and Red Torpedo to turn on their evil brother, Red Volcano.

The Team was put under a training simulation by Martian Manhunter where the world was ending and being invaded by aliens. When Artemis died in the simulation, Miss Martian took over the sim and everything went wrong. The simulation was meant to be impossible to beat, and ended tragically, with Robin and Wally sacrificing themselves to destroy the mothership, for several more to fly down.

Robin was put under therapy like the rest of the Team, where he was forced to admit his affection towards Artemis after showing intense grief when she died in the simulation. On a mission to Bialya, the Team saved Marie Logan and her son, Garfield Logan, by injecting Miss Martian's blood into him, giving him the power to transform into any animal.

The Team came back to the cave from a win against the Injustice League, only to discover that Red Arrow was actually a clone and was the mole the whole time, his keeper being Sportsmaster. The team succeeded in freeing the Justice League of the Light's control. When it hit midnight and it was a New Year, Robin and Artemis kissed, agreeing that they should've done that much sooner.

### February 2015

Kid Flash returned to the Cave for a debriefing. He consoled Artemis, who felt guilty for allowing her father and sister to escape. She did manage to put a tracer on him though, and found he was in Siberia.

A mission in Bialya ended in success, but at a price: Aquagirl had to sacrifice herself. The entire Team gathered, and Kid Flash consoled Artemis, who refused to call the mission a success.

Some time later, Wally and Artemis decided to retire from heroics and focus on their studies.

### 2016

Kid Flash, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Jim Harper, and Nightwing confronted Red Arrow in order to try and convince him to clean his act up. The confrontation didn't do much to help Red Arrow change his ways.

Wally learned of Impulse, his first-cousin once removed from the year 2056. Wally is upset to learn that Bart is both younger and faster than he is.

Wally is upset when Nightwing gives Artemis a dangerous task, worried that something could happen to her. The mission involved Artemis going under deep cover with Kaldur'ahm. After her death was staged at Cape Canaveral, Nightwing, Wally, Kaldur and Artemis got together to discuss the next part of their plan. Nightwing gave Artemis a Glamour Charm to hide her appearance. She said goodbye to Wally, and went off with Kaldur. Wally then told Nightwing that the danger was only beginning.

After he found out about Aqualad's raid in Mount Justice, Wally went to the Hall of Justice to talk with Nightwing. In the Hall of Justice, Wally was angry at Nightwing, that Aqualad had to take such extremes to give intel on Lagoon Boy's location. Wally told Nightwing that he was worried for Artemis, and cast suspicion on Aqualad being a triple agent, believing that he was playing Nightwing for a fool.

Along with Nightwing and Batgirl, Kid Flash infiltrated a Light-Reach summit. Aqualad's betrayal was soon discovered and the Team sprung their trap upon the two enemies. The battle ended with the capture of the Reach ambassador, Black Manta, the Brain, and Monsieur Mallah. Wally also gave Bart his blessing to take up the mantle of the red and yellow suit.

Kid Flash and 39 other heroes joined a briefing by Blue Beetle, who was now freed from the control of the Reach, and Lex Luthor, where they attempted to disable disruptors around the globe.

Kid Flash, upon hearing that the combined speed trails created by the Flash and Impulse were not enough to halt the "chrysalis" mode of the MFD, joined the duo at the North Pole where he added his kinetic energy to theirs; however, his slower top speed led to the energy being siphoned off the chrysalis striking him rather than their speed trails, causing Wally to become increasingly translucent and intangible with each hit. Wally disappeared entirely as the chrysalis's energy was finally dissipated, much to the grief of his family, friends, and especially Artemis.

## Powers and abilities

* **Superhuman speed:** because of the low-key manner in which Wally created the original Flash's accident, Kid Flash was considerably slower than his mentor. He also lacked more advanced techniques such as vibrating his molecules through solid objects, and needed to accelerate and decelerate rather than start and stop on the spot.
	+ **Superhuman endurance**
	+ **Superhuman reflexes**
* **Gymnastics:** Wally seemed to be capable of basic gymnastic skills, including somersaults and front handsprings, also at high speed.
* **High intellect:** Wally was a science prodigy with a naturally high IQ.
* **Multilingualism:** Kid Flash could speak both English and French

## Equipment

* **First costume:** Wally wore a reverse-colored variation of Barry Allen's costume. The cowl opened at the top so Wally's hair could stay out.
* **Second costume:** A new costume with the same color scheme as the old one, but with distinct shoulder pads. The suit itself was highly resistant to friction as it was capable of being worn and used by him without wearing out for a long period of time. By touching the logo on his chest, he could alter the costume's colors to gray and black.

* Due to his accelerated metabolism, Wally kept a small supply of food in a hidden compartment on his right glove for emergency use (if he must be away from food for more than 24 hours). He referred to the compartment as his cupboard.

* **Goggles:** Wally used goggles to protect his eyes from debris while running. The goggles also had light/radiation wavelength detection and thermal imaging capabilities.
* **Snow suit:** An insulated, white version of his second costume.

### Former equipment

* **Helmet of Fate:** For a brief time, Wally gained possession of the Helmet of Fate, which allowed him access to powerful magical abilities and allowed him to temporarily become the new Doctor Fate.

## Weaknesses

* **Hyper-accelerated metabolism:** Wally's metabolism functioned several times faster than normal, so he constantly took in large quantities of food to maintain his energy. Whether or not it tasted good was not a primary concern, as he had eaten a batch of Miss Martian's burnt cookies with no ill effects. For emergency situations in which he had to be away from food for more than 24 hours, Wally kept food in a hidden compartment on his right glove.

## Background in other media

* In the comics, Wally's origin is slightly different. Instead of recreating the experiment on purpose, it coincidentally happened when his uncle was explaining how the accident happened to him in the first place. The recent reboot of the DC Universe, however seems to have retconned this origin out of continuity. Wally has yet to appear in the new continuity, calling into question any connection he has with the Flash.
* This is Wally's sixth animated appearance, and his fourth appearance as Kid Flash. He first appeared as Kid Flash in the Teen Titans shorts part of the *Superman/Batman Hour*. He was the Flash in *Justice League* and *Justice League Unlimited*, and Kid Flash in *Teen Titans*, both voiced by Michael Rosenbaum. He had a cameo appearance in *Justice League: The New Frontier* and appeared in two episodes of *Batman: The Brave and the Bold*.

## Original Article

1. ↑ http://youngjustice.wikia.com/wiki/Kid\_Flash