Wally West

Wally West: 1994 - 2007
Wally West was born on January 16, 1994, in Blue Valley, Colorado. Since he first heard reports of a masked vigilante in a cape in Gotham City, Wally has a herophile. In 2001, when Wally visited Central City to attend his aunt’s wedding, Wally prayed for Trickster to crash the wedding so he could have a chance to see the Flash. When the wedding was over and done, without so much as a drunken argument between relatives, Wally was bummed, so his new uncle, Barry Allen, approached Wally to see if he could cheer the kid up. When Wally said he was hoping to see the Flash, Barry let Wally in on a secret, saying that because he was a member of the CCPD, he knew The Flash personally and would arrange for Wally to meet him, the next time he visited.

That next summer, Wally talked his parents into letting him go back to Central City to spend the summer with his Aunt Iris and Uncle Barry. Wally’s first meeting with the Flash was everything he ever wanted and so Uncle Barry would “arrange” other meetings for Wally, in exchange for helping his aunt with the infant twins. Of course, Wally did just that.

When Wally was thirteen, his dad got a job in Keystone City, just a short drive from Central City and the family moved. After that, Wally was over at the Allen household almost daily to mow the lawn, organize the garage, babysit, whatever the Allens needed done so that Barry would arrange another meeting. It was while doing laundry for the Allens that Wally found a note in a pocket of Barry’s that was reminder to a code to a special door of Central City’s S.T.A.R. Labs. Due to Wally’s obsession with the Flash, he knew that the Flash had been known to use S.T.A.R. Labs equipment so Wally expected this to be where Barry and The Flash would meet, or possibly be the Flash’s lair.

While both guesses were more or less correct, what Wally wasn’t expecting was to see his uncle dressed in Flash’s costume (sans mask) talking to a team of scientist about whether Flash’s powers were a fluke or could be repeated. When Cisco Ramon mentioned he had set up equipment to test that theory inside the particle accelerator, Wally rushed down the halls of S.T.A.R. Labs on a collision course with his destiny.

Kid Flash: 2007 - 2015
We now know that if Wally was not lucky, he’d be dead. Wally had no way of knowing that his aunt has some weird ability to adapt the DNA of those around her to make them better candidates for developing a speedster meta-gene. Because Wally had been spending so much time in the home of the Allens prior to his incident, he lived.

After winning the genetic lottery, Wally somehow fast-talked (or blackmailed) his uncle Barry into letting him train after school to be Flash’s sidekick. In true Wally fashion, the day that Cisco made his training costume, Wally took it for a literal test run out and about in Central City. By the time The Flash caught up to him, Wally had already caught Weather Wizard robbing a bank, saved a depressed teenager from jumping into the Missouri River, and had crashed no less than two news reports to announce that he was Kid Flash, Central City’s newest hero.

Barry decided that Wally needed some full-time discipline training and with Flash being overwhelmed with crimefighting throughout the Midwest due to the JLA being disbanded earlier that year, Barry knew he was not the one to give it to Wally (and let’s face it, Barry’s hardly the best role model for discipline). Silas Stone had told Harrison Wells that his son Victor was putting a program together in the old Super Friends sanctuary and Harrison recommended that Barry place Wally there. Of course, before Barry could make up an excuse to explain Wally’s absence for the summer, Wally had already told his parents that he was Kid Flash. The Wests must be cool parents because they were thrilled with this news.

So, Wally joined the “Young Justice”, rescued Superboy, fell in love with Miss Martian, bantered with Artemis, collected some souvenirs, fell out of love with Miss Martian, became Billy Batson’s bestie, saved the life of Princess Perdita Zytle, and found his own little spitfire—one who won’t let him get away with nothin’. Oh, yeah… and he probably single-handedly kept a number of streetside vendors in Central City in business (he eats like forty meals every day). All in all, Wally made quite a name for himself as Kid Flash, but you can’t be a kid forever…

Impulse: 2015 - Present
Missing Data

Powers

 * Superhuman Speed: Wally is arguably one of the fastest beings in all of existence. He is fast enough to easily outpace Superman. His top speed is unknown, but he has been clocked at moving Mach 18 (13,800 MPH).
 * Superhuman Reflexes: Wally possesses reflexes far greater than a normal human being. This allows him to easily react to danger and events, and perceive the world in slow motion. Fortunately for Wally's sanity, he is able to relax this ability to enable him to interact with us slowpokes and tolerate the real world; otherwise simple things like a red light in traffic would seem like an eternity.
 * Superhuman Stamina: Wally's body can handle the stress of moving at superhuman speeds for extended periods of time without getting tired or weak... so long as he's not running on an empty stomach.
 * Superhuman Agility: Wally's agility, balance, and bodily coordination are enhanced to superhuman levels. This allows him to easily make sharp turns and leap far distances while moving at superhuman speed.
 * Speedster Aura: When running, Wally produces as aura around his body, clothing, and whatever he is carrying, protecting them from the adverse effects of their speed, such as friction with the air, airborne particulate matter, kinetic impacts, G-Force and the like.
 * Superhuman Durability: Wally is capable of resisting tremendous kinetic impact forces that could easily crush or kill a human, without suffering any serious external or internal injuries, making him much more durable than any human.
 * Accelerated Healing: Wally is capable of regenerating from injuries much faster than any normal human. For example, Wally can heal a broken leg in fifteen minutes.
 * Dimensional Travel: Theoretically, Wally is capable of breaking the dimensional barrier with his speed to traverse between dimensions, but has yet to exercise this ability.
 * Electrokinesis: When moving at super-speed, Wally generates electric energy that he has learned to manipulate to a certain degree, enabling him to expel bolts of lightning in combat. He is not as proficient with this as his Uncle Barry though.
 * Enhanced Mental Process: Wally's mental capacities are greatly enhanced, allowing him to think at rates far exceeding the average human. Wally can perceive events that happen at instances less than fractions of a second. He is also capable of reading at superhuman rates, accumulating mass amounts of knowledge in seconds. While Wally uses this ability often to aid in his crime-fighting, it is usually in short bursts as he feels like he's losing his humanity the longer he allows himself to remain in this state.
 * Enhanced Senses: Wally's enhanced senses that allow him to perceive the world at a rate attuned to his reaction speed.
 * Molecular Acceleration: Wally can vibrate his own molecular structure at varying degrees for a number of purposes, by adjusting to different frequencies.
 * Phasing: By vibrating his molecules on an atomic level, and by doing so at just the right frequency, Wally can allow himself to become momentarily intangible, and phase through objects such as walls. Wally is only able to do so for very short bursts.
 * Vortex Creations: By rotating his arms at super speeds or running in a circular motion, Wally can manipulate the airflow around him to create strong vortexes of wind. It has been noted by Barry that Wally is much more skilled in this discipline and creates far more stable vortexes and is even able to propel himself vertically to ascend to immense heights.

Abilities

 * Chemistry: Wally is a novice chemist.
 * Mechanics: Wally is a skilled mechanic, with an innate knack for deconstructing things, tinkering, and repairing.
 * Strength level: Wally has shown that he is able to carry several people at a time when evacuating a dangerous area, whether feats like this are performed while running on adrenaline is not known or merely some sort of side-effect of his speedster physiology. Normally, when not running, Wally possesses the strength level of a man his age, size, and weight who engages in intensive regular exercise, and can at least press lift his own body weight. However, his powers allow him to throw punches at speeds that, on impact, can have the same effect someone with superhuman strength can have. Wally's punching strength, when fully charged, may be enough to knock-out the likes of Doomsday. His uncle Barry calls this the 'infinite mass punch' and has noted that Wally's more refined combat training likely means that such punches are better delivered by Wally.

Paraphernalia

 * Costume: Barry's friend Cisco Ramon created the Flash costume which gives Barry added protection, snack storage, and capacitors which store electrical energy. Cisco created very similar costumes for Wally. His new Impulse suit is perhaps the most advanced speedster suit yet designed by Cisco.

Weaknesses

 * Metabolism: Wally requires tremendous amounts of energy to run at superspeed and maintain his speedster physiology, even more so than his Uncle Barry. Though Wally devours special energy bars that Cisco has cooked up, he still requires no less than ten high-calorie meals per day to maintain his powers at peak levels. Skipping a meal has a distinct effect on his performance.
 * Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Wally has a hard time focusing. He is prone to nervous, twitchy behavior when forced to do something that does not entertain him. He often will do inappropriate things such as crack wise or pull off practical jokes when stressed out.

Trivia

 * Bart Allen is the one who came up with the name 'Impulse' for Wally to use when Wally passed his Kid Flash mantle to the boy.
 * When alone, Wally likes to talk to himself, especially when he's trying to work out a solution to a complex problem. If caught doing this, he will deny it adamantly, except to Artemis who he has admitted this is a behavior he had stemming from his childhood imaginary friends. He fully realizes that he doesn't have actual imaginary friends, he just finds it helpful to vocally express his thoughts and try to look at them from a different perspective.
 * Wally prefers "pleather" to the real thing. His favorite possession in the entire world is the pleather recliner Artemis bought for him as an engagement/Christmas present.
 * Wally has mastered the art of salesmanship, especially when he gets talking fast. I swear, he could sell a glass of milk to a cow.
 * Wally has a crappy short-term memory. He cannot memorize phone numbers to save his life.
 * While Wally used to be an adamant skeptic about magic, even after he met the likes of Wonder Woman, Dr. Fate, Aquaman, and John Constantine, he was always a big believer in things like Bigfoot, alien abductions, conspiracy theories, and the Loch Ness monster. Nowadays, Wally believes in magic, but he still remains a skeptic of how versatile it can be and refuses to put his faith in it.
 * Wally is one of those grown-ups that will never grow up. He loves playing with kids (babies are a different story) and toys for all ages.
 * Wally dreams of being a successful MeVideo star. So far he has made three attempts. A cooking channel, a movie review channel, and a news channel. None of them have ever produced anything that has gone 'viral', unless you count the links being floated around the Team and the Justice League for a good laugh.
 * Like his Uncle Barry, Wally West refuses to kill but he does support the lawful application of the death penalty. But on more than one occasion, when his loved ones (particularly his Aunt Iris or Artemis) were put in danger, Wally has become very aggressive with the assailants and has admitted that in that moment he could have killed them.
 * Wally's favorite restaurants are Chicken Whizee and Big Belly Burger. He claims it is just for the sheer amount of calories packed into their food. Seriously, though, Wally often licks the grease off the wrappers...
 * Wally collects souvenirs from every mission he goes on. He started this habit during his tenure with Young Justice and carried this on to the Titans and beyond. The notable souvenirs he has collected include:
 * Superboy (yup, Wally considers Conner to be his first souvenir)
 * Robotic eye
 * A Kobra Cultist's hood and mask (which Wally likes to sometimes wear around the Sanctuary)
 * Artemis's arrow (An arrow that Artemis used to save Wally from Amazo. Artemis later removed it and reused it to fight Red Inferno and Red Torpedo; but she later placed it back, now with a molten tip.
 * Cheshire's old mask.
 * Monsieur Mallah's beret
 * Count Vertigo's cape
 * A sippy cup
 * A medical backpack
 * A video tape of Hello, Megan!
 * Sportsmaster's mask
 * Wally is a big comic book fan. His favorite comic series is 'Deus Ex Machina Man'.
 * Wally is studying Automotive Mechanics at Midwestern University.

Links and References

 * Appearances of Wally West
 * Character Gallery: Wally West