Image: DC Comics. Art by Howard Porter.

It’s been less than a year since DC’s Rebirth pulled Wally West—the first one, that is—out of the speedforce and back into the world of DC Comics, his memory of the old DC universe in tow. Now, he’s going to be thrust into a comics fan debate of old for a new storyline: Who’s the better speedster, Wally or Barry?


Announced among the hubbub of Dark Nights: Metal and Doomsday Clock at New York Comic Con, “Flash War,” by current Flash team Joshua Williamson and Howard Porter, will see Wally and Barry put at odds to decide who was worthier of the mantle both of them have held across decades and decades of Flash stories. Weirdly enough, despite the fact that the cover released sees Wally looking upon his old Flash and Kid Flash speedster suits, guess who’s not invited to the competition? The young New 52 version of Wally West, who’s still running around as Kid Flash in the Titans and, more recently, with Deathstroke’s burgeoning superteam.


Although Williamson teased that the storyline will provide a “definitive” answer to who’s the better Flash—as much as one can in the ever-evolving, ever-fluctuating world of comic book continuity—it seems like the event will also shine a spotlight on Wally’s place in this universe, one that’s not even known he’s been missing for the better part of a decade and is still getting used to him being around. With a Flash and a Kid Flash in action, what space is there for the old Wally West?

“Flash War” will try to find out when it begins in the Flash annual in January of next year.

[IGN]