Spoiler: Do the writers of Titans know that Wally West breaks the speed of light?

[MonkeySage]

Just finished Issues 1-6 of Titans (2016)... Kinda new to comics in general but, one thing I'm well aware of: Wally West is the fastest Flash, on average. And has accomplished too many faster than light feats to count- notably crossing the universe faster than instant teleportation... This is nothing new to him, and he's done it without problems in the past... So why are they suddenly making it such a big deal? Especially since this isn't a problem for non-speedsters who likewise accomplish faster than light feats. Superman, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman to name a few... They're all faster than light.

[chainer1216]

The Flashs top speed has always been effected by his mental state, teen titans Wally West, in particular is usually depicted as the slowest speedster because originally at the time, he was.

[RandomNPC]

Because a true speedster at his full potential has an answer to everything except plot armor, and that's not fun to watch in a show.

Super Durability? Force is relative to mass, speed, and surface area of contact. With infinite speed in that equation, anything less than "indestructible" has more holes that the plot of a poorly written show.

Nanobot virus? Vibrate at a different frequency so they can't touch you. They follow your frequency? Then let them chase you thus leaving everyone else alone to fix the problem.

Mind reader? Think faster. No. Faster.

Kinetic energy absorption field? Hit it so fast it overloads. They built an overflow to catch that? Overload that as well.

Time hopper wants to steal your feet? Time hop better and steal their hands.

Superman wants to punch you? Vibrate through him and leave a bit of kryptonite in his kidney. Or just take his liver. Whatever.

Evil opposite? Opposite of fast? Not an issue.

The only two things that stop a full power speedster is them not knowing about a thing, and self doubt.

[Taevyr]

Evil opposite? Opposite of fast? Not an issue.


This is why speedsters' "evil opposites" usually go the "opposite but still speedster" or "slows everyone else down" routes. Otherwise, you could never make it realistic.

A decent example would be Captain Cold: went from a simple criminal that stole a "freeze gun" that (surprise surprise) freezes things, to an innate genius that stole a freeze gun and improved it to the point of creating "cold fields" that slow the atomic movement of everything caught inside it, to give his fights with the Flash some challenge.

Giving Wally a psychological block to his powers is probably the most elegant way they've tried to cap speedsters: it means that he can do all the ridiculous feats when it comes down to it, but it's relatively easy for a writer to toss in some persistent distraction or worry to ramp it down when necessary.

[Lemmy]

It doesn't help that Flash's most iconic enemies are things like...

Guy with an ice gun, guy with a fire gun, guy with a mirror, guys with a boomerang...

When the only way you can challenge your protagonist is by giving him a mirror match (or making him hold the idiot ball), you've gone too far with the power creep... And "gone too far with the power creep" is basically DC in a nutshell.

[MonkeySage]

I think for many of the heroes of DC, their greatest feats often come at great cost. Every time a speedster passes the speed of light, they risk getting sucked into the Speed Force, unless they have an anchor- like Iris for Barry, or Linda for Wally. Or worst, they change history in unpredictable ways (Flashpoint). Superman was able to hold up the equivalent of 200 quintillion tons, but it came at the cost of absorbing too much solar radiation, and it almost killed him. (All-Star Superman)

Linda didn't remember Wally West when he came back.

[TeChameleon]

There's also the fact that the Wally West in Teen Titans (2016) is the second Wally West (and cousin to the first one... it's a complete mess. Basically, when DC rebooted their universe to its "Nu52" incarnation (the 2011 reboot), OG Wally West was deleted from continuity, and then they recreated him as a black kid to tie in with the Flash TV series. However, original Wally still had fans and they protested that he'd just been dropped like that. So eventually they pulled him back into continuity and just sort of gave a collective shrug and left it at two Wally-West-Flashes.)

Wally West II simply isn't as fast as Wally West I, who like you said, is the fastest man alive.

[Taevyr]

There's also the fact that the Wally West in Teen Titans (2016) is the second Wally West (and cousin to the first one... it's a complete mess. Basically, when DC rebooted their universe to its "Nu52" incarnation (the 2011 reboot), OG Wally West was deleted from continuity, and then they recreated him as a black kid to tie in with the Flash TV series. However, original Wally still had fans and they protested that he'd just been dropped like that. So eventually they pulled him back into continuity and just sort of gave a collective shrug and left it at two Wally-West-Flashes.)

Wally West II simply isn't as fast as Wally West I, who like you said, is the fastest man alive.


Titans (2016) is a different title from Teen Titans (2016) though, with Wally West I as a key character in the former, and Wally West II as part of the latter. It was rather confusing at times until the writers decided Wally West II should start going by his full name, Wallace.

[TeChameleon]

Oh, whoops... didn't realize that there were Titans and Teen Titans titles running concurrently...

Sheesh, DC, get your act together :smallconfused:

[MonkeySage]

Titans are led by Nightwing, I think the new Teen Titans (as of 2016) are reformed by Damian Wayne as Robin.