The Flashes' Secret Ids Going Public: Part Two - Impostor Syndrome

Actually Mr. Queen only missed the mark on his last sentence- though hey, it is the character's opinion and thus not necessarily wrong. Wally West did go public with his secret identity for two reasons: First and foremost, to honor Barry's memory- as Wally himself said several times. Let's take a look at one of those times just to make sure- a conversation between the Flash and DEO's Agent Chase in the recent The Flash Secret Files & Origins #3 (11/01), as written by Dan Curtis Johnson:

Agent Chase: "Why did you go public with your ID?" Flash: "(...)It wasn't the Flash who died in the Crisis, it was Barry Allen. When I went public, part of the reason was to make sure he didn't get forgotten."

Wally's other reason to go public in the beginning of his career as the Flash was, he was going through an identity crisis- due to the pressure of having taken on Barry's mantle, which meant the world to him.

Even though it was Flash writer Mark Waid whom better dwelt on the subject, there is a passage from Secret Origins Annual #2 (1988) by William Messner-Loebs that shows it best- when Wally's shrink tells him, "You're allowed to be alive when Barry's dead."- and then goes on to explain the whole "Impostor's Syndrome" he said Wally was suffering at the time (ergo, feeling that Barry's boots were too big for him to fill).

Of course, Waid did go further with the theme in his great "The Return of Barry Allen" storyline- when Wally finally came to terms with all that and became his own man, the ultimate Flash.

But let's move a little further backwards to take a better look at the identity crisis deal: Even though the first time Wally "became" the Flash, it happened in the last issue of Crisis on Infinite Earths... but it was shortly after that, in Legends #1 (11/86, scripted by Len Wein) that he officially debuted.

His ID still a secret, Wally is questioned by a group of New Yorkers after defeating the villain Deadshot- "Didn't you use to be taller?", "Why didn't ya just catch the bullets- or vibrated through them?"

...because Wally's top speed by then was around Mach 1 if you remember the Crisis- As Kid Flash, Wally had a strange disease that was killing him every time he used his speed, and after he was hit by a blast from the Anti-Monitor, he was healed- but as Jay Garrick noted- his speed was greatly reduced (and as time passed, Mark Waid established that Wally's disease & limits were not really due to his metabolism, but the result of mental blocks which have been shattered since then).

Anyway, after returning Deadshot to the Police, the Flash goes to the Titans Towers to find someone he can talk to, Gar Logan (Changeling).

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