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A Flash Fan writes...

Hello Greg,

My post got deleted, don't know why so I am trying to separate the questions from my post. Thanks for you time.

Here are the Flash questions/comments I promised, mainly centered on Barry Allen.

Your portrayal of the Barry Allen persona to me does not seem like the one I am familiar with in his appearances in the comics, from the Silver Age to his death on Crisis on Infinite Earths and even after his resurrection and into the New 52. To me he always seemed a calm and collective police scientist who had somewhat of Superman's persona in the pursuit of justice. Your version to me seems more like the Wally West persona, especially similar to the Justice League and JLU series of Bruce Timm. He seems more willing to joke around, his outbursts in the first episode of YJ, and his over-eagerness of the present in Mount Justice in the tie-in comic book are just some examples that lead me to this conclusion. So mainly I wanted to know where you drew inspiration for Barry Allen the Flash please. Please understand that I am not criticizing you; you're the creator and you have every right to adapt characters as you seem fit, but it has somewhat bugged me throughout the series. I am happy with the other Flashes though, and glad Kid Flash finally gets some spotlight in an animated series, plus "Bloodlines" was one of the greatest episodes ever!

Greg responds...

A lot of decisions are, I suppose, relativistic. That is, I can't have sixteen Justice Leaguers running around, all with the same intense, focused, personality. So I may take a kernel of something that I see in a character's LOOOONNNNNNGGGG history and develop that into something we can hang our hats (or cowls) upon.

For Barry, I think it's VERY safe to say that the Wally West of JL and JLU had pretty much NO influence on us. Cuz, you know, we were doing WALLY in the show too.

But Cary Bates, who wrote a huge chunk of Barry's adventures before Crisis on Infinite Earths, is one of my best friends, and he always made Barry a little goofy. A little bit of the boy scout, who still had that Flash fanboy in him, i.e. the guy who was inspired by Jay Garrick. We made that literal in our series... and we extended it into his personality. He likes catchphrases, even if he knows they make his wife and friends groan. He's a goody-two shoes and a happily married man and a scientist and a forensics expert and generally this slow, methodical but deeply honest guy, who likes his life and so is pretty at ease with his own sappiness.

He's NOT a smart-ass, which of course, Wally can be at times. And personally I don't think we portrayed him AT ALL like Wally.

But it's out there. If that's what you saw, we'll just have to agree to disagree.

Response recorded on March 22, 2013