The Flash #772: Job Hunt

[superboyprime]

"He's relatively more mature in terms of his responsibilities than maybe somebody like Dick Grayson. He's got a family. He's always been kind of the blue-collar guy that's still needed to pay the bills. That's going to be something that we really dive into. It's a needle I have to thread of telling these grounded stories, and then these cosmic fun, adventurous stories." - Jeremy Adams

Comments

[chalicother]

Hmm...I am at a crossroad.

I like seeing Mr.Terrific and then connected universe of DC, but then again I was kinda interested in seeing Wally get a job and dealing with the fact that he didn't have a huge work history. Giving him a job as a mechanic and trying to contribute while having to be around people who didn't see him as the Flash , but are blue collar workers. Seeing the perspective of heroes from that class and connecting it to the Flash.

Super Heroes generally know super geniuses in many stories ( or at least the Arrowverse does).
It would have been a interesting background for the story.

[lucean]

I kind of agree, but this almost feels more like an entry point. I do think there is a possibility that they will spin Wally back to that mechanic position from here.

[lucean]

Damn I missed Wally. I know that they will probably shove the title back to Barry at some point, but this already feels like such a fresh approach.

It also does hit on something I think is important in that one of the aspects that Wally brought to the fold, and to the JLA, was that he wasn't a super-genius. He represented that certain character that became really missing from that dynamic while at the same time Barry being a super-genius meant absolutely nothing when he was in a team with Bruce Wayne.

[scorntx]

Barry's a super-genius?
Huh.
Never really saw much over the last decade that painted him as being super-smart. Technically smart, maybe, but not to standard comic book super-genius levels.
(And not in a "Barry's an incompetent screw-up who brings disaster onto himself through his awful decisions" way. Just he legitimately didn't come across like he was supposed to be anything special, smarts wise.)

[lucean]

Yeah, it was a legitimate because that was one aspects advertised when brought back. Barry was this forensic science guy who understood science on a deep level and all that. Even during the recent Barry/Wally stuff the whole divide was that Barry approached the Speed Force through reason and rationality.

It was actually because the inherent flaw of this became evident really fast. First of all, the Flash doesn't deal with the kind of threats where being a genius forensic scientist actually really comes up that much. Second, when discussing on the League level, again, and this cannot be repeated enough, Batman.

[zachbeacon]

I have no problem with Batman not being the smartest person in the room.

...if that room contains guys like Terrific, the Atom, or Steel.

I'd even argue that there's a very good case to be made that Superman is smarter than Batman.

I don't even believe Batman is the World's Greatest Detective anymore. Tim and Babs have kinda taken that mantel a long time ago.

I do find it laughable that a powerless Barry brings anything to the table that Bruce doesn't. Heck, if the Batfamily was unavailable I'd probably call the Elongated Man, Detective Chimp, or one of the Questions before I even think about Barry.

"Hey, you know who's a superpowered cop who investigates a lot of weird crime scenes?"

"Green Lantern?"

[lucean]

Well, I mean it kind of doesn't matter if that is your view as if they ever wrote that scene with all those people in the room, they'd probably have Batman be the smartest one there. Also there's no way in hell they would have Tim and Babs overtake him as the world's greatest detective.

By the way, I'm not arguing you shouldn't like those characters more, it's just that the fact that you think they should be smarter kind means very little in the actual stories they would write.

[zachbeacon]

Batman is probably the most well rounded person in the multiverse (well, probably not emotionally but otherwise). Other people should still be allowed to be better than him at specific things though.

"Also there's no way in hell they would have Tim and Babs overtake him as the world's greatest detective."

I'm sure it's just a coincidence that Ra's al Ghul took to calling Red Robin "Detective" shortly before Flashpoint and the Oracle was the person Batman called when he needed information.

[lucean]

Calling someone for information is different than putting that information together as a detective. As for the Ra's stuff, I mean Tim was originally meant as the detective of the Robins, but that's a far cry from being the best at it. Honest question, if they now did a huge Batman crossover with all the Bat-clan, do you think they would there establish that Tim is an utterly superior detective than Bruce?

By the way, I'm not arguing that Batman is the best at everything, that was never my point. For example, of course Atom would be better at molecular physics than him and so on. However, in the League context my point was rather that Batman is the mental aspect of the League, he is the person who puts together all those specialities and figures out how to outsmart the opponent. And in that dynamics, Barry being a super-genius becames a difficult as while he can have scientific knowledge from some fields that exceeds Bruce's understanding of it, his role in the story is not to be the brains of the operation.

[zachbeacon]

"Honest question, if they now did a huge Batman crossover with all the Bat-clan, do you think they would there establish that Tim is an utterly superior detective than Bruce?"

Honestly, I doubt it'd come up. They've used to do huge Batman crossovers based on a mystery but those are increasingly rare.

(I think the closest we got recently was that Bendis Manhunter story ...and Bats and Lois brought in a LOT of help)

I could see them pitting Dick's leadership skills or Cass' fighting skills up against Bruce because they're far more interested in stories where heroes fight each other than stories about solving problems.

[laughing_tree]

Batman's a real-world-esque genius who can invent Batmobiles. Guys like Mr. Terrific and Steel are comic book super-geniuses who can invent time machines and teleporters.

[laughing_tree]

I mean, he did invent a cosmic treadmill and fabric that can be compressed into a ring.

[armycat23]

I'm getting a similar vibe to when Bart became the flash, but with a wife and kids.

[iamrman]

This is the first time I ever read the Flash in real time. Wally was the Flash when I first got in to comics, so I never really cared for Barry Allen. I am so happy that Wally is the Flash again and he has his family back after so many years of DC shitting on him.

[scorntx]

In the DC Universe, being trapped in non-existence for almost a decade is not a legitimate excuse for having a massive gap in your resume.

Presumably, neither is being replaced by a robot, alien, shapeshifter, time-traveller, your counterpart from an evil alternate universe, or just plain being dead.

[zachbeacon]

The employment gap must have been even longer if he's asking "what do computers have to do with being a mechanic".

[agent8]

well, presumably. if you were replaced for a period of time by a robot, alien, shapeshifter, time-traveller, or your counterpart from an evil alternate universe, you could just use their work history while they were taking your place as part of your resume. That way, no gaps

Being dead's a little trickier, but as often as death & rebirth happens in the DCU (and Marvel U too) there's probably a procedure for it. Like you go down to city hall and fill out form 483-R, in triplicate, with a notarized signature attesting to the fact that you've been dead and are now not dead.

I wonder what the mortuary business is like in the DCU? Like can you get bulk discounts for repeat business or BOGOF deals?

[blueprintstyles]

Man I want another Mr.Terrific series

[gnarll]

I was expecting some super hero to quite innocently taking his car in and almost having a heart attack when Wally addressed him by his super hero alias.

[agent8]

hero heck- how about a villian? Like if Len Snart just pulls in for an oil change

[silverhammerman]

Pivoting immediately from "Wally West is a blue collar guy who needs to pay the bills" to "One of The Good Billionaires (TM) just hands him a job because he's got connections" is about what I'd expect from a superhero comic nominally dealing with everyday life in this day and age. There's nothing wrong with having Wally leverage his powers in some way, heck that was what he did back during his first run as the Flash, but this particular setup really does come off overly convenient. I'm sure there's still drama to be mined and interesting conflicts to be had, but straight up handing the protagonist a perfect job with a fellow superhero as his boss who has no reason to ever be at cross purposes with him seems like throwing a great deal of storytelling potential out the window.

In some ways I'd say that having a superhero/work/life balance is actually new ground, but given how superhero stories over the past couple of decades have pretty aggressively jettisoned the idea of ever depicting the heroes living a recognizably real life, I think that going back to something like the classic Marvel Comics "how can I be Spider-Man while also paying for Aunt May's Medicine???" conflict would actually be significantly more bold.

[zachbeacon]

Funny that you mention Spider-Man because this has some real "Peter goes to work for Tony Stark" vibes and I didn't like it then either.

Granted technically Batman was Superman's boss for ages but Clark still had to report to Perry.

Going back to Spider-Man, he was unemployed for years in the Spencer run and it bugged the heck out of me. Most superheroes don't even have secret identities anymore so I feel like you need to focus on their civilian life when they do.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

I'm sure there's still drama to be mined and interesting conflicts to be had, but straight up handing the protagonist a perfect job with a fellow superhero as his boss who has no reason to ever be at cross purposes with him seems like throwing a great deal of storytelling potential out the window.

I think it depends on the stories they plan to tell and the focus, so I'm ready to wait and see. Sometimes that stuff can be baggage that gets in the way.

[bradygirl_12]

I want a job at TerrificTech!