Secret Origins Annual #2

Issue Details

Synopsis

THE UNFORGIVING MINUTE Wally West goes to therapy in hopes of overcoming whatever is making him unable to run as fast as Barry could and as fast as he once was able to. In this story, we see that he is still clinging onto Barry's memory and does not see himself as fit to take on the mantle of the Flash, despite how many people he has saved (172). It also shows his unresolved feelings about his father, Rudy, questioning if he ever truly loved him or not because he was a manhunter. Dr. Owen Slade theorizes that Wally has imposter syndrome and wonders if the matter-changing beam that gave Wally his Kid Flash suit because of Barry's thoughts also could have caused Barry to unconsciously make a trigger on Wally's speed so that whenever he does something bad with it, Wally gets slower, but Wally doesn't like this theory. This story overall shows that Wally doesn't feel that he is worthy to take Barry's place as the Flash and that Wally is judging himself very harshly, thinking that he should be disappointed in himself because he doesn't believe he is managing to be as good of a person as Barry. The story ends with a picture of Wally crying looking at a photo of Kid Flash and the Flash together with the poem "If" by Rudyard Kipling--a poem representative of the qualities Barry lived up to in his life as a good man, and a poem full of qualities that are hard to achieve and live by, showing how hard it is for Wally to be like Barry like he wants. MYSTERY OF THE HUMAN THUNDERBOLT