"Which, a few years later, they unfortunately didn't do when a few people wrote in demanding the new Hawkman get wings on his helmet."

Yeah I can see that, because birds all have wings on their heads. I didn't know this was behind it.

The justification some fans make for trashing characters stuns me. The whole Spider-Marriage debate came down to supporters saying it was good that Peter Parker finally had a confidante he could turn to in tough times, someone to share his burdens with.

Jesus, folks--these are fictional characters. Stop channeling Annie Wilkes from Misery.

Especially in this case - Barry gets to have a happy ending (reuniting with Iris) for those who prefer that, an heroic ending (Crisis #8) for those who prefer that, and overall gets upgraded to be the official Saint of the DCU.  Best of all, he gets to stay as he was for the fans who loved him rather than get stuck in some weird revamp in the hopes of "modernizing him for a new audience."  And thanks to untold tales and time travel, he's available for future stories whenever needed. 

And yet Wally still isn't the Flash. Legacy stories work when they were meant to be that way. Abin Sur to Hal Jordan, most prominently.

Wally being the Flash removes something from the Flash, ie the reader's exposure to the "middle" of the ongoing story of this serial character's "life." Barry Allen was fully realized as the Flash. No one disputed it. No one could flip back through Barry's history and find inconsistency and outright "quitting" as a hero, and so on. When somebody picked up a Flash comic with Barry Allen, it didn't take long to get caught up with Barry as a character. You didn't have to wade through some ridiculous "legacy" and bullsh*t "Speed Force" crap (really, Speed Force is embarrassing...it's George Lucas-level pandering); you have Barry Allen, he's always late, he's the Flash though and because of his "scientific" background and powers, he's constantly being confronted by scientific villains and terrors. Simple, effective.

So Wally West did some cool things as the Flash...well, I guess he did. And it still all feels like someone is trying to justify Wally all the time.

Meanwhile, Wally gets the very unique job of being the sidekick who has to take over the main job.  Never been done before or since. 

It was done a hell of a lot better in Brubaker's CAPTAIN AMERICA. Even if I hate Marvel's "direction," and Bucky as Cap, I still think it was done logically and well while enforcing the Espionage/Spy elements that the series is based around now.

Younger fans get to see some actual "firsts." 

It's just hard for me to see the downside here.

Younger fans would get plenty of "firsts" with Barry Allen, even now, if the writers decided to think about things Barry has never done. He's fought sentient clouds. Okay. Has he been shrunk to Atom size and trapped on a sub-atomic world? Has he created a thousand Flashs just like himself because of a time travel quirk? Has he turned into a robot temporarily? Has he turned into a flesh-eating zombie temporarily?

Where is the downside in any of that for Barry Allen, and us as readers?

Chad Carter wrote: And yet Wally still isn't the Flash.

Depends on who you ask.

QUOTE: Wally being the Flash removes something from the Flash, ie the reader's exposure to the "middle" of the ongoing story of this serial character's "life."

How so?  Instead of the middle of Barry's life, you get the middle of Wally's life.  It's still "writing in the middle."  Different title character, but that's hardly unprecedented in Flash comics.  I guess there's a removal there, but it's more an exchange than a loss.

QUOTE: Barry Allen was fully realized as the Flash. No one disputed it. No one could flip back through Barry's history and find inconsistency and outright "quitting" as a hero, and so on.

That's because they killed him off before that stuff got more popular.  Even then, Geoff Johns still managed to add some inconsistency in Barry's history with "the Secret of Barry Allen" around the time of Identity Crisis.  There was no way Barry's supposed attempt to reform the Top fit in with what actually happened in the early #300s of Barry's book.

QUOTE: When somebody picked up a Flash comic with Barry Allen, it didn't take long to get caught up with Barry as a character.

"I'm Wally West.  I'm the fastest man alive."  Simple.

QUOTE: You didn't have to wade through some ridiculous "legacy" and bullsh*t "Speed Force" crap (really, Speed Force is embarrassing...it's George Lucas-level pandering);

You're assuming that would never have been introduced if Barry was in the title role instead of Wally.  Not a safe assumption.

QUOTE: It was done a hell of a lot better in Brubaker's CAPTAIN AMERICA.

Oh yeah, forgot about that one.

QUOTE: I still think it was done logically and well

I'll leave "well" to the jury, but what was so illogical about what happened to Barry?  The universe was at stake and Barry did what had to be done to save it.  Wally wanted the memory of his mentor to live on so he took over the job, eventually making the role his own.

QUOTE: Younger fans would get plenty of "firsts" with Barry Allen, even now, if the writers decided to think about things Barry has never done. He's fought sentient clouds. Okay. Has he been shrunk to Atom size and trapped on a sub-atomic world? Has he created a thousand Flashs just like himself because of a time travel quirk? Has he turned into a robot temporarily? Has he turned into a flesh-eating zombie temporarily?

Wally taking over the monthly in no way kept any of those stories from being told.  Heck, your chances at seeing them were probably greater before Rebirth.  Now he has to be written with "modern sensibilities" so that kind of stuff likely isn't allowed.  Maybe the last one.

QUOTE: Where is the downside in any of that for Barry Allen, and us as readers?

Nothing.  That would have worked, too.  But the powers that were at DC opted for a different direction.  I just don't see anything wrong with the direction they did take.  I liked Barry as the Flash.  I liked Wally as the Flash.  The latter didn't keep me from getting additional adventures of the former.  Whereas if Wally hadn't been "promoted," I would have missed out on several stories and character moments that I enjoyed.

The universe was at stake and Barry did what had to be done to save it. 

Didn't that whole thing kind of come out of nowhere? I mean, the CRISIS is just bopping along and suddenly there's this big machine whatisit (I haven't read CRISIS in some time...what was the machine?) and Barry dies to stop it. I mean, what does it say when I can't recall WHY Barry died. All I remember was his last "moments" prior were spent being tortured by the Psycho Pirate, and then Barry beating him down, and then Barry detonating the machine or whatever he did.

I mean, everybody goes on about Barry Allen...christing Supergirl perished actually nearly destroying the Anti-Monitor barehanded, during a mission to destroy yet another Anti-Monitor death device, so why the hell wasn't she the "saint" of the DCU?

The Flash dies not only miserably, but anonymously. That was even worse...one of the most recognizable superheroes in the world is offed almost as an afterthought. It annoys me when people talk about Barry's sacrifice, because if CRISIS had been "just another issue" of the FLASH comic...Barry not only wouldn't be dead, you'd have a neat "escape" and probably a nice wrap-up as Barry delivers the pulped Psycho Pirate to the police. Barry Allen doesn't die in that story under any circumstance, but in order to fulfill CRISIS' death quota, he "had" to go.

I mean, come on...it's not like DC looked around and said, "Hey, now's the time to kill Batman. Or Superman. Because their comics aren't exactly selling like wildfire." Which they weren't, at that time. They were (and I can't swear to it) average sellers at that time, at least in comparison to Marvel. But DC didn't have the gonads to kill Superman or Batman...they off the Flash and Supergirl and a host of small b-list characters. The Flash IS probably the "biggest name" but where was his comic at that time? Cancelled. And after a mishandling by the people creating the comic too, IMO, since "the Trial" simply felt like DC didn't have a clue.

As I recall, Barry's death didn't even create "waves." I don't remember people being up in arms about it. A weeping Superman holding dead Supergirl cover became THE iconic moment of CRISIS, not Barry's withered little corpse dwindling to dust.

It just irritates the hell out of me: DC quit on an iconic character who had held his own title, uninterrupted, for well over 20 years. To kill Barry Allen was a shameful display, and a stupid ploy, much as Superman's death and Batman's "death" is now.

If folks think Barry Allen was a "stiff," and therefore undeserving of revitalization, as Superman received, as Batman received, both in the 1980s, then I can only say: Barry might have been a "blank slate" like many of DC's heroes, but that's exactly WHY he could be more interesting than Superman and Batman put together. It just takes a little thought, and a little care, and a lot of respect. When people talk "Big Three" they should mean Superman, Batman and the Flash. Or maybe they would have, had the Flash character not been mishandled so badly.

This is just an opinion based on what I think Barry Allen could be, and what Johns isn't going to make him in this new series.

Funny thing is although I've wanted new Barry Allen stories and am buying Rebirth, I actually enjoyed many of Wally's stories to Barry's.  Yet still wanted Barry back.  I also wanted Hal back in place of Kyle as Green Lantern.  I didn't hate or dislike Kyle, just didn't do it for me.  I found Hal's return successfull and it has become my favorite ongoing title. 

Also, I thought Wally taking over for Barry made more sense then Winter Soldier /Bucky taking over for Cap.  Both handled well, but preferred the Wally situation.  I still want Steve Rogers back.  Do not like the the new Cap uniform. 

I thought Wally taking over for Barry made more sense then Winter Soldier /Bucky taking over for Cap

Well, take it back to the origins of those two sidekicks...Wally suffers a near-identical accident to Barry to become Kid Flash, Bucky stumbles on Steve Rogers changing into Cap and Cap trains him to become a Nazi-smasher.

Of the two, the Kid Flash thing comes off as contrived in a way not seen again until Bruce Banner pumped a little gamma-irradiated blood into his cousin and turned her into the She-Hulk. Bucky, meanwhile, SPOILER HERE

falls into the same artic ocean Cap falls into, sans an arm, and instead of being found by eskimos, ends up discovered by the trolling Soviets and turned into a brainwashed assassin.

SPOILER END...So, to me, Wally is the epitome of the knock-off DC Comics made a habit out of, while Bucky was his own character more or less, even if pretty much a clone of every other boy sidekickywicky of the 1940s. To me, outside of Dick Grayson becoming Batman (which should never happen but be understood will happen in the "future" we reader are never supposed to see), Buck's the only logical successor to Steve Rogers. Though it would have been awesome to see Sam Wilson (the Falcon) become Cap. But alas...

Chad- "contrived" origin or not Wally's succession still made more sense to me.  I'm not sure on how many stories starred Bucky, but Wally spent years earning his stripes away from Barry ie solo stories and later as a member of the Teen Titans.  During this time he always idolilzed Barry and his response to having to fill those boots worked for me.  Perhaps because Bucky was "dead" for years, but I never considered him as Cap's eventual replacement.  Even with Steve Rogers currently "dead" (still waiting for his return) I'm not buying Bucky as the replacement.  Though maybe that's the point of the current Cap stories.  The costume he's got isn't helping matters either.

I do agree with you about Dick Grayson though.  No reason any of these charcters had to age along with the readers.  But thats a whole other discussion, lol.