The alter-ego of The Flash and before that in Pre-Crisis comic book history, The Hero Formerly Known As Kid Flash. Wally has always been a reluctant superhero, having purposefully been bathed in the same chemicals that turned his uncle into the original Scarlet Speedster, because Barry Allen wanted it to be his nephew who took on the legacy. So West has for most of his life not felt fully in control of it, and early in his life spent much of his time moping about what fate had in store for him. He spent some time as a member of The New Teen Titans but was coerced into it against his will by Raven. He quit and hung up his costume on more than one occasion, but it wasn't until 1985 when his uncle and mentor Barry Allen died during the Crisis on Infinite Earths that Wally decided to accept the mantle of Fastest Man Alive for good. He's continuously faced tragedy and pain. The ability of superspeed was killing him for awhile there, The Black Flash has almost caught up to him more than once, and at yet another time he had travelled so fast his body's molecular structure began to convert into energy (see Einstein's theory of relativity). However, he still is The Flash, the third to carry that name.