One of the biggest issues fans had with the reboot was that it seemingly erased classic characters from the picture. Undoubtedly the most high profile absence was Wally West, who had taken on the role of the Flash for over a decade, and was arguably the version of the character audiences were most familiar with, owing to his presence on the long-loved Justice League animated series.
And yet, the character went completely missing during the reboot, along with other heroes, like the Question (no, the version we got most definitely isn't Vic Sage), Cassandra Cain, and a whole host of other classic characters - all wiped in the name of keeping things simple. Which is awful, if we're being honest.
Look, it's understandable that DC wanted to make sure audiences didn't get confused, but at what point do you admit that you think your audience is just completely clueless? The concept of there being more than one Flash isn't an inherently difficult one to grasp, nor are some of the other, finer points of the DC mythos. Getting rid of them completely was just a bad move, but one that the company has, however, taken steps to rectify.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
