11 Justice League Fates Worse Than Death

2. Accidentally Becoming A Mass Murderer - Heroes In Crisis

Justice League Superman Batman Wonder Woman
DC Comics

Few people were done dirty as part of the New 52 as much as Wally West, with him left out in the cold after Barry Allen returned after a 23-year absence.

Once Wally was finally brought back into the fold in the aforementioned DC Rebirth, things soon went array for this version of the Flash. And by array, that means Heroes in Crisis.

Heroes in Crisis has an unfortunate reputation for being one of those stories that has readers breaking out in a cold sweat at its mere mention. We're not quite talking One More Day bad, but many are still shaking their heads at the HIC decision to make Wally a mass murderer.

For context, the recently-returned West was placed in the Sanctuary locale that serves to give therapy to the heroes and (hopefully) reformed villains who need it. In Heroes in Crisis, Wally was amongst a slew of familiar names who were shockingly found dead, with Harley Quinn and Booster Gold the only survivors and de facto prims suspects.

We'd come to find out that Wally West had caused this carnage, with him having read the case files of the Sanctuary's residents. Upon doing that, Wally became so emotionally overwhelmed that he lost control of his powers, unwittingly murdered everyone when the Speed Force ran rampant, faked his own death, then tried to fix all of this by using time-travel.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.