By the end of this year, I hope to have convinced everyone who hasn’t watched Young Justice to watch Young Justice. The production team behind season three has yet to officially confirm its existence with a release date, so I need everyone to log onto their Netflix account and watch it. Hell, you can hit play and go do something else. We need numbers people! Because I refuse to accept the ending it gave Kid Flash.
Kid Flash starts out as a girl-crazy speedster, who is usually seen shoving his mouth full of food. I’m not kidding. Everyone else is always so tense and he’s just off to the side eating some chips.
Then, he gets this great character arch, which involves a female superhero, but I won’t tell you who. (Have I mentioned that I need you to go watch this cartoon?) And it’s just the most adorable thing. Then, it’s heartbreaking, back to adorable, and finally they take your heart and stomp on it until you’re screaming, “WHY? IT CAN’T END HERE. I NEED A SEASON THREE.”
Young Justice’s Kid Flash aside, here are some things you might not know about my favorite speedster:
- Wally first appeared in 1959, and he gained his powers in the most convoluted way possible. While Flash is giving Wally a tour of his lab and telling him his origin story, he’s like, “Hey, here are the very chemicals that turned me into a speedster after a freak lightning bolt hit it.” Then what happens? A two-in-a-million lightning bolt hits those very chemicals and dumps an electrified mess on top of Wally.
- In CW’s The Flash, Wally West is Iris’s brother, but in the comics Kid Flash is actually her nephew.
- Sidekicks Kid Flash, Robin, and Aqualad just hung out and saved the day in their mentor’s comics until 1964 during a crossover issue of The Brave and the Bold. Soon after, they formed the Teen Titans.
- Kid Flash tends to retire from the superhero game to go to college, which makes sense considering his love of science.
- At one point in the comics, Barry Allen dies and Wally sets aside his Kid Flash persona to become The Flash.
- His twin children, Iris (named after his aunt) and Jai, become the Tornado Twins while they’re stuck on a parallel world.
Whether you’re knitting, crocheting, or cross stitching this square, you can download the Kid Flash pattern here. Instructions and charts for both knit and crochet are listed in the pattern. When you’re finished making it, don’t forget to Instagram your squares at us @lattesandllamasyarn with the hashtag #geekalong!
If you’re having trouble with double-sided knitting, we have a how-to video here and a tutorial on crochet here. Want to hang out with other people making the blanket? You can find moral support in the Geek-A-Long group on Ravelry here.
~ Jac
M’gann M’orzz: I don’t understand Wally. It’s almost like he needs to believe the impossible can’t happen.
Kaldur’ahm: Wally uses his understanding of science to control what he cannot comprehend. Acknowledging magic would relinquish the last vestige of that control.
* * * * *