DC Comics fans got a treat when The Flash Season 3 premiered with a whole new speedster on the scene. Kid Flash himself was a major player in the Flashpoint story, but Wally West lost his superpowers when Barry reset the timeline. Wally hasn't taken too well to the discovery that Jesse got superspeed out of their exposure to dark matter and all he got was a bump on the head. The allure of superpowers may be too much to keep him on the straight and narrow now that Doctor Alchemy is creating new metahumans in Central City.
The third episode of Season 3 revealed that new big bad Doctor Alchemy has the ability to restore the powers of people who were metahumans in the Flashpoint timeline but have no special skills since Barry's reset. Alchemy used his ability to turn a young woman named Frankie into the metahuman villainess Magenta. As a meta, Magenta possessed the power to control and manipulate metal through sheer force of will, as well as the unspoken ability to inspire a powerless Wally.
It's easy to see why Wally might be tempted to seek out Doctor Alchemy for a jumpstart of his own. Sure, Magenta went super crazy with her powers and nearly destroyed a hospital, but Frankie also had some emotional problems and trauma prior to Alchemy's interference. For a kid who discovered his long-lost father and sister, lost his mom, was kidnapped by Zoom, and exposed to dark matter in the span of a few weeks, Wally is surprisingly well-balanced, so he could decide that he'd be able to keep his cool no matter what Alchemy does to him. Barry has clearly told him that Kid Flash was a hero in the Flashpoint timeline, so why should becoming a speedster - no matter how he does it - in this timeline turn him into a bad guy?
That said, Wally is clearly a smart kid when he's not leaping in front of cars in the hopes of waking up superpowers that he may not actually have, and Joe made the point that there are ways to become a hero that don't involve a friction-proof suit and constant jones for energy bars. After thinking about it for a while, Wally could just decide that the possibility of becoming a speedster superhero isn't worth going to a supervillain and asking for a favor. There are too many variables in play with a mysterious villain and a new timeline for Wally to be sure that his transformation into a meta would work as well as it did during Flashpoint. Wally might not be so incredibly eager that he would make a deal with Doctor Alchemy.
Even if Wally did decide to go after Alchemy for a fix, Barry would almost certainly go to any length to stop him. He gave up his powers in Season 2 to save Wally from Zoom; we can be sure that he'd do everything he possibly could to keep Wally away from Alchemy. After all, Wally would be quite a prize for Alchemy, both as a speedster indebted to him and as a pal of the Flash himself. It would be in Barry's best interests to pull out all the stops and get in Wally's way. He might even go so far as to clear out a cell in the pipeline for him.
If Wally does go to Alchemy for powers and actually succeeds, there's a safe enough bet that he could turn evil and give up the red and yellow hero suit for a black villain suit. Alchemy seems to be such a bad guy that he might even take away the iconic Kid Flash cowl, complete with hair hole. No matter what happens, we can bet that Wally's quest for superpowers isn't over yet. Tune in to The CW on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET to see what's next for Wally West on The Flash
