History
Rudy West was the second oldest[2] of the three West siblings. His interests as a boy were football, cars, and being a bully. His father, Ira, never seemed to love him, and this affected Rudy as he started a family.
At some point before he was married, Rudy became an acolyte of the Manhunters, a race of androids created by the Guardians of the Universe to safeguard the universe. However, they had become evil.
Rudy moved to Blue Valley, Nebraska. The Manhunters instructed him to get married, and they promised him a powerful son. He and his wife, Mary, became the parents of Wally West, who became Kid Flash. Rudy demanded the love and attention from his family that he never got from his father. Because of this, Wally was never very close to his dad, especially after the accident that gave him superspeed. Rudy always seemed evil, pretending to have poisoned the little league coach when he didn't let Wally on the team, and letting air out of the tires on the opposing team's bus.
After Wally won six million dollars in the lottery, he gave $500,000 of it to his parents. However, with in a short while it was spent, and Wally found his father at his doorstop, announcing that he and Mary were having difficulties.
A little while later, he announced to Wally that he was a Manhunter, and that his mother was presumed dead in the Caribbean. He had hired Blue Trinity to take Wally to a Manhunter base in Siberia. However, Red Trinity arrived on the scene and saved Wally. During the melee, Rudy made a getaway. After this, Wally's mother informed him that Rudy was dead.
However, he was not. Rudy surfaced again, this time in Cuba during the Durlan invasion. He came up with a plan that revealed to the people that the Durlans had replaced their leaders, setting their overthrow in motion. However, just as Wally had actually felt proud of his father, Rudy revealed his plan to make a profit off of the frightened people by selling "Durlan Warning Buttons," alienating Wally yet again. However, he volunteered to set off an explosion the killed most of the Durlans in Cuba. Apparently, he had helped stopped the invasion at the cost of his life.
Rudy turned up alive at the wedding of Mary West to Ernesto Varni. He also attended his son's wedding to Linda Park.
Notes
- West's first name was given as "Bob" in his first appearance, The Flash #116, but he was called "Rudy" in his later appearances (at least as early as Flash (Volume 2) #5). This was explained in The Life Story of the Flash, which gave his full name -- Robert Rudolph West.
- Although this character was originally introduced during DC's Earth-One era of publication, their existence following the events of the 1985–86 limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths remains intact. However, some elements of the character's Pre-Crisis history may have been altered or removed for Post-Crisis New Earth continuity, and should be considered apocryphal.
Related
- 46 Appearances of Rudy West (New Earth)
- 3 Images featuring Rudy West (New Earth)
- 1 Quotations by or about Rudy West (New Earth)
- Character Gallery: Rudy West (New Earth)
External Links
Footnotes
- ↑ The Flash Vol 1 116
- ↑ Flash (Volume 2) #62, although according to The Life Story of the Flash, he was the oldest