DC Comics

The Flash by Mark Waid Omnibus Vol. 1 is where Wally West stops being the substitute Flash and becomes the emotional centre of the mythology. Born to Run, The Return of Barry Allen and the early Speed Force architecture give Wally a legacy problem no other DC hero has in quite the same way. This is the modern Flash foundation.

The Flash by Mark Waid Omnibus Vol. 3 closes Waid's Wally West era with Chain Lightning, legacy futures and the final expansion of the Flash family concept. The value is the emotional payoff to a run about inherited names, speed, connection and the pressure of becoming the Flash after Barry Allen rather than living in his shadow.

The Flash by Mark Waid Omnibus Vol. 2 is Wally West in full confidence: the Flash family, Max Mercury, Impulse, Dead Heat, Abra Kadabra and the Speed Force as philosophy rather than simple power source. Waid turns speed into inheritance, responsibility and identity, which is why this run still defines how later adaptations talk about Flash.