Outside of Iris West, Kid Flash was the first person to whom Flash revealed the secret of his double-identity (Flash #120, May, 1961). In that story, the two speedsters were inadvertently thrown 25 million years into the past, where they battled a race of golden humanoids. It was only the first of many time-trips for the pair, who teamed up next to try out Flash's Cosmic Treadmill.
Shortly after meeting Flash's friend Elongated Man,[2] Kid Flash received his own unique uniform. The Flash, who had been toying with a new design for Wally, was inspecting an alien mind over-matter machine when, in a burst of light, the new costume sprang from his mind and onto the body of his protégé.[3] Since the new outfit exposed Wally's bright red hair, Flash provided his costume-storage ring with a special instant-dye spray with which he could easily change his hair color, as Wally, to brown.
The boy speedster first met Robin and Aqualad in The Brave and the Bold #54 (June–July, 1964), in an adventure that would predicate the formation of the Teen Titans shortly thereafter. Kid Flash remained a member in good standing of that team, though his participation limited his involvement in solo adventures considerably. At 18 Wally revealed his alter-ego to his parents Bob and Mary for the first time, chose his university (Taggart), and confided to the Flash his intentions to retire from super-heroing upon graduation from college so that he might live a normal life.
As it happened, he left his crime-fighting career behind even before that,[5] when he retired from the third incarnation of the Teen Titans for personal reasons, including a desire to devote more time to studying, to his new girlfriend Frances Kane, and because, as a result of his changing metabolism, he was beginning to lose his powers.
When Kid Flash came out of retirement to fight in the Crisis on Infinite Earths, a blast from the Anti-Monitor reduced his top speed to that of sound.
