DC Characters

Flash (Barry Allen)

Barry Allen, the second (and current) Flash.

Origin

The Birth of a Hero
When Barry Allen was only eleven, his mother was killed. His father was wrongly tried and convicted for the murder, and later died in prison where Barry watched him. However, the young Allen refused to believe that his father was guilty of the crime. His life ground to a halt as he dedicated himself to finding the real murderer and, more importantly, finding the motive behind the murder. Because of this, Allen studied forensic science, and dedicated himself to solving not only his mother's case, but those of other people in his situation.

After graduating, Allen found work with the Central City Police Department as a police scientist, with a well-known habit for slowness and lateness. Working late in the lab one night, a rack of chemicals that he was working next to was struck by lightning, and Allen was doused in chemicals. Surprisingly unharmed, Allen cleaned up the mess and returned to work, but soon noticed that the world appeared to be moving much slower than normal. He soon realized that it was not the world that had slowed, but himself who had sped up. An avid fan of comic books, especially the adventures of the Jay Garrick Flash, Barry decided to follow in his hero's footsteps and fight crime, taking Garrick's superhero name as a form of tribute. Experiments with his powers revealed that not only was he super fast (faster than time when he tries), but he could vibrate his molecules, allowing him to appear invisible and phase through solid objects. He could also think and process information at light speed. His girlfriend's adoptive father, Ira West, created a suit that could deal with his powers, and chemically shrunk it so it could fit into a ring for ease of portability. Though much of his crime fighting was limited to Central City, Allen constructed a Cosmic Treadmill to allow him to travel to alternate dimensions.

After Flashpoint, The Flash is partly responsible for the creation of a new timeline in which the entire universe has been compressed and altered into a five year timeline. For Barry Allen, his origin is only slightly altered. As it was originally, Barry's father is blamed for the death of Barry's mother. After his father goes to prison for the murder, Barry is placed in the hands of Darryl Frye, a police officer that may have had a relationship with Barry's mother. Barry is raised by Frye and because of his connections to the police force Barry becomes interested in working for law enforcement. During his college years Barry would meet with Manuel Lago at a party and soon become close friends until Manuel went into a military program, where the two would lose touch. For years Barry would visit his father in prison, much to his fathers pleads to stop and move on. Barry would do no such thing and would in his spare time at the science lab try to figure out his mother's murder and prove his father's innocence. One such night, Barry would get angry and throw one of the machines out the window, allowing an opening for a lightning bolt to shoot into the lab, hit Barry, and dose him in chemicals, connecting him to the Speed Force. After this, we would become The Flash. Some time later, Barry would be forced to join the Justice League during Darkseid's attack on planet Earth, locking himself in as a founding member.

Creation

Barry Allen was created by Robert Kanigher, John Broome and Carmine Infantino. He made his first comic book appearance in October 1956 in the pages of Showcase #4.

Character Evolution

The Flash!
Allen and a group of other heroes decided to form a crime fighting team after they banded together to defeat an attempted alien invasion. This team became an important part of Barry's development as a hero, as Barry, already immensely popular with the public, became close with other member's of the superhero community, especially Hal Jordan, who would become his close friend. An accidental trip to another dimension brought Allen face to face with his childhood hero, Jay Garrick, with whom he foiled a villainous plot.