The Flash

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**Barry Allen**, known to much of the world as **The Flash**, the Fastest Man Alive, is a famous speedster and a long-time member of the Justice League of America. Having been granted the ability to move at super speed after being exposed to lightning-charged chemicals, the forensic analyst took up the name and mantle of the popular superhero Flash, after his childhood idol Jay Garrick, the original Flash.

Allen's access to the speed force allows him to vibrate through objects, creates explosions through friction, and, when he's at his top speed, manipulate time and bridge dimensions.

## Background

On May 13th, Nora Thompson-Allen, pregnant with twins, was admitted to the office of Dr. Gilmore alongside another pregnant woman named Charlene Thawne. Preforming the deliveries while intoxicated, Dr. Gilmore's negligence resulted in Charlene Thawne's child dying after being strangled by its own umbilical cord. However, Nora successfully gave birth to twin boys. Gilmore, in his drunken logic, told the Allens that one of the boys had been stillborn and gave one of the twins to the Thawne family as compensation for the child he accidentally killed.

Nora and her husband, Dr Henry Allen, left non-the-wiser and raised their "surviving" son, Bartholomew Henry Allen, in the small midwestern farming community of Fallville, Iowa.

While quite curious and smart, Barry's tendency to day dream and his habit of being physically slow led to a lot of teasing from the more sports-oriented children. As a child misfit, Barry turned to reading comic books in his spare time (a habit that was supported by his mother) and grew up reading the adventures of his favorite superhero, Flash (Jay Garrick), and acted out many of his hero's adventures with his friend, Daphne Dean, until an unexplained accident resulted in their family home being burnt to the ground. Surviving the incident, the Allens then moved to live in Central City.

When Barry was only eleven, his mother was murdered and his father was tried and convicted for the murder. Refusing to believe that his father killed her, Barry promised to one day catch the real killer and free his father.

Becoming interested in crime-scene analysis, Barry took to learning chemistry in high school and won first place in the Fallville County Fair Agricultural Competition, a prize which included a scholarship to Sun City University. Graduating from Sun City with a major in organic chemistry and a minor in criminology, after aiding the police authorities in apprehending a bank robber while still a senior, Barry was offered a job as a police scientist for the Central City Police Department Scientific Detection Bureau.

After moving to Central City and getting an apartment with a laboratory in the back so that he could continue on his forensic work after-hours, Barry began dating Picture News photojournalist Iris West, whom he met while examining a murder that she was reporting.

While frequently teased for his tendency to be late, "Slowpoke" Barry quickly became respected amongst the bureau for his moral dedication and attention to detail in his work. Following news that his father died in prison, Barry fully dedicated himself to finding the identity of his mother's real murderer and devoted his full knowledge of forensic science into solving not only his mother's case, but similar cold cases that were being stored in the precinct's case lockers.

Working late in the lab one night, a rack of chemicals was struck by lightning and fell over Barry, dousing him in a chemical fire. Surprisingly unharmed, Barry cleaned up the mess and returned to work but soon noticed that the world appeared to be moving much slower than normal. Soon realizing that he was moving at super speed, Barry decided to become a superhero like in the comic books he read as a kid and took Jay Garrick's superhero name as a form of tribute. Following various experiments with his powers, Iris' adoptive father, Ira West, created a suit that could stand up to the abuse of super speed and chemically shrunk it so it could fit into a ring for ease of portability.

As "The Flash", Barry became a leading figure in the rising of the "Heroic Age" and became a founding member of the Justice League of America, where he befriended fellow cop, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), and even found common ground with fellow detective, Batman. After discovering that Keystone City was real but had been trapped in suspended animation due to the mechanicians of three villains, Barry teamed up with Jay Garrick to free the city and was given the elder hero's official approval to carry on his name as "The Flash".

During one summer, Iris's nephew, Wally West, came to visit her in Central City and, knowing that her nephew was an avid Flash fan, arranged a meeting with him and his hero due to Barry being a "friend of the Flash". While meeting with his hero, Wally inadvertently became doused in a repeat of the same accident that gave Barry his powers, resulting in the child gaining the same powers as Barry and becoming the Flash's sidekick; Kid Flash.

Eventually, Barry proposed to Iris and they were married, in spite of the efforts of Professor Zoom, who attempted to foil the ceremony by posing as Barry and having her marry him due to having become fixated on her. In spite of their marriage, Barry continued to hide his identity as the Flash from Iris for an additional year, although she had known the entire time after he had admitted it to her in his sleep on their honeymoon.

With the couple being happily married for several years, Professor Zoom returned and told Iris that she would either leave Barry for him or die. The next night, the Allens went to a masquerade party where Zoom appeared and Iris flatly announced that she would never marry him. In response, Zoom vibrated his hand at superspeed through Iris's skull, doing fatal damage to her brain molecules and causing her to die instantly.

After traveling across the planet and across time in pursuit of his wife's killer, Barry discovered and chased Zoom into the timestream where he left him there to die.

Shortly following this, Barry became the deciding vote in altering Doctor Light's mind after the villain was caught on the Justice League Satellite raping Sue Dibney; the wife of fellow superhero and detective Ralph Dibney (Elongated Man). Furthermore, Barry requested that Zatanna use her magic to alter the mind of the Top after the villain had used the body of Barry's father to enact a murder rampage and attempted to dig up Iris' body to do something similar.

Eventually, Barry met Beverely Lewis; a woman under the witness protection program who had her name changed to "Fiona Webb", and started a new relationship. However, after the pair were engaged to be married, Professor Zoom returned and tried to kill Fiona like he had killed Iris but for Barry, who lashed out and chased the villain across the globe; missing his own wedding and unwittingly killing Zoom by snapping the villain's neck. Put on trial for manslaughter, Barry was dismissed from the Justice League for violating their no kill policy.

Eventually, Barry was brought to the 30th century where Iris was discovered to be alive and well thanks to her biological parents' actions in having her reborn there seconds before her death in the 20th century. Going into retirement, Barry settled to live with Iris and conceived twins, Don and Dawn Allen. However, before the children were born, Barry was brought out of retirement to help fight the Anti-Monitor during the Crisis of Infinite Earths incident which resulted in Barry accessing the Speed Force to destroy the Anti-Monitor's anti-matter cannon. This act, though successful, saw Barry become consumed by the Speed Force. Although there were no remains Barry was presumed dead and a grave was placed in New York City, with Wally West later taking up his mentor's legacy as the new Flash.

As Iris later returned to present time in a bid to have Wally West save her grandson, Bart Allen, Barry, too, would spontaneously reappear at certain times of crisis before eventually fully returning following the Infinite Crisis incident. Now reestablishing his life in Central City with Iris, Barry has taken over Wally's job as the city's hero and continues to uphold the idealistic morals that every superhero should live by for a better tomorrow.