Barry Allen (Earth-1)

## Barry Allen

* Civilian
* The Flash

Bartholomew Henry 'Barry' Allen (Born March 14th, 1989) is a scientist in the Criminal and Forensic Science Division of the Central City Police Department. He is the son of the late Nora Allen and Henry Allen, the identical twin brother of Sebastian Smythe Allen, the husband of Iris West-Allen, the son-in-law of Joe West and the late Francine West, the brother-in-law of Wally West, and the archenemy of Eobard Thawne (commonly known as the Reverse-Flash).

## Biography

### *Early life*

Barry was born on March 14, 1989, to Henry and Nora Allen as an twin.

When he was six years old, Barry begged his parents to take him to a science exhibition in Midway City, but they, unfortunately, got a flat tire on the way. The family's car had to be towed to a garage in Masonville, where they were stuck all day. Barry, his twin Sebastian, and his parents had ice cream and french fries with gravy for dinner at a small diner and spent the night watching the local fireworks display. Barry would consider this to be one of the happiest memories he ever had with his brother and parents.

Barry and his mother would watch Fred Astaire and Frank Sinatra musicals together on rainy nights.

At some point, Barry met Iris West at school, with whom he became best friends. At the age of 10, Barry formed a crush on her. Iris' father, Joe West, as well as Henry and Nora, were all aware of Barry's developing romantic feelings.

On March 18, 2000, 4 days after his and Sebastian's 11th birthday, Barry ran home from school after getting into a fight with some bullies. Though not being fast enough, his mother assured Barry that he had a good heart, and his father was proud of him for winning the fight. Later that night, Barry was comforted by his mother when he admitted he was afraid of the dark. Nora convinced him he wasn't afraid of darkness itself, just being alone in the dark and wished him sweet dreams.

#### Death of Nora Allen

That night, Barry was awoken by a commotion. He went downstairs and saw his mother surrounded in streaks of red and yellow lightning. Barry attempted to reach his mother, but she told him to stay back and amidst the streaks, Barry saw "the Man in Yellow" for a brief moment, and his father urged him to run. At that very moment however, Barry suddenly found himself 20 blocks away (because his future self took him away from the Reverse-Flash).

Barry returned home in time to see his father being arrested by police, and was told by his father not to enter the house. He entered, seeing Joe standing solemnly over a body. When he walked away, Barry approached the body and discovered, to his horror, that it was his mother.

Following the ordeal, Barry was taken in by Joe and Iris. While Sebastian was taken in by their uncle and aunt from Ohio. Sebastian didn't believe Barry when he told him that their father did not kill their mother, which then put a strain on their relationship.

When Joe and Barry arrived at the West house, Barry was not crying, due to shock. Joe asked Iris to show Barry the guest room, and Barry told Iris that his father did not kill his mother, to which Iris responded that she believed him. Later that night, Iris found Barry crying alone and comforted him.

Living together caused an inhibitor between Barry and Iris, as growing up in the same household prevented their feelings (at least on Iris' side) from maturing beyond platonic love.

Initially, Henry asked Joe to not let Barry see him. Not knowing this, Barry kept trying to run away to see his father at Iron Heights, and he was caught and stopped by Joe every time; at one point, Barry called him out for it, telling him that he wasn't his father and that he hated him. Eventually, Barry finally reached Iron Heights before Joe could stop him, and he finally came face to face with his father. Henry told him that he simply did not want Barry to see him in prison. Despite this, Barry begged for his father's release, insisting that the man in the lightning was who killed his mother, not Henry. Henry told him that he couldn't help him and asked that he be a good boy and let Joe raise him. Henry was promptly taken away and Barry became more accepting of Joe as his new guardian.

Six months after his mother's murder, Barry was still depressed and became grumpy towards everyone. Seeing this, Joe understood that Barry was acting angry because he didn't want to let the pain of the grief in, fearing his father and mother would be disappointed in him if he did. Joe assured Barry it was okay to let the pain in. Barry finally allowed himself to feel the grief and cried, with Joe comforting Barry and promising that he'd always be there for him.

During the first year that Joe took him in, Barry attempted to impress the former by building a robot with wheels for his science fair project, which nearly set the school gym on fire and hurt his teacher, Mrs. Dumas. In school, Barry was relentlessly bullied by Tony Woodward. Joe noticed this and had Barry spar with Iris, who easily beat him. Joe then told Barry that if he ever got into a fight he couldn't win, it was okay to run the other way. Barry and Sebastian still video called each other even though Sebastian didn't believe Barry, but they were still brothers and twins. Barry told Sebastian about Tony Woodward bullying him, espically since Sebastian used to stick up for Barry whenever Tony bullied him before the death of their mother.

At the age of 12, Barry went to a reptile camp, which was paid for by Joe. In 7th grade, Barry decided to mix glycerol with an oxidizing agent for his science fair project, believing he would win if he started a chemical fire. Barry got an A, but was suspended. As a teenager, Barry, according to himself, "lived for danger", including smoking a cigarette once, which was an unpleasant experience.

A few years later the distance between Barry and Sebastian became too great for their relationship to work so their brother bond fell apart even more.

In high school, Barry attempted tryouts for the football team but failed horribly and made Joe swear to never talk about it again. Barry dated Becky Cooper in high school, though she was apparently a "nightmare" of a girlfriend. When Barry was 16, he and Iris switched bedrooms so Iris could sneak out the window past curfew, which was 8:00 pm at the time. They told Joe the reason they switched bedrooms was that Barry didn't like the noise from the streets. At one point, Barry and Iris took Joe's convertible out for a joyride and ended up crashing it into an oak tree on Fairmont Drive. Without realizing he was the man who killed his mother, Barry idolized Dr. "Harrison Wells" so much that read his biography twice, though he was still left not knowing much about him.

Barry graduated from college with a double major in physics and chemistry. It was with this skill that Barry was motivated to study criminology at Central City University in the hopes of proving that his father was innocent in his mother's murder. Barry was hired for the Central City Police Department by Captain David Singh. Shortly after, around 2012, he was the Junior CSI on a murder case in which the victim, Judy Gimlin, was stabbed to death and her husband, Reagan, was the prime suspect, which touched home for Barry. His superior, Detective Ralph Dibny, apparently proved Reagan's guilt by finding the knife used to kill Judy, which contained his fingerprints. Seeing similar circumstances to his mother's murder, Barry decided to delve further into the investigation and tested the knife. The knife actually didn't match the murder weapon used to kill Judy and Barry reported Ralph, who was subsequently fired for planting evidence. This created an enmity between the two.