Barry Allen

**Bartholomew Henry "Barry" Allen**, also known as **The Flash**, is a fictional character and hero in comic books published by the American company DC Comics. He first appeared in *Showcase* #4 (October 1956), but his first appearance in *Swamp Thing* comics was in *Swamp Thing* Vol. 2, #24 (May 1984). He was created by Robert Kanigher and Carmine Infantino.

## History

### Origins

Barry Allen and a twin brother were born two weeks late, to Henry and Nora Allen in the small midwestern town of Fallville, Iowa. The brother was pronounced stillborn by Dr. Gilmore. However, in actuality, he had been born healthy, but given to another family, the Thawnes, whose child had died during birth. The lateness of Barry's birth only foreshadowed his bad habit of always being late. Barry grew up reading the adventures of his favorite superhero, Jay Garrick, the original Flash and acted many of his hero's adventures out with his friend and future actress, Daphne Dean.

When he was a child, his mother was killed and his father was convicted of the crime. The drive to prove his father was innocent gave Barry a strong belief in justice.

In high school, Barry had a reputation for being slow and easy-going. On his first date, he went to a carnival. His date had wanted to put a little motion in his life, and they went on the roller-coaster first thing. Because of this, he developed a fear of roller-coasters, a fear that he didn't get rid of until much later in his life.

Barry loved chemistry from an early age, and that helped his skills as a farmer. He won first place in the Fallville County Fair Agricultural Competition, a prize which included a scholarship to Sun City University. He graduated in three years with a major in organic chemistry and a minor in criminology.

While a senior, Barry helped the authorities apprehend a bank robber, and he was offered a job as a police scientist for the Central City Police Department Scientific Detection Bureau. Eager to be in the sister city of his childhood hero's home, Keystone City, he accepted the offer.

After moving to Central City and getting an apartment with a laboratory in the back, Barry began dating Picture News reporter Iris West, whom he met while examining an apparent murder that she was reporting. She was charmed by his honesty and stability.

That night during an electrical storm, Barry returned to an experiment after a short break. All of a sudden, a bolt of lightning streaked through a window, shattered a chemical cabinet and covered Barry in the electrified chemicals. Dazed, he decided to return home in a taxi. However, the taxi started to pull away without noticing him. Barry sprinted after it, only to run straight past it as if it had been standing still. He decided to sit down and recollect his thoughts at a diner. A passing waitress accidentally spilled the items of her tray onto Barry, who amazingly caught them all in mid-air and returns them to the tray. The next day, Barry saved Iris from a stray bullet. There was no question about it: the freak accident had somehow given Barry superhuman speed!

### The Flash

Deciding to use his powers to help humanity, Barry designed a special costume. He used a special cold cast polyester he developed in college, which could be molded into miniature outfits from liquid material, that, when submerged in a special liquid, became sensitive to hydrogen, expanding on contact with the hydrogen in the air. A charge from a battery-powered ring he wore on his finger caused the fabric to release the extra hydrogen and shrink into the ring. He later revised the process, making the fabric sensitive to nitrogen instead. He called himself the Flash, a tribute to his childhood idol He briefly considered wearing a costume that would show his face, like Jay had, but decided that it would be best to wear a mask to conceal his true identity. The first villain he faced was the Turtle Man.

## Powers and Abilities

### Powers

* **Speed Force Generation:** Barry Allen is the very source and creator of the Speed Force, and generates it with every step he takes. For this very reason, he is unaffected if any other speedster tries to steal or drain his speed. Barry has shown that he cannot be stopped by any force if he absorbs the Speed Force.
	+ **Superhuman Speed:** Barry has the potential to be the fastest of the Flashes, and is arguably one of the fastest beings in all of existence. He is fast enough to easily outpace Superman, as well as break any dimensional barrier and even enter the Speed Force itself, and is one of the few people to have ever escaped from it.
		- **Invisibility:** On Earth-1, Barry Allen could use his super-speed to turn invisible
	+ **Superhuman Reflexes:** Barry possesses reflexes far greater than a normal human being. This allows him to easily react to danger and events, and perceive the world in slow motion.
	+ **Superhuman Stamina:** Barry's body can handle the stress of moving at superhuman speeds for extended periods of time without getting tired or weak.
	+ **Superhuman Agility:** Barry's agility, balance, and bodily coordination are enhanced to superhuman levels. This allows him to easily make sharp turns and leap far distances while moving at superhuman speed.
	+ **Speed Force Aura:** The Speed Force manifests an aura around the speedster and whatever they are carrying, protecting them from adverse effects of their speed, such a friction with the air, airborne particulate matter, kinetic impacts, G-Force and the like.
		- **Superhuman Durability:** Barry is capable of resisting tremendous kinetic impact forces that could easily crush or kill a human, without suffering any serious external or internal injuries, making him much more durable than any human.
	+ **Accelerated Healing:** Like all conduits of the Speed Force, Barry is capable of regenerating from harm much faster than any normal human.
	+ **Dimensional Travel:** Barry is capable of breaking the dimensional barrier with his speed to traverse between dimensions, to enter the Speed Force at will.
	+ **Decelerated Aging:** Along with every speedster that draws from the speed force, the loved ones of the speedsters will gain eternal youth like Jay's wife and Barry's wife ages have shown.
	+ **Electrokinesis:** As the generator of the Speed Force, Barry is the very source of the electrical Speed Force energy that all speedsters generate. This Speed Force lightning emanates off of him, especially when moving at super-speed.
		- **Negate Anti-Life Equation:** Barry is capable of negating the effects of Darkseid's Anti-Life Equation, through physical contact of his Speed Force energy.
	+ **Enhanced Mental Process:** Barry's mental capacities are greatly enhanced by the Speed Force, allowing him to think at the speed of light and perceive events that last less than an attosecond. He is also capable of reading at superhuman rates, accumulating mass amounts of knowledge in seconds. However, unlike his grandson, the knowledge does not stay in his memory very long and disappears after a short time.
	+ **Enhanced Senses:** The Speed Force grants Barry enhanced senses that allow him to perceive the world at a rate attuned to his reaction speed.
		- **Superhuman Hearing:** Barry can hear supersonic sounds, due to his super swift body being geared to those vibrations.
		- **Enhanced Vision:** Barry can see objects and beings that are rendered invisible at normal speed, but visible to him at superspeed.
	+ **Flight:** Barry can achieve aerial locomotion either by creating cyclones or spinning his body like a propeller. Like his nephew Wally, Barry's capable of running in the frictionless vacuum of space/time or even from beyond the life barrier without need of a solid surface to run along.
		- **Interstellar Travel:** One of the most advanced ways Speed Force users fly is by directing one's own atomic-molecular motion in the direction one wishes to travel in, i.e. syncing his vibrational frequency with those of ultra-light waves to traverse planetary distances with ease.
	+ **Molecular Acceleration:** Barry can vibrate his own molecular structure at varying degrees for a number of purposes, by adjusting to different frequencies.
		- **Phasing:** By vibrating his molecules on an atomic level, and by doing so at just the right frequency, Barry can allow himself to become momentarily intangible, and phase through objects such as walls.
	+ **Time-Travel:** Barry is capable of using his speed to break the time barrier, allowing him to travel throughout various point in time.
		- **Reality Alteration:** By preventing events in the past while time-traveling, Barry can unintentionally alter the present reality. This was displayed when Barry traveled back in time and saved his mother from being killed, and accidentally altered the entire universe, creating the Flashpoint timeline.
	+ **Vortex Creations:** By rotating his arms at super speed or running in a circular motion, Barry can manipulate the airflow around him to create strong vortexes of wind.

### Abilities

* **Hand-to-Hand Combat (Advanced):** Barry reveals that he was trained by Batman.
	+ **Boxing**
	+ **Judo**
	+ **Karate**
	+ **Military Protocol:** Barry spent weeks fighting alongside and training with the Black Hawks during World War II.
* **Weaponry:**
	+ **Swordsmanship:** Made brief use of sword combat, while in Japan and Eastwind.
	+ **Archery**
* **Chemistry**
* **Criminology**
* **Investigation**
* **Genius Level Intellect**
* **Disguise:** Was trained by Dexter Myles in the art of make-up.
* **Forensic Pathology**
* **Ventriloquism**
* **Hope**
* **Peak Human Balance**: Barry has shown to been able to run and walk on high wires, proving that he has good balance.
* **Adaptability**: Barry has shown that he can adjust to almost any scenario, such as when he was switching between powers unexpectedly, between Green Lantern, Hawkman, Aquaman and the Atom.

### Weaknesses

* **Hyper-Metabolism:** While moving at accelerated speeds, Barry burns calories much faster than a normal person. While breaking down food far more efficiently, it requires him to consume large amounts of nutrients.

## Paraphernalia

### Equipment

* **Costume Ring**
* **Blue Power Ring**