Barry Allen

* Barry Allen
* The Flash

**Bartholomew Henry "Barry" Allen** is a scientist in the Criminal and Forensic Science Division of the Central City Police Department. He is the son of the late Henry and Nora Allen, the foster son of Joe West and the boyfriend of Iris West. He would eventually be recruited by Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman into becoming a member of the Justice League, with their first fight as a team being against the enhanced android Starro.

## Character Origins

### Early Life

Bartholomew Henry "Barry" Allen was born on September 30, 2000, to Henry Allen, a doctor, and Nora Thompson-Allen, an optimistic farmgirl.

At age 11, his mother was killed at home by an unknown individual, and the blame for her murder was wrongly placed on his father, who was sent to prison as a result. Due to this, Barry became obsessed with forensic science, hoping to one day personally prove his father's innocence. One night, while working on his mother's case, Barry was struck by lightning, which gave him the power to move, think and act at inhuman speeds, as well as the ability to vibrate his body on a microscopic level.

### Becoming The Flash

After being struck by a lightning bolt, Barry Allen slipped into a coma for six months. When he awoke, he soon discovered that a latent metahuman gene in his body had activated, changing his body to give him enhanced reflexes, an accelerated metabolism (seriously, you would not believe how much food this guy puts away on a slow day), enhanced vision, a turbocharged brain, and of course superspeed. Being the good-hearted person that he was, Barry decided to become a crime fighter like the heroes in the comic books he always reads.

After rekindling his romance with Iris West, Barry set out to become a superhero, consulting with his old college professor (and a former comic book writer turned science fiction author), Jay Garrick, to help him on his hero’s journey. When villains started showing up in Central and Keystone City, Barry needed more than just a flashy (pun intended) costume and turned to Dr. Harrison Wells at S.T.A.R. Labs to help him further develop his powers. Over time, Wells developed a team of experts to help Barry, including mechanical engineer Cisco Ramon, and bio-engineer Caitlin Snow. Together, they became the first members of the Flash & Friends.

## Powers, Skills, and Abilities (and Weaknesses)

### Powers

* **Speedster Physiology**
	+ ***Accelerated Healing:*** Barry is capable of regenerating from injuries much faster than any normal human. For example, Barry can heal a broken leg in fifteen minutes.
	+ ***Electrokinesis:*** When moving at super-speed, Barry generates electric energy that he has learned to manipulate to a certain degree, enabling him to expel bolts of lightning in combat.
	+ ***Enhanced Mental Process:*** Barry's mental capacities are greatly enhanced, allowing him to think at rates far exceeding the average human. Barry can perceive events that happen at instances less than fractions of a second. He is also capable of reading at superhuman rates, accumulating mass amounts of knowledge in seconds. While Barry uses this ability often to aid in his crime-fighting, it is usually in short bursts as he feels like he's losing his humanity the longer he allows himself to retain in this state.
	+ ***Enhanced 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. Fortunately for Barry's sanity, he is able to relax this ability to enable him to interact with us slowpokes and tolerate the real world, otherwise simple things like a red light in traffic would seem like an eternity.
	+ ***Enhanced 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.
	+ ***Enhanced Temporal Senses:*** Barry's enhanced senses that allow him to perceive the world at a rate attuned to his reaction speed.
	+ ***Enhanced 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.
	+ ***Enhanced Stamina:*** Barry's body can handle the stress of moving at superhuman speeds for extended periods of time without getting tired or weak... so long as he's not running on an empty stomach.
	+ ***Personal Frequency Shifting:*** Barry can vibrate his own molecular structure at varying degrees for a number of purposes, by adjusting to different frequencies. 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.
	+ ***Superhuman Speed:*** Barry is arguably one of the fastest beings in all of existence. He is fast enough to easily outpace Superman. His top speed is unknown, but he has been clocked at moving Mach 25 (19,000 MPH).
		- **Transdimensional Travel:** Barry is capable of breaking the dimensional barrier with his speed to traverse between dimensions.
		- **Speedster Kinetic Aura:** When running, Barry produces as aura around his body, clothing, and whatever he is carrying, protecting them from the adverse effects of their speed, such as friction with the air, airborne particulate matter, kinetic impacts, G-Force and the like.
		- **Infinite Mass Punch**
	+ ***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.

### Skills

* **Comic Book Lore Expert**
* **Incredibly Intelligent**
* **Science Fiction Lore Expert**
* **Master Chemist:** Barry is a master of chemistry, particularly as it applies to forensic science.
* **Master Criminologist & Investigator:** As a crime scene investigator and forensic scientist, Barry is an expert in criminal psychology, forensic science, and police procedure.
* **Unquenchable Hope:** According to John Stewart, Barry's optimism and overall sense of hope would be enough to power a Blue Lantern ring, should one become available.
* **Strength Level:** Barry has shown that he is able to carry several people at a time when evacuating a dangerous area, whether feats like this are performed while running on adrenaline is not known. Barry possesses the strength level of a man his age, size, and weight who engages in intensive regular exercise, and can at least press lift his own body weight. However, his powers allow him to throw punches at speeds that, on impact, can have the same effect someone with superhuman strength can have. Barry's punching strength, when fully charged, may be enough to knock-out the likes of Doomsday. Unfortunately, the one time we attempted to test this, Doomsday was able to block the attack and backhanded Barry across the Delaware Bay.
* **Indomitable Willpower**
* **Unending Guilt**
* **Costume:** Barry's friend Cisco Ramon created the Flash costume which gives Barry added protection, snack storage, and capacitors which store electrical energy. Perhaps the most impressive feat however is the miniaturization feature which allows this suit to be stored inside a ring that Barry wears.

### Weaknesses

* **Metabolism:** Barry requires tremendous amounts of energy to run at superspeed and maintain his speedster physiology. Though Barry usually does this through special energy bars that Cisco has cooked up, he still requires no less than seven high-calorie meals per day to maintain his powers at peak levels. Skipping a meal has a distinct effect on his performance. If you think all this sounds bad, you should how much a teenage speedster needs to put away... Yeesh!
* **Punctuality**

## Notes and Trivia

### Trivia

* Despite his superspeed, Barry is late for just about everything.
* Among all of the detectives he knows, Batman appreciated Barry Allen's optimistic outlook.
* Barry shares a birthday with his wife Iris.
* In the midst of a Christmas break, Barry and Patty were fencing with wooden stick-swords in her backyard when Barry accidentally sent Patty into the partially frozen family pool. Barry pulled her from the water and gave her CPR. When she finally gasped out with a deep breath, Barry let out a sigh of relief. They agreed to keep what happened a secret from their parents and Patty returned the favor by giving Barry a little mouth to mouth, aka: his first kiss.
* Barry needs to shave three times a day to prevent blowing his secret identity. Barry has found it easier to use a pair of electric clippers and maintain a certain level of stubble rather than deal with trying to be clean-shaven 24/7... not to mention the cost of razors.
* When he was in university he was roommates with Ralph Dibny.
* Barry came up with the name Aqualad for Garth, which later became the official title for Aquaman's sidekick.
* His archenemy is Zoom.

### Notes

* Due to the "No Time Travel" rule of Earth-27, Barry's origin is different from most incarnations.
* Barry's dead twin brother is a reference to the villain Cobalt Blue.
* There is a lot of power nerfing in E27. Superman can fly at Mach 9 if he pushes it. Javelins can fly faster, at Mach 12. So can the Batjet, 20 for a short time with scram thrusters.
* Barry Allen can run at Mach 25: or a little over 19,000 miles an hour. Meaning he can circle the world in less than 90 minutes. Wally West is a bit slower, but not by much. Bart & Jessie (who are Barry's twin children in E27) can run about Mach 8 right now. Zoom can match Barry and has shown to even be faster at times. Cheetah is fast enough to run on water and outpace the Hawks.
* The source of Barry and Wally's abilities are more or less identical, but their powers are not. Wally has found techniques to utilize his speed that are different than Barry and vice versa... and while the two may learn and teach each other, one is usually better at it. For instance, Barry vibrates through things almost flawlessly. Wally's phasing causes electronics to malfunction.
* Barry is better at full speed running, Wally has worked to improve his reflexes more than dead sprinting so Wally is actually better at high-speed combat at 21 than Barry was at 31.