Barry Allen

*For other uses of "The Flash", see The Flash (disambiguation).*

*"I know what it's like to lose family. My mom, my dad, each death felt like there was no moving forward, like life would never be the same. And I was right, it's not the same, but.... somehow, it's okay. Family isn't just the people you grew up with. It's the people you find, the ones you love, the ones that make you crazy, make you smile. "*
―Barry Allen to Sara Lance[src]
**Bartholomew Henry "Barry" Allen** (born March 14, 1989) 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 legal ward turned son-in-law of Joe West, the husband of Iris West-Allen and the brother-in-law of Wally West, the archenemy of Eobard Thawne (commonly known as the **Reverse-Flash**), as well as the father of his future children, Nora and Bart West-Allen.

Barry's mother was murdered when he was 11 years old on March 18, 2000 and the blame was wrongfully placed on his father. He was taken in by Joe West and his daughter, Iris West. Barry dedicated the rest of his life to proving his father's innocence. After the S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator exploded, causing a giant thundercloud to form, Barry was struck by lightning from a cloud, falling into a coma for nine months. When he woke up from his coma, Barry discovered that he had developed superhuman speed and various other abilities derived from it. Using these powers to protect Central City, he began acting as the meta-human superhero known as the **Flash**, initially referred to by the media as the **Red Streak**, the **Streak** and the **Blur**, stylized as the "**Scarlet Speedster**".

Barry spent the next several months fighting crime, taking down numerous meta-human villains and other criminal elements, assisted by Team Flash. All the while, he worked with Joe to get Henry out of prison and with Harrison Wells to get faster and develop his abilities. Barry later found out that the latter was the evil speedster Eobard Thawne from the future, having stolen Wells' identity, and the man who murdered his mother. In a final confrontation between the two, Eobard gave Barry the chance to undo what he did in exchange for assistance in returning to his time. Barry decided against doing this, which ultimately led to Eobard's ancestor killing himself to erase Eobard from existence.

Several months later, Barry finally saw his dad become a free man using a video will left by Eobard. It was also at this time Barry came under attack by meta-humans from Earth-2 led by Zoom, another evil speedster who needed Barry's speed to prevent himself from dying. Barry is eventually forced to comply to save Wally West, temporarily becoming a normal human again until Team Flash worked to get him his speed back. Barry soon after defeated Zoom, but not before his father is murdered in front of him. This sends Barry into a depression, and, not thinking clearly, goes back in time to save his mother, creating another timeline.

After Barry undid Flashpoint, a time loop was created with a possible future of Iris dying in front of Barry. A time remnant of Barry from this future was created, and after being shunned for not being the original Barry he became a powerful, mythical, armored speedster, known as **Savitar**. After his transformation into Savitar, he sought to ensure his existence by murdering Iris in order to drive his younger self into the circumstances that led to his creation. When battling his younger self he referred to himself as the **Future Flash**. He was later erased from existence after he failed to recreate the circumstances of his own creation. However, this victory was short-lived; Barry was forced to enter and remain in the Speed Force indefinitely to save the world.

Barry was eventually freed thanks to the efforts of Team Flash, though in the process accidentally created more meta-humans. The self-described Fastest Man Alive was forced to take on the Fastest Mind Alive, Clifford DeVoe, who wished to revert humanity to a time before technology. It was also during this time Iris and Barry got married after fighting invaders from Earth-X and Team Flash first encountered Nora West-Allen, not realising until much later on that she was the daughter of Barry and Iris from the future who had traveled back in time to help stop Cicada. Although conflict arose when it came to light that Nora was working with Eobard Thawne in secret, the three of them grew immensely close. However, when Cicada II was defeated, a new timeline was formed, resulting in Nora being erased from the timeline, leaving Barry and Iris devastated.

When Barry was "possessed" by Ramsey Rosso/Bloodwork after the latter infected Barry's blood cells while he was saving Ralph's life, Cisco nicknamed him **Dark Flash**. Barry was restored to normal when Allegra Garcia used her powers to cure everyone affected by Rosso's disease.

During the Anti-Monitor Crisis, Barry was revealed to be the **Paragon of Love**. He was one of the only surviving individuals from Earth-1 after the destruction of the Multiverse in the Anti-Monitor Crisis. However, thanks to Oliver Queen's sacrifice as the Spectre, he and the other Paragons were able to defeat the Anti-Monitor after Earth-Prime was created. Barry also founded the Crisis team and worked to honor the memory of his close friend and mentor.

Following the destruction of the Speed Force, Barry's powers slowly started to run out, forcing him and the team to seek out a way to create a new Speed Force. He also faced new enemies in Godspeed, Black Hole, and Eva McCulloch. While the artificial Speed Force machine succeeded in restoring his speed, it came at the price of Barry losing his morals and emotional attachment, forcing them to destroy the machine. After the sudden return and help of the resurrected Earth-1 Harrison Wells, Team Flash found an alternate usage for the Speed Force machine. Channeling the residual Speed Force energy Iris from her various interactions with speedsters through hers and Barry's love for others into the machine, they were able to restore the Speed Force and Barry's powers.

However, unbeknownst to Barry, the restoration of the Speed Force also resulted in the birth of three other forces; the Strength Force, the Sage Force and the Still Force. These forces allegedly attacked the Speed Force, forcing her to flee into a human form. Barry went head to head with Fuerza, Psych and Deon Owens, the hosts of the respective forces. However, it transpired that the Speed Force desired to kill all the forces, killing their hosts in the process, an act Barry was staunchly against. Instead, he opted to travel back in time and prevent the existence of the forces to begin with; but he ultimately changed his mind and allowed their existence; while managing to broker peace between the forces.

Soon after, Barry and his team are forced to contend with the brewing Godspeed War, masterminded by an artificial speedster August Heart, who seeks to become the God of Speed by stealing Barry's recently enhanced speed. It's only with the help of many speedster allies, including the revived Eobard Thawne, that August was defeated and incarcerated in Iron Heights.

Six months later the powerful alien Despero shows up in Central City determined to kill Barry for supposedly creating an event that will end the world. After proving his honourableness to the alien, Despero agrees to give Barry seven days to prove he will not cause Armageddon.  Unfortunately, events quickly turn sour as Barry is suspended from his job as a CSI at the CCPD, before learning that S.T.A.R. Labs is being shut down and demolished. Barry is forced to destroy Gideon to protect his identity. Not long afterwards, Barry encounters Xotar, where he falls to prey to her abilities, causing him to temporarily lose his mind and mindlessly attack his friends, until he snaps out of it. After later defeating Xotar, Barry, for unknown reasons, attacks Central City, an event caught on the news, although he does not remember doing it. After mentioning celebrating with Joe and Cecile, Barry is stunned to learn that Joe was dead, and had been for six months. After escaping another attack from Despero, Barry, feeling overwhelmed by recent events, calls for Black Lightning’s help at the Hall of Justice.  After discovering that Eobard Thawne was behind it all along, he was able to defeat Despero and remove Thawne's speed, finally ending Armageddon.

Not longer after, a powerful entity named Deathstorm appeared trying to take Caitlin as his bride. In the end, Frost sacrificed her life to defeat Deathstorm and save Caitlin.

In the weeks following these events, Negative versions of the Forces took possession of the Positive Forces through Iris' time sickness and gave Thawne his speed back. In the final confrontation between Flash and Thawne, (who had both become gods at that point from absorbing the powers of the positive and negative Forces), after one last warning to his nemesis and with all other options exhausted, Barry killed Thawne by turning his powers against him and broke the Negative Forces’ grip on the Positives.

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