History
Barry Allen: 1976 - 2000
Bartholomew “Barry” Allen was born on May 13th, 1976. And is the only surviving son of Henry and Nora Allen (Barry’s twin brother died in childbirth). As a child in Fallville, Iowa, Barry was known for being late, often daydreaming, and always having his head in the pages of a comic book or science fiction novel. When Barry was twelve, his life turned upside when he came home from the library to find his mother murdered. Police arrested Barry’s father, who professed his innocence. Barry swore that he would find a way to prove his father’s innocence. Barry was taken in by his aunt and uncle in Sun City. Every summer, Barry would scrounge up enough money doing summer jobs to buy a plane ticket to Iowa so that he could visit his father in prison, to renew his vow.
Barry did well in school, always having a mind that was equally creative and tech-savvy, earning him a choice of several university scholarships. Barry chose to attend none other than Midwestern University in Keystone City (where his favorite sci-fi writer, Jay Garrick, taught literature courses and a short drive away from S.T.A.R. Labs in Central City where Barry’s other hero, Dr. Harrison Wells was building a particle accelerator). While attending college, Barry met Iris West, a journalism student, and the two started dating.
Somehow, Barry graduate (despite an attendance record littered with tardiness) and got a job with the Central City Police Department’s Forensics Division. When he took a flight to Iowa to visit his father, Henry broke down, told his son to forget about him, and confessed to murdering Nora. Refusing to believe his father, Barry returned to Central City and poured himself into his work, neglecting Iris, and his sci-fi comic book subscriptions. When Barry stumbled upon his father’s file in his lab, Barry sat down and looked at it once more. In an epiphany, Barry saw he had overlooked a key piece of evidence that revealed Henry had killer Nora. Devastated that he had spent his entire life dedicated to a lie, Barry began to tear his lab apart, getting doused in chemicals in the process. Still enraged, Barry then ran to the rooftop (possibly to throw himself from the roof) where he had fateful encounter with a lightning bolt.[1]
The Flash: 2000 - Present
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 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 Francisco Ramon, bio-engineer Caitlin Snow, Snow’s fiancée and structural engineer Ronnie Raymond, and physicist Martin Stein. Together, they became the first members of the Flash & Friends.
Early on, Barry revealed his identity as The Flash to Iris when he proposed to her, to which she revealed to him that she had always known. Eventually, Iris’ nephew, Wally, learned of Barry’s secret and tried to duplicate Barry’s accident. The experiment was a partial success and Barry decided to give Wally the proper training he needed, making Wally his sidekick, Kid Flash (later “Impulse”). Team Flash would continue to grow with the inclusion of Agent Patty Spivot of the D.E.O. and Captain Darryl Frye of CCPD. Of course, The Flash was also a founding member of the Justice League (I think he’s the one who came up with the name) and has been an integral member thorough its incarnations. On a more personal note, Barry and Iris have two children: fifteen year old twins Bartholomew, Jr. (“Bart”) and Jessica ("Jessie"), both of which inherited their father’s speed and are the Teen Titans called Kid Flash and Miss Quick.[2]
Powers and Abilities
The Flash's Stats
Powers
- 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).
- 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. 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.
- Superhuman 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.
- 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.
- Speedster 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.
- 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: Barry is capable of regenerating from injuries much faster than any normal human. For example, Barry can heal a broken leg in fifteen minutes.
- Dimensional Travel: Barry is capable of breaking the dimensional barrier with his speed to traverse between dimensions.
- 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 Senses: Barry's enhanced senses that allow him to perceive the world at a rate attuned to his reaction speed.
- 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.
- 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.
Abilties
- Chemistry: Barry is a master of chemistry, particularly as it applies to forensic science.
- Criminology: 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.
Paraphernalia
- 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![3]
Trivia and Notes
Trivia
- 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.
- Despite his superspeed, Barry is late for just about everything.
- As a hobby, Barry likes to research trivia and occasionally recites them when he's bored; dubbing them "Flash Facts".
- Among all of the detectives he knows, Batman appreciated Barry Allen's optimistic outlook; a man who saw his work as protecting the innocent, instead of damning the guilty.
- Surprisingly, Barry supports the death penalty.
- Barry shares a birthday with his wife Iris.
- 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 a roommate with Ralph Dibny.
Notes
- Due to the "No Time Trivel" rule of Earth-27, Barry's origin is different from most incarnations.
- Barry's dead twin brother is a reference to a villain Cobalt Blue.
Links and References
- Appearances of Barry Allen
- Character Gallery: Barry Allen