But practically coded into the character’s DNA from the outset was an almost metafictional take on the concept of comic book reality itself. Continuity wasn’t much of a concern at this stage of the game, and there’s no mention of Superman or Batman in Showcase #4. For all intents and purposes, Barry Allen may as well be the world’s first superhero. Why choose the name “the Flash?” Because it was the name of Barry’s favorite comic book character, who just so happened to be Jay Garrick, the Mercury-helmeted Flash who first appeared in Flash Comics #1 in 1939.

A simple enough explanation, but one that would be complicated somewhat with “The Flash of Two Worlds” story in 1961’s Flash #123. With this, we have the first appearance of DC’s Multiverse in all but name, a kind of metafictional string theory, where alternate realities are separated by vibrations keeping dimensions apart. Of course, it’s easy for a guy who can vibrate his molecules to transfer between dimensions, and it’s fitting that Barry would learn that the comics that inspired him to take up superheroics were actually a window into another reality.

Earth-2 was shown to be the home of all of the golden age versions of characters (notably the Justice Society of America) who had been revamped (there was no such word as reboot in 1961). From there, they just ran with the concept. Earth-3 was the home of evil versions of DC heroes, where Alexander Luthor is the only superhero. Earth-S is where they put the Shazam family of characters, having kept them in limbo after acquiring them from rival publisher Fawcett after a lawsuit. Earth-X (recently made famous by an Arrowverse TV crossover of its own) is where the Freedom Fighters fought a World War II that never ended. You get the idea, and if you’ve been keeping up with The Flash, Supergirl, and related shows, none of this is news.

Eventually, this multiple reality approach to storytelling proved unwieldy, and DC Comics decided it would be wiser to eliminate all of these parallel worlds in favor of a linear continuity more in keeping with what their main competition was putting out. The concept of parallel earths would be taken to its logical, and infinite, conclusion.

Crisis on Infinite Earths was a comic book event designed to simplify DC’s continuity. This was done at the cost of Barry Allen’s life, which brings us to the newspaper from the future that has haunted The Flash since its very first episode. The “red skies” mentioned in that futuristic headline are a hallmark of DC’s Crisis events (as we’ve seen over and over again, but especially on Elseworlds), and Barry Allen did indeed vanish as he disabled the villainous Anti-Monitor’s anti-matter cannon (don’t ask…it’s too much to get into right now). It was a fitting (and shocking) ending for one of DC’s marquee heroes. In 1985, you simply didn’t kill a character with that kind of profile.