With The Flash breaking ratings records on The CW, I became interested in digging into the history of the character. I am no Flash Fanatic, but I’ve been familiar with the character most of my life. I’ve read lots of stories involving the character and knew that Barry Allen wasn’t the only person to go by the name, in fact, he wasn’t even the first.

Jay Garrick (1940 – Present)

Jay Garrick got his speed powers due to inhaling some vapors in a lab that gave him super human abilities. His costume was pretty minimal with the most distinguishing parts being his red shirt with large yellow lightning bolt and his silver hat with yellow wings.

Garrick was the Flash until the early 50’s. The character was re-imagined in 1956, but he would later return and has been a part of The Flash from that point forward. He has been a member of the Justice Society of America and has even been represented in The New 52 reboot. In this version he is much younger than he has typically been shown, with a radically different costume. His backstory has also been changed.

Barry Allen (1956-1985, 2008-Present)

Barry Allen came about due to the re-imagining of The Flash from the original character of Jay Garrick. In this version, Barry Allen is a police scientist who is struck by lightning and doused with chemicals. He finds out that he has fast reflexes and can run incredibly fast. He takes the name The Flash because of the comics he read as a kid starring Jay Garrick. In this way, the creators pay homage to the original, but basically threw out any continuity of Garrick in the Flash universe. It also brought about a change in uniform to the Flash outfit that we are most familiar with today.

Allen is also the first Flash to get a sidekick. His nephew, Wally West, is given powers in an accident that is very similar to way that Allen got his. He eventually takes the name Kid Flash, but will have a much more important role in his future.

Whereas many characters have time travelled, The Flash is one of the few that can do it whenever he wants by using a Cosmic Treadmill to reach speeds necessary to time travel. In the DC Comics event, Crisis on Infinite Earths, the multiverse that was created to allow Allen to meet Garrick, which reintroduced that character into the Flash mythology, had grown to a point where DC Comics became a very confusing place. All of these multiple Earths caused readers to drop the company and writers to have trouble keeping things straight. So, Crisis was the solution. This 12-part series was designed to clean up all the continuity issues that had crept up over 50 years and ended with the person that started it all dying. Barry Allen sacrificed himself to help stop the Anti-Monitor. However, his story wasn’t over.

Twenty three years after his death, Barry Allen returned to DC Comics continuity in 2008. He had been existing in the Speed Force until he was brought back and his origin was updated in The Flash: Rebirth by Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver. For a while there were multiple Flash’s in DC Comics, but after the New 52 reboot, Barry Allen has been the only Flash in the current timeline.

Wally West (1986-2006, 2007-2012, 2013-Present

Wally West started out as Kid Flash, but after Barry’s death in Infinite Crisis he took over the mantle of his Uncle and mentor as The Flash.

Wally’s powers were not quite the same as Barry’s. He wasn’t as fast, had to eat constantly due to his metabolism and didn’t have the ability to vibrate through walls without causing damage. It was eventually revealed that Wally was intentionally restricting his abilities so that Barry would always be a better Flash, but eventually he got past that and found that he was actually faster than Barry.

Wally has gone through the most costume changes as The Flash. There were multiple Kid Flash costumes, then his costume as The Flash changed a few times and had one final change once Barry returned. Wally also had a family and children that inherited powers of their own. Having Flash as a family man, especially with super-powered kids, made for a very different Flash title than anything that had come before.

Due to him being in the role for so long, Wally West is many fans favorite Flash and even has been considered one of the world’s best heroes. Due to the company-wide reboot of DC Comics called The New 52, Barry Allen was reinstated as the one and only Flash. Wally has recently returned, but has a vastly different backstory and is now African American.

Bart Allen (2006-2007)

Bart Allen first appeared in 1994 as the super hero Impulse. He is from the 30th Century and has a hyper accelerated metabolism. He was originally written as a distant relative to Barry Allen. Bart was doomed to die due to his condition and was taken back in time. The Flash at this time, Wally West, helped Bart to get his metabolism back to normal and he joined Wally as his sidekick. Bart’s story is perhaps the most confusing of all the Flash’s. Bart joined the Teen Titans and was injured by the villain Deathstroke. During this time, Bart decided to take the name Kid Flash in honor of Wally. He acted as Kid Flash until the apparent death of Wally West. It was during this time that he was shown as rapidly aging to an adult from his youthful appearance and deciding to take over as The Flash. His time as the Scarlet Speedster was short lived and he was killed off himself after only 13 issues at the same time that Wally West was revealed as still being alive.

After a two year absence, Bart Allen returned thanks to Brainiac 5. He was once again young and going by the name Kid Flash again and continued in that role until the events of Flashpoint. He seemingly dies once again as he is absorbed into the Speed Force.

In The New 52, Bart is reintroduced with changes to his story. He first appears without knowing who he is or how he has his powers. It is eventually revealed that he is a criminal from the future named Bar Torr. He was sent back in time with no memories of his future self and using the name Bart Allen.

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Personally, my favorite Flash is Wally West. I have nothing against the rest and Barry is a very close second, but Wally is who I remember the most. The version of The Flash from the awesome Justice League cartoon was also Wally so there is even more reason for me to like him. In a way, The Flash mythology is so tightly wound together that you can almost interchange characteristics from one to the other into one awesome character. With the new Flash TV show on The CW, I wouldn’t be surprised to see more of that as they borrow things from Flash’s long history. Regardless, he is a much more integral part of DC’s history than you would initially think.

By Troy Lyons