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The Flash

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The Flash is a DC Comics superhero possessing "super-speed", nicknamed the Scarlet Speedster. Created by Gardner Fox and Harry Lampert, the original Flash first appeared in Flash Comics #1 (1940).

Thus far, three different people have assumed the identity of the Flash: Jay Garrick (1940-present), Barry Allen (1956-86), and Wally West (1986-present). Each of these individuals somehow gained the power of "super-speed", which includes the ability to run and move extremely fast, use superhuman reflexes, and violate certain laws of physics.

The second incarnation of the Flash was among the first heroes of the Silver Age of comic books in 1956. The character was featured in a short-lived live action television series in 1990 that starred John Wesley Shipp in the title role. The Flash is also featured in the animated series Justice League.

Publication history

The Flash first appeared in Flash Comics #1 (1940). This Flash was Jay Garrick, a college student who gained his speed through the inhalation of hard water vapors (later retconned into heavy water vapors), and who wore a winged metal helmet. He is notable for being the first speedster in comics, and one of the first to have a singular super-power as opposed to the multi-talented Superman.

Garrick was a popular character in the 1940s, supporting two different titles and being a charter and long-time member of the Justice Society of America, the first superhero team. Garrick's adventures in the Golden Age of comic books came to an end when Flash Comics was cancelled with the publication of issue #104 (1949), and the subsequent end of the Justice Society's adventures with All-Star Comics #57 (1951). Superheroes (and the entire comic book industry) had fallen on hard times in the 1950s, and the Flash was only one casualty.

Left to right: Wally West, Bart Allen as Impulse, Jay Garrick, Johnny Quick, and Max Mercury (background), from Flash #97. Art by Mike Wieringo.

A few years later, DC Comics decided the time was right to reintroduce some superheroes. Rather than bring back the Golden Age heroes unchanged, DC decided to recreate them as new, more modern characters. The Flash was the first such hero to be revived in a new incarnation. Showcase #4 (1956) introduced Barry Allen, a police scientist who gained super-speed when he was bathed by chemicals after a shelf full of them was struck by lightning. He adopted the name The Flash after reading a comic book featuring the Golden Age Flash. After several more appearances in Showcase, Allen's character was given his own title, The Flash the first issue of which was #105 (resuming where Flash Comics had left off).

The Silver Age Flash proved popular enough that several other Golden Age heroes were revived in new incarnations. A new superhero team, the Justice League of America, was also created, with the Flash as a charter member.

The Flash also introduced a much-imitated plot device into superhero comics, when it was revealed that Garrick and Allen existed on fictional parallel worlds. Their powers allowed them to cross the dimensional boundary between worlds, and the men became good friends. "The Flash of Two Worlds" was the first crossover in which a Golden Age character met a Silver Age character. Soon, there was crossovers between the entire Justice League and the Justice Society; their respective teams began an annual get-together which endured from the early 1960s until the mid-1980s.

Allen's adventures continued in his own title until the advent of Crisis on Infinite Earths (The Flash ended as a series with #350). Allen's life had become considerably confused in the early 1980s, and DC elected to end his adventures and pass the mantle on to another character. Allen died heroically in the Crisis #8 (1986), though thanks to his ability to travel through time, he would continue to appear occasionally in the years to come.

The third Flash is Wally West, who was introduced in Flash #110 (1959) as Kid Flash. West, Allen's nephew by marriage, gained the Flash's powers through an accident identical to Allen's (this acquisition of powers has been criticized heavily by some fans), and adopted the Kid Flash identity and maintained membership in the Teen Titans for years. Following Allen's death, West adopted the Flash identity in Crisis on Infinite Earths #12 and was given his own series. As of 2005, he is the current holder of the title. Many issues of the Flash begin with "My name is Wally West, and I'm the fastest man alive."

Wally West's run as the Flash began with The Flash vol 2 #1 in 1987. However, in November 2005, DC Comics announced that this title will be among several which will be cancelled at the conclusion of the Infinite Crisis storyline, specifically as part of the "One Year Later..." event focused around the upcoming weekly series 52. The final issue will be #230, to be released in January 2006. What this means for the character remains unknown.

Fictional biographies

While several other individuals have used the name Flash, these have lived either on other parallel worlds, or in the future. Garrick, Allen and West are the best-known exemplars of the identity.

Golden Age Flash (Jay Garrick)

Main article: Jay Garrick

Jay Garrick was a college student in 1940 (suggesting he was born around 1922) who accidentally inhaled hard water vapors after falling asleep in his laboratory where he had been smoking (years later Garrick's origin story was retconned so that he inhaled vapor from heavy water, which was slightly more believable than the original version). As a result, he found that he could run at superhuman speed and had similarly fast reflexes. After a brief career as a college football star, he donned a red shirt with a lightning bolt and a stylized metal helmet with wings (based on images of the Roman god Mercury [1]), and began to fight crime as the Flash. It was explained decades later that the helmet belonged to Jay's father, Joseph, who died in World War I when Jay was only ten. His first case involved battling the Faultless Four, a group of blackmailers. In the early stories, it seemed to be widely known that Garrick was the Flash. It was later explained that Jay kept his identity secret without a mask by continually vibrating his body while in public so that any photograph of his face would be blurred.

Silver Age Flash (Barry Allen)

Main article: Barry Allen

Barry Allen was a police scientist in 1956 with a reputation for being very slow, deliberate, and frequently late, which frustrated his fiancee, Iris West. One night, as he was preparing to leave work, a lightning bolt shattered a case full of chemicals and spilled them all over Allen. As a result, Allen found that he could run extremely fast and had matching reflexes. He donned a set of red tights sporting a lightning bolt (reminiscent of the original Captain Marvel), dubbed himself the Flash (after his childhood hero in the comic books, Jay Garrick), and became a crimefighter. In his civilian identity, he stored the costume in his ring, which could eject the compressed clothing when Allen needed it and suck it back in with the aid of a special gas that shrinks the suit.

Modern Age Flash (Wally West)

Main article: Wally West

Wally West was the nephew of Iris West and Barry Allen's nephew by marriage, and was introduced in The Flash (1st series) #110 (1959). When West was about ten years old, he was visiting his uncle's police laboratory, and the freak accident that gave Allen his powers repeated itself, bathing West in electrically-charged chemicals. Now possessing the same powers as his uncle, West donned a copy of his uncle's outfit and became the young crimefighter Kid Flash.

Powers and abilities

All incarnations of the Flash can run and move their limbs at superhuman speeds, and possess superhuman reflexes. All possess an aura that prevents air friction from affecting their bodies and clothes while moving.

Barry Allen possessed several other abilities that Jay Garrick and Wally West have not always been able to duplicate. He could vibrate his molecules through solid matter, could run on thick snow clouds and could travel through time and to other dimensions with the help of a "cosmic treadmill". Most unusual was Allen's complete control of his molecules, allowing him to vibrate through solid matter and, on one occasion when transformed into a mirror, "melt" himself and reform as a human to defeat the Mirror Master.

Wally West has been shown to have a connection to the Speed Force, an extradimensional energy source, which provides his powers and gives him several other abilities. While all speedsters are powered by the force, West mainlines the power from the force itself and cannot be cut off from the source, unlike the others. Wally is believed to be the fastest of all known Flashes, and has on several occasions sped faster than light and entered and exited the speed force by his own volition. He can create his costume out of pure speed energy, and can either impart his high velocities to other people and objects already in motion or steal the velocity they possess. Jay Garrick also possesses this ability to some degree; he stole speed from Black Adam in order to defeat Johnny Sorrow, and he has threatened to steal Bart's speed on at least one occasion when he was misbehaving. West can vibrate through objects; in the past, West would cause whatever he vibrated through to explode, but has recently shown this to be a controlled ability as he can pass through objects without any ensuing explosion. Although not nearly as precise as Allen when he used his cosmic treadmill, West has shown to be able to traverse time and dimensions with his own powers, much like Allen in Showcase #4 in 1956.

Occasionally, the top speeds of the Flashes are lightspeed, although Wally has been shown to have sped faster than light (as shown above). In several instances, the Flash has been able to beat Superman himself in a race and has been able to exceed the speed of light which Superman is incapable of doing, making the Flash "the fastest man alive". Flash's human anatomy cannot withstand the stress and pressure of moving at such high speeds as Superman's near invulnerable alien anatomy can (though the normal laws of physics don't always apply to the Flash, so this might not be an issue). Also, Superman has been known to vibrate through solid substances, and that can only be achieved by entering the speed force. Flash has more experience and knowledge in these areas, and may be able to teach Superman more about his speed abilities.

Speedsters may at times utilize the ability to speed-read at incredible rates and in doing so process vast amounts of information. Whatever knowledge they acquire in this manner is usually temporary, although the new Kid Flash seems to be the exception. The idea of "speed knowledge" being temporary is a retcon introduced by Geoff Johns.

Awards

The comics and characters have been nominated for and won several awards over the years, including:

Other media

A version of the Flash guest-starred in Adventures of Aquaman in 1968. Flash appeared off and on in the animated series Super Friends throughout its run from 1973 to 1985. In 1977 he appeared in Legends of the Superheroes, voiced by Rod Haase. The Flash was in a CBS live-action unaired pilot called Justice League of America, portrayed by Kenny Johnston.

File:Flash1.jpg
John Wesley Shipp starred in The Flash (1990-1991) television series

The Flash was a live action CBS television series that starred John Wesley Shipp and Amanda Pays. The series Pilot episode featured the accident in which police forensic scientist Barry Allen's crime lab is struck by lightning. Allen is bathed in electrified chemicals. He soon discovers with the help of S.T.A.R. Labs scientist Tina McGee that the accident has changed his body's metabolism and as a result gained super-speed. To avenge the murder of his brother, motorcycle police office Jay(named after the Golden Age Flash), Barry becomes The Flash. He modifies a red S.T.A.R. Labs prototype deep sea diving suit, designed to withstand tremendous pressures, as his Flash costume. The Flash's most famous villain in the series was the Trickster, played by Mark Hamill, with his sidekick Prank, played by Corinne Bohrer. This foreshadowed Hamill's subsequent success at playing the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series. Captain Cold, played by Michael Champion, and Mirror Master, played by David Cassidy, also appeared in their own episodes. The complete series was released as a DVD set by Warner Bros. on January 10, 2006.


File:Smallville-run2.jpg
Bart Allen races Clark Kent in the Smallville episode "Run"

The Flash appeared in Superman: The Animated Series, voiced by Charlie Schlatter, in the second-season episode "Speed Demons". As in the traditional comic book story-lines, the Flash and Superman race to find out who is faster, but the Weather Wizard gets in the way. The Flash is voiced by Michael Rosenbaum (Lex Luthor on the television series Smallville) in the Justice League animated series. Michael Rosenbaum also voiced Kid Flash for a Fall 2005 episode of Teen Titans animated series entitled "Lightspeed".

Some fans criticized the Justice League animated series characterization of the Flash, mainly due to the chauvinistic dialogue in early episodes. However, others argued that he provided a needed foil to the other characters. The importance of the Flash as the "heart" of the Justice League was shown in the episode "A Better World", when his death in an alternate timeline triggered a series of events which turned that alternate League (the "Justice Lords") into virtual dictators of Earth. He has also proven key in saving the day in a few episodes, such as Divided We Fall, in which he defeated the fused Braniac/Lex Luthor when all the other six founding Justice League members could not. The upcoming episode, Flash and Substance, features the opening of the Flash Museum. In this episode, Mark Hamill will once again be providing the voice of the Trickster.

Flash tapping into the Speed Force in the Justice League Unlimited episode, "Divided We Fall".

The Flash made a guest appearance in the television series Smallville, in the fourth-season episode "Run" (first aired October 20 2004) played by Kyle Gallner. He is portrayed as a self-centered teenager who uses his powers for personal gain. He goes by the name Bart Allen, but is shown to be carrying multiple ID cards also identifying him as Jay Garrick, Barry Allen, and Wally West. His speed in the episode seemed to far surpass Clark Kent's and they apparently became friends towards the end, with allusions being made to forming a "league" one day. Since in Smallville Clark Kent has not yet become Superman, it is not clear if this version of The Flash will grow up to become Wally West or Barry Allen, or some other Flash entirely .

In December 2004, David Goyer (writer of the Blade trilogy and Batman Begins) announced plans to write and direct a major motion picture about The Flash. Ryan Reynolds is rumored to play the lead, as the Wally West version of the Flash. The film will be released by Warner Bros. in late 2007 or 2008.

The Flash (Barry Allen) appeared in the comic strip The World's Greatest Superheros.

The Flash (Wally West) appeared in the Justice League Task Force Super Nintendo fighting game.

The Flash (Wally West) appeared in a novel of that title, written by Mark Schultz.

File:TheFlashDaddyDayCare.jpg
Jimmy Bennett as a child fan of The Flash in the movie Daddy Day Care

"The Ballad Of Barry Allen" is a song by Jim's Big Ego featured on They're Everywhere and released through Creative Commons. The song portrays Barry Allen's ability to move at super-speed from an alternate viewpoint: namely, that to him the entire world is moving excruciatingly slowly ("I've got time to think / about the beauty of / the thousand variations of / the beating of the wings of / the hummingbird suspended in / the aspic of the world / moving slower than molasses, / as I'm off to catch the girl / who's falling off the bridge").

In 2002, the lead con-man character in the movie Catch Me If You Can played by Leonardo DiCaprio used the alias "Barry Allen" to elude G-man Tom Hanks in reference to his love for the comic book.

In the 2003 movie Daddy Day Care, Jimmy Bennett plays a boy who thinks he is the Flash and refuses to take off his costume.

In 2004, NBA All-Star Shaquille O'Neal gave his teammate, Dwyane Wade the nickname "Flash" (One of O'Neal's nicknames was "Superman").

As the first super-speed hero in comic books, the Flash was inspired by or has spawned a variety of imitators and conceptual descendants. These include:

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