Ok just imagine how awesome it would be for Neil Patrick Harris to be Barry Allen in the upcoming Flash movie.

That would be awesome!

They're making a movie? Link?

I think he could do a good job

Lame.

As Wally yes, as Barry...well, I guess if they want to give us Wally and just call him Barry then yes. That's worked before.

That's a great idea. A character not already beloved by the general public (ie; Iron Man before RDJ) needs a charismatic, attractive, public-friendly actor to portray them (ie; Robert Downey, JR).

Eh, he seems a little old.

Mila Jovovich for Wonder Woman!

NPH for Riddler. Bradley Cooper for Flash. Gosh CV we've been over this.

@al_capown:

go to imdb.com and just type in the flash in the search bar. Theres no set date for it yet but it will come out eventually!

@knightrise:

Robert Downey Jr was born to play Iron Man

@fodigg: I like Barry......

Legendary

No.

"Aw hell no! Barry should always be John Wesley Shipp!!!! You new age turds should be stuck with the old-school renditions or not have new ones! Having a gay actor play Flash is not right! Blah blah blah! Yaddah Yaddah Yaddah!"

And scene! That's a monologue from my upcoming film "The Rotten Tomato: Tales of the Great Silver Age Wankers"....

Barry can be likable in three ways: 1) you just write him like he was Wally (e.g., the Shortpacked! comic above, the excellent JL8 webcomic), 2) you give him a bit of a rebellious streak (e.g., DC: The New Frontier), or 3) you turn his Pleasantville-esque brand of boring-ness into a fun gag in a large ensemble (e.g., Young Justice). Otherwise, I just do not see the appeal beyond nostalgia.

When they brought Barry back, the Flash title had been floundering for a while. Wally as a family man had flopped and Bart Allan Flash was even worse. So they tried to replicate the success they'd had with the return of Hal Jordan, but Hal Jordan is a leather jacket wearing fighter pilot while Barry Allen is a bow-tie wearing forensic scientist who had been out of continuity for so long that he was less character at that point than backstory for Wally West. He is so boring he makes Clark Kent look hip, and his inclusion in the new 52 JL is just another example of how the revamp was a step backward to the Silver Age status quo, not forward. Putting Cyborg on the JL and then doing nothing with him doesn't change that.

All that said, one fan's trash character is another's treasure. If I may ask, what are some titles that made you like Barry? Were you a fan from older stuff or did the new 52 title sell you?

He's a great actor but I can't see him as either Barry or Wally.

He doesnt look like a Flash, his head is to wide and hes also a bit short. And im really against the idea of picking an actor already very closely tied to a specific character to play another big character, in this case I couldnt see Wally/Barry without thinking about Barney.

@fodigg: I reallly liked him in New Frontier. With New 52 I decided I wanted to read more than just the Batman/Robin comics I have been reading all the time before New 52 and the Captain Marvel (Shazam) and Superman I read occasionally. One of the New 52 comics I tried was of course The Flash. Barry Alllen quickly became one of my favorite superheroes and just last month I bought a 80 Pg. Giant from the 60's featuring the Flash and a Silver Age Justice League featuring both Flash and Batman.

I also really like Barry because he founded the JLA and he scarficed his life for the DCU in Crisis of Infinite Earths.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts! If any book could make me like Barry, it's DC: The New Frontier, a book starring Hal Jordan and Martian Manhunter—two of my most "ho-hum" DC heroes—that I absolutely adore and would recommend to anyone. No character in that book goes under-served. Made me a life-long Darwyn Cooke fan.

I have to admit I haven't read any of the old stuff with Barry. I read Crisisof course, but when I started reading it was Wally and looking back at Barry's old stuff didn't appeal to me as much as looking back at Wally's days in the New Teen Titans. The new Flash title has put out some gorgeous art and some great new characters, but I always feel like everyone in the book is more interesting than Barry. (Give me a book starring Mob Rule any day!) Even things I thought was stupid at first—the Rogues with built-in powers for example—I was sold on in the book.

But Barry, I dunno, it bothered me that their way to try and make him interesting was give him all these new strange mental powers. Like, Flash's powers are already a problem. Nobody should be able to touch him and every fight should end instantaneously. You don't need to give him more powers. That's how they ruined the new 52 Static title, all flash (no pun intended) and no substance. I dropped the book when it became clear that Wally wasn't going to make a showing even as a non-powered supporting and I just don't want to pay to keep Barry afloat. The book has a lot of good stuff in it, I understand why people would like it, but they need to give Barry a new hook personality wise and I thought that's what Flashpoint was supposed to do but it didn't happen.

Absolutely, he was my first choice. And he totally looks like Barry.

I feel like Bradley Cooper would play a far better Barry. NPH fits more of a tone that Wally portrays.

@fodigg: His old 60's stuff is amazing compared to what most of the DC characters were like at the time. Sure it still felt like Silver Age writing, but the character actually seemed to have more going on with him and he had a pretty good set of villains. Plus, Carmine Infantino's art was awesome in the book! That is just my opinion however. I only read the parts of the Crisis where he died and some of the Batman stuff inside (I could only read so much of it at Barnes and Noble until the asked me if I was going to pay for the book LOL). From what I read of Wally (mostly in the Titans book) he never really came off as a different character to me. I mean he soon got a love interest whom was a reporter (much like his Aunt Iris), developed a bond with a Green Lantern (Hal's replacement, Kyle Rayner), soon got his own Reverse Flash, and soon gained Barry's classic Rogues back. Really I think the only problem with Barry was for the years he was the Flash it wasn't like modern writing where the characters truly got unique personalities.

I actually really like Barry personailty wise. I can relate to him a bit. He is a bit more quiet though happy person. With Wally I think they are either going to do something with this upcoming issue of Flash where he first encounters Bart Allen in the New 52 is find out he is going to marry Iris in the future. Soon Iris becomes a bit more major character in the book and maybe she has a teenage nephew named Wally who was visiting and go through his origins and change it a bit. Then have him be noticed by Barry and becomes his partner in crime as either Kid Flash or Impulse while Bart keeps Kid Flash or gets Impulse. That are they do something like Flash of Two Earth's where Wally came from the old timeline to this new one and encounter New 52's Barry Allen. After helping this Barry he tries to make his way back home to Earth 1, but get stuck in the New 52's.

I always felt the villains were more interesting than the heroes. With Batman his villains are so unique and different they often out shine Batman in my opinion aswell as some Superman villains. With Flash I think he has the same thing going with his rogues likes Batman.

yeah like that venom movie that was announced decades again

They did what? At Barnes and Noble? That is shocking to me. Barnes and Noble are the ones who paid the big bucks to get a study that proved people buy more when you let them read in the store. Because that means people are in the store and it gets them coming back to the store and that's the first prerequisite to a purchase. When I ran my comic shop we followed suit and invited shelf-readers. Most of them were our best customers and would regularly pick up new trade paperbacks. We even set up a kiddy play area where we tore open a bunch of the action figures so kids could chill out and goof around while dads and moms browsed, often leading to a toy purchase. So yeah, that's appalling service from the chain that spearheaded the "let 'em read" business model for books. Anyway, continue.

This could very well be true. After all he was the only character to really get abandoned in the Silver Age, and his personality after that was defined by Wally's vision of him, which was this perfect flawless messiah figure that sacrificed himself to save everyone. It was so airtight that when they tried to twist that vision of Barry with Identity Crisis it just read false, even to someone who wasn't a fan of the character from those days. So I agree he never benefited from modern storytelling characterization.

I don't have any expectations that they plan to bring back Wally. I think somebody doesn't like him in the upstairs office. As for forcing Iris into the picture, I almost wouldn't want to see that. If they're going to save Barry, they need to break new ground with the character, and that doesn't mean falling into the familiar pattern.

I don't mind a quiet and happy hero. Heck, that's a nice change of pace from the grim and gritty lot that rules the stands these days. But he has to be entertaining on top of that. And they need to drop the old-timey props that are meant to be endearing. Yes, I keep going back to the bow-tie, but I feel like it's the icon of what I don't like about Barry. The Flash is about speed, so seeing him stuck in time is odd. Other than dropping it I guess they could make him a pseudo-hipster but that would be strange.

I don't know how to fix my problem with Barry. Maybe just hand the writers a copy of New Frontier and force them to read it over and over. Make his dedication to his idealism something radical and strange rather than old-fashioned and quaint. Surround him with forces and circumstances that tell him he needs to compromise those ideals, to get his hands bloody, to 'wise up', only to tell them to "watch his smoke" and save everyone anyway. Loved by the people, hated and hunted by the authority. That would make him more interesting.

@fodigg: They didn't really. I just felt like at any moment they would've gotten onto. I am very paranoid person and reading that I typed all wrong. Sorry! And that's cool that you owned your own shop for awhile. You would be able to read all the comics you wanted to that were coming out and not having to pay.

My art teacher who is a big DC fan aswell said that he never liked Wally because he always seemed to be to whiny as Kid Flash and as Flash he looked at Barry like a messiah. I recently picked up a back issue of Geoff John's Justice League for the New 52 got what New Frontier was doing with a early on Barry. He was kinda questioning himself for a punching a man of the US army when they were attacking the JL and this is kinda off topic, but I did also like how he was kinda scolding Hal Jordan for going off on Aquaman and Batman. I totally think that if they do something like New Frontier they will have a lot more interesting Barry though I do think the creative team working on the comic is doing a great job trying to revive a superhero from the Silver Age that very little liked.

No. Please God no.

Not gonna lie, it was pretty sweet. I didn't own the shop but rather started there as a job when I was home from college and then managed full time when I graduated. Had to stop in favor of office work eventually—they can only pay you so much at those places—but I loved it. It went under sometime after I left because the new manager just kinda phoned it in. Sad business, but LCBS close all the time unfortunately. I was proud of what we all did there though, and we had some loyal customers to show for it.

It's going to be an uphill climb because he's just been out of circulation for so long. For many readers it's no different than if they'd benched Wally and Barry and made Jay Garrick the one and only Flash. If they can do it, then more power to them, I'll start picking it up again. Gonna have to wait and see. I'll wait until it hits trades and read it at Barnes & Noble to see if I should jump back in. :)

NPH is 40. While Robert Downey Jr. is 48 and plays the hell outta Iron Man. Age has nothing to do with it.

Yea but the Iron Man character suits being older The Flash doesn't also this film will have to fit in to the same world as Man of Steel and I can't see NPH fitting in to that world.

I would loooovvvveeee NPH as Barry Allen. He has the right look, right personality, and judging by some of his roles over the years (Spider-man, Nightwing, Ray Thompson in Justice League, Dr. Horrible, and Barry Allen in New Frontier) is into superheroes.

Never make Barry Allen like Wally West... that is just the worst idea ever...

I practically grew up reading Wally as Flash since I only began reading in 1993 from my uncle's DC comic collection, and during that time Barry has been dead since I think 1985 from Crisis on Infinite Earths or so. I only knew little about Barry from a re-run of an old TV series (probably from the 80's) that featured Barry then came 2007 which out of nowhere Barry comes out from the speedforce (I dunno how or why) running from death racer making his "permanent" return to the living. While it was pretty shocking I didn't mind the return after almost 25 years since his death, and even made him a prominent hero during the Blackest Night event.

I guess I can say my real appeal for Barry's Flash began when I read Blackest Night. They even made him an important factor to the current New 52 as the current reboot was Barry's doing as well.

Not really getting any Barry Allen vibes off of NPH other than his looks.