DC's most popular characters include Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern.

It's not uncommon for their books to show up in the top ten books sold from month to month, or for them to have company-wide crossovers, or to get movie demands. A lot of people would put Flash up there too. But he doesn't seem to be as well respected or glorified as the four above. I'm not saying people dislike him, but he doesn't seem to have the same super stardom as the others. For example, no one is clamoring for him to get an Earth One book. Even his forum here gets fewer, slower posts. My question is why? Is his mythology not big enough? Is his personality not distinct enough? Is he just not as entertaining? It just seems like he's not too many peoples' #1.

Lack of exposure.

Back in the prime Barry days, The Flash was one of the most popular titles in stands.

He's very popular with kids. I know Johns tried to make him more of a frontrunner with the likes of Flashpoint. Tying now and doing well at Aqauman.

a lot of non comic book readers i think his powers are underwhelming

i think he is just as cool as GL,he just didnt get his geoff johns push,straight into a movie.the flash tv show was my favorite and coolest looking shows on tv back in the day,so im hoping for more for flash someday.

Flash has such potential to be one of DC's biggest characters. I've ranted about it too many times, so I'm not gonna do it all again. Long story short, the people running the DC division at WB are dumb and lazy.

@SmashBrawler said:

Lack of exposure.

Back in the prime Barry days, The Flash was one of the most popular titles in stands.

That is truw

I'm confused by this also, with all these great new 52 titles and such everyone rants and raves about Swamp Thing, Animal man, Green Lantern, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, etc. But no one ever talks about how great The Flash has been. Its easily one of my favorite books every month and no one ever talks about it :(

he needs more time to shine.non comic readers love him in animated form but he doesn't get much screen to be anything outside of the funny guy most times.A tv show or a movie would help definitely

you got DC mass marketoney makers,then you have theDC bigwigs favorites,like green lantern.

I think Flash is a great character with a lot of potential, but I always seem to forget about him compared to others, not sure why.

@Avenging-X-Bolt said:

a lot of non comic book readers i think his powers are underwhelming

I would have to agree to this being one of the reasons. I have always personally loved the Flash, but I know many who do not think much of him simply because his powers seem lackluster. As for simply not selling as high as GL or the others, he seems to be one of those characters that HAS to have a fantastic story for people to be interesting. Sup's, Wonder Woman and Batman have had a long history of great stories, I guess people need an absolute phenomenal story in order to be interested. I for one think Francis Manapul's current Flash is enough to be one of my favorites right now.

In an age of space travel and jets, a guy who runs fast does seem obsolete already. The speed level of Flash also tends to be too unbelievable. Barry also has a boring personality which is a common weakness in dc superheroes. The only positive thing I can say is at least Flash is doing much better than Marvel's Quicksilver.

@SmashBrawler said:

Lack of exposure.

Back in the prime Barry days, The Flash was one of the most popular titles in stands.

this

I started in the bronze age and I remember when Hal Jordan was just a back up feature in the Barry Allen comic book.

@SmashBrawler said:

Lack of exposure.

Back in the prime Barry days, The Flash was one of the most popular titles in stands.

dc screwed up by making barry die in crisis and letting wally take over

@sethysquare said:

dc screwed up by making barry die in crisis and letting wally take over

How so? Wally's stories were consistently better than anything Barry did pre COIE or post FC.

@AtPhantom said:

@sethysquare said:

dc screwed up by making barry die in crisis and letting wally take over

How so? Wally's stories were consistently better than anything Barry did pre COIE or post FC.

How so? do explain why you think Wally's stories were consistently better. I believe you might be the only one who feels that way.

Nah, I agree with Phantom and so do plenty of others. Issues #0-225 were all good.
BB

@sethysquare said:

@AtPhantom said:

@sethysquare said:

dc screwed up by making barry die in crisis and letting wally take over

How so? Wally's stories were consistently better than anything Barry did pre COIE or post FC.

How so? do explain why you think Wally's stories were consistently better. I believe you might be the only one who feels that way.

Ah I feel that way as well. And a lot of other people do as well. Wally's considered by many comic fans to have been a better Flash than Barry seeing as he surpassed Barry and developed as a character over the years.

As for the question at hand, both Barry and Wally are great characters with a lot of potential but he doesn't have the appeal of the others. Non comic book people know who the Flash is but they don't really feel the same way about him as they do the other big 4. DC need to back the Flash more and give him more of a standing in the DCU. Otherwise this might be the only major way in which people have seen the Flash

@Lvenger said:

@sethysquare said:

@AtPhantom said:

@sethysquare said:

dc screwed up by making barry die in crisis and letting wally take over

How so? Wally's stories were consistently better than anything Barry did pre COIE or post FC.

How so? do explain why you think Wally's stories were consistently better. I believe you might be the only one who feels that way.

Ah I feel that way as well. And a lot of other people do as well. Wally's considered by many comic fans to have been a better Flash than Barry seeing as he surpassed Barry and developed as a character over the years.

As for the question at hand, both Barry and Wally are great characters with a lot of potential but he doesn't have the appeal of the others. Non comic book people know who the Flash is but they don't really feel the same way about him as they do the other big 4. DC need to back the Flash more and give him more of a standing in the DCU. Otherwise this might be the only major way in which people have seen the Flash

I think its hard to pin point who had a better run as Flash.

Wally for the most part was written over the past 20 years and Barry's stories were happening much earlier before that. It is a very hard comparison. All I do know is that after Wally got married and when had kids, it was really difficult to continue writing his stories because he just didnt work fighting as a family.

@sethysquare: Not really. It's about the quality of stories that should define Barry and Wally. And many people felt that Wally had successfully surpassed Barry both in terms of power and character development as well.

@sethysquare said:

How so? do explain why you think Wally's stories were consistently better. I believe you might be the only one who feels that way.

Negatory. The post COIE Flash series is consistently ranked as one of the greatest continuing comic series around and is generally regarded as the highlight of both Mark Waid's and Geoff Johns' career.

@AtPhantom said:

@sethysquare said:

How so? do explain why you think Wally's stories were consistently better. I believe you might be the only one who feels that way.

Negatory. The post COIE Flash series is consistently ranked as one of the greatest continuing comic series around and is generally regarded as the highlight of both Mark Waid's and Geoff Johns' career.

I agree that that era of Flash stories was amazing, but your comment illustrates my point. Green Lantern is the highlight of Johns' career. A lot of people don't even know that he worked on Flash. And people aren't rushing to get those trades the same way that people buy Green Lantern or Batman or Superman trades.

@OutlawRenegade said:

I agree that that era of Flash stories was amazing, but your comment illustrates my point. Green Lantern is the highlight of Johns' career. A lot of people don't even know that he worked on Flash. And people aren't rushing to get those trades the same way that people buy Green Lantern or Batman or Superman trades.

Much of that, I think, has to do with the fact that DC has marketed Green Lantern as one of its flagship titles while Flash has always been in semi background. This has little to do with actual quality, I could name a few dozen series out there better than Green Lantern (And Flash would be among them) who have performed far worse in the stores than it. Flash is the highlight of Johns' career because it (Along with his JSA) is considered his best work and people who actually did read those runs are far more likely to remember him for them than GL.

Its probably because his powerset isnt as interesting as superman,batman,green lantern,and wonder woman.

his powerset is awesome the way it is,the only weakness in it would be that he is a earth bound hero,no space,no air.

@Eternal19 said:

Its probably because his powerset isnt as interesting as superman,batman,green lantern,and wonder woman.

People say the same thing about Superman.

Kind of ironic, isn't it?

@SmashBrawler said:

@Eternal19 said:

Its probably because his powerset isnt as interesting as superman,batman,green lantern,and wonder woman.

People say the same thing about Superman.

Kind of ironic, isn't it?

ya it is i guess people are tired of the generic super speed or super strength powers.

I don't know, I thikn he's pretty damn awesome!

In my mind Flash suffers from the same problem as Aquaman. In that people unfamiliar with him see him as a one-dimensional character. "Oh, Flash? You mean that guy that can run really fast?" The thing is people aren't familiar with what other powers the speed force grants Barry. He's also not the angst-ridden, emo jerk that sells so well these days.

I would also argue that traditionally Wonder Woman hasn't sold worth a lick. And despite her initial surge in sales during the New 52, I've noticed her book has been dropping back lately.

@Gambit1024 said:

Flash has such potential to be one of DC's biggest characters. I've ranted about it too many times, so I'm not gonna do it all again. Long story short, the people running the DC division at WB are dumb and lazy.

Totally agree with this.

I say he's just as popular as GL

edit:nvm e_e

Uhm...unfamiliarity. All I knew about flash was that he was red and could run really fast. I didn't know what the speed force was honestly and only found out how he got his powers like a year after reading JL.

Both Quicksilver and Flash have appeared in cartoons so some people probably know both Marvel and dc have speedsters. Barry had a short lived live action tv show. Smallville made the mistake of using Bart Allen. Pre 52, warner was doing the super hero marketing mess and different versions of the Flash were used in multiple media which just confused the customers : Barry in a live action tv show, Justice League cartoons had Wally, Smallville tv show had Bart Allen. DC seems to be finally getting its act together in just using Barry in all the media from cartoons to games.

Speaking as someone who went from being a "non-comic reader" to a huge comic book fan over the last year, I would agree with everyone saying that The Flash's powers seem a little underwhelming. Before I actually read any Flash comics I thought it was dumb that the only thing he could do was run fast because Superman could do that. (I also hated that Superman could do just about everything but that's a discussion for somewhere else.) But now that I have read some Flash stuff he has become my 4th favorite comic hero behind Green Lantern, Batman, and Superman. A lot of people just need to actually read the comics before judging characters. And not to forget, the Rogues in The Flash are amazing.

Dc seems to be copying Marvel more bec. the current Flash series looks like Quicksilver vs the x-men. Barry just needs a more interesting personality.

bump

I think Flash gets tremendously undersold on how powerful he is. Time travel, million pound punch, vibrating through solid objects and being basically untouchable to most adversaries are pretty strong abilities.

I thought the Flash TV show made a terrible mistake trying to copy the dark settings of the first Batman movie. Flash isn't Batman and his power tends toward thoughts quite different from the whole Batman angst/revenge-o-rama. That said, a Flash movie would have to develop some kind of emotional hook with which the audience could identify. Everyone intuitively understands the thirst for revenge of Batman. And people probably understand Bruce Wayne more than they understand police scientist Barry Allen. Maybe the CSI shows have fixed that some. Maybe people could understand a younger, blond, more athletic Grissom after those shows. But with all the anti-intellectual elements in society it's still a tougher sell than a guy who's simply rich.

With the ability to fill a screen with CGI, a movie would now be able to show Flash's powers in a way that would be fittingly awesome.

Because. Barry is a douchebag,.

Mythology.

Flash doesn't really do anything new or especially epic, and despite the fact that he's a forensic scientist, Barry Allen isn't a character that you can make very dark. His world is not meant to be. He's more of a Pixar-type character. For example, most of the time, a Flash story is a simple cops and robbers story--literally (nothing new). And several Flash villains have hokey alliterative names (Captain Cold, Mirror Master, Weather Wizard, Gorilla Grodd, etc.) He's a character who can only operate within one kind of story (Light), while all the other heroes you listed can operate within two types of story (light and dark). This difference is important because it affects which demographics you can hit. Furthermore, the only "new" thing that separates Flash stories from other stories is time travel. That should be it's epic selling point, but he rarely has time travel stories (of significance. He'd probably be more popular if he were Booster Gold-ing it up. The only issue with that would be coming up with challenges for a man who can travel at light-speed.

For comparison, let's look at the other four characters you listed.

Superman- The last alien survivor of a dying world. He fight alien invaders insidious tycoons, and government shadow cabinets. He's got inspiration and intrigue as well as global politics.

Batman- A man who has turned tragedy into strength. He deals with deconstructive maniacs that are dark reflections of himself. You can tell Batman stories that deal with everything from ninjas to Dracula.

Wonder Woman- A warrior princess from a hidden, militaristic nation. She defends us from magical creatures,corrupt gods, and evil sorceresses. Sometimes she even has to side with us against her own people. And she doesn't even just take on villains from her own mythology.

Green Lantern- A man who was chosen above all other to defend our entire galaxy from forces that could easily destroy us. Alien worlds, alien women, and alien prophecies? Epic.

I think that both Aquaman and Cyborg have more potential than Flash because they have epic mythologies that are just waiting to be mined (Atlantis, Apokolips, the Red Room).

Aquaman- King of 71% of earth. He deals with royal politics, preventing full scale wars, and magic. He also has the mystery of a fallen civilization to drive his stories.

Cyborg- He's a man who has lost everything, but he's still a hero. He works for an organization that studies alien technology recovered from locations all around earth. He can travel almost anywhere with a thought--even to the home of an inter-dimensional conqueror.

On the other hand, Flash is a pretty boring, generic nice guy who fights stereotypical thieving villains 99% of the time. He's only really interesting when he's resetting universes or fighting time travelers (which is very rare).

I remember loving Wally West in the animated stuff and most people I see talking about Flash just do so to mourn Wally so I think that might have been a mistake DC made (like seriously, the only person I ever knew who was excited about Barry was reading comics decades ago when he died)

However, I don't know how you rank him as not popular, Wonder Woman is no more popular than him certainly, her title rarely if ever gets in the Top 10 (at least not in the past) and Superman isn't consistent either...I think Flash is actually just more popular then you realize, at DC the popular stuff is dictated by both writers and characters so it all depends on what creative team you've got on the book for how well it will do, they just don't put BIG names on characters like Flash (and Wonder Woman), maybe because the creators have no interest?

A couple of the posts in here pretty much nails it. He's just known to be the guy who can real fast and that's it. You really can't fault non comic readers for not being interested in The Flash if that's all they know.

Personally, I think a Flash similar to the Justice League cartoon would have an easier shot at becoming popular due to the comedy he brings. The odds of that happening is slim due to DC's obsession with Barry's boring ass.

@Yung ANcient One said:

Non comic book readers think he's just fast, but in reality his powers are too much. I personally think it's boring. I mean what is a challenge for a Guy that run around the world. Has that mass punch. I mean really when does he have a chance.of losing? Why aren't his adventures 10 seconds long if he's so fast? (+)

I think this is one of the reasons why the Flash always has trouble in movie development. Would the audience ever feel like The Flash is in any real state of trouble when he faces his villains? Could they buy a guy named Captain Cold or Weather Wizard being able to contend with a guy who could realistically speed blitz whenever he wants?

@Superdork: Wrong, Flash does have dark stories. The Cobalt Blue saga, the Dark Flash saga, Iron Heights and Blitz, among others, have a darker tone than your usual Flash story. You could argue that The Secret of Barry Allen has a darker tone as well.

@Gambit1024 said:

Flash has such potential to be one of DC's biggest characters. I've ranted about it too many times, so I'm not gonna do it all again. Long story short, the people running the DC division at WB are dumb and lazy.

Flash never had a memorable t.v show

Flash never had a film,solo cartoon,and feature film.

Flash doesn't get the graphic novel treatment like Batman,Superman, or Wonder Woman.

.

He doesn't get pushed very much.This is why he isn't popular.

As for the character himself, I like the Flash but only in Justice League books.I don't really like him in his own books.I dislike the police scientist thing.

I'd LOVE more exposure for the Flash! I keep saying he needs his own animated series.

flash and aquaman have been my surprise reads from N52 , i like both books and have a new respect for the characters

@Superdork said:

Mythology.

Flash doesn't really do anything new or especially epic, and despite the fact that he's a forensic scientist, Barry Allen isn't a character that you can make very dark. His world is not meant to be. He's more of a Pixar-type character. For example, most of the time, a Flash story is a simple cops and robbers story--literally (nothing new). And several Flash villains have hokey alliterative names (Captain Cold, Mirror Master, Weather Wizard, Gorilla Grodd, etc.) He's a character who can only operate within one kind of story (Light), while all the other heroes you listed can operate within two types of story (light and dark). This difference is important because it affects which demographics you can hit. Furthermore, the only "new" thing that separates Flash stories from other stories is time travel. That should be it's epic selling point, but he rarely has time travel stories (of significance. He'd probably be more popular if he were Booster Gold-ing it up. The only issue with that would be coming up with challenges for a man who can travel at light-speed.

For comparison, let's look at the other four characters you listed.

Superman- The last alien survivor of a dying world. He fight alien invaders insidious tycoons, and government shadow cabinets. He's got inspiration and intrigue as well as global politics.

Batman- A man who has turned tragedy into strength. He deals with deconstructive maniacs that are dark reflections of himself. You can tell Batman stories that deal with everything from ninjas to Dracula.

Wonder Woman- A warrior princess from a hidden, militaristic nation. She defends us from magical creatures,corrupt gods, and evil sorceresses. Sometimes she even has to side with us against her own people. And she doesn't even just take on villains from her own mythology.

Green Lantern- A man who was chosen above all other to defend our entire galaxy from forces that could easily destroy us. Alien worlds, alien women, and alien prophecies? Epic.

I think that both Aquaman and Cyborg have more potential than Flash because they have epic mythologies that are just waiting to be mined (Atlantis, Apokolips, the Red Room).

Aquaman- King of 71% of earth. He deals with royal politics, preventing full scale wars, and magic. He also has the mystery of a fallen civilization to drive his stories.

Cyborg- He's a man who has lost everything, but he's still a hero. He works for an organization that studies alien technology recovered from locations all around earth. He can travel almost anywhere with a thought--even to the home of an inter-dimensional conqueror.

On the other hand, Flash is a pretty boring, generic nice guy who fights stereotypical thieving villains 99% of the time. He's only really interesting when he's resetting universes or fighting time travelers (which is very rare).

The Flash doesn't have Mythology?

Your perception of a Flash story shows that you don't really read the character. The Flash's mythology is definitely lighter than other heroes but that doesn't make it any less interesting. And even if you needed a story to be dark to be interesting, he's definitely not devoid of darkness. The Flash has always dealt with all kinds of issues, Wally or Barry. Blitz, one of the best Flash stories was about Hunter Zolomon, a crippled cop friend of Wally's turning evil, becoming Zoom, and systematically attempting to destroy Wally's life in order to push him to be a better hero. He gave Linda Park-West a miscarraige. Sounds a little dark to me.

Your list of how the other heroes are epic undervalues the Flash. The Flash is a catalyst for this mysterious speed force and has to keep running and being the Flash in order to prevent time from unravelling. Epic. His villains may be a little cheesy but they're still fun and dangerous.

You cannot say that Cyborg is more epic than the Flash. I love pre-52 Cyborg a lot, he was a great character. But the guy has never had an ongoing series, and his mythology lies strictly with the Titans. His new mythology in the New 52 hasn't even been explored because they haven't given him a solo title and in the Justice League series he really hasn't done anything all that exciting other than act as a plot device.

You say the Flash is boring and generic and fights stereotypical villains 99% of the time. But based on the fact that you clearly don't actually read the Flash I fail to think that you can be qualified to make such a bold statement. Just because the Flash is a nice guy doesn't make him boring and generic. And I don't know how you can call his villains any more stereotypical than any other villain.

The Flash is very well liked by fans but he hasn't gotten the recognition he deserves. If they gave him an animated series and after the inevitable movie he'll get, you'll see just how popular he can be.