The Golden Age Flash

Jason Peter Garrick is a college student prior to 1940 (retconned from 1938) who accidentally inhales hard water vapors after falling asleep in his laboratory where he had been working (later stories would change this to heavy water vapors). As a result, he finds that he can run at superhuman speed and has similarly fast reflexes (retcons imply the inhalation simply activated a latent metagene). After a brief career as a college football star, he dons a red shirt with a lightning bolt and a stylized metal helmet with wings (based on images of the Roman god Mercury) and begins to fight crime as the Flash. The helmet belonged to Jay's father, Joseph, who fought during World War I. He has been seen using the helmet as a weapon/type of shield, as seen in Infinite Crisis. He has also used it to direct a beam of light at Eclipso.

His first case involves battling the Faultless Four, a group of blackmailers. In the early stories, it seems to be widely known that Garrick was the Flash. Later stories would show him as having his identity secret, and that he was able to maintain it without the use of a mask by constantly "vibrating" his features, making him hard to recognize or clearly photograph. The effectiveness of this is debatable, as he later blamed his lack of a mask for Joan's deducing his true identity.

Like the Flashes who followed him, Garrick became a close friend of the Green Lantern of his time, Alan Scott, whom he met through the Justice Society of America.

Powers and Abilities

As the Flash, Jay can run and move his limbs at superhuman speeds, and possesses superhuman reflexes. He also has an aura that prevents air friction from affecting his body and clothes while moving. Unlike Barry, Jay is a metahuman and while he has a connection to the Speed Force, it was not on the level of the other Flashes. Jay possesses the ability to 'steal speed' from other speedsters. When the Speed Force was absorbed into (and only accessible by) Bart Allen following Infinite Crisis, Jay's top speed was the speed of sound. After Bart's death and Wally's return, the Speed Force returned to its normal functions and Jay can now reach near-light speeds that let him keep up with even Zoom.

Jay's status as a metahuman with natural speed may be a retcon. During the "Dead Heat" miniseries, Jay's connection to the Speed Force is disrupted by the villain Savitar, and he, along with many of the other speedsters, is totally powerless. However, Jay's words in Infinite Crisis #7 imply that his metagene was always there, but inactive until the Speed Force is 'destroyed' or perhaps until the formation of New Earth took place.

The Silver Age Flash

Barry Allen is a police scientist (his job title was changed to a forensic scientist in the Iron Heights one-shot) with a reputation for being very slow, deliberate, and frequently late, which frustrates his fiancee, Iris West. One night, as he is preparing to leave work, a lightning bolt shatters a case full of chemicals and spills them all over Allen. As a result, Allen finds that he can run extremely fast and has matching reflexes. He dons a set of red tights sporting a lightning bolt, dubs himself the Flash (after his childhood hero in the comic books, Jay Garrick), and becomes a crimefighter of Central City. In his civilian identity, he stores the costume in his ring, which can eject the compressed clothing when Allen needs it and suck it back in with the aid of a special gas that shrinks the suit. In addition, Allen invented the cosmic treadmill, a device that allowed for precise time-travel and was used in many stories. Allen was so well liked that nearly all speedsters that come after him are constantly compared to him. Batman once said "Barry is the kind of man that I would've hoped to become if my parents hadn't been murdered".

As presented in Justice League of America #9, when the Earth is infiltrated by alien warriors sent to conquer the planet, some of the world's greatest heroes join forces -- Allen is one of them. While the superheroes individually defeat most of the invaders, they fall prey to a single alien and only by working together are they able to defeat the warrior. Afterwards the heroes decide to found the Justice League of America.

During the years, he is depicted as feeling attracted to Black Canary and Zatanna, but he never pursues a relationship because he feels his real love is Iris West. Allen also becomes good friends with Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), which would later be the subject of the limited series Flash and Green Lantern: The Brave and the Bold.

In Flash # 123 – "Flash of Two Worlds," – Allen is transported to Earth-Two where he meets Jay Garrick, the original Flash in DC Continuity; it is revealed that Jay Garrick's adventures were captured in comic book form on Earth-One. This storyline initiated DC's multiverse and was continued in issues of Flash and in team-ups between the Justice League of America of Earth-One and the Justice Society of America of Earth-Two. In the classic story from Flash # 179 – "The Flash - Fact or Fiction?" – Allen is thrown into the universe eventually called Earth Prime, a representation of "our" universe, where he seeks the aid of the Flash comic book's editor Julius Schwartz to build a cosmic treadmill so that he can return home.

Powers and Abilities

Barry Allen was capable of running at the speed of light with little difficulty and, at times during the Silver Age of comics, the speed of thought. In Flash #150, "straining every muscle," he ran at ten times the speed of light. However, when he pushed himself further (during the Crisis on Infinite Earths) he appeared to waste away as he was converted into pure energy, traveled back in time, and was revealed to be the very bolt of lightning that gave him his powers. Barry Allen possessed abilities that Jay Garrick and Wally West have not always been able to duplicate, most notably the ability to "vibrate" in such a way as to pass through solid matter (Wally could do this in his teen years, though after "Crisis on Infinite Earths" this ability was lost). Allen regularly engaged in time travel using the Cosmic Treadmill device, and was able to "vibrate" between dimensions as well. It has been said that Barry had complete control over every molecule in his body. Using the Speed Force, Allen is able to undo the effects of the Anti-life Equation upon an individual.

The Flash 3rd (Wally West)

The Bronze Age Flash

Wally West was created by John Broome and Carmine Infantino and introduced in The Flash (vol. 1) #110 (1959). The character was the nephew of existing Flash character Iris West. During a visit to Central City police laboratory where Barry Allen worked, the freak accident that gave Allen his powers repeated itself, bathing West in electrically-charged chemicals. Now possessing the same powers as The Flash, West donned a smaller sized copy of Barry Allen's Flash outfit and became the young crimefighter Kid Flash.

This costume was quickly altered to one that would make him more visually distinctive. The original red was replaced with a costume that was primarily yellow with red leggings, gloves, and mask.

In addition to his appearances within the Flash title, the character was used as a member of the newly created Teen Titans.

The decision by DC comics editorial staff to radically change their fictional universe saw a number of changes to the status quo of the character. The 1985 maxi-series Crisis on Infinite Earths saw the character adopt the identity of the Flash and his abilities become more limited. Instead of being able to reach the speed of light, the speed of sound was now his upper limit and as a further restriction, the character had to eat vast quantities of food to maintain his metabolism.

Those changes were quickly followed up and 1987 saw the publication of a new Flash comic, intitially written by Mike Baron. As long as his adventures as a superhero, the issue of money was a common theme during the series. West won a lottery, buys a large mansion, and became something of a playboy. The character's finances and luck continued to ebb and wane until Flash (vol. 2) #62, when his playboy ways ended and his fortunes stabilized.

The 1990s also saw further modifications to the look of the character, with a modified uniform appearing in 1991. This modified costume altered the visual appearance of the traditional flash costumer with a belt made of two connecting lightning bolts, remove the wings from the top of his boots, alter the material of his costume, and add opaque lenses to the eyes of his cowl. This modified design utilized elements of the costume designed by artist Dave Stevens for the live action television series, The Flash.

A difficult encounter with a particularly vicious foe, the first Reverse-Flash (Eobard Thawne), also served to increase the speed of the character. After this encounter, he was Barry Allen's equal in speed, though he still had not been able to recover Barry's vibrational abilities.

This theme of power was further expanded upon by the writer Mark Waid further redefined the character by introducing the Speed Force, a energy source that served as a pseudo-scientific explanation for his powers and that of other fictional speedsters within the DC Universe. Using this concept as a basis, the character's ability to tap into the speed force was used to expand his abilities. The character was now able to lend speed to other objects and people (Terminal Velocity and aftermath: Flash #95–101, 1994–1995) and create a costume directly out of Speed Force energy. Traditional powers such as the ability to vibrate through solid objects were also restored.

The 2000s saw Writer Geoff Johns revitalize the character by introducing new versions of characters such as Zoom and making significant use of the Rogues, marrying the character to longtime girlfriend Linda Park, and introducing the concepts of fatherhood and family to the character by adding twin children to the supporting cast, Iris and Jai.

After the writer left the series, sales dropped significantly[citation needed] and DC editorial decided that it was time for the status quo to change once more. Using the mini-series Infinite Crisis as a narrative device, the character of Wally West and his family were seen leaving for an alternative reality. This allowed the character of Impulse to become the fourth Flash and headline a relaunched third volume of the title.

The critical reaction to this new version of the character was mixed and the character was killed off in the final issue of the short-lived third volume of the Flash Comic. It was decided that Wally West should be resurrected and the JLA/JSA "The Lightning Saga" were used to return the character is returned to earth along with his wife and children who appear to have aged several years.

The character next appeared in All Flash #1, seeking vengeance on those who had killed Bart Allen. This was followed by Flash v3, which resuming publications after the long hiatus. The series found the character struggling with trying to raise his two super powered twins, plagued by accelerated growth and their inexperience in the heroic game; a task made more difficult by Wally's unemployment, and inability to keep a steady job, and the mistrust of the League for his decision to bring two children in the fold. The series also once again limited the character's speed, returning it to a maximum limit of the speed of sound.

In Final Crisis, Wally is shocked to see his uncle Barry Allen returned to life. After being reunited in an attempt to stop the god-bullet from killing the New God Orion, Wally and Barry face down hordes of people possessed by the Anti-Life Equation.

Recent interviews with The Flash: Rebirth artist Ethan Van Sciver have revealed that Wally will be taking on a new costume and new identity in the limited series that reintroduces Barry Allen as the Flash.

Powers

Wally's primary superpower is his speed. Over the years, this has fluctuated from his career as Kid Flash, where he could approach the speed of light, to the beginning of his career as The Flash, in which he was limited to a top speed of approximately 700 mph (1,100 km/h), leading to near retirement and returning to college before the death of Barry Allen. In recent years, with the knowledge and mastery of the Speed Force at his disposal, Wally has managed to surpass the speed of light, though it is tough to do and can lead to being trapped in the Speed Force. More recently, he has again lost his absolute mastery of the Speed Force, in exchange for his children's life and safety, returning to his lowest speed.

As Kid Flash, Wally had the ability to control the vibration of his molecules to the degree that he could vibrate through solid objects and traverse other dimensions and times. He lost this ability when he became The Flash, and regained this power in later years with the added twist that vibrating through objects could cause them to explode; apparently, this later version of the power passed kinetic energy into the molecular structure of the object he vibrated through, and the object would explode from the charge. Several years of training granted him better fine-control over his energy output, albeit lacking the full mastery of Barry Allen.

Other applications of superspeed:

• Does not leave a scent trail that a bloodhound can track, even at the "low" speed of 700 mph.

• Being able to run across the surface of large bodies of water--moving so fast that he does not break the surface tension of the water as he runs.

• Overcoming gravity by running up and down vertical surfaces.

• Creating wind vortices by running in circles or rotating his arms and legs.

• "Lending" velocity to objects or people already in motion

• "Stealing" the speed of others and utilizing it himself.

• Vibrating his molecules so fast he can travel through objects such as walls.

• Use of his incredibly fast reflexes in order to withstand powerful blows.

• Gaining infinite force or weight as he approaches light speed, resulting in extremely heavy blows.

• Creating after-images of himself.

• Vibrate so that light does not reflect off him sufficiently, rendering him invisible.

• "Accelerated Healing" the ability to speed up his natural healing process.

• Talking at a superspeed whereas only other speedsters (like Jesse Quick, Max Mercury, etc.) can receive, interpret, and return communication at the same velocity.

As with most superspeedsters, Wally possesses an "aura" which protects him (and whatever he carries) from heat and air friction when he travels at high velocities. He also has a slight amount of invulnerability with this "aura". The activity of his "aura" is actually what makes him able to employ his powers, as running at top speed with a weakened aura is enough to shock his body in cramps and seizures.

The Flash 4th (Bart Allen)

The Modern Age Flash

Suffering from a hyper-accelerated metabolism, Bart Allen was aging at a faster rate than that of any human being thus causing him to appear the age of twelve when he was chronologically only two years old. To prevent him from developing mental health problems, he was raised in a virtual reality machine which created a simulated world that kept pace with his own scale of time. When it became clear that this method was not helping, his grandmother, Iris Allen, took him back in time to the present where The Flash, Wally West, tracked him down in a race across the world. By forcing Bart into an extreme burst of speed, Wally managed to shock his hyper-metabolism back to normal.[2] Because he had spent the majority of his childhood in a simulated world, Bart had no concept of danger and was prone to leaping before he looked. The youth proved to be more trouble than Wally could handle, and he was palmed off onto retired superhero speedster Max Mercury, who moved Bart to Manchester, Alabama. As retconned in Impulse #50, Batman named him "Impulse" as a warning, not as a compliment.

Bart joined the Titans early in his career before going on to become one of the founding members (along with Robin and Superboy) of the superhero team Young Justice. For a time, Impulse became the owner of a spaceship granted to him by a rich sultan in appreciation for having helped save his castle. The team used this ship to reunite Doiby Dickles with his queen and restore the rightful rule of Myrg. Impulse stayed with Young Justice for an extensive period of time during which he developed the ability to make speed-force energy duplicates. This allowed him to be in multiple places at once. The newly acquired power proved useful until one of the duplicates was killed during the "Our Worlds at War" storyline when half the team was lost on Apokolips. Bart quit Young Justice temporarily as the death of his duplicate led him to come to terms with his own mortality.

Following Max Mercury's disappearance, Bart was taken in by Jay Garrick, the first Flash, and his wife Joan. After the breakup of Young Justice, Bart joined some of his former teammates in a new line-up of the Teen Titans.

Shortly after Bart joined the Teen Titans, he was shot in the knee by Deathstroke (who at the time was possessed by Jericho) and received a prosthetic one. While recovering, Bart read every single book in the San Francisco Public Library and reinvented himself as the new Kid Flash. Once healed, the artificial knee did not affect his ability to run at speeds approaching that of light. When Robin reminded him that by becoming Kid Flash, he would be forced to live in the Flash's shadow, Bart said firmly, "No, he'll be living in mine."

In the "Titans Tomorrow" storyline, Bart assumed the mantle of the Flash after the current Flash died in a "Crisis". In this alternate future he was able to steal the speed of others, a power he used on his past self. This reality shows a grown Bart posing as a member of the so-called Titans of Tomorrow. However he is really a spy working on the behalf of Titans East, a resistance group led by the future Cyborg. Additionally, the future Bart is romantically involved with Rose Wilson, The Ravager.

During the Infinite Crisis Superboy-Prime attacked Conner Kent (Superboy) and injured or killed several Teen Titans, thus prompting Bart to stop his rampage. He accomplishes this by running him at top speed into the Speed Force with the help of veteran speedsters Wally West and Jay Garrick. The feat took its toll on Garrick, who reached his limit before entering the Speed Force, and West, who turned into energy and vanished, leaving Bart alone in the fight against an armored Superboy-Prime. Luckily for the young speedster, Barry Allen, Johnny Quick and Max Mercury, all of whom had been previously absorbed into the Speed Force, appeared and aided him.

Bart spent four years in an alternate reality's Keystone City, where along with Wally, an alternate version of Jay Garrick and the ghosts of Max and Barry, Superboy-Prime managed to escape from his prison. The speedsters rallied together to return to their dimension. In an attempt to get there before Superboy-Prime, Bart absorbed the Speed Force using Wally's ring and Barry's costume to help him survive his journey.

Wearing his grandfather's costume, an aged Bart reappeared in Tokyo just in time to fight alongside Superman and many other heroes in the Battle of Metropolis unleashing his anger against Superboy-Prime for killing Conner Kent and so forcing the villain to retreat from battle. When the crisis was over, Bart explained to Jay where he had been and how the Speed Force was destroyed. Having used up the residual speed locked in his body in the fight for Metropolis, Bart gives Barry's costume to Jay proclaiming him "the fastest man alive."

In Teen Titans (vol. 3) #34, a One Year Later issue, Robin refers to Bart as "kind of retired". He suffers from partial amnesia about the time he spent on the alternate Earth during the Crisis. Bart and his roommate, Griffin Grey, assemble cars on a scab basis for a newly automated, high-tech plant in Keystone City. Bart has nightmares about the Speed Force, such as when he and Jay Garrick are separated during Infinite Crisis, and glimpses of Barry's death in Crisis on Infinite Earths. Lying to everyone that the Speed Force is gone, Bart is still able to tap into it, though the effects are far more difficult to control and potentially lethal. Despite the risk, Bart attempts, unsuccessfully, to use his powers to save Griffin when a bomb is set off at the plant, and is seen doing so by Jay.

Bart tells the Garricks about the existence of the Speed Force and his desire to divest himself of his powers, even asking S.T.A.R. Labs to remove his link with the Speed Force. S.T.A.R. recreates the material used to make Barry's Flash uniform but in the modern design worn by Wally. Bart is initially unwilling to wear this, but eventually uses the uniform. When S.T.A.R.'s Keystone location is blown up, Bart dons the uniform to rescue Valerie Perez. Because of Bart's feelings for the young scientist, he allows Valerie to examine him. She continues to work alongside him due to her gratitude over him rescuing her from a riot at her high school. Their relationship continues after Valerie is fired from S.T.A.R. Labs, and she is discovered to be the daughter of Manfred Mota. In the end, Bart and Valerie's relationship proves short lived, as Valerie struggles to come to terms with Bart's life as a superhero.

Meanwhile, Griffin, who gains superspeed after the bomb explodes at the plant, becomes more unbalanced and ages unnaturally. Griffin nearly kills Bart and kidnaps Jay Garrick, but Bart rescues him. Griffin destroys Keystone's bridge in order to stage a rescue himself, but Bart, who makes a public return as the Flash, foils Griffin's plans. When he is hit by an energy blast during the fight, Bart finally remembers his time on the alternate Earth during the Crisis and why the Speed Force is inside him, but he is unable to save his friend, who dies learning that the "new" Flash and Bart are the very same person.

However, when Inertia resurfaces and kidnaps Valerie on behalf of Mota and then leaves behind a fake Dear John Letter, the increasing pressure leads Bart to leave Keystone City for Los Angeles. Inertia later lets Valerie escape in order to take her hostage in Las Vegas, where Valerie is chained near a photon cannon set to target the Speed Force. Reunited with Valerie, Bart exerts more control over the Speed Force, outracing the photon ray and freeing his girlfriend. They reunite, and Bart shares his future plans with Jay: with Valerie's blessing he will stay in Los Angeles and follow in Barry's footsteps by studying forensics at the local police academy.

Soon after donning the Flash identity, Bart is considered for Justice League membership and gets particular support from Batman, who feels he is more than ready for the position.

Robin contacts Bart and asks him to return to the Teen Titans. However, after fighting Steppenwolf with the newly reformed Justice League, Bart tries to join the League rather than rejoin the Titans.

When Bart confronts Captain Cold at his apartment, Zoom appears and attacks Bart. Zoom apparently was enlisted by Bart's grandmother, Iris. It's later revealed that Iris only came to the past to warn her grandson about the Rogues (consisting of Abra Kadabra, Mirror Master, Heat Wave, the Pied Piper,the Trickster, Weather Wizard, and Captain Cold), led by Inertia, teaming up. Together they are trying to build a machine that will stop time. As their plan begins to come to fruition, Bart is arrested for the fight with Steppenwolf, who was a New God.

Powers and Abilities

Bart's primary power is speed, along with abilities that are common to comics speedsters, such as creating whirlwinds, running on water and vibrating through matter. That last ability will result in 'molecular taffy' if Bart does not concentrate; he also possesses an aura that prevents air friction while running. Before being shot in the knee, he was faster than the current Flash had been at his age. Bart does possess some abilities that other speedsters do not have. He has the ability to produce "scouts," Speed Force avatars that he can send through the timestream, but has used it infrequently since the death of one avatar put him in a coma during the "Our Worlds at War" storyline that crossed over among the Impulse, Superboy, and Young Justice titles. After being forced to use it during the "World Without Young Justice" crossover event, he was able and willing to use them with ease, up until he became Kid Flash.

Bart is resistant to the alterations in the time stream. His parents met only in post-Zero Hour continuity, but he arrived before the event. Bart has the ability to recall everything he had ever read, heard or watched (which includes speed-reading every book in the San Francisco Public Library), allowing him to spout encyclopedic information concerning the situation at hand as well as quotations from Mark Twain, of whose work he is fond.

After Infinite Crisis, Bart's connection to the Speed Force is more difficult to control because he now contains the Speed Force and, in essence, is the Speed Force. When he taps into the Speed Force, Bart appears to have electricity crackling around him, and the Speed Force inside him has become so lethal, that he initially wore the Flash suit while running in order to prevent it from killing him. After remembering his experiences on an alternate Earth during a fight with Griffin, he began to gain a measure of control over the Speed Force before it was released from his body just prior to his death.