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| If he's always processing at super speed, I wonder how bored he gets waiting for everyone to catch up? |
Remember that old rhyme “First is
the worst, second is the best, third is the one with hairy chest?” Well, the
first two parts of that seems to apply here with the Flash. Jay Garrick may be
the original, but I say with confidence that Barry Allen is the better
character, and more important to comic book history overall. Not saying he’s
not a good character, I’m just saying that Barry is simply better.
Before gaining his powers, Barry
Allen was a chemist working for the Police Department of Central City. A methodical
worker, he was known for great results but being painfully slow with his work.
He idolized the Flash. What’s this, I smell a life changing event that’ll turn
fan to hero. While working late at the police station, a freak, powerful storm
flung a lightning bolt into Allen’s lab. Dosed in electrically charged
chemicals, Allen found that he could move at near the speed of light. There it
is. Allen put a costume together, took up his hero’s moniker, and became a
superhero. He fought alongside other heroes like the current Green Lantern, Hal Jordan, and
Aquaman, Allen helped usher in the Silver Age of comic book superheroes. The
Flash served as a hero for many years, before retiring to the 30th
century with his wife. Super speed, you can do some crazy time travel stuff
with that superpower.
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| A great redesign of Flash's costume |
Allen’s retirement was short lived.
He seemingly met his end thirty years ago at the hands of the Anti-Monitor. The
immensely powerful machine set up an Anti-matter cannon and pointed it straight
at Earth. Knowing the Flash was the only super-being capable of travelling
between time and dimensions, the Anti-Monitor plucked the Flash from the future
and imprisoned him. Why the Anti-Monitor didn’t leave him in the Future to be
erased or something, I’ll never know. Flash escaped, and created a super speed
vortex to syphon the power away from the cannon. To reach the speed necessary,
Allen had to sacrifice his mass to go beyond the speed of light. Barry Allen’s
body was destroyed, and the left over energy warped back in time, becoming the
lightning bolt that struck Allen’s lab in the first place. That’s some crazy
Chicken/egg stuff right there.
Don’t worry, like all the greats he
comes back. Twenty-three years later. Can’t keep a good speedster down. After
helping save the multiverse for like the fifteenth, he was given the Hero’s
welcome from his friends and comrades. The “Final Crisis” story is far too long
to get into now, just know it was a big deal.
Barry Allen can move at immense
speeds, its been stated that if he works even muscle to the limit he can move
at 10x the speed of light. (Physics be damned!) He can create electrically
charged vortexes. (Tornadoes mixed with Lightning, how terrifying.) He can vibrate
his molecules so fast that he passes through solid objects. And, strangest of
all, he can use his speed to “speed-read” to temporarily store a huge amount of
information into his short term memory. When you move at physics defying speed,
you can do a lot with the thirty seconds that your average human’s short term
memory lasts.
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| Superman is the best at a lot of things, but my money's on the Flash. |
All of Barry’s powers are tied to
the Speed Force, an extra dimensional energy source that all DC speedsters are
connected to in some way. But, while most speedsters are merely connected to
it, Allen is said to be the source of it. Weird, considering Garrick was a
speedster before Allen was created, but it’s better to not over-analyze
everything.
Oh, he also has this ring that he keeps his costume inside. He pushed a the ring, and his costume fires out like an airbag. I wonder how he gets it back inside... Analysis for another time.
The first time this Flash hit the
small screen was in The Flash (1990-1991), portrayed by John Wesley Shipp. I’ve
never seen it, so I can’t really critique, but I do bring it up for a reason.
Shipp is set to portray the father of Barry Allen in the new The Flash TV
series.
He was a recurring character on the
Young Justice TV series. Like most of the “Big league” heroes Allen spends most
of his time off screen, unless working with his sidekick Kid Flash. He appears
in just about every Justice League related series, other than the Justice
League and Justice League Unlimited animated TV series.
He’s going to appear in the DC
movie universe, but it’s still a long way out before we know anything concrete.
Barry Allen will return to TV
October 7th with a new The Flash TV show, portrayed by Grant Gustin.
Previously Gustin portrayed the non-powered Barry Allen on Arrow. He did a good
job as the optimistic and heroic Allen, even without his powers. I hope his
show will be great.
This version of the Flash is by far
the best. I’ll get into it more when I do the post about why he is arguably the
most important character in comics, so I’ll keep this short. He’s optimistic,
kind hearted, courageous, and selfless. He’s willingly sacrificed himself for
the rest of humanity on a number of occasions. He kick’s a lot of ass in the
time it takes for most to blink. No matter how hard he gets smacked down, he
always stands up again. Sometimes in a flash, sometimes after a near three
decade wait, regardless, he always comes back. Next time, Flash 3.0 Wally West.
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| Superspeed Taser punch. Sounds painful. |
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_%28Barry_Allen%29
http://www.vancouverfilm.net/2014/05/more-images-from-flash.html
http://theflash.wikia.com/wiki/File:Superman_Clark_Kent_vs_The_Flash_Barry_Allen.jpg
http://www.ign.com/top/comic-book-heroes/49
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