Barry Allen was born to Nora and Henry Allen in 1995, and grew up in Central City, Ohio. In 2004, his mother was killed and his father was wrongly accused of her murder and sent to prison. Barry then became obsessed with solving the case and one day proving his father's innocence, resulting in him growing up to become a forensic scientist.[2]
Barry Allen
In 2013, while interning at a university, Barry was struck by a bolt of lightning and doused in chemicals, which gave him a connection to the interdimensional Speed Force, allowing him to move, think, and act at superhuman speeds. Practicing his new abilities in Metropolis during a violent invasion by the KryptonianGeneral Zod, Barry was unable to save many people, fueling his obsessive drive to save everyone he could if possible. He later came to idolize the Kryptonian hero Kal-El, later known as "Superman", after he defeated Zod and stopped his invasion, an admiration that only grew when Superman sacrificed his life to save the planet from a Kryptonian monster two years later.[3][4][1]
By 2015, Barry had built a special red suit for himself and began using his speed to act as a vigilante and fight crime around his city, such as the thief Captain Boomerang. His lonely upbringing and social isolation made him very awkward but sweet and righteous, while the Speed Force connection made him rather hyperactive and excitable.[5]
Battling Steppenwolf
The "Red Streak" with the Justice League
In 2016, Barry was approached by Bruce Wayne, the head of Wayne Enterprises who revealed to Barry he was actually the genius and violent vigilante known as the Batman. He asked Barry to join the Justice League, a strike team comprised of powerful superheroes intent on defending Earth from an incoming alien invasion, to which he accepted without hesitation. By far the least experienced of the group, the team was led by the Batman and consisted of Barry, the bitter and closed off cyborg Victor Stone, the compassionate AmazonWonder Woman, and the gruff and cynical AtlanteanAquaman.
The team's mission was to hunt down the Mother Boxes, ancient devices left on Earth by the warlord Darkseid thousands of years earlier to terraform the planet and destroy all life if ever united, before Darkseid's general Steppenwolf could do just that. The team battled Steppenwolf and his forces, and retrieved one Mother Box while Steppenwolf got another. Realizing the team's power wasn't great enough to defeat him, Batman decided to use the Mother Box to resurrect Superman, hoping his immense power would be enough to defeat Steppenwolf and his forces.
Resurrecting Superman
After digging up Superman's body and bringing it to a Kryptonian ship, they used the power of the Mother Box and Barry's Speed Force lightning to bring him back to life. Unfortunately, Superman had lost all of his memories and saw the Justice League as a threat, and engaged them in battle. When he finally regained his memories and flew away, the Mother Box had been taken by Steppenwolf, and the scientist Silas Stone was left protecting the third and final Box at S.T.A.R. Labs, right next to the Kryptonian ship. Steppenwolf acquired the Box before the League could get to it and Silas was killed, but he was able to superheat the Box's metal to the point where it was easier for Victor to track.
The League tracked Steppenwolf down to an abandoned nuclear power plant in Russia, where they engaged him and his armies in the final battle for Earth's future. The Boxes had begun merging, but Barry figured he could use his speed to force them apart and allow Victor to plug into them and stop the merge. Barry began building up his speed by circling the plant as fast as he could, with Superman joining the fight as he did so. Unfortunately, couldn't build up enough speed in time and the merger was completed, destroying the facility and killing the entire League. Forced to vibrate incredibly fast to survive the deadly explosion, Barry pushed past the speed of light to turn back time as he ran, undoing the merger and the League's deaths, and allowing Victor to undo the merger and the League to kill Steppenwolf once and for all.[2]
Becoming the Flash
After Steppenwolf's attack, Bruce pulled some strings to get Barry hired at the Central City Police Department's crime lab as a forensic scientist. Barry spent his free time fighting crime, both alone and with the Justice League as well as exploring his abilities, which he was still discovering, with Victor Stone. He grew much more comfortable with the team, becoming close friends with Victor, Aquaman, and the Batman, eventually coming to consider the latter his best friend.[2][3]
Barry meets the Flash
In 2019, the godlike Anti-Monitor began destroying the wider multiverse, and Barry was trapped inside the Speed Force itself. He explored the Force until he met his Earth-1counterpart, who introduced himself as "The Flash". The two didn't have much time to talk before Barry was transported back to his universe, but he liked the other Barry's moniker so much that he began calling himself "The Flash" from that day forward.[6]
The Flash received further training from Batman, even getting a new suit from him and becoming a protege of sorts, and used his teachings to protect Central City from supervillains like Girder, Tarpit, and the Top. He also became closer with his coworkers at the police department, but through all of this, despite all his success and happiness, Barry never stopped fighting to prove his father's innocence.[7][8][9]
Rewriting the timeline
The Flash creates the alternate timeline
In 2022, the Flash discovered that he could use his abilities to go back in time and save his mother's life and stop his father from going to prison. He decided to do so, but through this action, he was accidentally created an an entirely new timeline, with both the future and the past severely different from his own. On his return trip to 2022, he accidentally arrived in 2013, where he discovered he had been successful and hisparents were both fine.
Meeting his younger self
Soon after, Barry met his younger self, mere minutes before he got his powers, and realized his younger self, who wasn't interning at the university in this timeline, needed to get his Speed Force connection if he ever wanted to get home. Barry brought 2013's Barry to the university, and positioned him in the manner he had been in in the original timeline, but their arguing caused the lightning bolt to pass through both Barrys at the same time, dousing them both in the chemicals and taking away the prime Barry's Speed Force connection, while giving the powers to the younger Barry.
The prime Barry then took the younger Barry to their apartment, and attempted to show him how to use his powers, but the younger Barry was too excitable and stubborn, and refused to listen, causing all sorts of chaos with his new abilities. Witnessing this, Barry began to realize how insufferable he could be to other people, and slowly became less talkative and more reserved as a result. Later, while talking to the younger Barry and his roommates, the original Barry realized how much history had been changed, and that heroes such as Aquaman and Wonder Woman didn't exist. With Superman nowhere to be found and General Zod's invasion set to happen in just a few days, Barry gave his Flash suit to the younger Barry and the two made their way to talk with this universe's Bruce Wayne to see if he could track down Superman.
Teaming up with the alternate Batman
They arrived to find a weary and apathetic Bruce, much older than the original timeline's, who had retired after successfully ridding his home of Gotham City of crime. When the prime Barry pleaded for his help, appealing to his humanity by reminding him of his parents, Bruce agreed to become Batman once more, and tracked down a Kryptonian being held in a Russian base in the Arctic Circle. Barry, the younger Flash, and Batman made their way to the base, where they broke in to find that instead of Superman, the Russians were holding his cousin, Kara Zor-El, who had been sent to protect the infant Kal-El from their dying planet. They rescued her and took her back to Wayne Manor, where she donned her Kryptonian suit and went out to face Zod alone.
Barry gets his powers back
Desperate to save the world where his mother was alive, Barry decided to recreate the accident that gave him his powers with the help of the alternate Bruce. Harnessing the lightning from a raging thunderstorm while strapped to a chair, Barry was electrocuted once again, and raised into the air by a returning Kara to to be struck again, giving him his powers back. His Speed Force connection restored, Barry suited up, with the younger Barry acquiring a new suit from Batman, and the four banded together as a makeshift Justice League, and prepared to attack Zod and his army in the desert.
The battle against Zod's army
The team made their way to the desert to confront Zod, and began a destructive battle that resulted in much bloodshed and carnage. They fought long and hard, but Kara and Batman both perished in the fight. Devastated, the two Flashes both ran back in time to save them, but discovered they still couldn't. The prime Barry recognized this as a fixed point and realized they had to let it go, but the younger Barry refused to give up, becoming so obsessive over the idea of saving his friends that he continued to try for so long that he aged into a bitter, elderly man. His future self met up with the two Flashes, and the alternate Flashes killed each other, leaving the prime Barry alone to stop the chaos before it began collapsing other worlds in the multiverse.
Barry says goodbye to his mother
Barry ran back in time once more to 2004, and undid the action that saved his mother, instead allowing her to die and restoring the timeline. He returned to 2022, heartbroken over letting his mother be murdered, but he realized that his tampering did still change the timeline, and new evidence emerged that cleared his father of all charges, allowing him to be released from prison. Now content and learning to let go, Barry began investigating this new timeline, realizing that while some things and people remained similar, such as Aquaman and his girlfriend, Iris West, other people, such as Bruce Wayne, had been drastically altered, and he would need time to adjust to the changes.[3]
Meeting the Midnight Circus
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In a horrific possible future of the original timeline, Superman's lover, Lois Lane was killed by an invading Darkseid, who then used the Anti-Life Equation to corrupt Superman's mind. With the Man of Steel on his side, Darkseid ravaged the world and killed most of the Justice League, with the Batman forming a small group of survivors to combat Darkseid and his forces, including the Flash. They attempted to fight Darkseid and Superman, but ultimately Batman was killed, and the Flash was forced to travel back in time to attempt to prevent this horrible future.
The Flash warns Bruce
The Flash ran back through time from this future with the intent to find the Justice League and help them protect Lois from Darkseid and prevent the apocalypse. However, he went back too far to 2015 and found only Bruce alone in the Batcave, so he simply told Bruce to bring everyone together, and continued traveling. This message from the Flash, combined with a vision he received of Earth's dark future likely caused by the Flash's journey, was what ultimately convinced Bruce to form the League in the first place.[2][1]
Powers and Abilities
Powers
Speed Force Conduit: After being struck by a bolt of lightning and doused with various chemicals, Barry gained access to an extra dimensional energy called the Speed Force, granting him superhuman speed among many other abilities.[2]
Barry is capable of moving at hypersonic speeds, greater than any normal human can perceive. His movement's are invisible to the naked eye and even high-tech cameras can only perceive his movements as a blur.[1] Flash's speed is superior to that of Kryptonians, and at his upper limits, he is capable of accelerating past the speed of light.[3]
Superhuman Reflexes: Barry's reaction time is augmented to superhuman levels even when he is not moving at superhuman speed. This allows him to view the world in slow motion from his own perception.[2]
Superhuman Agility. Barry's agility, balance, and bodily coordination are enhanced to superhuman levels. This allows him to easily maneuver and come to sudden stops without losing balance, while moving at superhuman speed.[1]
Superhuman Stamina: Barry's body can handle the stress of moving at superhuman speeds without getting tired or weak.[5]
Superhuman Durability: Barry is capable of resisting tremendous kinetic impact forces that could easily crush or kill a human, without suffering any serious external or internal injuries.[3]
Accelerated Healing: Due to his body's super metabolism, Barry is able to heal from injury at rates much faster than any normal human.[2]
Enhanced Senses: The Speed Force grants Barry enhanced senses that allow him to perceive the world at a rate attuned his reaction speed.[2] After gaining his powers, Barry stated that he could taste food more intense than before.[3]
Electrokinesis: While moving at super-speed, Barry generates bolts of lightning from his body that he draws from the Speed Force. This can cause nearby electronics to short-circuit, overload, or burst into sparks.[1] Barry generates so much energy while running, that he was forced to take breaks to discharge his energy, to avoid overcharging himself. However, he eventually upgraded his suit to dissipate his Speed Force energy as he runs, so he no longer would have to do this.[3]
Electro-Blast: Barry is capable of projecting his Speed Force lightning as powerful blasts from his hands. By interlocking his Speed Force energy currents with another speedster, Barry is also able to create a massive lightning burst.[3]
Energy Transference: Barry can also transfer his electricity to other conductible materials through touch, as well as use it to charge up devices.[2]
Molecular Acceleration: Barry can vibrate his own molecular structure at varying degrees for a number of purposes, by adjusting to different frequencies.[3]
Phasing: By vibrating his molecules on an atomic level, and by doing so at just the right frequency, he can allow himself to become momentarily intangible, and phase through objects.[3]
Intangibility: By accelerating his molecular frequency to a high enough degree, Barry can make his body intangible and allow projectiles to pass through him.[3]
Time-Travel: By accelerating past the speed of light, Barry is capable of using his powers to travel through time.[3]
Reality Alteration: By altering events in the past while time-traveling, Barry can unintentionally alter the present reality. This was displayed when Barry traveled back in time and saved his mother from being killed, and accidentally altered the entire universe, creating the Flashpoint timeline.[3]
Vortex Creations: Barry can use his speed to powerful create vortexes of wind.[3]
Multilingualism: Barry speaks his native English, and also claims to be fluent in American Sign Language.[2]
Music: Barry claims to be capable of playing the viola.[2]
Hand-to-Hand Combat (Basic): When Barry was desperate to learn how to fight, he received brief training from Batman.[7] Barry was also briefly trained by Captain Cold when he was trapped in the Midnight Circus.[10] Without his powers, Barry was capable of knocking out the Top with a right cross, when he was most vulnerable.[11]
Hyper-Metabolism: While moving at super speed, Barry burns calories much faster than a normal person, which requires him to consume large amounts of food.[2]
This character is or was an incarnation of or an ally of The Flash, and a member of the Flash Family of speedsters. This template will automatically categorize articles that include it into the "Flash Family members" category.
This character has been a member of the Justice League of America, or the Justice League in any of its various incarnations, sworn by a duty to act as guardians of America and the world by using their skills and/or superpowers to protect Earth from the clutches of both interstellar and domestic threats. This template will categorize articles that include it into the "Justice League of America members" category.
Not every problem has a solution. Sometimes we just have to let go. 
