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Quote1 Iris West is a cosmopolitan journalist. She loves secrets. Discovery. Risks. She will be thrilled. Quote2
Wonder Woman src

Iris West-Allen is the wife of the second Flash, Barry Allen, and aunt to the third, Wally West. She is a reporter for the Central City news outlet Picture News.

Iris was born in the 30th century to Eric and Fran Russell and sent to the 20th century as an infant, where she was raised by the West family.[1] Although that she was never told that she was adopted, she always suspected it.

Because of her curiosity about the truth of her origins, she grew up digging for the truth. She was an award-winning writer for her high school newspaper. She went to Columbia University and had an internship at the Daily Planet.

After college, she began to travel the world using patent royalties from her father's many inventions. After her exclusive photos of the Markovian riots, she found it easy to get assignments as a freelancer.

However, she needed a break and moved to Central City, where she got a job as a reporter for the Picture News. After many unsuccessful relationships, she met police scientist Barry Allen while reporting a suspected murder that he was investigating, and they began to go out. She was charmed by his honesty and stability. One night, Barry proposed to her while riding on the Ferris wheel at Central City Amusement Park.

Their wedding day was disrupted by Professor Zoom, who had switched places with Barry, and almost married Iris instead. However, the Flash was able to stop them, and their wedding went on.[2]

Although he would not tell her for another year, Iris learned of Barry's identity the night of their honeymoon as he talked in his sleep.[3] He had tried to hide the truth until he could be sure whether they could have children or not, being as he was not entirely sure whether he was human or not.

While looking through her father's things, Iris discovered a message from her true parents, telling of how they sent her to the 20th century from the future.[1] This was the first she had ever learned of her true origins, a fact which distanced her from her father for some time.

Reverse Flash 033

Killed by Professor Zoom

Barry and Iris were happily married for several years, but Professor Zoom was in love with her, too. One night, he went into the Allens' house and told Iris that she would either leave Barry for him or die. Zoom used a 25th century hypnotic device that wiped her memory of his visit and had her subconsciously decide whether she would leave Barry for Zoom. The next night, the Allens went to a masquerade party. Iris went as Batgirl. Zoom asked for a dance, and Iris flatly responded that she would never marry him even if she didn't love Barry so much. Iris led Barry, who had been drugged by Zoom's henchmen, into another room and went to get him some water. In the room that Iris entered was the deranged convict Clive Yorkin. Professor Zoom, hoping that Yorkin would be blamed for the murder, vibrated his hand at superspeed through Iris's skull, doing fatal damage to her brain molecules, causing her to die painlessly and instantly.[4][5]

Upon her death, Iris's biological parents used experimental time-travel technology to draw her life-force back to the 2900s. They gave her a new body to look like her original one and reunited her with Barry.[6]

After Barry left to fight in the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Iris had twin children, Don and Dawn Allen. They inherited some of Barry's speed and become the Tornado Twins. During her years in the 30th century, Iris also reprises her role as a reporter by doing some work for the Daily Planet.

Iris's grandson, Bart, was locked in superspeed, aging extremely rapidly. He was going to die of old age, and Earthgov didn't care. So Iris's parents helped her and Bart go into the timestream and travel to the 20th century so that Bart could get help from his cousin, Wally West, who also had superspeed as a youngster.

Iris disappeared for a while because she felt out of place in the 20th century. She contacted Johnny Quick at a country diner and tried to warn him of his upcoming battle with Savitar, but he did not heed her. Afraid to change the future by giving vital information about the present, Iris refused to go into the details of how Savitar could be defeated, but finally Linda Park and Jenni Ognats convinced her to tell them the key to Savitar's defeat, which was to give him want he wanted: to be one with the Speed Force.

Iris again disappeared. This time she was kidnapped by Polaris and Abra Kadabra and forced to write everything she knew about the future so that they could have a "roadmap into tomorrow" for their plan of world conquest.

After this incident, Iris left to someplace where no one would find her so that she could concentrate on writing the book The Life Story of the Flash, which was published by Keystone Press in 1997.

In a visit to the future, Iris learned of her grandson's death.[7] Hoping to prevent it, she found Zoom in ancient Rome and hired him to attack her Bart.[8] She explained to Bart that she was trying to protect him from Inertia and the army of Rogues he had put together.[9] When he went to fight them, she drafted Valerie Perez, Bart's ex-girlfriend and expert on the Speed Force, to deactivate a device Inertia had built to transfer the Speed Force from Bart to himself.[10] Despite her efforts to help him, Bart's death proved to be inevitable, as he sacrificed himself distracting the Rogues long enough for Val to prevent Inertia's machine from detonating and killing millions.[7]

Following the murder of Orion, Jay Garrick revealed that he and Wally had been investigating his death when they discovered Metron's Mobius Chair, when it became a boom tube focus that Barry Allen came out of. Though Jay couldn't keep up with Wally and Barry for long, it was long enough for Jay to confirm that this was the Barry Allen from their reality.[11]. Unfortunately, Darkseid soon released the Anti-Life Equation over the media, enslaving everyone who saw it, Iris among them. When Barry and Wally finally stopped running, they went to Iris' home, where Barry was able to break the Equation's hold over Iris with a kiss, briefly enveloping Iris with the Speed Force. Iris wept at the sight of Barry, who reassured her everything would be okay.[12] Barry and Wally went to defeat Darkseid while Iris was left with Jay Garrick for protection.[13] Iris was finally reunited with Barry in the aftermath of the Final Crisis.[14]

After her husband's return to life, Iris fully returns to her life alongside the Flash Family. She also returns to her old job as a crime reporter.


Abilities


Transportation

  • Temporal Transport: device capable of moving its user through space and time [10]


  • Although this character was originally introduced during DC's Earth-One era of publication, their existence following the events of the 1985–86 limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths remains intact. However, some elements of the character's Pre-Crisis history may have been altered or removed for Post-Crisis New Earth continuity, and should be considered apocryphal.

Related

External Links

Footnotes


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Daily Planet Staff member
This character is or was an employee of the Daily Planet, a daily newspaper based in Metropolis. This template will categorize articles that include it into the "Daily Planet Staff members" category.

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