It all began back in 1938 when student Jay Garrick accidentally inhaled fumes from an experimental version of hard water. After a week long coma the young man awoke to find that the fumes had caused a change in his physiology granting him the ability of superspeed. Like Max Mercury before him and dozens after him Garrick had tapped into the mysterious Speed Force - an extra dimensional energy field that lies beyond light speed. With his new found superspeed Jay Garrick created a costumed identity and became the original Flash. He was a member of the legendary Justice Society and the All Star Squadron. Jay retired from public life when the JSA disbanded in the early fifties, but when the lightning called he would still don his costume to run with the wind.
It was 1956 Eisenhower had just been re-elected, Sudan had gained its independence and Jay Garrick was still occasionally popping up as the Flash in his home city of Keystone City, right across the river from its sister city - Central City. A master plan by three criminals (the Shade, the Fiddler and the Thinker) trapped all of Keystone City in a vibratory field that displaced it from the normal Space-Time continuum, removing it from both the memories and sight of normal people. The original Flash drifted from the minds of people over the decades but one person remembered, Barry Allen remembered!
Barry Allen was born one of twins on a stormy night during a power outage. His twin brother was taken at birth by a corrupt doctor and switched for the stillborn child of another family. Barry would never know or suspect that he had a twin brother. Malcolm (his brother) would grow up in poverty hating and despising his adopted family and his real brother, in time he would become the criminal Cobalt Blue. Therefore Barry grew up on his own in a small Iowa farming community. He was friends with few other children in the area and devoted much of his time to his twin passions in life, chemistry and comicbooks.
Since childhood Barry collected comics based on the adventures of the Jay Garrick as the Flash. When Keystone City faded from memory the comics remained and Barry remained as enthralled as ever. His other passion, chemistry, would allow Barry to win a scholarship to Sun City University. He majored in organic chemistry and minored in criminology. He graduated near the top of his class and fell straight into a job with the Central City Police Scientific Detection Unit. However Barry had one failing . He was the slowest person on the face of the planet, no matter the appointment or event. For work or on dates with his long time girlfriend Iris West he was late. Normally people would have held a grudge, but that was never really possible against Barry, he was one of the most brave and noble persons that it was possible to meet.
Barry was always one step behind the rest of the world. That altered while he was working late at the laboratory when a bolt of lightning from the future struck the window. The lightning earthed itself via the quickest possible route - an exploding chemical cabinet and the nearby Barry Allen. The random concoction of electricity and chemicals left little obvious effect until he was forced to run for a date with Iris. He started accelerating, and kept getting faster and faster, easily out pacing the taxi that he had been chasing. Barry realised that he had gained the ability of superspeed just like his idol Jay Garrick. But Garrick was just a memory from the old comics so Barry decided in homage to become a new Flash..
Barry was foremost a scientist and with his analytical mind he was able to create a special resilient fabric that when exposed to nitrogen in the air expanded to normal size. He used this to tailor a costume that was small enough to fit inside a special signet ring - yet would expand to full size when needed. He had the identity, he had the costume all that was needed were the threats. This was easily supplied by a pantheon of costumed criminals that easily matched those of Batman's rogues gallery.
They became known as the Rogues Gallery - Weather Wizard, Captain Boomerang, Mirror Master I, Captain Cold, Heatwave, the Pied Piper and the Trickster. Each of them had invented or stumbled onto a super-science weapon, they could have ruled the would, but instead they contended themselves with knocking over banks and jewellery stores. The Rogues Gallery were in some way the lesser of Barry's enemies. Of the those that were really dangerous the toughest were the intelligent simian Gorilla Grodd, the future magician Abra kadabra and Barry's opposite number, Eobard Thawne, Professor Zoom the Reverse-Flash.
The popular nature and respectability of Barry made the Flash a household name across the country. Central City proudly claimed on its signs that it was "The home of the Flash". Fan clubs sprung up across the country and even a tourist attraction - the A HREF="javascript:a2zWindow('flashmuseum.html');">Flash Museum - was set up to chronicle the adventures of the Flash. One of the many fan clubs existed in Blue Valley, Nebraska. Its president was Wally West, nephew of Iris. When Barry met Wally he saw in him the same idolisation that he had for the original Flash and so "arranged" for Wally to meet the second Flash.
When the fateful day came Wally met the Flash at Barry's laboratory and the two talked about the origin of the Flash. Wally asked if the same thing would ever happen to him and was promptly answered when lightning struck twice transformed Wally into Kid Flash. Originally wearing a fitted version of Barry's costume Wally became the companion of Barry and a founding member of the Teen Titans. Barry was not idle himself and was principal in the first appearance of Aquaman before joining the Justice League. Shortly after joining the League Barry encountered the world's famous Elongated Man - Ralph Dibny and the two became fast friends. However Barry's best friend was Green Lantern Hal Jordan. The two were as different as chalk and cheese, together they became one of the legendary pairings of those simpler times.
Barry's fame continued to rise and one night he found himself standing in for the entertainment at a charity event and started to show the children one particularly impressive stunt that involved vibrating his body at a certain frequency. It was in this vibration state that Barry found himself able to hear strains of strange music. Tracking down the music Barry arrived at the river front and tried the vibration trick once more. To his astonishment he found that he was now "in-tune" with the sleeping city of Keystone. Quickly deducing that it was the home of his "fictional" inspiration Barry tracked down Jay and helped him throw off the vibratory sleep. Together for the first time the Flashes of the two cities defeated the gang of super villains and managed to destroy the equipment that was holding Keystone out of step with the rest of the world. The illusion was lifted and inhabitants of the two cities were reunited.
Up until this point Barry had kept his secret identity from Iris, partially out of fear for her safety. When aliens exposed his secret identity to the world he was forced to use time travel to undo the effect. However before everybody forgot Iris made him promise to tell her his secret on their wedding night. Zoom returned just before Barry was to marry Iris and imprisoned him in order to impersonate Barry so that he might marry Iris himself. However Barry managed to break free of the trap, defeat Zoom and marry Iris without her even realising that he was the Flash. She only learned that he was the Flash when he revealed it to her by talking in his sleep (subconsciously keeping his promise).
The reason for Barry's conscious silence was that he feared for what he had become. No human body could normally withstand the velocities and forces that he was regularly exposed to as the Flash and he feared that he might no longer be fully human. After a series of medical tests put his mind at rest he revealed his identity to Iris. They talked it out and became even closer than before. The following year Iris discovered that she was actually from the 30th century sent back in time as an infant in order to spare her from almost certain nuclear war.
Zoom tried again to get Iris to leave Barry and when she refused he murdered her. After an extensive investigation Zoom's involvement in her murder was revealed. He and Barry battling in a superspeed duel with Barry managing to defeat Zoom by trapping him outside the timestream. Eventually Barry tried to rebuild his life and fell in love with another woman - Fiona Web - but on their wedding day Zoom returned. In order to save Fiona's life Barry was forced to kill Zoom. The Flash stood trial for murder. Barry Allen had never shown up for the wedding and was presumed dead, Fiona had a nervous breakdown and Flash decided to let the world think that his secret identity was dead rather than cause Fiona any more grief.
As the trial continued the villain Abra Kadabra hijacked the trial forcing it to declare a guilty verdict against Barry. However with the help of the Rogues Gallery (who had also been threatened by Kadabra) Barry managed to stop the villain. During the course it was revealed that Iris was actually alive and well in the 30th century and that her spirit had been put into a body created using 30th century technology. Barry opted to stay in the 30th century with Iris while evidence that would clear him was sent back to the twentieth century.
Barry lived with Iris in the 30th century for a brief month. He had one last team-up with Wally West, who had taken up the Flash mantle in his absence. Together with Jay they battled the spirit of Cobalt Blue (his own brother) who was out for revenge against the Flash dynasty. Wally was forced to throw himself into the Speed Force and Hypertime in order to stop Cobalt Blue murdering Barry. Shortly afterwards the Crisis came to the 30th century. The Flash was captured by the agents on the Anti-Monitor and subjected to psychological torture by the Psycho Pirate II. He was transferred to the world of Qward and held in a gelatine like prison that negated his superspeed. By varying his superspeed vibrations he was able to disrupt the containment and easily beat the Psycho Pirate into submission and forced him to manipulated the Qwardians into attacking the Anti-Monitor.
With the distraction the Flash attacked the anti-matter cannon that the Anti-Monitor had been constructing to destroy the Earth. Barry started to circle the rotating core of the machine in the opposite direction draining its energy. Enraged the Anti-Monitor started to open a temporal portal around the Flash. Barry found himself running backwards through time. In the process he transformed himself into a bolt of pure energy that intersected with a certain cabinet of chemicals a decade before. He was the lightning bolt that triggered his entire career as the Flash. Barry Allen was survived by his wife Iris and unborn twins Don and Dawn.
