The Flash is on the rise. With a popular and acclaimed TV show, a burgeoning film franchise, and a well-received comic series, DC Comics’ Scarlet Speedster’s star is brighter than its ever been before.
The Flash doesn’t have quite the popularity of Batman, Superman, or Wonder Woman, but he’s well on his way to joining or maybe even eclipsing them. Anyone who knows or loves superheroes knows, or at least is aware of, The Flash.
All of that popularity can come with a downside. The more mainstream The Flash becomes, the more misinformation and confusion can be spread about him.
The Flash isn’t just one of DC’s most famous heroes – he’s also one of the oldest.
There’s a lot of information about The Flash out there and, consequently, there’s a lot different ways to get bewildered about his backstory, abilities, and just any other part of his many adventures.
So we’ve made an effort to cut through some of the nonsense about Crimson Comet. We obviously haven’t covered every misconception about The Flash that has ever existed, but we’ve tried to hit the big ones.
These are the alternative facts that don’t seem to go away when it comes to The Flash with a few very bizarre tidbits thrown in for flavor.
Here are the 25 Things Everyone Gets Wrong About The Flash.
Barry Allen was the First Flash
Barry Allen has become synonymous with The Flash thanks to his CW show and his long run in the comics.
However, Barry Allen isn’t the first man to ever wear The Flash speed suit. Barry has replaced him in popularity but the first fastest man alive was Jay Garrick.
Debuting in 1940, Jay Garrick received his speed powers inhaling hard water vapors while taking a smoke break.
Jay with his Hermes-like helmet served as The Flash throughout World War II until he and most of comics fell out of favor.
In that time, though, he helped found the Justice Society of America, the precursor to the Justice League.
Barry Created the Flash Name
Speaking of Jay, it’s important to point out that there’s not a whole lot about Barry as The Flash that is original. Barry even lifted the name of The Flash directly from Jay Garrick.
In Barry Allen’s origins, he grew up reading the adventures of Jay Garrick as The Flash in comics. When Barry got his powers, took Jay’s name as inspiration.
It wouldn’t be until later that Barry discovered that Jay Garrick was a real person who lived on another Earth.
Once Barry did discover Jay’s existence, the original Flash went from fictional mentor to real one with Jay becoming the granddad of The Flash family.
He Was Always Going to Have a Spin-Off
Barry Allen made his Arrowverse debut in the Arrow season 2 episode, “The Scientist”.
Barry’s appearance in that episode set up his own spin-off and led to the creation of the CW superhero multiverse.
It’s almost unfathomable to imagine a world where Arrow is the only superhero show on The CW but that could’ve been the case.
The plan was for The Flash to spin out of Arrow. However, if The Flash had failed, for whatever reason, Barry Allen was going to join Arrow as a series regular.
Going into Arrow season 7, Team Arrow is already rather large but it evidently includes a certain skinny speedster in another reality.
There’s Two Wally Wests
The classic image of Wally West is as a spunky red-headed teen. So in 2014, when DC Comics introduced a young biracial Wally West, whose father was a supervillain, it seemed like the publisher was replacing the classic Wally.
This perception continued even when DC brought an older red-headed Wally in DC Rebirth leading many to believe the two Wally’s were different versions of the exact same character. This isn’t the case.
The two Wally’s are cousins who have the same exact name but are two separate entities with distinct backstories and personalities.
The younger Wally even goes by Wallace to further differentiate himself.
Wally West Was Erased from History
Another misconception that launches off the two Wally’s is that the original Wally was erased from existence.
When DC Comics rebooted their universe with the New 52, there was no sign of Wally, any Wally, in sight.
Barry never mentioned his nephew and none of Wally’s closest superhero friends talked about him at all.
In the event DC Rebirth the truth of the missing Wally came to life. Wally hadn’t been erased from existence but trapped in the Speed Force by a mysterious being.
No one remembered Wally because their memories had been erased, but Wally’s entire history still existed.
Wally was, and always will be, the first Kid Flash, a founding member of the Teen Titans and the successor to the Flash.
Barry Only has One Origin Story
The CW made Barry’s tragic backstory commonplace. Barry’s father, Henry, was wrongly convicted of a crime he didn’t commit; taking the life of his wife Nora.
Barry grew up determined to prove his father’s innocence and fight the real culprit. It’s a compelling story but it’s a very recent addition to The Flash’s long history.
When Barry first debuted in 1956, he was a perfectly normal forensic scientist with no tragic childhood.
It’s only in 2009 with The Flash: Rebirth that comic writer Geoff Johns changed history and The Flash’s upbringing.
Johns wrote Barry’s origins into being and even explained why no one had mentioned it before by revealing that the Reverse Flash had rewritten the timeline.
Iris West is Completely Normal
Iris West (or Iris West-Allen) is one of the most famous love interests in comic books. As the partner of Barry Allen, Iris is fearless and complements her speedy husband (or boyfriend) perfectly.
Iris is constantly looking for the truth and searching from all angles. It’s easy to view Iris as a ruthless reporter but an otherwise unremarkable human. Iris might be human but her comic backstory is bananas.
In the comics, Iris was born in the future, the 30th century to be exact. She was sent into the past for her safety, like Kal-El on Krypton, and was raised by an adoptive family.
The comics came up with this convoluted backstory in order to resurrect Iris after an untimely demise. Thankfully, The CW didn’t adopt either story for their Iris.
Barry’s an Only Child
The CW made Barry’s family situation a little complicated by having him become effectively adopted by Joe West and raised alongside his future wife, Iris.
However, this is small potatoes to Barry Allen’s comic childhood. Barry doesn’t just have a twin in the comics, but an evil twin.
It was revealed in the late ’90s that Barry Allen’s mother gave birth to twins.
However, because the delivery doctor inadvertedly caused a baby of another mother to be stillborn, he lied to Barry’s parents and split the twins up.
Barry was raised by his parents but his twin brother, Malcolm, was raised by a con artist couple named Thawne.
Malcolm was twisted by his adoptive parents and eventually turned into the supervillain Cobalt Blue and launched centuries long feud between the Thawne and Allen families.
Barry’s Family Tree Makes Complete Sense
Malcolm is just the tip of Barry’s crazy family tree iceberg though. Fans might recognize the name Thawne as the name of the Reverse Flash and Malcolm is a predecessor of Eobard Thawne but things get way more insane than that.
When Barry realized Iris was from the future, he went to go live with her in that time period. The two had a whole family in the 30th century.
They even gave birth to twins, Don and Dawn. The former of which married Meloni Thawne. In other word’s Barry’s son married the future relative of his twin brother.
Don and Meloni’s marriage ended a Thawne / Allen blood feud and created a son, Bart Allen.
To make things extra nose bleed worth Bart eventually traveled to the present. He served as Kid Flash, centuries before he was born, and was effectively raised by Jay Garrick.
There Can Only Be One Flash
It’s pretty common knowledge that multiple men have served as The Flash and if you didn’t know that by now you obviously haven’t been reading this list.
The Flash being passed around to multiple people isn’t a new comic book convention. Plenty of characters have shared the same superhero title.
The unique thing about The Flash is there’s almost always been multiple Flashes at the same exact time.
First there was Jay Garrick and Barry Allen, but when Wally West took over the mantle of Flash from Barry he worked alongside Jay.
At one point, Jay, Wally and Barry were all “The Flash.” Bart Allen even became The Flash for a time when Wally and Jay were active too.
The Flash is less a name and more a title.
He’s Not That Important to DC History
The Flash’s popularity is growing but he’s not widely recognized as the top tier of DC heroes. In truth The Flash is vital not only to DC Comics but comics history has a whole.
It was Barry Allen’s creation and debut that ushered in the Silver Age of comics.
After, World War II comics fell out of favor and popularity. The Golden Age of comics ended right as the War began to wrap up.
Barry Allen debut as The Flash was so successful in 1956 that it brought the medium back to life.
It inspired other characters, like Batman and Superman, to receive updated versions as well. Without Flash, superheroes may not even exist.
Batman is a Better Detective
Speaking of Batman, the broody Dark Knight has the nickname of The World’s Greatest Detective. Batman is a certifiable genius and uses his brains as well as his brawn to fight crime.
Batman’s detective skills can’t be denied, but according to the man himself, he’s not without equal. The Flash is just as good a detective as Batman.
Batman respects The Flash’s skills as forensic scientist and a detective. Bruce Wayne believes that Barry Allen equals if not succeeds him in figuring out a mystery.
This is because Barry is able to be a lot more open-minded and less pessimistic than the man who still can’t get over how his parents were taken from him as a young child.
His Powers Stop at Speed
The Flash doesn’t get dunked on quite as much as Aquaman for having specialized power set. Yet the scarlet speedster does get a bit of bum rap for just being able to go fast and that’s it.
In actuality, The Flash’s skills go far beyond speed, even if most of them do revolve around it.
The Flash can manipulate the molecules in objects resulting in their possible explosion and can create a shield around himself and others.
He even thinks faster than the average person resulting in a resistance to telepathy and mind control. The Flash is so much more than the red guy that goes fast.
Superman is Just as Fast
Another common insult thrown at The Flash is that Superman can do everything he can do and bit a more to boot.
The Man of Steel is, after all, faster than a speeding bullet. This belief is just plain wrong. The Flash has several powers than Superman doesn’t but even more importantly The Flash is significantly faster than Superman.
In certain continuities the answer might change. In the DCEU and the Arrowverse, no knows if The Flash is faster than a Kryptonian.
However,in the mainline comic book timline, The Flash has proven several times that he can leave Superman in his lightning dust if he truly wants it to happen.
Superman is fast, but The Flash is extraordinary.
Quicksilver is Faster
Superman isn’t the only superhero who The Flash’s speed gets compared to often. Quicksilver of The X-Men is Marvel’s main speedster and as such he often gets pitted against The Flash in the mind of fans.
Quicksilver’s debut fight scene in X-Men: Days of Future Past is certainly equal to anything The Flash has done on-screen, in TV or film.
That scene, while excellent, shouldn’t fool anyone. Quicksilver is no competition for The Flash.
Quicksilver’s most notable achievement is clearing the speed of light. The Flash, on the other hand, has gone nearly 10 times that speed.
The Flash is capable of going 6 billion miles an hour. Quicksilver’s never even imagined such speed. The Flash wouldn’t just beat Quicksilver in a footrace, he’d annihilate him.
His Best Friend is Vibe
This might be a little bit of a cheat because in The CW show, Cisco Ramon AKA Vibe is Barry Allen’s best friend. The Flash has been explicit several times about the depth of connection between Vibe and The Flash.
The friendship between the two is heart-warming but only exists in the TV show. In the comics Vibe and Flash have barely interacted let alone become close friends.
Whoever is The Flash’s best friend depends on who is the man behind the mask. For Barry Allen, he’s closest with Hal Jordan, otherwise known as the Green Lantern.
For Wally West, he’s BFF is Nightwing AKA Dick Grayson. The only constant when comes to Flash’s bestie is that Vibe isn’t even in the top ten.
He’s the Only Hero Who Can Travel Time and Space
One of The Flash’s most notable powers is that he can move so fast that he can travel through time and dimensions. The Flash’s speed literally opens up whole new worlds for him.
In the Arrowverse, The Flash’s command over both time and space is unique to just him. In the comics and maybe even the DCEU, things are quite different.
Cyborg’s cybernetic enhancements allow him to open portals to different dimensions, Superman has been known to time travel on occasion and a fair number of DC’s New Gods have control of the time-space continuum.
The Flash is often asked to used his time travel and dimensional powers, but he’s not all that special.
Barry Allen is the Fastest Man Alive
Don’t be too confused here. The Flash is the fastest man alive. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean the most famous Flash, Barry, is the fastest.
The matter of who is the fastest Flash often changes depending on continuity and the various writers. Currently though Wally West has been confirmed to be faster than Barry Allen.
This even extends to the universe of the TV show where that Kid Flash was said to be faster than his brother-in-law.
Even in the years past, Barry’s grandson Bart surpassed him in Speed Force ability. Barry might be the most recognizable Flash but he’s not the best.
The Flash Didn’t Create the Speed Force
The Speed Force is, without a doubt, one of the strangest elements of the DC Universe. Many writers have added or taken away elements of the Speed Force so that it’s become this unknowable and highly confusing enigma.
The Speed Force is endless and exists outside of time. It seems so much larger than any one Flash but Barry Allen is, in fact, the Speed Force’s creator.
When Barry Allen was turned into The Flash, that event created the Speed Force. Even though that’s a fixed moment in time, once created the Speed Force exists throughout time, before and also after The Flash’s creation.
It doesn’t make sense but that’s time travel for you. The bottom line is that The Flash created the Speed Force.
He’s Always Worn Red
Unlike many superheroes, The Flash’s costume hasn’t changed all that much. Since Barry Allen’s debut in the 1950s, The Flash has most stayed clad in a red bodysuit.
Red and The Flash just go together and that’s resulted in many of the character’s nicknames from the Scarlet Speedster to the Crimson Comet. The Flash hasn’t always worn red though.
In the DC Comics event Blackest Night, Barry Allen became deputized by the Blue Lantern Corps. The Blue Lanterns represent hope and this turned Barry Allen’s whole outfit to a very calming shade of blue.
In an alternate future, Barry went evil and wore an all-blue but much less soothing suit. The Blue Flash(es) were short-lived lived but still broke up Barry’s mono-color scheme.
