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Barry Allen AI simulator
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Barry Allen
Bartholomew Henry "Barry" Allen is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. He is the second character known as the Flash, following Jay Garrick. The character first appeared in Showcase #4 (October 1956), created by writer Robert Kanigher and penciler Carmine Infantino. A forensic chemist, Barry accidentally gains superpowers following a lightning strike in his laboratory. Like other heroes who go by the Flash, Barry is a "speedster", with powers that derive mainly from his superhuman speed. He wears a distinct red and gold costume treated to resist friction and wind, traditionally storing the costume compressed inside a ring.
Created as a reimagining of the popular 1940s superhero The Flash (Jay Garrick), the success of Barry Allen's Flash comic book helped to bring about the Silver Age of Comic Books and contributed to a large growth in DC Comics' stable of science fiction comics and characters. During popular early volumes as the Flash, Barry established his own Rogues Gallery of colorful villains and sci-fi concepts like Gorilla City. Through crossovers with popular characters like Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman, Barry Allen's Flash also helped establish DC's flagship Justice League title, whose success would define its publishing strategy for decades to come.
Barry Allen's classic stories also introduced the concept of the Multiverse to DC Comics, which has played a large part in DC's many continuity reboots over the years. As a result, the Flash has traditionally always had a significant role in DC's major company-wide crossover stories, and in the crossover Crisis on Infinite Earths #8 (November 1985), Barry Allen died saving the Multiverse and would not appear again for 23 years. His return to regular comics is foreshadowed during Grant Morrison's crossover story Final Crisis #2 (June 2008), preceding his full return in Geoff Johns' accompanying The Flash: Rebirth (June 2009) limited series. He has since played a pivotal role in the crossover stories like Blackest Night (2009), Flashpoint (2011), Convergence (2015), DC Rebirth (2016), Doomsday Clock (2017–2019), Infinite Frontier (2021), and Absolute Power (2024).
Barry Allen is an established pop culture icon and has been featured in several media, first appearing in animated form in the 1967 The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure and then in the related Super Friends program. Since then he has appeared in several DC Universe Animated Original Movies. Actor John Wesley Shipp portrayed the character in the live-action 1990s television show The Flash and the Arrowverse. The character was portrayed by Grant Gustin in the Arrowverse shows in a main capacity, especially the 2014 television series The Flash, while Ezra Miller portrayed the character in the DC Extended Universe films Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad, Justice League, the director's cut Zack Snyder's Justice League, the Arrowverse event Crisis on Infinite Earths, the HBO Max series Peacemaker, and the 2023 film The Flash.
While the fictional "in world" history of the character known as "The Flash" has been written and rewritten many times as DC Comics rebooted their fictional worlds again and again, the publication history of the character has followed a different path, not (quite) so prone to rewriting.
The Flash, Barry Allen (the name Bartholomew was not used until much later), first appeared in print in Showcase #4 (October 1956). The creative team on Showcase #4 consisted of Julie Schwartz (editor), Robert Kanigher (writer), Carmine Infantino (penciler, i.e., illustrator), and Joe Kubert (inker, i.e., assistant illustrator). Robert Kanigher is on record as saying he still considers Gardner Fox as "the creator of The Flash", and his creation of Barry Allen is a reworking of that original work. As a result, no one name is easily identifiable as the character's creator.
Fox's superhero, "The Flash" first appeared in Flash Comics #1 in 1940. In this story the man in the costume (he wore no mask) was named Jay Garrick. He rose in popularity and appeared in four comic book titles.
After World War II, superheroes declined in popularity, causing many of the Flash's comic book series to be canceled. All-Flash was canceled in 1948 after 32 issues and Comic Cavalcade became a talking animal humor book. Flash Comics was canceled in 1949 after 104 issues. All-Star Comics was canceled in 1951 after 57 issues, marking Garrick's last Golden Age appearance.
Barry Allen
Bartholomew Henry "Barry" Allen is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. He is the second character known as the Flash, following Jay Garrick. The character first appeared in Showcase #4 (October 1956), created by writer Robert Kanigher and penciler Carmine Infantino. A forensic chemist, Barry accidentally gains superpowers following a lightning strike in his laboratory. Like other heroes who go by the Flash, Barry is a "speedster", with powers that derive mainly from his superhuman speed. He wears a distinct red and gold costume treated to resist friction and wind, traditionally storing the costume compressed inside a ring.
Created as a reimagining of the popular 1940s superhero The Flash (Jay Garrick), the success of Barry Allen's Flash comic book helped to bring about the Silver Age of Comic Books and contributed to a large growth in DC Comics' stable of science fiction comics and characters. During popular early volumes as the Flash, Barry established his own Rogues Gallery of colorful villains and sci-fi concepts like Gorilla City. Through crossovers with popular characters like Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman, Barry Allen's Flash also helped establish DC's flagship Justice League title, whose success would define its publishing strategy for decades to come.
Barry Allen's classic stories also introduced the concept of the Multiverse to DC Comics, which has played a large part in DC's many continuity reboots over the years. As a result, the Flash has traditionally always had a significant role in DC's major company-wide crossover stories, and in the crossover Crisis on Infinite Earths #8 (November 1985), Barry Allen died saving the Multiverse and would not appear again for 23 years. His return to regular comics is foreshadowed during Grant Morrison's crossover story Final Crisis #2 (June 2008), preceding his full return in Geoff Johns' accompanying The Flash: Rebirth (June 2009) limited series. He has since played a pivotal role in the crossover stories like Blackest Night (2009), Flashpoint (2011), Convergence (2015), DC Rebirth (2016), Doomsday Clock (2017–2019), Infinite Frontier (2021), and Absolute Power (2024).
Barry Allen is an established pop culture icon and has been featured in several media, first appearing in animated form in the 1967 The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure and then in the related Super Friends program. Since then he has appeared in several DC Universe Animated Original Movies. Actor John Wesley Shipp portrayed the character in the live-action 1990s television show The Flash and the Arrowverse. The character was portrayed by Grant Gustin in the Arrowverse shows in a main capacity, especially the 2014 television series The Flash, while Ezra Miller portrayed the character in the DC Extended Universe films Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad, Justice League, the director's cut Zack Snyder's Justice League, the Arrowverse event Crisis on Infinite Earths, the HBO Max series Peacemaker, and the 2023 film The Flash.
While the fictional "in world" history of the character known as "The Flash" has been written and rewritten many times as DC Comics rebooted their fictional worlds again and again, the publication history of the character has followed a different path, not (quite) so prone to rewriting.
The Flash, Barry Allen (the name Bartholomew was not used until much later), first appeared in print in Showcase #4 (October 1956). The creative team on Showcase #4 consisted of Julie Schwartz (editor), Robert Kanigher (writer), Carmine Infantino (penciler, i.e., illustrator), and Joe Kubert (inker, i.e., assistant illustrator). Robert Kanigher is on record as saying he still considers Gardner Fox as "the creator of The Flash", and his creation of Barry Allen is a reworking of that original work. As a result, no one name is easily identifiable as the character's creator.
Fox's superhero, "The Flash" first appeared in Flash Comics #1 in 1940. In this story the man in the costume (he wore no mask) was named Jay Garrick. He rose in popularity and appeared in four comic book titles.
After World War II, superheroes declined in popularity, causing many of the Flash's comic book series to be canceled. All-Flash was canceled in 1948 after 32 issues and Comic Cavalcade became a talking animal humor book. Flash Comics was canceled in 1949 after 104 issues. All-Star Comics was canceled in 1951 after 57 issues, marking Garrick's last Golden Age appearance.