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Characters / The Flash: Barry Allen

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The Flash Main Character Index
Title Character
The Flashes (Barry Allen | Wally West)
Supporting Characters
The Flash Family | Other Speedsters
Rogues Gallery
Evil Speedsters | The Reverse-Flashes (Eobard Thawne | Hunter Zolomon) | The Rogues

Bartholomew Henry "Barry" Allen/The Flash II

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/flash_2010_1.jpg
Click here to see his New 52 appearance

Alter Ego: Bartholomew Henry "Barry" Allen

Species: Metahuman

First Appearance: Showcase #4 (October 1956)

"Every second is a gift."

While working in the lab late at night, forensic scientist Barry Allen was doused with chemicals and struck by lightning, this freak accident imbuing him with incredible super-speed. Inspired by the legacy of Jay Garrick, he donned his famous red spandex and became the Scarlet Speedster, the Sultan of Speed—the Flash. Barry had a years-long flirtation with Iris West that culminated in their marriage. He also became mentor to Iris' nephew, Wally West, his sidekick Kid Flash. Barry was a founding member of the Justice League of America and one of the world's greatest superheroes.

An active time traveler, Barry spent a few years living in the 30th century, where he and Iris had two children who became the Tornado Twins. They in turn each had a super-speedster child of their own—Barry's grandchildren, Impulse and XS. Barry was one of the first people to cross dimensions, allowing him to meet his inspiration, Jay Garrick, and reveal the nature of the multiverse to the two worlds.

Barry's life ended in Crisis on Infinite Earths when he used his super-speed to destabilize and destroy the Anti-Monitor's anti-matter cannon, saving The Multiverse from total destruction. He was remembered as almost a patron saint of superheroes as one of the first to give their life. Wally took up the mantle of the Flash in Barry's honour.

Barry's friends later learned, however, that his spirit had been absorbed into the Speed Force, the quasi-mystic source of all speedsters' powers. During Final Crisis, when Darkseid conquered the Earth, through sheer force of willnote , Barry re-incorporated his body to help stop the evil god and rejoined the living.

Upon Barry's return, his history had been altered. Now, Barry's mother was killed when he was just a boy, and his father was imprisoned for it. Barry became a forensic scientist to solve her murder and prove his father's innocence, the one case that was impossible to solve. Barry only learned the culprit well into his career as the Flash — that it was the result of his nemesis Eobard Thawne going back in time to alter Barry's past. When he went back in time to stop Thawne, Barry caused a ripple effect that created the Flashpoint timeline. When Barry undid his mistake, he left the universe exposed to the machinations of higher powers that altered history, resulting in a new universe.

After learning about the changes to the timeline, reuniting with his protege Wally West and finally coming to terms with his mother's death and seemingly defeating Thawne once and for all, and with the newly restored "omniverse" ready for exploration and protection, Barry was offered member in Justice League Incarnate. Barry made sure that his native universe was protected, once again passing his mantle to Wally West, and once more journeyed into the unknown.

Appearances in other media:

Live-Action Film

Live-Action TV

  • The Flash (1990) starring John Wesley Shipp.
  • Arrowverse: First appearing in a two episode arc on Arrow, portrayed by Glee alum Grant Gustin, leading to his Spin-Off solo series.
    • The Flash (2014): Barry received his powers after being struck by lightning during a particle accelerator explosion in Central City, creating other metahumans for him to fight. Shipp and other actors from the first version have appeared in supporting roles, and the 1990 show was fully integrated into the Arrowverse when Shipp's Flash appeared in the Elseworlds (2018) event.
  • Peacemaker: Part of the DCEU, Barry and Arthur Curry make a cameo in the season finale.

Video Games

Western Animation

Other

  • "The Ballad of Barry Allen", by band Jim's Big Ego (headed by the nephew of Carmine Infantino), examines what life must be like for Barry ("because when things change in an instant it's almost fast enough for me").

Barry Allen provides the following tropes:

    open/close all folders 

    A-E 
  • The Ace: Wally saw him as this during his tenure. Though Wally did get past his block and surpassed him, and went on to do many things without feeling the burden of replacing Barry, any time the topic came up he would talk of Barry in a perfect, idealised view. In-universe, Barry was seen as something of a saint among superheroes for his role in Crisis on Infinite Earths.
  • Aesop Amnesia: No matter how many What the Hell, Hero? speeches he gets, or just how many problems it causes him, Barry seems incapable of learning not to shove his loved ones away when the going gets tough.
  • All-Loving Hero: He treasures his life and his friends above anything else. While Jay is a Cool Old Guy and Wally skirts on Jerk with a Heart of Gold, Barry is an all-around Nice Guy. In fact, writers say his biggest flaw is that he tries to be helpful to everyone, he's just too nice.
  • Always Late: Despite his Super-Speed, he is often late to his dates with Iris West, due to having to stop to deal with criminals along the way.
  • Anthropomorphic Personification: Of the Speed Force, depending on how you interpret Rebirth #4.
  • Ascended Fanboy: He was a fan of the Flash (Jay Garrick) who became the second Flash. Pre-Crisis, this was because Jay was fictional on Earth-One, and Barry grew up reading about him, so when he gained superspeed powers, he immediately named himself after his childhood hero.
  • Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: His death in Crisis on Infinite Earths was eventually retconned into him merging with the Speed Force permanently. Word of God says that this was to set him up for coming Back from the Dead should DC want to do so. He was able to intervene in Wally's first battle with Eobard Thawne by causing lightning to split the two up when Thawne had the upper hand (something Wally would repay decades later). He later made a brief appearance in Infinite Crisis where he helped his grandson imprison Superboy-Prime in the Speed Force, and he permanently came back in Final Crisis.
  • Badass Adorable: Just because he is an extremely optimistic and friendly person doesn't mean he can't kick your ass. He once threatened Aquaman when the latter insulted the original Wally West.
  • Badass Bookworm: He likes reading and science. And he is probably the most powerful man alive.
  • Badass in Distress: Barry spent a lot of Crisis held captive by the Anti-Monitor, inbetween occasional bits of psychic torture by Psycho-Pirate, until he finally has enough and breaks out.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: He wished his mother was still alive, the rest is history.
  • Berserk Button:
    • Insulting or doubting Wally is one for Barry, who is normally very friendly and polite. It could do with the fact that he was essentially responsible for his nephew suffering Ret-Gone prior in the first place, clearly feeling guilty over it.
      Aquaman: Until a few months ago, none of us even knew who Wally West was. Not even you, Flash.
      Barry: I do now...and I think you better watch what you're implying, Arthur.
    • Similarly, hurting Wally. When Eobard tells Barry about all his instances of using his Negative Speed Force hypnosis to divide the Flash Family and make them act out of character, the one that sets Barry off is learning that Eobard was responsible for Wally's cover-up of the events at Sanctuary. Barry loses it, running after Eobard across the timestream and screaming that he'll kill him.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: He's hands down the nicest guy you could meet in the DCU (yes, including Superman), and he's also gifted with one of the deadliest powers. It's often stated that his niceness prevents him from unlocking his full power, but when he does... he does.
  • Big Damn Heroes: In the climax of "Rogue War", Wally was at the mercy of the two Zooms (Thawne and Zolomon) and Forced to Watch the moment in the past when Zoom II caused Wally's wife to have a miscarriage. Barry soon arrives on his own Cosmic Treadmill gunning for Thawne, and immediately comes to Wally's rescue. Barry's arrival was actually foreshadowed earlier, when Wally deduced that this version of Thawne came from the time when he was about to kill Fiona Webb, a.k.a. the moment where Barry chases Thawne down and kills him.
  • Big Eater: Issue #26 of Green Arrow (Rebirth) reveals that Barry Allen needs to eat 50 times his body mass a day to keep up with the calories he burns. This equates to 4422 kilograms or 4.42 metric tons of food daily.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: To a degree. While many agree that Barry is a Nice Guy, he's also done some downright horrible things due to selfishness and lack of consideration to those around him. The biggest offender being Flashpoint, which resulted in the destruction of the entire Flash Family thanks to Barry's half-assed meddling in time. In both instances Barry has expressed some form of regret, but has yet to do anything to truly make up for his actions other than apologizing which he gets away with.
  • Black Sheep: Among the Flash Family, and somewhat justified as he was dead when it really formed. All the others developed a rapport, from Jay playing Team Dad, Max playing Old Master, Wally playing Magnetic Hero, Jesse playing Cool Big Sis, and Bart as the Annoying Younger Sibling, Barry only really had a connection to Wally, Like a Son to Me, and Jay, being fairly good friends. Even Johnny Quick, who's been dead for even longer than Barry was, has more of a role within the family (the skeptical Headbutting Heroes with Max, one of Wally's mentors, and Jesse's father). Barry though, has just never built rapport with any of them; him and Bart have very few conversations and generally don't really get along, Max had one conversation with him pre-Flashpoint, and Jesse had never spoken to him before "Finish Line". This could maybe have been avoided had they not had Barry return to his status quo as if the missing 22 years never happened, but as they did, it meant rather than Barry find a way to fit in with the family, he avoided them until they got Put on a Bus to leave him as the only Flash and not have to worry about it.
  • Brains and Brawn: Brains to Wally's brawn.
  • Breakout Character: He's credited for kick-starting the Silver Age.
  • The Cape: His pure heart, Heroic Sacrifice and always optimistic outlook inspired all superheroes from all ages, and even inspires the embodiment of this trope himself: Superman (albeit it works in vice-versa to because almost everyone does). His influence was cultivated in his student Wally West, leading Wally to become one of the greatest heroes ever.
  • Came Back Wrong: The time Thawne impersonated him aside, but when Barry really came Back from the Dead, he felt off, and was briefly turned into the Black Flash. He thought it was Thawne poisoning the Speed Force with his Negative Speed Force, but it turns out its way worse: in-between his death and return, Eobard went back in time and killed Barry's mother, leaving Barry split between memories of a happy childhood with a loving relationship with his mother well into adulthood, and traumatic memories of her brutal murder in his childhood as well as his father being framed. The result is Barry is a broken man that ends up doing increasingly messy things.
  • Cerebus Retcon:
    • Back in the Silver and Bronze Age, Barry was always depicted as a kind, heroic man, and a Parental Substitute for Wally; even his darkest act, killing Thawne, was in large part out of desperation. Starting with Identity Crisis (2004), it was slowly revealed Barry has a dark side; killing Thawne happened after he had voted to Mind Rape Doctor Light and brainwashed The Top, something that exploded in his face. When he came back, Barry showed a selfish tendency leading to events like Flashpoint. His treatment of Wally became far from perfect, and in many ways he's been quite a toxic figure for him. However, he does genuinely care and loves his nephew and he feels guilty about taking his children away from him, so even though they argued in "Flash War" about using the Speed Force to bring them back, he decides to help his nephew, albeit with valid concerns. Therefore, no matter what flaws Barry has, he is a Nice Guy and will help anyone who needs his help no matter what.
    • His lying in the Silver Age was just another common trope of the time, as it was expected that heroes would lie to people to keep their identities secret (often for laughs), as well as to be the "man of action" heroes who saved the world through their own wits and bravery. However, since his return, Barry's tendency to keep things to withhold information and feel like only he can solve a problem have been depicted more as crippling character flaws. We learn that in no timeline has Barry ever revealed his identity to Iris, he doesn't tell anybody outside of Batman about the events of Flashpoint or what he learns about Doctor Manhattan's actions, and his lies to Ace led to an incredibly toxic mentorship that was mostly defined by Wallace calling Barry out for not telling people the truth, including that Ace's father was on the Suicide Squad. His lack of trust in others and him feeling burdened to fix everything is something he needs to eventually overcome by accepting that he does have people he can count on, and should.
  • The Charmer: The likely explanation for why he's so Easily Forgiven for his mistakes. He's so kind and lovable that nobody can stay mad at him for long.
  • Chronic Hero Syndrome: A huge flaw of his. He wants to fix everything and help everyone but his lack of time management makes everything actually worse.
  • Clueless Chick-Magnet: As a Nice Guy, he is a popular choice for those who fall under the Single Woman Seeks Good Man trope. Not that he can see it, unfortunately.
  • Commonality Connection:
    • He and Bruce Wayne are both obsessed with forensics and would frequently have long talks about it. Post-Flash: Rebirth, they also bond over their dead parents.
    • Barry and Hal didn't get along at first, but when Hal heard Barry call someone a "perp", the two became friends due to both being police.
  • Composite Character: In the modern age, his character is mostly merged with Wally's Flash. This becomes abundantly clear in other adaptations, especially with Grant Gustin and Ezra Miller's versions.
  • The Conscience: For the DCU and more specifically for Wally. He was called "Saint" for a while when he was dead, that means something, huh?
  • Contrasting Sequel Protagonist: Jay Garrick was a high school student when he gained his powers (if in his final year), and a member of the football team, if not very good at it before he got his powers. Barry's already an adult when he gets his powers, in a job as a CSI, but also a comic book nerd.
  • Cool Teacher: According to Wally at least, anyway.
  • Cool Uncle: To Wally West. Also overlaps with Parental Substitute.
  • Darker and Edgier: Not originally but when he came back from the dead, his past included his dad being falsely arrested for the death of his mother, which turned out to be a deliberate result of his greatest villain retconning his past.
  • Dating Catwoman: Was briefly dating fellow speedster Meena Dhawan, a.k.a. Fast Track, who becomes the evil speedster Negative Flash.
  • Dead Guy Junior: He is named after his grandfather.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Especially around Hal Jordan, Barry's snark goes off the charts.
  • Death by Origin Story: This was one of the reasons that he stayed dead once his former Kid Sidekick Wally West came into his own as his successor. That's been undone now.
    • A pivotal story in the early '90s played with this by having Barry seemingly return, leaving Wally happy about Barry's return but conflicted about being back in his shadow (particularly since his speed had been reduced at the same point when Barry died, leaving him the slower and less competent Flash). He had to deal with these issues in order to defeat Barry when he turned out to be Professor Zoom.
  • Death Is Cheap: In spite of sacrificing himself during the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths, he would come back to life by the end of Final Crisis.
  • Deceased Parents Are the Best: His portrayal during post-Crisis heavily leaned on this.
  • Demoted to Extra: After essentially stealing the spotlight from the other Flashes after his return in the 2000s, and spending most of the 2010s being touted as the main Flash by DC, come The Flash (Infinite Frontier) he's been bumped back down to a supporting character once Wally and Linda's family were given the starring role again. It reached the point that by The Flash #800, supervillains have begun referring to Barry as "the other Flash."
  • Depending on the Artist:
    • The New 52 suit's linework. As originally envisioned and as seen in the above picture, it's armor with tons of Tron Lines. But a lot of people weren't keen on that, and apparently that includes some artists. Generally, the lines on the stop of his mask are kept, but the ones on his body are removed or added depending on what the artist feels like doing, and even how much they light up, if they do at all, changes issue to issue, series to series.
    • The suit's material flips back and forth between armor and regular costume material all the time too, and even how it comes out of the ring has changed, from segmented armour that expands from his ring and forms around his body (the original depiction), to a fabric costume that stores inside his ring like his original costume to segmented fabric that somehow attaches itself together into the costume when released from the ring.
  • Depending on the Writer:
    • His personality in modern times. Is he a whitebread nice guy, akin to his Silver Age counterpart? Is he a cocky jokester like his nephew was written? Is he a nervous nerd? Is he angsty? It varies wildly from writer to writer, but the cocky jokester thing is generally kept to team books and guest appearances, where he needs to stand out more.
    • Is his chronic lateness the result of his attempts to protect his secret identity or does he just have a horrible internal clock that not even his powers can save him from? Usually it's the former but some writers portray it as the latter.
  • Determinator: Definitely not to the shonen-esque levels of his student, but Barry is still determined enough to stop Psycho Pirate's psychological powers over him during Crisis.
  • Didn't Think This Through:
    • Wanted to save his mom's life after Thawne altered time and murdered her when she originally lived to old age and died peacefully. Perfectly understandable that Barry wanted to save his mom, except he foolishly tried to stop Thawne by himself despite knowing how dangerous Thawne is and the dangers of messing with time. He also didn't stop to wait until Thawne had left the time stream to intervene. The end results were Flashpoint and the New 52. What's more, it's explicitly stated before this that the Speed Force cannot change history, and Thawne himself was only able to thanks to the Negative Speed Force not obeying the same rules; Barry attempting to use the Speed Force in this way is why time got so messed up when he changed it, because the Speed Force just cannot make change reality so easily. (Later, Dr. Manhattan was also revealed to be at fault)
  • Dork Knight: An Ascended Fanboy with super speed, it's a given.
  • Dying Moment of Awesome: Saved the remainder of the Multiverse by using one villain to brainwash a bunch of other villains into attacking the Big Bad and destroying the Big Bad's greatest weapon.
  • Eagle-Eye Detection: Part of his job as a CSI. His Speed Force only amped his abilities with Hyper-Awareness.
  • Easily Forgiven: He accidentally destroyed the lives of everyone in existence, and didn't tell anyone about the world being reconfigured at the start of the New 52. Do people get pissed off at him about this and other things? Mostly. Does Barry actually do anything to earn their forgiveness? Not really. All he does is apologize and look sorry and that's usually enough for everyone to forgive him.
  • Eccentric Mentor: He is a dork — he really loves being a mentor and it shows...you can see him adding little silly trivia called "Flash facts" every time he talks to his students to a point they get tired of it.
  • The Everyman: Be it among the JLA or the Flashes, he's just a noble nerd with a penchant for heroism.

    F-O 
  • Fatal Flaw:
    • Barry has four consistent character traits across writers. He's a dorky Nice Guy who's somehow always chronically late despite his powers. The fourth trait? He's also a bit of a chronic liar, a trait that goes back to the Silver Age. He often lies when he believes it's for the greater good, or that doing so will protect his loved ones. This seems like fine reasoning, but Rebirth has gone out of its way to show how frustrating it can be having a loved one who, regardless of good intentions, is a chronic liar; Throughout Rebirth we're shown the other currently present members of the Flash Family getting annoyed and angry with him over his continued lying, often resulting in Barry being alienated by the people he was trying to protect in the first place.
    • Barry also has major trust issues where secret identities are concerned. He kept his hidden from Iris and she had to find out on her own, despite the fact they had already been dating and it was probably smarter for him to tell her. He never told friends, eventually only sharing it with other heroes, and even kept it hidden, initially, from his own protege Wally West despite having a personal relationship with him in both identities. He repeated this with Wally's younger cousin Wallace when he gained speed, who called him out when he finally revealed it. What's more, its then pointed out by Thawne that Barry has never told Iris in any timeline or reality, forcing her to find out in each version of their story on her own.
    • Thirdly, he's a Flat-Earth Atheist who can't wrap his head around magical phenomena, including the Speed Force itself. See below.
  • Flat-Earth Atheist: His third flaw, Barry is a scientist first, so everything has a scientific explanation, even if it's a weird one. He understands magic exists but he can't wrap his head around how it works. This is unfortunate, as despite being a Science Hero its clear that his powers are partially mystical in nature, the Speed Force not being just the scientific phenomena he believes it is. As such, he can't steal/loan speed, generate a costume, or run as fast as Wally can, nor can he do some of the other abilities unique to Bart and Jesse, or even Avery and August. He was coached through some of this towards the end of The Flash Rebirth, but after Flashpoint happened, he lost any memory of it, and for most of the New 52/Rebirth era following, the Speed Force was treated as purely a scientific entity due to it being observed solely through his lens.
  • Friendless Background: Because Thawne made sure of it.
  • From a Single Cell: Can reconstitute himself from such extreme fates as being turned into a puddle of tar or a cloud of water vapor.
  • The Generic Guy: By comparison to the other Flashes, Barry's not the experienced mentor (like Jay), the Deadpan Snarker with buckets of Character Development (like Wally), a neurotic workaholic with a short temper (like Jesse), or the random oddball little brother (like Bart). This is largely because Barry was dead during the Bronze Age, where characterization was given a stronger focus and the Flash family was truly developed, so he mostly ended up being characterized as an Inspirational Martyr that cast a big shadow for Wally to fill. When he came back, they've attempted to fix this by making him more dorky and focusing on his (newly created) tragic backstory.
  • Genre Savvy: He is a big sci-fi nerd and has superspeed powers, you can guess the rest.
    Wally: ....My uncle Barry, the second, and in my humble opinion the greatest Flash— gave me some advice, "Wally" he said, "with powers like ours, you have to learn to fight in a way a science fiction writer writes."
  • Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Blonde and an angel without wings.
  • Happily Married: To Iris West before Flashpoint.
  • Headbutting Heroes: With Oliver Queen. The two men cannot stand one another. Barry regards Oliver as a dangerous influence on Hal Jordan (even before the time Oliver killed a supervillain), and sees him as reckless and irresponsible, while Oliver hates Barry simply for being a cop.
  • The Heart: Of the Justice League. Especially in the New 52 where things were Darker and Edgier.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: This is why he was left dead for so long, because everyone feared that a resurrection would completely undo its emotional value.
  • Heroic Self-Deprecation: He is almost always depressed regarding his mother's untimely death.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners:
    • With Hal "Green Lantern" Jordan, and the two would begin a tradition (later retconned to fit Jay Garrick and Alan Scott) of Flashes and Green Lanterns being good friends.
    • During Rebirth, his relationship with Wally evolved into this as well thanks to the Age Lift he received putting him closer in age to Wally once Wally's an adult, which changes their dynamic from its father-son angle. This is later undone in Infinite Frontier, when Barry is portrayed as older than Wally and as a surrogate father once again.
  • Humble Hero: Another great contrast to Wally; Barry Allen is a very confident man but never crosses the line of being cocky. He even turns down several requests of making a museum dedicated after him, always saying he's not doing his job to show off.
  • Hyper-Awareness: Overlapping with his Eagle-Eye Detection, he's learned to speed up his mental speed to match his body's speed, allowing him to process information from around him all at the same time, letting him see the probabilities of anything happening around him before it happens, weigh every possible outcome, make the right choice and do something about it◊ before anyone even notices. This does, however, mean that he can get lost in the probabilities, being distracted enough for someone to get him.◊
  • Hypocrite: During the Cry for Justice & Rise and Fall storylines, where Green Arrow I (Oliver Queen) murders Prometheus for destroying Star City and causing the death of his adopted granddaughter Lian Harper, Barry Allen was the one who had the most contempt for Oliver's actions. He made it clear to Hal Jordan that Oliver is not someone he should look for approval from because he's a murderer. This despite the fact that when Zoom tried to kill his fiancé Fiona Webb, he killed Zoom to protect her. It's implied that Barry is using Oliver's murder as an excuse, to vent his hatred of Oliver and that he just hates him. Barry outright said that he alway hated Oliver and could not understand why any of his friends like him; Hal even comments on how Barry never liked Oliver.
  • Iconic Sequel Character: He's far more iconic than his predecessor Jay Garrick, even though he was created years after him to "reinvent" Flash.
  • Incorruptible Pure Pureness: He is legitimately one of the nicest heroes in the whole DC universe and serves as a beacon of hope to you, his successors, and his city. He has a museum, for God’s sake. Subverted in that despite how nice he comes across, he's committed several horrific acts due to selfishness and ignorance and the only reason most people around him still think this trope applies is due to how nice he acts.
  • I Am Not Left-Handed: He almost never uses his full speed, because since he doesn't have a Speed Force field to sidestep natural disaster when running, when he exceeds Mach 10 while on the ground for a period of time, he will cause catastrophic damage to the environment. Whether Barry or Wally is "The Fastest Man Alive" is a point of contention among fans (Barry continuously outran Death for 2 decades, Wally outran Death by running so fast he literally lapped reality. Barry has out paced the Speed Force, Wally has run fast enough to catch someone moving free of both time and speed. Barry outran Darkseid's Omega Beams, Wally ran faster than instantaneous movement. Both can move at the atto-and picosecond scale. Barry generates the Speed Force, Wally is considered the most connected. The list goes on). Regardless, when the need arises, Barry can and will forget about holding back and generally annihilate whatever threat he finds himself up against.
  • Innocent Blue Eyes: Paired with his Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold, Barry Allen is the nicest hero you can meet in the DCU.
  • Insistent Terminology: Tells Bart to call him Barry instead of Grandpa, as it weirded him out.
  • It's Personal: With Eobard Thawne, the Reverse-Flash.
  • Karma Houdini: Despite the points enumerated below, Barry's yet to be punished or held accountable in any meaningful way for how his selfishness and ineptitude destroyed the lives of everyone around him to the point it's likely they'll never truly be fixed. Tellingly it's likely most people forgive him so easily because he's so nice.
    • Barry's actions in Flashpoint led to the timeline being destroyed and recreated as a nightmarish version of the proper DC Universe, which later left it open to be further twisted by Doctor Manhattan and Pandora.
    • Flash War ended with Barry sending Wally to Sanctuary where upon the shoddy and destructive therapy methods led to Heroes in Crisis.
  • Killed Off for Real: He had a long and prestigious run on this list (for a popular comic book character), in part because he was given a really good death, reversing that death would have undone the heroes' efforts to save the universe, and fans eventually embraced his successor Wally West even if they still wanted Barry back. But 23 years and two mega-crises later, Barry has finally subverted this trope.
  • The Knights Who Say "Squee!": When Barry first met Superman, he asked him to give an autograph on a medal by using his eye-beams. Oh, Barry...
  • The Lab Rat: Trope Codifier for comics since Silver Age.
  • Legendary in the Sequel: His iconic Heroic Sacrifice was remembered throughout DCU during Post-Crisis era.
  • Like a Son to Me: Considers Wally West as one. So much so that he gave his family watch that had been passed down from his own father as a high school graduation present to him.
  • Living Battery: He generates the Speed Force's power with every step he takes. Or so it's said.
  • Living Emotional Crutch: Iris and Wally play a huge role in keeping him functional. Any threat against either is enough to push him into making questionable decisions. When he was being chased by the Black Racer at the end of Darkseid War, his last thoughts before being taken were for Iris, his father and Wally (who somehow managed to connect with Barry from outside of reality itself).
    Barry: A year later, when lightning struck her nephew, Wally West, I didn't have to run alone anymore. I never needed to be the fastest. I just didn't want to be the only one.
    • He's this for Wally as a Parental Substitute. Wally was absolutely crushed when Barry died and he made it his life mission to keep Barry's legacy alive.
  • Living Legend: After he came back from dead, he was treated like this by everyone.
  • Loves My Alter Ego: Subverted. Iris was already in love with him as Barry Allen by the time he became Flash. He spent most of his initial run as Flash married to her.
  • Mentor Archetype: To Wally West. He loved his role and after Wally finally "graduated", he was even upset. So then the Speed Force granted his wish and made half of Central City speedsters. Oooops.
  • Mentor Occupational Hazard: His death is the catalyst for Wally to come out of his 10-Minute Retirement and become The Flash.
  • Momma's Boy: Barry is almost constantly thinking about his mother no matter what situation he's in. This is lampshaded by telepaths like Gorilla Grodd and Psych
  • Morality Chain Beyond the Grave: Of course he becomes this for Wally when he was dead. Especially when Wally goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against Grodd for paralyzing Hunter Zolomon, Wally says he could hear Barry telling him "enough".
  • My Greatest Failure: Barry feels partially responsible for his mother's death. This irrational guilt has caused him to subconsciously punish himself by distancing Barry from his loved ones, which comes back to bite him.
  • Nice Guy: Barry is the archetypal Silver Age hero, complete with being one of the nicest guys around.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
    • Him saving his mother from her death by Professor Zoom caused the DC timeline to collapse, and his attempt to repair it got hijacked by Pandora and Dr. Manhattan, resulting in a Cosmic Retcon.
    • At the end of Flash War, Barry send Wally to Sanctuary instead of helping Wally search for his children or reaching out to the Justice League so they can help. This turned out to be the worst possible thing Barry could've done, as the horribly inept and abusive methods Sanctuary employed caused Wally to have a nervous breakdown and put him in place for the events of Heroes in Crisis Wally is blamed for the deaths of 15 people, even by himself (The Flash (Infinite Frontier) later revealed the true cause was Savitar's attempt to control the Speed Force and Wally was innocent) and then (under the influence of Eobard Thawne) framed Booster Gold and Harley Quinn long enough off for him to properly confess and then attempt suicide as atonement. To add further salt to the wound, the follow up Flash Forward shows versions of Irey and Jai West trapped in the Dark Multiverse, implying they can be found.
    • He uses the Speed Force to reveal to Hunter Zolomon that he was right about the Clown not having a gun. Rather, Thawne gave the Clown the gun that night to shoot Hunter and his father-in-law. While this was meant to shock Hunter into realizing Thawne lied to him all this time, it also served to vindicate Hunter after all these years. As of Flash #800, he's more determined than ever to keep finding ways to destroy Wally's life if it'll make him a better hero.
  • Oblivious to Love: He's really bad at seeing the women that are interested in him until they spell it out to him loud and clear. The worst example would be with Iris West, who was the first to ask him out on a date even before the reboot, and after that she had to kiss him to get her point across. He still can't see her ongoing affections by the way (quite a long story actually) and at this point, it doesn't help that Iris joined him with her Selective Obliviousness.
  • Odd Name, Normal Nickname: Back in the Silver Age, Barry Allen's first name was "Barrence", though it has since been retconned to "Bartholomew."

    P-Z 
  • Papa Wolf: Big time for Wally West. After his retirement in the future right before his death, he went back in time to 3 devastating moments of Wally's life just so he could support him through bad times and help him against his enemies. Wally means a lot to him, to a degree not even Reality Warpers can erase the love for his pseudo-son. Hell, when Aquaman questions Wally's sincerity after his return during Rebirth, Barry, who's a Nice Guy remember, threatens him. When Barry learns that Eobard manipulated Wally into covering up the events of Heroes in Crisis, he outright says he'll kill Thawne.
  • Parental Favoritism: While Barry hides it better than Bruce Wayne does, it's very clear who his favourite child and partner is — Wally. Even Barry's biological kids, the Tornado Twins, have picked up on it and somewhat resent Wally for it. When Barry retells the story of his first year on the job in "The Flash: Year One", he even caps it off with meeting Wally at the end.
  • Parental Substitute:
    • Serves as a father figure for Wally, who never got along with his own parents. The two are quite open about this, with Barry referring to Wally as his son frequently, to the point that his own kids were jealous of Wally. It became a key point in DC Rebirth, where thanks to their strong bond bypassing even reality altering powers, it was Barry's paternal love that brought Wally back into the world from the Speed Force.
    • Bart wanted Barry to be this, but it never worked out before Flashpoint.
    • He's this to Wally West II, mostly as the Flash to Wally's Kid Flash. While their civilian identities get along okay, it's not quite the same. When Barry opens up his identity to Wallace, it actually harms their relationship as the younger West feels betrayed at being lied to for so long.
  • Personality Powers: Subversion, he's generally slow and methodical, which differs him from the other speedsters. If you want an extreme example, go find Bart.
  • Platonic Life-Partners/Just Friends: This is what he claims he's with Iris West after Flashpoint. Did we mention that Barry Allen is terrible at social relationships?
  • Poor Communication Kills: Has a major problem with this, which actually gets called out in the Rebirth era by Eobard Thawne as part of his "The Reason You Suck" Speech. In general, Barry's first response to finding out something troubling is to hide it rather than tell the people it affects to avoid hurting them, even though it ensures greater hurt later on. Its noted that he's never told Iris who he is in any timeline or universe, with her instead finding out on her own, and when taking on a protégé, he'll keep them at a distance and withhold his secret identity while making sure he knows their's, something both Wally and Wallace have experienced (though Wally seemed to take it well). The fact he didn't tell Wally about the other speedsters trapped in the Speed Force essentially sparked the Flash War storyline.
  • The Professor: By far the most overtly intelligent of the speedsters, and a forensic scientist by trade.
  • The Pollyanna: He is an eternal optimist who always sees the best in every situation. He's an easy-going and laid-back person who has huge amounts of patience, understanding, and kindness for most everybody. His life motto is literally "Every second is a gift". Can't get more optimistic than that.
  • Pungeon Master: His usual sense of humor.
  • Retcon: Has been severely overhauled after he came Back from the Dead in order to modernise a very Silver Age hero into the present. He now has a Batman-level tragic backstory, he's depicted having a keen understanding of the Speed Force despite it never being a plot point in his stories, and for a while it was canon that he was actually the source of it. Later on though this last one seems to have been ignored.
  • Replacement Goldfish: Wally West II sees him as a father figure conveniently around the time Daniel West disappears.
  • Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Savvy Guy to Iris West's energetic girl. In fact, that's why Barry falls in love with her in the first place.
    Barry: Really, Iris? I'm the one who should be running to danger...
  • Science Hero: He's a CSI, and uses his speed in creative ways with his scientific knowledge.
  • Ship Tease: With Jessica Cruz (Green Lantern) in Justice League (Rebirth). In a possible future, they have three kids.
  • Shrouded in Myth: When he was dead, he was treated with the utmost respect to a point he was called "Saint" by the superhero community.
  • Socially Awkward Hero: A great contrast to Wally; he is The Fastest Man Alive and yet in his private life, Barry Allen is an introvert at heart who would rather stay in his lab. His lack of punctuality doesn't help him either.
  • Sounds of Science: Usually in the Silver Age, he loved calling his scientific expositions "Flash Facts".
  • Thou Shalt Not Kill: While he'll definitely go above and beyond to not kill someone, he will do it if necessary. He's made it clear that, being a cop, he can see it being the only right choice sometimes. However he still doesn't like doing so. In fact killing Eobard, which was neccesary as he had threatened to kill someone, messed him up for a bit and caused him to try to atone for it by going on a spree of lifesaving heroics.
  • Took a Level in Jerkass: Since his return, Barry started to act more reclusive than he ever was before, especially when it comes to connecting with other Flash Family members. This mindset is what leads to Flashpoint and while this aspect of his character was mostly ignored in New 52, he gained an unhealthy obsession regarding his mother's death. This has become exaggerated in the recent Rebirth run, Barry's lies regarding his secret identity pushed people away from him and later on his Chronic Hero Syndrome turned into a new obsession. Even though he states more than once that he trusts Wally as Flash; he avoids seeking out Wally's help in any troubling situation (i.e; Metal event, Thawne's return) and in the recent Perfect Storm arc. he decides to act on his own against Grodd even after losing his powers. This massively backfires on him like Flashpoint did and his questionable decision making is what leads to Flash War in the end.
  • Tragic Time Traveler: The events of Flashpoint (DC Comics) are the result of Barry traveling back in time through his incredible speed to avert the death of his mother by the Reverse Flash. This ends up breaking the DC Universe, creating a Crapsack World, and as if that wasn't enough, he ends up losing his powers when he arrives in the new timeline. After eventually regaining said powers, he uses them to travel back in time and prevent himself from saving his mother, wiping out the Flashpoint timeline and returning the prime timeline back to normal.
  • Tron Lines: Post-Flashpoint, Barry's costume now has these. They light up when he's running◊, but when he's standing still or walking, they're black seams. They also appear to change colour when he is affected by enemies like Captain Cold◊ and Weather Wizard◊ or using a Lantern ring.
  • Weak, but Skilled: Despite Barry originating the 'Fastest Man Alive' name, he's actually the weakest of the main Flash trio of Jay, himself, and Wally. Wally has untapped near-limitless control of the Speed Force, capable of doing things like steal and lend speed, while Jay has a moderate amount of these powers, and it's gone back and fourth if he was faster than Barry or not, but for a while Jay was explicitly faster but had shorter endurance due to age. Going further, he even lacks Jesse's flight and strength, Bart's speed scouts, and generally, Barry only has the baseline 'can run fast and isn't hurt' power. He compensates by knowing enough about science to figure out very creative ways to use his speed, something Jay similarly did.note  Although he is the most skilled of the Flashes and the most creative as well so while not as powerful as his nephew Wally he makes up for it by using his skills and his creative mind to defeat his enemies.
  • Wistful Amnesia: He forgot most of his life prior to Flashpoint but the Speed Force gives him visions from his past life, which eventually leads to him remembering Wally and bringing him back from Speed Force. However Barry still doesn't remember everything in full detail and he feels like something is missing.
  • Wide-Eyed Idealist: He is known for being always optimistic and hoping for the best in any situation, even when said optimism isn't just unrealistic, but downright dangerous.

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