This is part 2 of a two-part exploration of the history of The Flash, a comic book character brought to life on television screens this season on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. EDT/PDT on The CW. Read part 1 here.
Perhaps it’s his ability to travel through time, or maybe it’s because he’s so fast, but The Flash always manages to be miles ahead of superhero trends. During the Golden Age of Comic Books, the first man to bear the title of The Flash, Jay Garrick, set the standard for specialized superheroes, helped build the first superhero crossover team, and raced to astounding heights of popularity. But as the business faded, so did The Flash.
The end of World War II precipitated a decline in the popularity of superhero comic books. The medium switched its focus from superheroes and profited off of romance, horror, and other genres. Unfortunately for the industry, the increased popularity of horror comics gave ammunition to Fredric Wertham, who began a crusade against the industry. His book The Seduction of the Innocent accused the comic books of creating juvenile delinquents.
To combat the charges, the comic book industry needed heroes. But with superheroes fading into oblivion, the genre needed a bolt of lightning to revive it. Luckily for superhero fans, that bolt of lighting struck, hitting Barry Allen, and creating the second Flash.
It was 1956 and editor extraordinaire Julius Schwartz set out to revitalize the dying superhero genre. He tasked writer Robert Kanigher and artist Carmine Infantino with recreating The Flash as a more contemporary hero. The team, along with writer John Broome, created a much sleeker hero, sporting a bright red spandex suit accented with lightning bolts.
Introduced in Showcase #4, the new Flash was Barry Allen, a reputedly slow and deliberate police scientist. In his origin story, Allen is struck by a bolt of lightning and doused with chemicals, with the combination somehow giving him super speed. Allen dons a red costume and takes to the streets of Central City to fight crime. Interestingly, Allen chooses his name by taking it from his favorite comic book superhero, Jay Garrick. In establishing Garrick’s run as the Fastest Man Alive as fictional within the fictional world, DC marked a new beginning for comic books. In time, the introduction of Barry Allen came to be seen as the beginning of the Silver Age of Comics.
The origin story for the new Flash changed the formula of superhero stories. A stronger emphasis was placed on scientific explanations for superpowers and supernatural events, though very few of these explanations could survive professional scientific scrutiny. The pseudoscientific stories led to the creation of items such as a ring containing The Flash’s costume and a cosmic treadmill that allows Allen to travel through time.
Real science, however, is never far from a Flash comic. Allen is a scientist after all, and he often uses his scientific mind to defeat his opponents. Soon, a laundry list of superheroes, mainly created during the Silver Age, would be able to list their profession as “scientist.”
The popularity of The Flash and the increased attention being paid to superheroes led to Schwartz’s edict to revive the Justice Society of America. Since the original JSA included Garrick’s Flash, it was inevitable that Allen would be a member of the new team. Gardner Fox, the creator of the Garrick incarnation of The Flash, was assigned the task of reviving the team, and he renamed it the Justice League of America. Flash joined the A-list team of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and Martian Manhunter, debuting in Brave and the Bold #28 in 1960.
The Justice League team proved a hit, quickly gaining their own title that sold incredibly well. DC publisher Jack Liebowitz bragged to Marvel owner Martin Goodman about the JLA’s success, leading to Goodman assigning his editor, Stan Lee, to create his own team of superheroes. Marvel’s subsequent creation, the Fantastic Four, introduced in 1961, followed the examples of the Justice League in its team format and The Flash in its emphasis on pseudoscience. With the Fantastic Four, The Flash, and the Justice League, superhero comics were on the rise again.
Also in 1961, Allen took part in an historic story, meeting up with Garrick, the Flash of the Golden Age, who, it was explained, existed on Earth 2, a parallel world to that which was home to Allen. The comic introduced to audiences the now-popular idea of a multiverse.
The following years in the comic book industry saw a lot of changes, including a shift to darker, more realistic comics. For Allen, the shift was evident in the apparent death of his wife, Iris West, at the hands of the Reverse-Flash. When Reverse-Flash attempted to duplicate his actions with Allen’s new girlfriend, The Flash appeared to kill his rival, crossing the line that superheroes were supposed to respect.
DC’s continued attempt at fostering realism raised questions about complicated continuity issues. The company decided to make a bold move by rebooting the combined universe. The idea was to streamline the characters’ histories and form a more coherent world that would compete with Marvel. Part of that new world would be a sense of history, legacy, and real stakes. To reach all of these goals, the company needed to make a bold move. It needed to kill Barry Allen.
Crisis on Infinite Earths is perhaps the biggest event in comic book history. The Crisis is brought about as the Anti-Monitor sets out to destroy alternate world after world. The Anti-Monitor specifically targets The Flash, believing him to be the greatest threat to his plans due to his ability to travel between dimensions at will. Anti-Monitor’s fears prove valid, and Allen is able to stop the monster’s antimatter cannon, but the hero seemingly dies in the process.
The end result of the Crisis is a singular world and continuity, changing Garrick from an alternate world Flash to the original Flash from the 1940s, whose heroic actions inspired a young Allen to adopt his name. Now, with Allen gone, his heroism would inspire a new generation’s hero to adopt the moniker of The Flash.
Wally West, Allen’s nephew, was introduced as The Flash’s sidekick in 1961. Dubbed the Kid Flash, West gained his powers in the same convoluted process as his uncle. West was a founding member of the Teen Titans at a time when teen superheroes were growing in popularity. In the wake of his mentor’s death, West took up the mantel of the Scarlet Speedster, becoming the new Flash.
West’s ascension to a top spot on DC’s roster of heroes set a new precedent for comic books. Due to the incredible popularity of the men behind the masks, the big two of superhero publishing made a point to never allow their protagonists to age. By establishing “The Flash” as a legacy name, and Garrick and Allen as history, DC Comics made a major shift in superhero storytelling. In the coming years, other heroes would be replaced as well. Kyle Rayner would become the new Green Lantern, Dick Grayson would become Batman, and even Marvel would replace Steve Rogers with Bucky Barnes and, more recently, Sam Wilson as Captain America.
West’s two-decade run as the Fastest Man Alive also introduced a new concept to the DC Universe: the Speed Force. The Speed Force is an extradimensional power that is used as a shorthand answer to explain away the physics-defying powers of DC’s speedsters. West’s connection with the Speed Force gives the hero new powers, including the ability to take away and share speed itself with others, and it led to West finally being able to achieve the high speeds of his predecessor.
For a brief period following DC’s Infinite Crisis, a fourth man took up the mantle of The Flash. Bart Allen is a hero from the 30th century with an incredibly confusing back story that exemplifies the worst of comic book writing. His time as the Scarlet Speedster was short, as the character was killed off after 13 issues and replaced by the returning West. But West’s new run would be short as well.
Under the direction of Geoff Johns and Grant Morrison, DC decided to revive the Silver Age Flash, Barry Allen. Barry returned during DC’s third Crisis event, Final Crisis, and played a major role in the company’s biggest subsequent events, Blackest Night, and Flashpoint. These three enormous event stories shook the foundations of DC Comics, with Flashpoint effectively rebooting the entire DC canon.
The reboot, though unpopular with purists, has proven to be a big success for DC, with the “New 52” brand outselling its predecessors in many cases. The decision to reboot DC’s entire lineup came as a result of the enormous success of superhero movies around the world — though, ironically, that success is primarily thanks to Marvel Studios.
But with The Flash joining Arrow on The CW, in addition to Fox’s Gotham and NBC’s debuting Constantine, it is clear that DC is beating Marvel on the small screen. The new small-screen Flash follows Allen as he learns to become a hero in a world of super-powered criminals. The series promises to be the first true superhero show in the era of good visual effects, and it will change the perception of heroes on television.
In addition to his new show, The Flash will finally make the jump to the big screen, with a solo movie starring Ezra Miller coming in 2018. The Flash’s first movie represents a rare time when the hero has been behind the curve of the superhero industry. However, The Flash’s new TV series is likely to prove that the Fastest Man Alive is still the trendsetter of the superhero genre.