Welcome to the Wellington Comic Lover’s Guide, where we take you through the Wellington City Libraries’ collection of a comic book character. This post is about all the heroes who have held the title of the Fastest Man Alive… The Flash!
(via GIPHY)
Who is The Flash?
After being struck by lightning in a lab accident, police scientist Barry Allen discovers he has the ability to move at superhuman speeds and travel through time. Donning a friction-resistant red-and-yellow suit, Barry protects his home of Central City from the villainous Rogues and traverses time and space as The Flash.
Later, Barry’s nephew Wally West gains super-speed as well and becomes his sidekick Kid Flash, before graduating to becoming the Flash himself.
A Flash Fact about DC Comics history
DC Comics are divided into publishing eras, determined by a point where they set the issue number (and sometimes, continuity) of a series back to #1. These periods are referred to as:
- ‘Pre-Crisis’ – everything published before 1986
- ‘Post-Crisis’ – everything published from 1986-2011
- The New 52 – 2011-2016
- DC Rebirth – 2016-2021
- Infinite Frontier – 2021 to present.
This is important to know because the events that define these publishing eras usually have something to do with The Flash; Barry Allen famously dies during the ‘Crisis’, and after being resurrected, he creates the timeline that came to define ‘The New 52’.
If you’d like to know more about DC Comic’s increasingly complicated internal chronology, I recommend checking out DC greatest events : stories that shook the multiverse.
Pre-Crisis
Barry is actually the second Flash: the first was scientist Jay Garrick, who resides on the parallel world of Earth-2. During one of his adventures, Barry travels to Earth-2 and teams up with Jay; this story ‘Flash of Two Worlds’ established the existence of the DC Multiverse, and subsequently the template for all other stories involving multiverses in other media. Barry and Jay would regularly partner up again along with their respective teams, the Justice League and the Justice Society.
Showcase presents The Flash. Volume 2 / Broome, John (includes ‘Flash of Two Worlds’)
The Justice League of America : the Silver Age. Volume three / Fox, Gardner F.
Showcase presents Justice League of America. Volume three / Fox, Gardner
Showcase presents Justice League of America. Volume four / Fox, Gardner
Post-Crisis
Post-Crisis refers to the point after the story Crisis on Infinite Earths, when the DC Multiverse collapses into one Earth with one shared history. Now the Flash became a succession story: Jay Garrick retires as the Flash after WWII, Barry is inspired by Jay, and after Barry’s death, Wally West takes up the mantle of the Flash.
Mark Waid run
Writer Mark Waid first established the idea that the Flashes get their powers from the ‘Speed Force’, an extradimensional energy that governs all motion across time and space, and can be manipulated to grant super-speed and other powers to its wielders, called ‘speedsters’.
The Flash by Mark Waid. Book one / Waid, Mark
The Flash by Mark Waid. Book four / Waid, Mark
The Flash by Mark Waid. Book five / Waid, Mark
The Flash : emergency stop / Morrison, Grant
The Flash : the human race / Morrison, Grant
(The Flash : emergency stop and The Flash : the human race are also collected together as The Flash / Morrison, Grant)
Geoff Johns run
Under Geoff Johns’ pen, Wally West fights new and old Rogues, starts a family, and learns the cost of being a hero with a public identity from Zoom, a villain who alters the flow of time to move at superhuman speed.
The Flash by Geoff Johns. Book two / Johns, Geoff
The Flash by Geoff Johns. Book three / Johns, Geoff
The Flash by Geoff Johns. Book five / Johns, Geoff
Flashpoint
During Final Crisis, Barry Allen is brought back to life and becomes the Flash again. Barry then attempts to rewrite history to prevent his mother’s death, inadvertently creating the ‘Flashpoint’ timeline, a world where Flash, Superman and other heroes never existed.
Absolute final crisis / Morrison, Grant
The Flash : rebirth / Johns, Geoff (also on Libby)
The Flash by Geoff Johns. Book six / Johns, Geoff
The Flash : the road to Flashpoint / Johns, Geoff
The New 52
Barry erases the Flashpoint timeline, but ends up creating The New 52, a simplified timeline which DC Comics used as a springboard to reboot their comics’ shared continuity. As a result of history being rewritten, Barry becomes the one and only Flash.
The Flash. Volume 1, Move forward / Manapul, Francis
(also on Libby)
The Flash. Volume 2, Rogues revolution / Manapul, Francis
The Flash. Volume 4, Reverse / Manapul, Francis
The Flash. Volume 5, History lessons / Buccellato, Brian
The Flash. Volume 6, Out of time / Venditti, Robert
The Flash. Volume 7, Savage world / Venditti, Robert
The Flash. Volume 8, Zoom / Venditti, Robert
The Flash. Volume 9, Full stop / Jensen, Van
DC Rebirth
During DC Rebirth, the timeline is once again altered, restoring characters and events that had been erased from the timeline by the New 52. These include Wally West, Zoom, and the Reverse-Flash, a stalker fan from the 25th century who wants to emulate his hero, Barry Allen.
The Flash. Vol. 2, Speed of darkness / Williamson, Joshua
The Flash. Vol. 3, Rogues reloaded / Williamson, Joshua
Batman/The Flash : the button : deluxe edition / Williamson, Joshua
The Flash. Vol. 4, Running scared / Williamson, Joshua
The Flash. Vol. 5, Negative / Williamson, Joshua
The Flash. Vol. 6, Cold day in hell / Williamson, Joshua
The Flash. Vol. 7, Perfect storm / Williamson, Joshua
The Flash [8] : Flash war / Williamson, Joshua
The Flash. Volume 9, Reckoning of the forces / Williamson, Joshua
The Flash. Vol. 10, Force Quest / Williamson, Joshua
The Flash : year one / Williamson, Joshua
Heroes in crisis : the price and other stories / Williamson, Joshua
Flash forward / Lobdell, Scott
The Flash. Vol. 11, The greatest trick of all / Williamson, Joshua
The Flash. Vol. 12, Death and the speed force / Williamson, Joshua
The Flash. Vol. 13, Rogues’ reign / Williamson, Joshua
The Flash. Vol. 14, The Flash age / Williamson, Joshua
The Flash. Vol. 15, Finish line / Williamson, Joshua
Dark nights : death metal : the darkest knight (includes ‘Speed Metal’, a team-up with every Flash in history).
Infinite Frontier
After Barry becomes lost in the once more infinite Multiverse, Wally West takes on the mantle of the Flash once more, fighting crime while balancing life as a husband and father.
Infinite frontier / Williamson, Joshua
The Flash. Vol. 16, Wally West returns / Shinick, Kevin
War for Earth-3 / Thompson, Robbie
The Flash. Vol. 17, Eclipsed / Adams, Jeremy
The Flash. Vol. 18, The search for Barry Allen / Adams, Jeremy
The Flash. Volume 19, The one-minute war / Adams, Jeremy
Aquaman & The Flash : Voidsong / Kelly, Collin
Based on the TV series
The (pardon the phrasing) long-running CW series of The Flash has also inspired a few comics of its own.
The Flash : season zero / Kreisberg, Andrew
Crisis on infinite Earths : Paragons rising : the deluxe edition / Wolfman, Marv
The Rogues
The Flash’s villains are collectively known as The Rogues, a team of science-powered criminals content to menace The Fastest Man Alive. Lead by ‘The Man Who Mastered Absolute Zero’ Captain Cold, the Rogues have included the pyromaniac Heat Wave, the deceptive Mirror Master, the mischievous Trickster, the blowhard Weather Wizard, the ethereal Golden Glider, and the telepathic criminal ape Gorilla Grodd.
Rogue-centric stories
The Flash by Geoff Johns. Book five / Johns, Geoff (includes the ‘Rogue War’ arc)
The Flash by Geoff Johns. Book six / Johns, Geoff (includes Final Crisis: Rogue’s Revenge miniseries)
Forever Evil [1] : Rogues rebellion / Buccellato, Brian
The Flash. Vol. 3, Rogues reloaded / Williamson, Joshua
The Flash. Vol. 13, Rogues’ reign / Williamson, Joshua
Flash Across the Multiverse
The Flash. Volume 9, Reckoning of the forces / Williamson, Joshua – This volume features Barry meeting the Flashes of the Multiverse, including the cowboy Johnny Thunder of Earth-18, the robot Mercury-Flash of Earth-44, and the unnaturally swift turtle Fastback from the Zoo Crew of Earth-26.
Teen Titans : Earth one. Volume one and Volume two
Wally West hunts down the Teen Titans, here reimagined as teens given superpowers through a covert government experiment.
Earth 2. Volume 1, The gathering / Robinson, James Dale – A reboot of the original Earth-2, now home to a younger Jay Garrick protecting the world from an invasion by Darkseid.
Crime Syndicate / Schmidt, Andy – The Flash from the criminal world of Earth-3 is named Johnny Quick, a member of the nefarious Crime Syndicate.
Multiversity : teen justice / Cohen, Ivan – The matriarchal society of Earth-11 is home to Kid Quick, a genderfluid speedster for the sidekick team Teen Justice.
Justice League infinity / DeMatteis, J. M – A comic continuation of the TV show Justice League Unlimited, where most fans first encountered Wally West.
DC, the new frontier / Cooke, Darwyn – A young Barry Allen helps found the Justice League in the 1950s to battle the monstrous living island ‘The Centre’.
Kingdom come / Waid, Mark – In a future where heroes have rejected humanity, Wally West has fused with the Speed Force and become a human blur.
The Jurassic League / Gedeon, Juan – On the prehistoric Earth-27, the local Flash is a velociraptor (natch).
The Multiversity / Morrison, Grant – The multiversal team Justice League Incarnate includes Red Racer, a comic book fanboy with superspeed from Earth-36, a world protected by the Justice 9.
Justice League incarnate / Williamson, Joshua – After Red Racer’s disappearance, Avery Ho (the Flash of China from New Super-Man) takes over as Justice League Incarnate’s resident speedster.
Injustice : Gods among us : Volume 1 – When Superman takes over the world after a personal tragedy, Barry Allen reluctantly joins the Man of Steel’s Regime.
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