Barry Allen (Earth-1)

"My name is Barry Allen, and I'm the fastest man alive. A friend recently gave me the idea for a new name, and something tells me, it's gonna catch on."

- Barry Allen

Barry Allen is a scientific assistant in the Criminal and Forensic Science Division of Central City Police Department. He is the son of Henry and the late Nora Allen, the foster son of Joe West, and the best friend and foster brother of Iris West. He is also a big fan of The Arrow.

After the S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator exploded, it caused a giant thundercloud to form. A lightning bolt from the storm struck Barry, causing him to fall comatose. He also had unknown chemicals fall on top of him, after he was electrocuted by the lightning bolt. When he awoke, he discovered that he had developed various super powers and abilities, most notably super speed but also rapid cell regeneration. Using these super powers and abilities, he began acting as the vigilante and superhero known as The Flash.

Early life
When Barry was eleven years old, he ran home from school after getting in to a fight. Though not being fast enough, his mother promised that he had a good heart, and his father was proud of him for winning the fight. That night, he was woken by a noise from downstairs. He walked downstairs to see his mother enclosed in a tornado-like blur. As Barry watched on in horror, his father approached and held him back. His father insisted he run, and suddenly he was transported by a flash of yellow several streets down. As he ran home, his father was being arrested by police, the former who told him not to enter the house. He entered, seeing Detective West standing solemnly over a body. When he walked away, Barry approached the body and discovered, to his horror, that it was his mother. Following the ordeal, Barry was fostered by Joe West, whose daughter, Iris, Barry was best friends with.

At the age of 12, Barry went to reptile camp, which was payed for by Joe.

After he finished school, Barry was motivated by his mother's murder to study criminology, in the hopes of proving that his father was innocent.

Visit to Starling City
Years later, Barry arrived in Starling City. He wasn't able to initially get a cab as the driver pulled away, and he soon arrived at Queen Consolidated's Applied Sciences Division to investigate a mysterious break-in as a CSI from Central City with a connecting case, where he met Oliver Queen, John Diggle, Quentin Lance and Felicity Smoak (the latter whom he had an instant connection with).

He was set up in the division with Felicity's help, unknown to Barry, because Felicity believed that they should have used him as an asset seeing as forensic science was not the expertise of any of their team (namely Felicity, who usually did most of the information gathering and recon). The two began talking, and Barry began speculating about The Arrow and his background, making incisive observations about why The Arrow wore green instead of black, the type of arrows he used, and how he theorized that The Arrow has partners, particularly someone who had a background in computer sciences; all of this unnerved Felicity.

Barry was astounded when Felicity asked him to help with a blood sample from an arrow she received from the police both by her "connections" from working for Oliver, and the fact that he was working the same case as The Arrow. During that particular part of their investigation, Felicity invited Barry to a Queen Consolidated function, which was actually a party at the Queen Mansion. However, before the results came in, his cover as a crime scene investigator working for the police was blown by Oliver just after he and Felicity began arguing over a news report about the mass particle accelerator. It was revealed that he was just an assistant CSI and there was no connecting case in Central City. Barry explained what happened to him as a child, and how it had caused him to begin looking into cases with impossible circumstances, in hopes of one day proving one possible, therefore solving his mother's murder and freeing his father. He was later re-invited by Oliver as Felicity's plus one to come to his home where he was throwing a party for his mother. When there, he apologized to Felicity while they danced.

After the party, Barry was contacted by his boss and was told to return to Central City if he hoped to keep his job, and revealed the sedative used was ketamine, informing Felicity it should've been easy to track. He tried to catch the soonest train, though missed the last one of the night. He settled down in to the train station to wait for the next one in the morning, when suddenly he was hit with a tranquilizer dart to the neck. When he awoke, he found himself in Oliver's base with Diggle watching him and Oliver lying on a table in full Arrow costume. Felicity approached him and asked Barry to save Oliver's life, who was not only poisoned with an unknown substance from the A.R.G.U.S. disaster bunker, but also had been beaten by the robber who had stolen the centrifuge from Queen Consolidated, raided the blood bank, and encountered Oliver as The Arrow while stealing large amounts of ketamine from the bunker.



Barry was able to save Oliver's life, which Oliver was not too pleased with at first, as they had revealed his secret without his permission. However, Barry eventually gained Oliver's trust. He recommended that a mask would be better than the green grease he used on his eyes as better concealment of his identity. Oliver later asked him if there were any side effects to the rat poison he injected in him, and Barry told him that it could cause hallucinations and heavy sweating. He then discovered that Oliver's hallucinations weren't from the serum, and that it was psychological. Barry headed back to Central City were she and Iris attended Harrison Wells announcement on the Particle Accelerator were a thief stole Iris purse Barry pursued him only to get beat up the thief was then caught by detective Eddie Thawne. That night Barry watched the news of the S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator, but as he watched it, it became unstable. The particle accelerator sent a shockwave through the city, and only seconds later was Barry struck by a red bolt of lightning through a window in the roof. He was sent backwards through the already-charged chemicals and was knocked unconscious. A red flash of light appeared across his cheek, rising, and then faded away.

Back in Central City
For the following five weeks, Felicity Smoak visited Barry in the hospital while he was in a coma, and left only to help Oliver.

When Barry's condition began to worsen he was moved to S.T.A.R. Labs to be closely monitored, and was frequently visited by Iris West.

Awoken from his coma and activities as The Flash
When he awoke from his coma 9 months later, Barry met Cisco Ramon, Harrison Wells and Caitlin Snow. As they examined him Barry thanked them and left to go meet Iris. The two embraced while talking Barry noticed that everything he saw seemed to be slowing down, learning he had gained super speed. They soon did tests on Barry's speed, attempting to determine how fast he could go. Before long he returned to work, where he clumsily made his way past Iris West, to be pulled up by her father and his boss, Joe. Barry discovered that Iris, whom he had a crush on, had begun dating Detective Eddie Thawne. Barry overheard a call that Joe and Eddie received of a situation at the Central City National Bank. He left and suited up, making his way to the bank, not before saving some dogs on the way. He attacked the man, finding that his punches didn't do much. The strongman threw him in to a pillar, causing it to break. Barry used his super speed to escape the crash and left before Joe or Eddie could see him. He made his way back to S.T.A.R. Labs, by which time his ankle had healed the wrong way. He informed the team of it and they seeked to re-break it and set it straight. Barry described the strongman to Dr. Wells, who insisted that Barry not take it to the police, as he had to keep his secret identity a secret. He received a text requesting his presence at the crime scene.

When he arrived he encountered Iris. She and Eddie walked off together, so Barry got to work by collecting some DNA samples of sweat. He overheard Eddie talking to another cop, believing that not only were he and Iris like siblings, but that Barry wasn't even her type. Barry handed over the DNA samples to Caitlin and Cisco, and went to help Joe get fingerprint samples from a man who was at the bank. Barry took the man's fingerprints, but accidentally hurt him when he was paying too much attention to Iris and Eddie. Following that, Joe and Barry left. In the car, Barry expressed his disappointment at having to keep his secret hidden, but Joe simply reassured him that it was necessary. As they talked, Eddie and Iris were involved in a crash in front of them. Barry and Joe got out of their car to help. The other two were fine, but they were all quickly shocked by the cause of the crash; a number of leopards and a tiger, who leapt towards Iris. As Eddie attempted to keep the cats at bay, Barry evacuated a bus using his super speed, then used some static electricity from the bus to scare the cats away. Unbeknownst to him, Eddie was left to think that he had done it, while Barry left the scene. He contacted Cisco and Caitlin, who alerted him to a group of chimpanzees wrecking a Tech Village store nearby. He suited up as The Flash and headed over there, giving each of them fruit from a fruit stand and allowing them to watch King Kong on a TV. Soon after, he directed them back towards the zoo. On the way there, an eagle defecated on his face. After locking the chimpanzee enclosure, Barry noticed a collar with a purple tophat on the tag, which he recognized. Caitlin and Cisco revealed that they'd ID'ed the sweat sample, finding that it was that of Joey Rose. Cisco suggested he get back before anyone notice he was gone. When he arrived back in the tunnel, back to his usual clothes, Eddie noticed the smell of poo on Barry. Given that Barry had claimed he'd been hiding, they inferred the worst, Joe suggesting they head back to the police department and get cleaned up quickly. As he was about to exit the police department, Captain Singh ordered Barry, Joe and Eddie to check out a homicide at 122 West Olympic Street. Whilst there, Barry noted bite marks on the victim from a Russell viper. Eddie noticed papers strewn around the floor were in fact deeds to businesses; among them in particular was a circus. Barry contacted Caitlin, who unearthed that the circus, Central City Circus, was foreclosed, with the owner having previously escaped from Belle Reve, killing two people.

Personality
Barry is described as someone who complements Felicity Smoak's intellect level, both when it comes to forensics, as she claims it's not her strong suit, and science in general. He is also someone who is regularly late as he missed a train, boarded a late train, and misses a cab all to get to Queen Consolidated's warehouse, and missed the last train back to Central City. He is also considered a comic geek.

Much like Oliver, he has a strong sense of justice, due to the fact he knows his father is innocent of a crime he was convicted of, and for which he is still serving a life sentence. He joins the forensics department to both learn how to investigate crimes, and study cases with unexplained elements, to prove his personal account of his mother's murder true, and ultimately, free his father. Barry is very intelligent, like Felicity he is socially awkward, and sometimes gets nervous and babbles.

Barry has good morals, he does not like to lie about who he really is, like when he first met, Oliver, Felicity and Quentin, and told them he was a forensic scientist, this was only because he knew they wouldn't take him very seriously if they knew he was only an assistant forensic scientist, when Oliver confronted him, after he found out who Barry really was, He did not try to deny it, but he also explained the reason why he did it.

Barry has a lot of respect for the vigilante known as The Arrow, when he found out that Oliver/The Arrow are the same person he was amazed, he also saved his life after he was injured by Cyrus Gold and consequently poisoned, despite the fact that he barely knew Oliver, he also keeps his secret, despite his respect for Oliver, Barry is not above standing up to him, like when he pointed out that Oliver was being a jerk to Felicity, but he said this in a respectable way.

Powers and abilities

 * High-level intellect: Barry is shown to be very intelligent, as proven by his many accurate theories about The Arrow, believing that he trained in a tropical environment because of his green clothing, and that he has one or more accomplices, including one with a background in computer sciences. Barry is very well aware of all the foes Oliver has gone up against as The Arrow, including The Dodger, The Huntress, The Dollmaker, and Count Vertigo. He was also able to cure Oliver Queen after he was injured by Cyrus Gold and consequently poisoned.
 * Forensic expert: Despite just being a forensic science assistant, Barry is shown to be a highly skilled forensic examiner.
 * Chemistry expert: Barry is an expert in chemistry, shown when he was terrified that nitric acid was next to hydrazine, and permanganates on top of acetone, describing all 4 chemicals as the definition of dangerous. Also shown when he used unknown types of chemicals to make a compressible micro-fabric green domino mask for Oliver, so he can conceal his identity more effectively than the grease paint Oliver was previously using.

Metahuman Powers and Abilities

 * Superhuman speed: After being electrocuted by the lightning storm created by the S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator, and having unknown chemicals falling on top of him, Barry gained superhuman speed. It allows him to move much faster than a normal human. He has shown to be able to move at speeds over 700mph.
 * Superhuman reflexes: After being electrocuted by the lightning storm created by the S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator, and having unknown chemicals falling on top of him, Barry gained superhuman reflexes. It allows him to react much faster than a normal human.
 * Accelerated perception: Barry speed also extends to his senses, allowing him to see and hear much faster then a normal human. This ability allows Barry to see the world as if it is in slow motion, letting him react to situations, long before a normal human could even process It.
 * Rapid cell regeneration: After being electrocuted by the lightning storm created by the S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator, and having unknown chemicals falling on top of him, Barry gained rapid cell regeneration. It allows him to heal much faster than a normal human.

Equipment

 * The Flash costume: Barry wears a costume as his superhero alter-ego, The Flash, to hide his identity from his enemies, when he goes out fighting crime. The costume is made out of a reinforced tri-polymer and is heat and abrasive resistant, it was designed by S.T.A.R. Labs. Barry's mask has the ability to conceal his identity very effectively, it has no restrictions on his visual field while he is running.

The Flash: Season Zero

 * "The Strongman Cometh"
 * "Who Let the Chimps Out?"
 * "A Goodnight Hiss"

Trivia

 * He tends to be late for everything, a homage to the fact that in the DC comics Barry would be late for everything to keep his identity as The Flash a secret, though in the Arrow universe it's just because he is unlucky.
 * The original DC comic book version of Barry Allen has blonde hair whereas the Barry Allen in Arrow has dark brown hair.
 * In the DC comics, Barry's mother was murdered by Eobard Thawne, better known as Professor Zoom or the Reverse-Flash. The tornado-like blur that killed Barry's mother in Arrow seems to be a reference to this.
 * In the DC multiverse Barry Allen is the second person to take up the superhero mantle of The Flash, after Jay Garrick.

Behind the scenes

 * In 2014, The Flash is the third DC-owned character to have its own television broadcasted show on The CW, following Smallville and Arrow.