Flash (Barry Allen) - Other Versions

Other Versions

• Barry Allen is a supporting character in Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Strikes Again. He has been kept by Lex Luthor as a power source for most of the East Coast, constantly running on a treadmill to provide cheap electrical power or Iris will be executed. After being rescued, Barry wears a black version of his original Flash costume which Batman's young assistants deemed as "old" — "Kids, these days, can't tell the difference between just plain old and classic", he mutters. He then aids Batman and other heroes in restoring order, though they clash when Barry wants to save people in danger while Batman is prepared to let them die for the sake of his long-term strategy.

• Barry Allen appears in JLA: Age of Wonder as a scientist working with Superman and a consortium of early twentieth-century scientists such as Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla. His uniform incorporates the Silver Age look with the Mercury-style helmet worn by Jay Garrick.

• Other Elseworld appearances include: League of Justice, a Lord of the Rings-type story, where the character is recast as "Phaeton," who wears a mystical brooch resembling Flash's lightning-bolt chest emblem, and has bathed in dragon's blood in order to protect himself from speed friction; and Batman: Holy Terror, where he is one of a number of metahumans imprisoned by a theocratic state, discovered and released by Batman during a raid on the government, only to be killed when his captor reveals that his research has included discovering how to deactivate the aura that protects Barry from being destroyed by the friction he generates while running.

• A version of Barry Allen aka Hot Pursuit appeared in the lead into Flashpoint. Little is known about the exact origins of Hot Pursuit, or how he came to be. The only thing known is the fact that he is a version of Barry Allen from the future, who goes back in time to warn himself about the upcoming events of Flashpoint. Hot Pursuit's history is assumed to be the same as Barry Allen's up until the single point in time, where a great anomaly altered the reality of the future all together. The unknown event that made Barry Allen don the role of Hot Pursuit is the same event he travels back in time to warn himself about, as well as the event that causes Flashpoint. With Flashpoint's wide spread time altering effects, it is possible that Barry Allen lost his connection to the Speed Force, thus needing the cosmic motorcycle Hot Pursuit is seen riding to access the Speed Force and travel back in time. This motorcycle also needs to be charged constantly with mass amounts of electricity in order for it to continue to be able to access the Speed Force, thus it is unable to naturally access the Speed Force like Barry Allen or the rest of the Flash Family.

• A story in the Marvel comic book series Quasar, written four years after Crisis on Infinite Earths, has the Marvel Universe speedsters facing off in a competition set up by a being called the Runner. The contest is a race from the Earth to the Moon. During the race, a surge of energy hits the track, leaving a being with blonde hair and dressed in the remains of a red outfit with yellow boots. This being has no memory, but an enormous desire to run. He goes on to win the race, passing Marvel speedsters such as Quicksilver and Speed Demon in the process. When asked what his name is, the man replies, "I'm not sure. "Buried Alien"... Something like that." When asked how it felt to be the fastest man alive, he replied, "It feels... right." The racer goes on to take the name Fast-Forward, disappearing into the universe in an attempt to help Makkari, who is stuck at hyper speed.

• In the Elseworlds tale Superman & Batman: Generations, Barry's life is still the same, but heroes age in real time. This reality shows no sign of the Crisis ever happening, so an elderly Barry is seen to be alive and well in 2008.

• The Elseworlds story Flashpoint shows an alternate reality where Barry Allen becomes the Flash in 1956, the year he first appeared in comics. He is more involved in government affairs. By 1963, he has ended the Cold War and pushed the communists out of Vietnam. However, his career is cut short as he takes a bullet aimed at John F. Kennedy. He is paralyzed from the neck down, but he still has the fastest mind on Earth and forms Allen Industries. By 1988, he and Vandal Savage's Immortality, Inc. have begun an exploration of Mars. In 1998, Wally West leads an expedition to Mars, during which he finds the flashpoint, an object which killed all life on Mars. Savage reveals he is the one who shot Allen. Barry makes contact with Wally, who is going on a super speed rampage. Barry is cured and defeats Savage. He then enters the flashpoint, going into the Speed Force.

• In The Flash Annual #7, an alternate universe is shown where shortly after Wally West became Kid Flash, he became a superstar celebrity. However, Barry was tragically killed while battling Captain Cold. Ten years later, Wally is now a paraplegic and Captain Cold has written a supposedly "true" story about Barry that paints him as arrogant and incompetent. Wally decides to make a movie about his mentor that portrays the genuine Barry Allen. The resulting film is a success.

• Recently the Barry Allen of Earth-51, where secret identities are no longer needed by superheroes, is seen alive. He is subsequently killed by the Monitor of New Earth.

• In JLA: The Nail a version of Barry Allen is a member of a Justice League where Superman did not become a hero and join the team until much later. In lieu of Superboy's adventures with the Legion of Super-Heroes, the Flash visited the 30th Century instead. Barry Allen of The Nail is almost identical to the pre-Crisis Earth-1 version, except that his costume resembles Wally's. His most prominent scene in the story is a confrontation with Amazo where he manages to defeat the android by turning intangible and removing his computerized brain before Amazo can process and mimic that attack.

• In JLA/Avengers Barry Allen appears in issue 3 as the Flash in the JLA when the two realities start changing, along with Hal Jordan. When the two teams see their real futures, Barry witnesses his death during Crisis on Infinite Earths as the Grandmaster shows the heroes how reality should be, but nevertheless resolves to help restore the timeline as it is not his place to play God. He talk with Hal Jordan over the similarity of their situation, stating that dying could not be so bad so long as they have left a legacy for others (Wally West and Kyle Rayner, in their cases) to fight for what they believe. He helps the team get into Krona's base by using his running on a treadmill to pass the ship through the dimensional barrier. With the Wasp, he is ordered by Captain America to find ways through Krona's defences, and alerts the group to a probably lethal force field. During the final battle, Barry saves Hawkeye from being killed when the Absorbing Man breaks the ground beneath him, but both of them are blasted and apparently killed by Dreamslayer. At the end, it is revealed that Barry got the two of them out alive and at Captain America's suggestion they laid low and because of this, Hawkeye is able to destroy Krona's machine with a TNT arrow while Barry distracts him, then Barry takes the 12 items of power. As a result, reality is restored, Barry disappears and Wally returns.