Who Has Been The Flash?

The Flash is getting ready to head into its second season, and its introducing multiverse dimensions and many other speedsters.

Considering The Flash’s long and storied history of passing the torch from one generation the next, there’s no telling how many speedsters might appear on the show once the ball really gets rolling.

As such, now seems like a pretty good time to look back on the Flash’s legacy and recap all of the speedsters who have claimed the mantle over the year.

Here’s everyone who has ever been the Flash (in the mainstream, DC Comics universe).

The Flash returns for Season 2 on The CW on Oct. 6.

Jay Garrick

Jay Garrick is the original Flash of the golden age. Garrick was a college student in 1938 who inhaled some funny vapors during a smoke break in his laboratory and ended up with super speed. After a short stint as a college football star, Jay donned a costume – including his signature metal helmet, inspired by the Greek god Hermes – and became a crime fighter. He eventually became a member of the Justice Society of America.

In the Silver Age, Jay was revealed as the Flash of Earth-Two. His crossover adventures with the Flash of Earth-One set the stage for coming Crisis events.

After the multiverse was merged in Crisis on Infinite Earths, Jay and the rest of the Society were recast as Earth’s heroes of the World War II era. He and the rest of the Society took on a role mentoring a new generation of heroes, and Jay became a father figure to multiple generations of speedsters.

Barry Allen

Barry Allen is the Flash of the Silver Age. In fact, he’s the hero who ushered in the Silver Age resurgence of super heroes.

Allen was a forensic scientist for the Central City Police Department. One night, while he was working late, a light bolt struck his lab, causing a freak accident that granted him super speed. Barry decided to use his powers to fight crime. He donned a red costume and named himself the Flash, after his childhood hero Jay Garrick.

Barry sacrificed his life to save the universe during the events of Crisis of Infinite Earths. He was absent from comics for 20 years, until he returned during the events of Final Crisis. He retook the mantle as Earth’s primary Flash in the 2009 The Flash: Rebirth series, and is the star of the currently ongoing The Flash comic book series.

Wally West

When Barry Allen died during the Crisis, his nephew Wally West – who, as The Flash’s sidekick Kid Flash, was a founding member of the Teen Titans – was left to take on the mantle of The Flash.

Wally gained his powers when, as a ten-year-old, he visited Barry Allen’s lab and the same freak accident that turned Barry into the Flash repeated itself. The accident granted Wally the same powers as his uncle. Wally donned a costume and became Barry’s sidekick, Kid Flash.

Wally was the Flash during most of the modern DC Comics era, between Crisis on Infinite Earths and Infinite Crisis. During that time, he married reporter Linda Park and had twin children.

After Infinite Crisis, Wally and his family left Earth for another dimension. In 2007, and Wally resumed his duties as the Flash until Barry Allen returned in 2009’s The Flash Rebirth. 

Bart Allen

Bart Allen is the grandson of Barry Allen and Iris West. He suffering from accelerated aging, and placed in a virtual reality machine to slow the process. Iris West eventually travelled back in time, to the present day, and sought out the help of The Flash, then Wally West, to cure Bart’s condition. Once successful, Bart remained in the present era. He became the hero Impulse and joined Young Justice with Robin and Superboy.

After the dissolution of Young Justice, Impulse joined a new iteration of the Teen Titans. After being shot in the leg by Deathstroke, the previously class clownish Bart decided to take his responsibilities more seriously and became the new Kid Flash.

During Infinite Crisis, almost all of the speedsters on the planet were sucked into the Speed Force. Bart returned, but had aged four years during the trip. After a year of claiming he had been depowered, and with Wally West still missing, Bart took on the mantle of the Flash.

Bart’s tenure as the Flash didn’t last long. After just 13 issues as the star of The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive, Bart was killed by the Rogues. He would later return in the 31st Century during the events of Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds. He returned to the present day in time to play a role in The Flash: Rebirth.

Jesse Chambers

Jesse Chambers is the daughter of another speedster hero, Johnny Quick, who became a speedster hero herself, going by the name Jesse Quick.

After meeting the Flash, Wally West asks her to be his back up and take over for him should he ever go missing. She does exactly that when Wally disappears into the Speed Force, though it is later revealed to be a part of Wally’s elaborate plan to get Bart Allen to take his role as a hero more seriously.

John Fox

John Fox is a historian from 27th Century Central City. He was sent back in time to get help from the Flash (any of them) in defeating the villain Mota from his own time period. While he failed in this mission, the tachyon radiation used for his trip granted him super speed.

Fox returned to te 27th Century and became that eras Flash for a time, before eventually travelling into the 853rd Century to join Justice Legion A.

Sela Allen And Her Father

The unnamed father of Sela Allen is a descendant of Barry Allen and the Flash of the 23rd Century. He was also one of the two Flash’s destined to be killed by the villain Cobalt Blue.

Blue captures this Flash and forces him to watch as his wife is killed and his daughter is crippled. Eventually, this Flash and Max Mercury are able to kill Blue, but this Flash dies in the struggle.

Blue crippled Sela Allen by stealing away her electrical impulses, leaving her as slow to the rest of the world as the rest of the world is to a Flash. Before he died, Sela’s father tried to cure her by bringing her into the Speed Force. She emerged as a living embodiment of the Speed Force, able to grant speed to people and objects, but unable to directly interact with the world herself.

Blaine Allen

Blaine Allen is the Flash of the 28th Century, living on the colony world of Petrus with his son, Jace.

Seeking to end the Allen bloodline, Cobalt Blue injects Jace with a virus. Desperate to save his son, Blaine takes Jace to the Speed Force. Instead of taking Jace, as Blaine had hoped, it takes Blaine instead and grant Jace super speed.

Jace Allen

Jace Allen, Blaine Allen’s son, was injected with a virus by the villain Cobalt Blue. Jace was taken to the speed force, which absorbed his father and granted him super speed to overcome the virus.

Jace takes up the mantle of the Flash, in memory of his father, and continues to fight Cobalt Blue.