CHARACTERIZATION
[] speech analysis

RELATIONSHIPS
[] bruce wayne

TU SHANSHU — post-Flash: Rebirth

DC Universe | DC Wikia
New Earth | DC Wikia
Barry Allen | DC Wikia
Speed Force | DC Wikia

Meet Barry Allen, longtime forensic scientist for the Central City Police Department. Ask his colleagues about him and they'll tell you that Barry, while a nice guy and the best as his job they've ever seen, often needs a good kick in the behind to get going. Ask his wife Iris about him after work, and she'll probably just chuckle fondly and make an offhand comment about all the times (read: every single time) Barry's been late to an event they've gone to together.

Including their wedding.

Barry's a good guy though. Really. Born and raised in the middle of Iowa, Barry fits nearly every Midwestern stereotype there is. He's friendly, both to complete strangers as well as those close to him, and always willing to lend a hand if someone's in need of help. He's modest and self-effacing, never asking for more credit than he's due (though he'll happily dump credit and praise on someone else if they're is particularly deserving of it.) And he's patient, possessed of a near lack of temper and a penchant for looking towards the brighter side of life.

He's also really boring, because that's often what happens when you sit square in the middle of the Nice Guy trope. Barry's life is one of routine and method, and he's not a man for whom ambition and fame calls to loud and clear. (His wife once signed him up for a class on how to be successful. Surprisingly, he passed.) He's reactive rather proactive for the most part, waiting until something does go wrong to take action instead of seeking out trouble before it starts. He likes being where he is, a mostly unknown man with a steady job and a wife and home to return to each day after work.

Which, when you consider that he's also one of the most famous superheroes in the world, in addition to being the fastest man alive, is just a little bit weird.

Though he may not be flashy like Green Lantern or a genius like Batman or superpowered in every way like Superman, Barry is still, fundamentally, a good guy. One of the best, actually. He's honest and open and one of those people who wears their heart on their sleeve; it's easy to see how he's feeling just by looking at his face. That honesty means that it's extremely hard for him to hold onto lies, especially big life-changing ones, and though he's certainly capable of keeping a lie, he always extremely uncomfortable about doing so. He'd honestly rather confront whatever's bothering him instead of keeping it all in. That's a good thing because Barry believes a lot in justice, so much so that he would rather fling himself off a forty-story building than commit to an action he doesn't believe is right. Admittedly, what's "right" is highly personal, and there have been times in the past when Barry's perceived sense of right has led him to commit actions that end in disastrous results. (Protip: don't go around brainwashing villains in an attempt to reform them because that just doesn't go well for anyone.) And Barry himself is definitely far from perfect, oftentimes quick to judge others simply because they don't share his own personal set of beliefs. But he tries damn hard to do the right thing no matter what, and it's that steady moral compass that makes him so well-suited to be in law enforcement, both in costume and out. Which is good, because Barry loves being a cop. He lives for analyzing crime scenes and talking shop with just about everyone he meets, and above all, he lives for making sure that the innocent get a fair and just trial, no matter the cost.

And here's the thing about Barry and the Flash: unlike Batman vs. Bruce Wayne, and to a lesser extent Superman vs. Clark Kent, there's virtually no duality between the persona of Flash and that of Barry Allen. The Flash is nothing more than Barry Allen stuffed into an atrociously bright red-and-yellow spandex outfit. It doesn't bestow upon him any additional superpowers and it certainly doesn't make his personality do a complete 180. Everything Barry Allen does while in that suit is something he would do again outside of it, no questions asked. (Except maybe come up with really bad names for the fledgling Justice League. The Super Seven? Barry please.)

The superhero gig is one Barry takes exceedingly seriously. Doesn't matter if the villain he's facing is one that's going to blow up the bank or blow up the world, if something needs to be done you can bet that Barry will be there doing all he can. He's not the type to panic in the face of crisis or break down in a miserable sobbing wreck. Instead, he'll analyze the situation, wait for his orders (or give them, in the rare occasion no one else is in a position of higher authority), and then get going. It's just what he does.

As is befitting for a superhero whose name is the Flash, Barry's primary and most well-known ability is his superspeed, which allows him to run faster than the speed of both light and sound. He can then use this superspeed to do a number of handy tricks, such as create vortexes of wind with his arms and body or use his own momentum to drag things behind him without physically touching them. But the nice thing about superspeed is that it isn't just limited to running fast. It also allows for the ability to run on water, limited invisibility (if Barry vibrates his body's molecules at a high enough speed), and incredibly accelerated reaction times (to the point that picking out bullets in a battlefield is a walk in the park). He's also got something akin to short-term photographic memory, which has allowed him to rapidly pick up skills (like carpentry) so he can put them to use (building houses he himself destroyed in the space of a minute), as well as the ability to vibrate through solid matter.

The primary source of Barry's superspeed is the Speed Force, which, according to Geoff Johns, Barry actually creates with the energy from every step he takes when he runs. There's no real exact definition as to what it is, but it's basically two parts extra-dimensional energy source that speedsters can tap into and draw from, and one part pocket dimension that speedsters can enter into and use to travel through the timestream. It's where speedsters go when they die, a 'Valhalla' for speedsters if you will. It also provides speedsters with a number of smaller, but no less important, abilities, which for Barry includes: superhuman endurance, accelerated healing, decelerated aging, and something called the Speed Force aura, which basically means that he doesn't burn to a crisp due to the high levels of friction from running as fast as he does. Because that would really, really suck.

Even without his handy superhuman abilities, Barry can fend for himself pretty well. His background in chemistry and the sciences means he's quite handy when it comes to inventing things, and his years with the CCPD has instilled in him a talent for forensic science and criminology. He's pretty fit considering what he does outside of his regular day job, and he's got decent hand-to-hand combat skills. And, according to Comic Vine, Barry possesses the power of 'Attractive Male'. I thought that was important to mention. :(b

AND LAST BUT DEFINITELY NOT LEAST, Barry has the amazing ability to be late to everything in the world. It's a gift, really.