The 10 Best Flash Comics in This (or Any) Universe

Superheroes were an instant hit with readers of the 1930s and 40s, but by 1950, the fad had died down. Between losing its major readership when American G.I.s returned from World War II and the moral hysteria caused by Dr. Fredric Wertham’s book Seduction of the Innocent, only Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman could count on steady readership. But all of that changed in 1956, when DC Comics editor Julius Schwartz decided to reboot superheroes with new sci-fi based powers, starting with Barry Allen aka The Flash.

Today’s readers might not totally understand how the introduction of Barry Allen revolutionized comics. But for comics fans of the 1950s, “Mystery of the Human Thunderbolt” told a postmodern story before it became mainstream, presenting Barry as a reader of WWII Flash comics who gets the powers of his hero after being struck by lightning. With a straightforward script by Robert Kanigher and fantastic visuals from Carmine Infantino, the first appearance of The Flash jump-started the Silver Age of comics, paving the way for the Justice League and, eventually, Marvel Comics.

The Flash first burst onto the comic book scene with 1940’s Flash Comics #1, which introduced the world to Jay Garrick, a man who gains super speed after inhaling hard water (comic book science, everybody!). But like the original Green Lantern, Hawkman, and Atom, The Flash disappeared in the 1950s, eventually replaced by new characters bearing the same name. Comic readers at the time figured the World War II heroes were gone forever, until a fateful meeting in The Flash #123. The story by Gardner Fox, penciled again by Carmine Infantino, finds Barry accidentally traveling from his hometown Central City to Jay Garrick’s hometown—in another reality.

Just like “Mystery of the Human Thunderbolt” changed comics by doing away with old heroes like Garrick, “The Flash of Two Worlds” changed the genre by bringing them back. The story revealed that Garrick (and by extension, all of the early heroes, including Golden Age Batman and Superman) lived on Earth-Two, one of many alternate realities in the DC Universe. Thus, “The Flash of Two Worlds” brought multiverses into the mainstream, paving the way for modern hit movies such as Everything Everywhere All at Once and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

The Silver Age began with the introduction of Barry Allen and it ended with his death. Fearing that its universe of multiple realities and deep backstories had become too convoluted for the average reader, DC Comics decided to recreate its universe. Crisis on Infinite Earths set all of DC’s heroes against the Anti-Monitor, a reality-destroying creature who gobbled up the various realities. By the end of the story, the DC Universe had forever changed, restored as a world with a single reality and a restarted continuity.

That victory, such as it was, came at the cost of many heroes’ lives, including that of Superman’s cousin Supergirl. But none were as memorable as the brave sacrifice of Barry Allen. As the only one who can move fast enough to destroy the Anti-Monitor’s horrific machine, Barry pushes himself to the limit, eventually dissolving into pure energy, but not before he appears to his friends as a ghostly figure one last time, presented in powerful detail by the late, great penciler George Perez. Crisis writer Marv Wolfman intended the death to be only temporary, believing that Barry would once again rematerialize, but that did not happen for decades, making Barry’s death one of the most potent in all of comics.

Barry Allen may have died, but The Flash did not. After Barry’s sacrifice, his nephew/teen sidekick Kid Flash aka Wally West took up the mantle, carrying on The Flash name. After a rocky and unassured start, Wally soon grew into a successful hero, eventually gaining the confidence to become one of the most relatable and compassionate superheroes in all of comics. But that confidence took a hard blow during one of the best stories of the Wally West era, “The Return of Barry Allen.”

Written by Mark Waid and penciled by Greg LaRocque, “The Return of Barry Allen” sees a Christmas celebration interrupted by what appears to be Wally West’s uncle and mentor, alive and in the flesh. Although elated by his predecessor’s reappearance, Wally feels his insecurities come rushing back, especially when Barry makes his disappointment known. We won’t spoil the twist here, suffice it to say that “The Return of Barry Allen” serves as a reminder of what makes The Flash such a great hero, whether its Wally West or Barry Allen in the red tights.

For the first several decades of his existence, The Flash secretly had one of comics’ best collections of bad guys, as varied and terrifying as the villains who fight Batman or Spider-Man. But it wasn’t until writer Geoff Johns took over the book that The Flash’s baddies got their due. Working with artists such as Howard Porter, Johns emphasized the blue-collar nature of Wally’s world, where he and villains such as Captain Cold, the Weather Wizard, and the Trickster maintained mutual respect, even as they represented opposite sides of the law.

With the Rogue War, Johns and Porter explode that status quo. When an ideological divide tears the city’s Rogues apart, Wally has to keep his Linda safe while preventing his enemies from destroy the city he’s sworn to protect. The end of Geoff Johns' run writing Wally (but not The Flash, as we’ll see in a moment), “Rogue” War captures everything great about the hero, from his commitment to his family to his ability to treat his antagonists as human beings who deserve respect, even the murderous evil speedster Zoom.

While Marv Wolfman always assumed Barry Allen would come back immediately, Wally West became so popular that the powers that be decided to let the old speedster rest. That is until the high-concept crossover Final Crisis, in which Flashes Wally and Jay Garrick encounter Barry living in the Speed Force, the magical energy that gives all speedsters their powers. After that brief cameo, writer Geoff Johns and artist Ethan Van Sciver fleshed out Barry Allen’s proper return to the DC Universe.

Most of Flash: Rebirth explains how Barry survived his apparent sacrifice in Crisis on Infinite Earths and his relationship with the Speed Force. However, the most enduring aspect of the story is the way it rewrites Barry’s history. Throughout the Silver Age, Barry didn’t have much of a backstory, as writers simply assumed that people didn’t need a tragic event to become superheroes. Johns changes that by revealing that Barry was inspired to do good after his father was unjustly prisoned for murdering his mother, a crime actually committed by his arch-nemesis the Reverse Flash. This revision has become the true origin of Barry Allen, repeated not only in the comics that followed but also in the Flash TV show and movie.

It’s hard to think of a comic book story more infamous than Flashpoint. Originally, Geoff Johns and artist Andy Kubert intended Flashpoint to be a stand-alone Flash story, about the unintended consequences of Barry’s decision to go back in time and rescue his mother. But when DC Editorial decided that it was time for yet another universe-wide reboot, they made The Flash the culprit. As a result, Barry’s trip to the past creates not just problems for himself, but a radically different DC Universe, one in which Thomas Wayne became Batman after the death of his young son Bruce, and in which an emaciated Superman lives hidden in a government lab. Even when Barry finds a way back to the main universe, he finds it completely changed, launching the New 52 continuity.

For many reasons, the New 52 was a flop, and DC’s continuity has been largely reset to its pre-Flashpoint status quo. But the failed expectations placed upon the series by editorial shouldn’t take away from what remains a pretty exciting Flash story. Forced to encounter a world made much worse by his actions, Barry gains a greater awareness of the cost of his actions. In the face of a world better for him, but not for anyone else, Barry sacrifices the life he wants—a sacrifice almost as great as the one he made in Crisis on Infinite Earths. So potent is the Flashpoint story that it has been reused not only in the Flash TV show, but it’s also the major inspiration for The Flash movie.

While Flashpoint may have been a very popular Flash story, it did nothing to help Barry’s reputation. In the public consciousness, Barry changed from a hero who makes the ultimate sacrifice to a selfish guy who messed up the universe. That has changed some with the truly terrible series Doomsday Clock, which not only tried to serve as a sequel to seminal superhero deconstruction Watchmen, but also revealed that the true catalyst for the New 52 reboot world was not Barry Allen, but rather Doctor Manhattan.

Mercifully, Barry was spared participation in Doomsday Clock, taking a backseat to Superman fighting Doctor Manhattan and Batman teaming with Rorschach. But Barry did play a role in the four-part lead-in story “The Button,” written by Joshua Williamson and Tom King and drawn by Howard Porter and Jason Fabok. On a plot level, “The Button” deals with Batman and Flash teaming up to investigate a mysterious bloody smiley face button, something familiar to any reader of Watchmen. However, the book also carries a strong emotional core, restoring the dignity to Barry’s reality-shaking decision in Flashpoint and putting the blame for the New 52 where it really belongs: DC editorial.

With the pre-New 52 reality restored, the DC Universe has what some may consider a problem: too many Flashes. Not only are Barry and Wally and Jay Garrick running around as The Flash, but there’s a new Kid Flash (Wallace West, to make things more confusing), a Chinese Flash called Avery Ho, Barry’s grandson from the future Impulse, and related speedster Jessie Quick. Rather than thin the herd, current Flash writer Jeremy Adams says “the more, the merrier” and puts them all to work in the storyline, “One Minute War.” When a group of super-speed aliens arrive to cultivate Earth, it’s up to all the world’s Flashes to stop them, resulting in an epic battle that takes only sixty seconds.

With art from Roger Cruz, Wellington Diaz, Luis Guerrero, and Taurin Clarke, “One Minute War” is Flash storytelling at its best. It takes full advantage of not only the central conceit of Flash stories—this guy can run really, really fast—but also of the seemingly crowded roster of heroes. Leaning into the over-the-top fun of super-speedy good guys and bad guys, “One Minute War” proves you can never have too many Flashes.

The Flash might be an important hero with more than enough great stories to fill a feature movie, but Warner Bros. isn’t entirely certain that the scarlet speedster will be enough to rush butts into theaters. So it’s taking advantage of the multiverse concept to fill The Flash with surprise cameos, none more important than Michael Keaton, reprising his role as Batman. Keaton was a very unpopular choice to play the Dark Knight back in the late '80s, but time has been kind to his performances in 1989’s Batman and 1992’s Batman Returns, making his Batman an enduring fan favorite.

Although no one got to enjoy Keaton’s first return to action in Batgirl, the movie that was canceled by Warner Brothers shortly before its release last year, comic book readers have been able to keep up with Gotham City as imagined by Tim Burton. Batman screenwriter Sam Hamm and artist Joe Quinones have been continuing the story in the digital series Batman ’89. Picking up where Batman Returns left off, Batman ’89 gives us all of the characters we didn’t get to see in later Batman movies, including Billy Dee Williams as Two-Face, Geena Davis as Poison Ivy, and even Marlon Wayans as Robin. If The Flash whets your appetite for more of Michael Keaton’s Batman, then. Batman ’89 is sure to satisfy.