User:Brojam/Barry Allen

Bartholomew Henry Allen is a character portrayed by Grant Gustin in the television series of the Arrowverse, based on the DC Comics character of the same name and commonly known by the alter ego Flash. First introduced in the second season of Arrow (2013), Barry is a crime-scene investigator for the Central City Police Department who gains super-human speed which he uses to become a superhero and fight criminals, including others who have also gained superhuman abilities. Gustin headlines the television series The Flash (2014–), reprised his role in Arrow (2014–2020), Supergirl (2016–2019), Legends of Tomorrow (2016–2020), and voiced the character in the animated web series Vixen (2015–2016), all set in the Arrowverse. Scott Whyte voices the character in Freedom Fighters: The Ray (2018). The character also appears in other media, including comics and novels.

Development of the character was officially announced in July 2013, with Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg, and Geoff Johns adapting the character for television. Gustin was cast in September 2013, and was originally set to appear in three episodes of Arrow, with the third appearance serving as a backdoor pilot for a spin-off series. The CW executives, impressed by early cuts of Gustin's first two appearances, cancelled the planned backdoor pilot in favor of a traditional stand-alone pilot to flesh out Barry's story and his world with a larger budget; The Flash was ordered to series in May 2014. The developers brought in costume designer Colleen Atwood to create the Flash suit and wanted to make sure that the Flash resembled his comic book counterpart, and was not a poor imitation. The suit has gone through multiple adjustments over the seasons, with Maya Mani replacing Atwood as the costume designer as of the second season.

The character and Gustin's portrayal have been met with positive reception. Gustin has received several awards and nominations for his portryal of Barry, including four IGN Awards (winning two), four Kids' Choice Awards, two MTV Movie & TV Awards, one Poppy Award, five Saturn Awards (winning one), one SFX Award, and eleven Teen Choice Awards (winning four).

Arrow
Crime-scene investigator Barry Allen was introduced in the second season of Arrow, in which he arrives in Starling City to personally investigate a superhuman-related crime. He is a fan of the Arrow's exploits and learns Oliver Queen is the vigilante; they become friends. Sometime after Barry returns to Central City, he is struck in his laboratory by lightning which was affected by dark matter from the explosion of the S.T.A.R. Labs' particle accelerator.

The Flash
In The Flash, Barry awakens from a nine-month coma at S.T.A.R Labs and finds himself with superhuman speed. He uses his new powers to fight crime and hunt other metahumans in Central City as the Flash, a masked superhero, with the assistance of Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow and Harrison Wells, while he tries to identify his mother's murderer. When he was a child, his mother was murdered and his father, Henry Allen, was incorrectly sentenced for the crime. Barry was fostered by detective Joe West, the father of his friend and childhood crush Iris.

In season one, Barry discovers that "Wells" is Eobard Thawne / Reverse-Flash in disguise and that he killed Nora Allen after his plan to travel back in time to kill Barry as a child was foiled by the Flash of his timeline, unintentionally severing his own Speed Force connection and leaving him stranded in the present day. After capturing him with the assistance of his allies, Barry is given the opportunity to rescue his mother by helping Eobard return to his time. Although he initially decides to go through with Eobard's offer, Barry decides not to at the last minute, after he is warned by his older self not to interfere, and instead returns to the present and fights with Eobard, stopping him from returning to the future. Barry is almost killed, but Eddie Thawne sacrifices himself to destroy Eobard.

In season two, after a singularity event occurs, the Flash is recognized as Central City's hero. However, the event brings a new threat from a parallel earth in the form of the speedster Zoom, who seeks to eliminate all speedsters throughout the multiverse. Barry discovers a recording of Eobard's confession of Nora's murder that clears his father of all charges, with Barry inheriting Harrison Wells' fortune and resources from Eobard. Though rich, Barry chooses to continue working for the Central City Police Department while using Wells' money to fund his and his allies' activities. After Zoom kills Barry's father, Barry defeats Zoom and travels back in time to save his mother's life.

In season three, by changing his past, Barry alters the timeline, resulting in the alternate timeline "Flashpoint". Though he is somewhat able to restore the timeline, this creates new threats, including the emergence of Savitar, a god-like speedster with a grudge against Barry. When Barry accidentally travels to the future and sees Iris killed by Savitar, he becomes desperate to change the future to prevent that from happening. He learns the identity of Savitar is a clone of a future version of himself. After saving Iris and defeating Savitar, Barry takes his place in the Speed Force in order to repent for his creation of Flashpoint.

In season four, after being stranded in the Speed Force for six months, Barry is freed by Team Flash. The team later encounters Clifford DeVoe / Thinker, an adversary with the fastest mind alive, who has orchestrated Barry's return from the Speed Force as well as the creation of the bus metas. However, DeVoe frames Barry for murder shortly afterwards; not wanting to risk compromising his loved ones and allies by revealing his secrets, Barry allows himself to be sentenced to life imprisonment. A month later, private detective Ralph Dibny, who joins the Flash's team, uses his new shapeshifting power to impersonate DeVoe and help clear Barry of all charges. Following the Thinker's defeat, the team is approached by Barry and Iris' daughter from the future, Nora West-Allen.

In season five, Nora arrives from the future, wanting to change the events that lead to Barry's disappearance in the future. However, Nora's presence has altered the timeline and unleashed Cicada, a serial killer bent on killing metahumans. Futhermore, the team eventually learn of her allegiance with Eobard, who orchestrated Nora's arrival and Cicada. Barry and Nora succeed in subduing Eobard, but are forced to let him go and Nora is erased from the timeline.

In season six, Barry and Iris learn that the date of the crisis in which Barry disappears has moved up from April 2024 to December 2019, and that in order to save billions, the Flash must die. Meanwhile, Ramsey Rosso has discovered a way to cure people through dark matter, only to turn himself into a metahuman with a violent bloodthirst. Following Rosso's defeat, Barry surviving the crisis, and the multiverse's destruction and rebirth, Team Flash try to navigate the world post-crisis all while the secret organization Black Hole and quantum engineer Eva McCulloch move forward with their mysterious plans. Barry later discovers that Oliver enhancing his speed during the crisis has damaged the Speed Force. As a result, the Speed Force dies and all speedsters will permanently lose their speed. Barry gets the idea to create an artificial Speed Force to save his speed.

Crossovers
In the season one episode "Worlds Finest" of Supergirl, Barry accidentally enters the universe of Kara Danvers / Supergirl and Clark Kent / Superman after passing through an extradimensional breach while testing a tachyon accelerator. He teams up with Kara in order to take down Livewire and Silver Banshee, after which Kara assists him in returning to his universe.

In the crossover "Crisis on Earth-X", Barry and Iris' friends come to Central City for their wedding, only to be interrupted when villains from Earth-X disrupt the proceedings. After defeating the invaders from Earth-X, Barry and Iris are married by John Diggle.

In the crossover "Elseworlds", Arkham Asylum doctor John Deegan rewrites reality, which results in Barry and Oliver swapping lives. In the new reality, they are the only ones that know that they are in the wrong lives and have each other's powers, which results in them going to Gotham City with Kara Danvers / Supergirl to confront Deegan.

In the crossover "Crisis on Infinite Earths", the Monitor recruits Barry, Oliver, Kara, Kate Kane / Batwoman, Sara Lance / White Canary, Ray Palmer / Atom, and several others from throughout the multiverse to stop the Anti-Monitor from destroying reality. Barry's fate during the crisis is altered by the intervention of Earth-90's Flash, who sacrifices himself in Barry's place. Following Oliver's sacrifice and the Anti-Monitor's defeat, Barry leads a new group of heroes who agree to work together to protect their new world, dubbed Earth-Prime, in memory of Oliver.

Portrayal

 * https://www.cbr.com/arrow-team-calls-grant-gustin-the-perfect-flash/
 * http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/flashs-grant-gustin-my-favorite-724921
 * Kreisberg on Gustin S3 end: http://ew.com/tv/2017/05/02/flash-savitar-identity-barry-allen/
 * Scott Whyte:


 * https://ew.com/tv/2019/04/18/casting-gossip-girl-arrow-riverdale-david-rapaport/

Appearances and crossovers
Outside of his self-titled series, Allen has appeared in multiple episodes of Arrow, Vixen, Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow.

Arrow
 * "The Scientist" (December 4, 2013)
 * "Three Ghosts" (December 11, 2013)
 * "The Calm" (October 8, 2014)
 * "The Brave and the Bold" (December 3, 2014)
 * "My Name Is Oliver Queen" (May 13, 2015)
 * "Green Arrow" (October 7, 2015)
 * "Legends of Yesterday" (December 2, 2015)
 * "Invasion!" (November 30, 2016)
 * "Crisis on Earth-X" (November 27, 2017)
 * "Elseworlds" (December 10, 2018)

Vixen
 * "Season 1" (August 25 to September 29, 2015)
 * "Season 2" (October 13 to November 18, 2016)

Supergirl
 * "Worlds Finest" (March 28, 2016)
 * "Medusa" (November 28, 2016)
 * "Crisis on Earth-X" (November 27, 2017)
 * "Elseworlds" (December 10, 2018)

Legends of Tomorrow
 * "Shogun" (October 27, 2016)
 * "Invasion!" (December 1, 2016)
 * "Crisis on Earth-X" (November 28, 2017)

Other versions

 * The Earth-2 version of the character (also played by Gustin) is a non-metahuman who is a CSI at the Central City Police Department and a Ph.D. graduate. Married to Iris, he is despised by Joe.


 * 2024 version


 * Gustin also portrays Savitar (voiced by Tobin Bell in his exosuit), who is an evil and scarred future version of the Flash, who is the main antagonist for season three. He is corrupted after his final battle with the Reverse-Flash in the post-Flashpoint 2024. Savitar's presence reveals that, chronologically, Barry is the multiverse's first metahuman with speed. He named himself after the Hindu god of motion, and is worshipped by his own cult. When Savitar reveals his true identiy to Barry, it forces the younger Flash to confront his own dark impulses and temptations that plaguing him since his parents' deaths. Thus, Savitar validates that Hunter Zolomon were right that Barry has a darkness within him, and thus Barry must make a choice of whether to embrace his dark side or to fight it. After having trapped in the Speed Force after a battle with a heroic version of himself in 2021, Savitar seeks to avert his defeat by challenging the Flash in 2017 include killing Iris. Savitar is determined to ensure his younger self's villainous path as a vile version of the Flash and thus to secure his own existence.

Critical response
Gustin's debut as Barry Allen in Arrow received mixed reviews. Jesse Schedeen of IGN stated that initially, his concern was "that Gustin doesn't come across as leading man material. His awkward bumbling intertwining with Felicity's was cute, but rarely did I get the impression that this character could or should be given his own spinoff series." However, Schedeen eventually warmed up to the character, once the "dorkiness and social awkwardness" were downplayed a bit, and the emphasis was placed on "his keen scientific mind." Noel Kirkpatrick of TV.com felt that "Allen feels more like a Kid Flash than Flash, given his age and job position as an assistant crime scene tech, as opposed to a full-fledged forensic expert." However, he "appreciated some of the small nods, like Barry saying he's not good on his feet, and the longer riff on Barry sorting chemicals during a thunderstorm—a reference to how Barry Allen got his powers in the comics when he was struck by lightning while standing next to a shelf full of chemicals." As for Gustin's portrayal of the character, Kirkpatrick felt that he "was very good in his debut, hitting comedy and drama notes well. He's good-looking, likeable, and young, three things The CW loves, and he seems like a he can handle headlining his own show."


 * https://tvline.com/2019/11/30/grant-gustin-the-flash-season-6-performance-josh-oconnor-the-crown-season-3/
 * https://tvline.com/2019/12/10/performer-of-the-year-2019-nominees-finalists/
 * https://tvline.com/gallery/2019-performer-of-the-year-finalists/the-last-temptation-of-barry-allen-pt-1-3/