50 Fun Facts About The Flash

Which writer created the original Flash with artist Harry Lampert in Flash Comics #1 (1940)?

Jay Garrick, a college football star turned scientist, became the first chairman of the Justice Society of America.

How did Jay Garrick, the Golden Age Flash, get his super-speed?

He had stopped for a cigarette break in the laboratory. Later writers quietly changed 'hard water' to 'heavy water' to sound more scientific.

Jay Garrick's winged metal helmet is modelled on which Roman god?

In later continuity the helmet itself belonged to his father Joseph, who wore it in the First World War.

Barry Allen's debut in Showcase #4 in October 1956 is generally regarded as the start of what?

DC's decision to revive a 1940s hero with a science-fiction origin set the template for reviving Green Lantern, the Atom and Hawkman too.

What is Barry Allen's day job?

The running joke is that the fastest man alive was chronically late and slow before the accident. Robert Kanigher and Carmine Infantino created him.

What gave Barry Allen his powers?

The TV series later added a S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator as the trigger for the lightning. In the comics it was simply a freak storm.

Where does Barry Allen keep his costume when he is in civilian clothes?

The ring ejects the compressed suit, which expands on contact with air. He created the ring himself with his chemistry know-how.

The Flash #123 (1961), 'Flash of Two Worlds', is famous for introducing what to DC Comics?

Barry vibrates his molecules during a stage show and finds himself in Keystone City, where the Golden Age Flash he read about in comics as a boy turns out to be real.

On Barry Allen's Earth, what was Jay Garrick believed to be before 'Flash of Two Worlds'?

The story was written by the character's original creator and edited by Julius Schwartz, whose own autobiography was titled Man of Two Worlds.

Barry Allen operates out of which fictional town?

Keystone City belongs to Jay Garrick, and in later continuity the two are twin cities across a river.

Kid Flash was introduced in 1959. How is he related to Barry Allen?

He gained his powers when Barry's lab accident was recreated in front of him. Fans generally rate him the fastest Flash of all.

In which 1985 event did Barry Allen die a hero's death?

He ran himself to death destroying the Anti-Monitor's cannon in issue #8. Wally West took over as the Flash the following year.

The third Flash took over in 1986. Who did he marry during Mark Waid's celebrated run on the title?

The TV reporter became his anchor to reality, literally: his love for her is what let him return from the Speed Force. They have twins, Jai and Irey.

Which speedster is called the fastest Flash of all, faster even than the Speed Force?

He was written out of continuity in the New 52 and returned in DC Rebirth (2016) to a world that had forgotten him.

Bart Allen debuted as Impulse in 1994. What is his family connection to Barry Allen?

His Speed Force metabolism made him age so fast he looked twelve at two. Created by Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo, he later became Kid Flash and, briefly, the fourth Flash.

Which villains killed Bart Allen during his short run as the Flash in 2007?

The Rogues beat him to death in issue 13 of The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive, breaking their own rule against killing. Bart was later resurrected.

Who leads the Rogues, the Flash's regular gallery of villains?

Leonard Snart's gun can freeze anything to absolute zero. His sister Lisa is the Golden Glider.

The Rogues operate under a strict code. Which of these is part of it?

They socialise together and rarely have ambitions beyond robbery, which is why fans regard them as blue-collar villains rather than would-be world conquerors.

Eobard Thawne, the Reverse-Flash, comes from which century?

He began as a scientist who idolised the Flash and turned obsessive. He first appeared in The Flash #139 in September 1963.

How did Barry Allen kill the Reverse-Flash, leading to the 'Trial of the Flash' storyline?

Thawne was about to kill Barry's new bride, having already murdered Iris. Barry was tried for murder and found guilty by the jury.

In Flash: Rebirth, Thawne was revealed to have killed which member of Barry's family?

Barry's father was wrongly jailed for the murder. The retcon gave Barry a tragic origin he had never had before, and it became the spine of the TV series.

Hunter Zolomon, the arch-enemy of the third Flash, is better known by which name?

He is the second Reverse-Flash. Unlike Thawne he does not use the Speed Force at all; he alters his own position in time.

What device did Barry Allen invent that allows precise time travel?

A speedster runs on it at a set vibration to reach a target date. It has been wrecked and rebuilt more times than anyone has counted.

The 2011 crossover in which Barry Allen breaks the timeline by saving his mother was written by whom?

Andy Kubert pencilled it. Barry wakes in a timeline where Thomas Wayne is Batman and a war between Wonder Woman and Aquaman has devastated Europe, all because he saved his mother.

In the altered timeline of that 2011 crossover, who is Batman?

Bruce died in Crime Alley instead of his parents; his father became a gun-toting Batman and his mother the Joker. The story led straight into DC's New 52 relaunch.

What is the Speed Force?

It also acts as a kind of afterlife for dead speedsters, which is how so many of them keep coming back.

The 1990 live-action Flash series starring John Wesley Shipp aired on which US network?

It ran a single season from September 1990 to May 1991. Danny Elfman, fresh from Batman, wrote the theme.

Which Star Wars actor played the Trickster in the 1990 Flash series and again in the 2014 show?

His James Jesse was a psychopathic mass murderer with multiple personalities, and the role helped him land the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series.

The four Flash suits made for John Wesley Shipp in the 1990 series cost how much in total?

The show's expense was a big reason CBS dropped it after one season. Shipp came back as Barry's father Henry, and as Jay Garrick, in the 2014 series.

The Flash TV series that began in 2014 was a spin-off from which show?

Grant Gustin's Barry Allen debuted in two Arrow episodes first. The shared universe became known as the Arrowverse.

In the 2014 TV series, what causes the accident that gives Barry Allen his speed?

The blast also created most of the show's 'metahuman' villains, which conveniently explained a new one every week.

How many seasons did the Grant Gustin Flash series run on The CW?

It ran 184 episodes from October 2014 to May 2023, outlasting Arrow, the show that spawned it.

In the 2014 series, which actor played both Harrison Wells and the Reverse-Flash?

The first-season twist that the kindly mentor was Eobard Thawne wearing Wells's face let Cavanagh play a new Wells from a different Earth almost every season.

Who played Iris West in the 2014 Flash series?

Her Iris is the daughter of Detective Joe West, Barry's foster father, played by Jesse L. Martin.

Who directed the 2023 film The Flash?

The It director inherited a project that had been through several filmmakers. It grossed $271.4 million against a budget of over $200 million and was written off as a bomb.

Which actor returned as Batman in the 2023 film The Flash, decades after last wearing the cowl?

He reprised the role from Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992). Ben Affleck also appears, uncredited, for about five minutes.

Which actor cameoed in The Flash (2023) as an alternate Superman fighting a giant spider?

Cage had been cast in Tim Burton's unmade Superman Lives, whose script famously featured a giant spider.

The 2023 film The Flash was influenced by which comic storyline?

Barry goes back to stop his mother's murder and breaks the timeline. Sasha Calle made her film debut as Supergirl in the altered world.

Ezra Miller first played Barry Allen in which film?

The 2016 cameo, in security-camera footage, came before a Suicide Squad cameo and the full Justice League role in 2017.

Which actor voiced the Flash in Justice League while also playing Lex Luthor on Smallville?

His wisecracking Wally West was the heart of the team.

In his 1959 debut, telepathic super-ape Grodd seized control of which hidden metropolis?

Grodd first appeared in The Flash #106 in May 1959. Its ruler Solovar telepathically warned Barry Allen of the plot to conquer the world.

Which Prison Break star played Leonard Snart in The CW's Arrowverse shows?

Snart, raised by an abusive father, took refuge with his grandfather who worked in an ice truck, then styled himself the man who mastered absolute zero.

Which writer created Barry Allen with penciller Carmine Infantino in Showcase #4?

Kanigher later said he still considered the 1940 original's writer the true creator, calling his own work a reworking. Infantino claimed the design came from a Captain Whiz homage.

In the 2023 film, Sasha Calle made her movie debut as which Kryptonian?

Her Supergirl hails from an alternative universe and is found imprisoned in the facility where the Barrys expected to find Kal-El.

How much did the 2023 film gross worldwide against a budget of $200-220 million?

It was branded a box-office bomb, with blame falling partly on its star's legal troubles and the looming reboot of the DC film universe.

Which Man of Steel villain did Michael Shannon reprise in the 2023 film?

The Kryptonian general was killed by Superman in the 2013 film; in the altered timeline there is no Kal-El to stop his invasion of Earth.

On the 2014 series, Danielle Panabaker's Caitlin Snow develops which icy alter ego?

The bioengineer believed her fiance Ronnie Raymond died in the particle accelerator explosion. She later also gained a nature-connected persona, Khione.

Carlos Valdes's S.T.A.R. Labs engineer Cisco Ramon fights under which hero name?

The youngest of the lab's scientists, he appeared for the first seven seasons and could 'vibe' a person's location before later becoming Mecha-Vibe.

Jesse L. Martin played which detective, Barry's foster father, on the 2014 series?

Martin stepped down as a series regular after season eight, returning on a recurring basis for the ninth and final season.

Speedster mentor Max Mercury was DC's retooling of which old Quality Comics hero?

Crandall has also gone by Windrunner, Whip Whirlwind and Lightning. Native Americans called him Ahwehota, 'He Who Runs Beyond The Wind'.