Barry Allen: The Flash's Most Popular Reboot

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:45

In recent years, filmmakers have shown an increased interest in filming a wide variety of comics, including the reboot of the most famous of them. But viewers can now see their favorite characters not only in cinemas on the big screen, but also watch on television, because comic book series are a new and popular phenomenon on TV. One of the most popular superheroes in the DC universe, The Flash, has once again attracted attention. And if films about this character have just been announced, then the series of the same name has already won success with the most diverse audience, because the key figure in it is Barry Allen, the most famous hero of those who called themselves the Flash.

Character Story

The first comic book about the Flash appeared back in 1940. Then this pseudonym belonged to a hero named Jay Garrick, who had the ability to super-speed. Flash comics, where the main character was Barry Allen, appeared in 1956 and were released until 1985, when this character was killed, and already in the new century, in 2006, there wasrestart of this series. Since 1986, two more super-fast heroes have worn this pseudonym and a red suit with a lightning bolt, these are Wally West and Bart Allen, but it was Barry who was and remains the most famous Flash. Hundreds of comics were released about him, several animated series, full-length films were shot in the 90s, though not very well known to a wide audience. His character has been involved in many computer games, and also received two series, and if the first of them did not become widely known in the 90s, then the modern version of the American CW channel is gathering more and more viewers in front of TV screens.

Who is he really?

In the Bartholomew comics, Henry Allen, better known as Barry, was a regular medical examiner, slow and always late. But everything changed after an accident when lightning struck a box of various chemicals in Allen's office, and Barry was in the area of the effects of these substances. In an incredible way, he received superpowers, such as incredible reaction speed and fantastic body speed. The adoptive father of his fiancée, Iris West, created a costume for the newly-minted superhero and a special ring that pulled in and released the clothes that were needed at the moment. And Barry Allen himself subsequently invented a machine in the form of a space treadmill, allowing him to travel through time.

New version

This is the story of the most popular Flash of all time in comics. But what is interesting about modern adaptations on television is that in them the scriptwriters in many wayschange the story and adapt the plot. The first TV show on The CW to introduce viewers to a character named Barry Allen was Arrow, also an adaptation of the DC comics universe. Thus, The Flash, launched a little later, in 2014, is a kind of spin-off. The series about a superhero in a red suit with a zipper on his chest moved the time of action to the present. Barry Allen works as a medical examiner, as in the comics, his mother died under mysterious circumstances when he was still a child, and his father was framed for her murder. Barry's guardian was his neighbor, Detective Joe West, the father of Iris, who, unlike the comics, is not his girlfriend at the beginning of the story, although Allen is secretly in love with her. The future superhero also receives his abilities thanks to lightning, but it is not of natural origin, but caused by the explosion of a particle accelerator at the Star Labs enterprise. It is with this laboratory that the development of the plot of the entire first season of the series is connected, where Barry was able to find both new friends and enemies.

Main characters of the series

In the series, as in the comics, the Flash faced his archenemy, the Reverse-Flash, but the story of their confrontation, like so much else in the TV show, was reversed. Professor Zoom in the television adaptation became Dr. Harrison Wells, who created Star Labs and was the main mentor to Barry and his friends, hiding his true identity for a long time. The character of Iris also underwent some changes, she became an African American and Allen's half-sister, and betweenthey don't have any romantic relationship yet. Caitlin Snow in the comics is one of the incarnations of the antagonist named Killer Frost, but in the first season of the series she still does not have superpowers and is a positive character. But most likely in future episodes the heroine will change, and the audience will face the confrontation of such characters as Barry Allen and Caitlin Snow, as well as Firestorm, who is currently her lover. Cisco Ramon is the Flash's friend and ally in the show, but comic book fans know that the character by that name is also a superhero, better known as Vibe, and among his abilities is the ability to emit sonic vibrations, so expect the character to be revealed as a metahuman soon.

Cast

Who played in the new adaptation of such a famous superhero as Barry Allen? Actor Grant Gustin, despite his youth and very little experience, successfully coped with the task, although many viewers, critics and comic book fans were initially very skeptical about this choice of the creators of the TV show. It is noteworthy that the father of Barry Henry Allen in the series is played by John Wesley Ship, who embodied the Flash in the series of the 90s. Well, already in 2017, Flash fans will be able to see him on the big screen, in the Justice League film, and later, in 2018, a solo film of the same name will be released, where a character named Barry Allen will be played by Ezzra Miller. Whether he can beat Grant Gustin, viewers will find out very soon.