Jay Garrick was the first Flash. He got his powers from heavy water (oh golden age!) and fashioned his costume in honor of Mercury, fixing wings on his Dad's WWI infantry helmet.
Barry Allen grew up reading Flash Comics, so when he got speedster powers from lightning knocking him into a rack of random chemicals, he named himself The Flash. Then later found out the comics he'd grown up reading all really happened on a parallel world that later got folded into one reality because...DC is actively trying to confuse us, is why. Also, Barry has a twin brother named Malcolm Thawne that only appears once.
Barry dates reporter Iris West, who is actually adopted by the Wests and from the 30th century, where her parents sent her back in time to escape an evil dictator, President Thawne. Iris's brother Randolph has a son named Wally, who spends most of his summers with Iris, and is a Flash fanboy. Barry is showing him how he got his powers when bam! the same damn thing happens, lightning strike, chemicals, sidekick Kid Flash.
Stuff I haven't actually read happens: Barry and Iris get married, move to the 30th Century, have twins Don and Dawn Allen. Don marries Meloni Thawne and they have Bartholomew Allen, or Bart. Barry comes back to the present and dies in the Crisis, his son Don dies, President Thawne did something to Bart so he's aging too fast and he has to be sent back to the past to be Impulse, Wally's sidekick, as Wally is now the Flash.
After spending a few years having a *serious* identity crisis about stepping into his Uncle's spandex, and having one of the most awesome canon gay sidekicks in Pied Piper, Wally marries reporter Linda Park and they have twins, Iris and Jai West (this would probably be easier to follow if they were more orginal about names) so at the last point before the DCnU reboot when I was still reading, Wally West was the Flash, Bart Allen was Kid Flash, and Irey Park-West was Impulse.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2012-03-24 09:28 pm (UTC)Jay Garrick was the first Flash. He got his powers from heavy water (oh golden age!) and fashioned his costume in honor of Mercury, fixing wings on his Dad's WWI infantry helmet.
Barry Allen grew up reading Flash Comics, so when he got speedster powers from lightning knocking him into a rack of random chemicals, he named himself The Flash. Then later found out the comics he'd grown up reading all really happened on a parallel world that later got folded into one reality because...DC is actively trying to confuse us, is why. Also, Barry has a twin brother named Malcolm Thawne that only appears once.
Barry dates reporter Iris West, who is actually adopted by the Wests and from the 30th century, where her parents sent her back in time to escape an evil dictator, President Thawne. Iris's brother Randolph has a son named Wally, who spends most of his summers with Iris, and is a Flash fanboy. Barry is showing him how he got his powers when bam! the same damn thing happens, lightning strike, chemicals, sidekick Kid Flash.
Stuff I haven't actually read happens: Barry and Iris get married, move to the 30th Century, have twins Don and Dawn Allen. Don marries Meloni Thawne and they have Bartholomew Allen, or Bart. Barry comes back to the present and dies in the Crisis, his son Don dies, President Thawne did something to Bart so he's aging too fast and he has to be sent back to the past to be Impulse, Wally's sidekick, as Wally is now the Flash.
After spending a few years having a *serious* identity crisis about stepping into his Uncle's spandex, and having one of the most awesome canon gay sidekicks in Pied Piper, Wally marries reporter Linda Park and they have twins, Iris and Jai West (this would probably be easier to follow if they were more orginal about names) so at the last point before the DCnU reboot when I was still reading, Wally West was the Flash, Bart Allen was Kid Flash, and Irey Park-West was Impulse.