Barry Allen

Bartholomew Henry "Barry" Allen is the second hero to be called the Flash, after Jay Garrick. Writer Robert Kanigher and penciler Carmine Infantino created him, and he first appeared in Showcase #4 (October 1956). A forensic chemist, he gained super-speed when lightning struck his laboratory, and he keeps his red and gold costume compressed inside a ring. His popularity helped launch the Silver Age of comics, and his stories introduced DC's Multiverse. He died saving the Multiverse in Crisis on Infinite Earths #8 (November 1985) and stayed away for 23 years, returning through Final Crisis and The Flash: Rebirth (2009); since then he has been central to events such as Blackest Night and Flashpoint. In live action he has been played by John Wesley Shipp, Grant Gustin and Ezra Miller.