How would you make Barry Allen a good and interesting character in today’s comics...

How would you make Barry Allen a good and interesting character in today’s comics? Without killing him off again of course, he would just die a shitty bland character in that situation.

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He becomes disabled and has to learn how to walk again.

Bump

He has to deal with the drag in the speed force caused by his monster dick. Like, he literally held back by it. Also, it ruins his love life. Women are scared of it. Horses are scared of it. He has to have us costume specially made just to not have the blood vessels in it closed off.

Make his relationship with Iris be actually good. Flash should be DC's Spider-man when it comes to relationships with women. Constantly late for dates, love triangles, femme fatales like a Black Cat type pining over him. Barry just isn't that interesting, but it doesn't mean his supporting cast can't be.

>Flash should be DC's Spider-man
No he fucking shouldn't. Spider-Man sucks these days.

They should focus more on his hubris and mistakes, as well as making him more like he was in the silver age, kind of a goody-two-shoes who stops at nothing to get justice. But they should focus more on the WAY he defeats his enemies, which might not always be the best one

I personally think Iris is the biggest reason Barry shouldn't be the Flash. You can't have him do ANYTHING except be a CSI constantly pining after her. With Wally they had a lot more freedom, but Barry is going to be stapled to his status quo forever when it's what's holding him back.

>Flash should be DC's Spider-Man
Fuck no, the Flash has a great mythos, they don't need to ape Peter's. Especially when he'll only end up being a second-rate Spider-Man anyway.

Okay hear me out, we essentially rewrite him as Cyril Figgis.
>Analytical
>Nervous, fast talking
>Capable when he has to be
>Constantly shit on at work
>Huge dick

Archer is dogshit and for 15 year olds. Fuck off, retard.

Who the fuck are you, and why do you have such shit taste?

>likes Archer
>accuses others of having shit taste

>Without killing him off again of course, he would just die a shitty bland character in that situation.

When he died he was a shitty bland character and it was the best thing to ever happen to the franchise.

So fuck your stupid rule, kill him again.

If we're talking early seasons, then yeah, it is good, you fucking sperg

The thread is about making the character good, not just the franchise

Barry Allen was a good character when he was a dead ideal to strive towards. Characters are still characters even when dead. He still showed up in flashbacks and as an occasional time traveling cameo where you didn't have to force depressing horseshit onto him in a vain attempt to make him a compelling main character. He could just be the great Barry Allen and that was good enough.

He can't do that anymore and for that we get a worse Barry Allen AND a worse Flash franchise. So fucking kill him again and act like this entire ten year debacle was a fever dream.

Keep the Silver Age aspect of a cheesy, wholesome character that makes Flash Facts and puns.

Concentrate on how he handles his villains by manipulating them and generally outsmarting them.

Don't make him cocky or that generic "lel 2 fast 4 u" character every speedster seems to be. Make him the opposite, make him relaxed and kind instead despite being so overwhelmingly fast. Make his "flaw" be that he always has to make up for his alter ego's faults, and can never live honestly because of it.

You literally have to let someone who gives a damn write him. Everyone wants to turn Barry into something else instead of focusing on what's already there: He's a gigantic nerd who loves his SO more than anything in the world. He makes friends constantly, almost to the point where it's a second super power. He's a scientist before he's a detective. He's a problem solver who applies knowledge to situations before he applies muscle.

has it right. Barry Allen isn't Wally West and he certainly isn't Sonic the Hedgehog.

People who want him dead or a jokey goofball don't really care about who he is, just what he represents.

Yeah but when he was dead he was in stuff like Brave and The Bold and JLA Year One which were pretty good. Being dead seemed to take any pressure off of "defining" him as the main Flash and he made out better for it.

With the obvious exception of Identity Crisis, I suppose. But before Final Crisis any Barry sighting was a rare treat. Rather than today where Barry is, at best, mediocre and usually just annoying and bad.

I think a few modern writers are already on the right track by focusing more on the fact that he's CSI. Unlike other speedsters, he's patient and methodical. He likes to take things slow, he hesitats and can even be overly cautious at times. He's completely unfit for the powers he was given, which makes it dificult to draw out his full potential.
And more importantly, unlike most superheroes, he's actually part of the legal system. He should understand better than anyone why heroes should have limits. He should always be concerned over his public image and his relation with the police, like Superman if not moreso. He should try to keep people at ease around him, but come off as overly friendly and a bit dorky because he doesn't have Superman's natural charisma.

Flash should embrace legacy each Flash besides Jay is a legacy even his villains have legacies

It's only ever been slightly better than family guy.

As in "well, at least it's not family guy".

People always say this but watching a superhero do lab work sounds super fucking boring.

Kill him again.

I'm not saying watch him do lab work. I'm saying apply that attitude to his superhero career. Flash books used to be about him stopping criminals without harming anyone by analysing the situation and applying his powers in crazy ways. Nowadays, it's just "I'll speedforce him until he's down".

Nice bait

>people don't like my favorite show so it must be bait

Pls no. They've done enough turning Superman into Spider-man lite.

>Not every superhero has to be a young one. Make him age up as if he's been around since the Bronze age at least. Restore his history.
>Make his history of death and return canon.
>Make Flash family into a unit, but not the money grabbing TMNT one like Bat family. Each one of them is unique to the legacy and most are not active superheroes. It'll not make it crowded and a clusterfuck like the Batfamily.
>Two Flashes are overkill. Since this is about Barry, kill Wally.
>Since his continuity's restored, being resurrected has made him more religious.
>Make him an old school conservative.

Have him be a family man. It always felt weird to me that his kids were in the future and not much was done with them. Barry should be raising the Tornado Twins in the present.

his slow and steady nature is a perfect fit for his powers
only with super speed can he put intricate plans into action
who would want to read about an impulsive speedster who just runs fast over one who methodically plans but has the speed to compensate

>Two Flashes are overkill. Since this is about Barry, kill Wally.

Fuck off.

>Flash books used to be about him stopping criminals without harming anyone by analysing the situation and applying his powers in crazy ways

That's every comic from the Silver Age. Heck that's a lot of comics now. That's not really a unique thing to a Forensics Scientist nor the Flash.

I think you guys really overestimate how well the Silver Age translates to modern comics. If someone put out a direct remake of a SA comic you'd think it was stupid idiocy.

>>Since his continuity's restored, being resurrected has made him more religious.
>>Make him an old school conservative.
Something tells me you're not from this board.

They need to get him a pupper

The Flash becomes boring because few writers can conceive of his full potential. You could make an argument that the Flash is the most powerful hero ever. EVER. And it makes no sense that superspeed wouldn't affect a person's consciousness and problem solving abilities.

I would like to see an arc exploring the superscience / powercreep / social / ethical ramifications of a being so fast he can effectively learn everything, be everywhere at once and help everyone in an exponential fashion. Basically have the flash develop as a sort of human singularity freed from the constraints of speed and time that eventually becomes the creator and steward of a utopian super society that elevates humanity. Basically becoming a god/mind like in the Iain M Banks Culture novels.

I guess it would have to be an elseworlds thing, but I really want to see a Flash that embraces all of his powers and transcends to becomes the true savior of mankind.

that sounds like Limitless

Bring his bro back

I like Alex Ross, but good lord that's a terrible picture of Barry.

I've actually never actually seen limitless. But I imagine this Flash's mental and problem solving abilities would be borne more out of the ability to learn and process information incredibly rapidly and more importantly try and fail over and over in so many iterations that he can brute force most any problem. And on top of that accumulated mastery he has the speed to carry out his findings and apply them to solve actual human problems on a local or a grand scale.

Having Flash fight other speedsters is overdone and kind of boring by now. And on the other hand, seeing the Flash fight his street-level rogues gallery with his abilities is like watching Superman working as a mall cop.

>Flash's mental and problem solving abilities would be borne more out of the ability to learn and process information incredibly rapidly
He can't do that, though. He has a normal human intelligence. If you read a book on astrophysics you wouldn't be an astrophysicist

He can definitely intake and process information, and by extrapolation form new memories at superspeeds. If you had the ability to study something over and over again and reflect on the material a near infinite times in a fraction of a second, I'm sure you would gain mastery of the material. He doesn't need to start out with superintelligence to understand high level science if his abilities let him approximate it through brute force.

When has he ever demonstrated mastery of something at superspeed? He's not supernaturally intelligent or have an eidetic memory

This could possibly be interesting
youtu.be/YMe1qlyuMXQ

I think they should bring in his day job more often. Mix in elements of crime comics, run subplots about regular crimes he's investigating, the fact that the book is set in a greater superheroic universe means that you don't even have to use mundane crime.

I think there's a page of him learning how to use a green lantern ring super fast.

The point is that writers haven't really explored this potential of the Flash's powers. It would be an interesting and new direction and there's no reason that explicitly forbids this kind of development of the speedforce on his mental abilities.

I don't know... it sounds kind of like the 2010s trope of, "You only use 10% of your brain... what if 100% hurduurrrr"

The rebirth run has been doing a pretty good job imo, making him a teacher seems to be the new angle and it kind of makes sense for him to be that

How does anyone gain mastery of anything?

There's some natural aptitude, sure. But most of it is study and practice, practice, practice. Flash's superspeed by definition allows him to side step that barrier to knowledge and ability by engaging in all of those time-consuming steps near instantaneously. And if he forgets something, he can just learn it again in the same, near instantaneous, amount of time.

The Flash has way more ridiculous feats than learning stuff quickly.

That's really not being super intelligent, it's simply using superspeed and perception to read the instruction manual and practice really quickly. It's not so much a "potential of the Flash's powers" as it is a logical function of them.

Exactly, this guy gets it. And that's the cool part: it's how the Flash could potentially do superscience kinds of feats without being actually superintelligent - just being functionally for all intents and purposes superintelligent through series of speed feats.

The outcome is more or less the same.

kind of a dork but not really a spazz
smart but not overly analytical
tough but not overbearing
lawful but not really a boy scout or a serious military guy
inspirational but still very approachable on a human level
the hero you can give a high five too

he doesn't need anything overly extreme in his character because he's one of the more human characters in DC, he's not a god, but he's willing to chase lightning to save the day

i guess if you want to push a certain trait, push his strong sense of family and likes to keep everyone together. Write him as a young family man.
At early points in the JL he really wouldn't have much of a family of his own, but sees the team like one despite being juxtaposed with the more inhuman traits of the characters

>street-level
>Rogues
So, a guy who can manipulate the weather, a guy who made tech on his own that can achieve absolute zero, a guy who can change the periodic elemental composition of items, and a high-level telepath who also happens to be a master of spin-fu are all low level jokes?
I can see Trickster, Golden Glider, and Heat Wave being more "street level", but over half of the Rogues are historically near-godlike in terms of potential, and are only not super-threatening to the world at large due to Barry historically mentally checkmating them and creating a challenge to occupy them.
Read the William Messner-Loebs issue where Wally goes to a Rogues banquet and hangs out with them for an evening. Vol. 2, #19, if I remember.

Why does Sup Forums have such a hate boner for Barry?

He took Wally’s rightful place as the flash

You say that as if Barry is as important to the Flash mythos as Uncle Ben.

Wallyfags, Bartfags, Jayfags, etc.

Somehow Barry erased the concept of Legacy and he's stuck with plenty of speedsters on the side

Sure there's plenty of great variability in the what Flash's Rogue's gallery can do. I'll admit that not all are street level in their abilities, but from what I've read it seems that most have a decidedly street-level view in their ambitions, even if they have tech with insane potential. But compared to insane superspeed, it should never be a contest (even with GG telepathy). If you can plan and act before your opponent can move or even think - you just destroy or dissemble their tech if they're tech based, kill them if you want to be dark, or transport them to a some kind of prison that's deep underwater or underground or in space far from all humans so they wouldn't conceivably be a threat.

The difference is reactionary Flash vs. a proactive Flash. Barry on the offense can search a city in seconds or less and phase through matter. What, aside from plot armor of his enemies, is stopping him from preemptively neutralizing all known threats in a given area and becoming effectively a nanny state if he wanted to with no crime or violence. There's some fun ethical problems in that I'd like to see explored, but I guess not as much punching.

But they immediately threw all of that away by issue 4.

The more you delve into your powers like the the more the Speed Force draws you in. Your connection becomes stronger, you humanity wanes, and you lose your sense of self.

These are all things Waid established when he created the Speed Force. People instantly think of bullshit plot device stuff but the Speed Force was originally a limitation on Wally's abilities, an ever present threat that pushing himself too far will send him off the edge.

It's a shame the concept has been so bastardized since then but all the things you're talking about have been answered. Even Wally at his most extreme, in Waid's Kingdom Come, forever straddles the line you're talking about and became an aloof, all seeing archangel for Central City. And he sacrificed his personal life to do it.

Without CW synergy? You can’t.

Barry Allen is a boring character. Always will be. Geoff Johns tried his best to make him interesting but failed even though “Those were for charity, Clark” was an awesome scene Flashpoint was interesting due to the supporting cast, not Barry. If they weren’t going to make him the Black Flash or Hot Pursuit they should have just left him on ice.

At this point his only niche is the fact that despite raising Wally he actually is a shitty mentor/father figure. Maybe Flash War will lean into that and actually acknowledge it.

At first this seemed irrational, but now that I'm getting used to idea, I'm not against it.

Yeah, I'm familiar with the Kingdom Come Flash and was a little inspired by that interpretation, but I was frustrated that KC Flash was really only a physical manifestation of speed force and not one that extended to his mental performance or feats that would concretely help society in the long run, which I guess would have been dramatically counter to the dour, degeneration of super society that was the heart of Kingdom Come. Maybe this would have been different if it was a Flash-focused series instead of a setting where this hyper-elevated Flash was a curiosity at best.

You can have the Flash straddling a line with regard to losing his humanity if he pushes himself "too far." But what is too far? It's just a plot device and honestly that line is pretty arbitrary and has been interpreted wildly differently by so many different writers. Flash seems like the kind of positive optimistic character where you could explore a character who gave into his powers without losing his humanity (becoming as a kind of an actively benevolent, speed-based Dr. Manhattan who actually gave a shit).

And none of this "speedforce-as-a-limiter" concept has any hard bearing on Flash's potential to use his abilities for mental pursuits, science, or invention. Or social-shaping/protection. It would be an interesting new direction.

Barry prior to his rebirth was actually extremely likable. A little dry, but easily one of the more upbeat and personable-seeming heroes. Post-revival Barry has this permanent-screw-up thing going on that doesn't really suit a guy who's supposed to be straightlaced and competent. The Speed Force becoming an ill-defined god-tier powersource does him no favors, either. The Flash mythos changed in a very tangible way while Barry was off the board, and now forcing him in, and having him effectively in pre-Flashpoint Wally's shadow makes him seem more inept. Thankfully, they haven't achieved DCEU synergy yet. That would put Barry on a whole new plane of damaged character.
I can't say for certain what would make him better, but at least making him seem like less of a loser would be some kind of win. It's like a flanderization of his "always late" schtick from the Silver Age taken up to 10.

Probably some ancentral shit about the origin of Speedforce

bump

>Superman
>Spider-man lite

Superman will never be Spider-man lite. He's married and even has a child with his wife. Spider-man is pseudo-single and'll seriously probably never marry ever.

stop making his backstory one of grief. He's a lighthearted character who can crack jokes. Not as comedic as Wally but still a laidback guy.

I like the way YJ animated show handled him.

Not quite but seemingly incestious relationship with Wally