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Description

For years Barry Allen worked as a forensic scientist in Central City, where the beat cops teased him for both his nerdiness and his by-the-book mentality. Then, one night, investigating a break in at S.T.A.R. labs, a freak accident with an experimental photon accelerator gave him super-speed. Ain’t it always the way? Now he uses his powers to be an even better detective, as well as getting out of the lab and into the field more! He is still a geeky goody-two shoes, however. He is not a wise-cracking hothead like, just for random example, his nephew Wally.
     Barry--or “The Flash”, as the news dubbed him--was outrunning racecars on day one, and getting faster every day. It takes considerable effort each time he breaks a previous record, as it would for anyone, but he has no idea what his maximum speed is. Sometimes it seems like there isn’t one. He likes to use his powers in creative ways like causing mini-tornadoes or shaking something so hard it superheats, but nothing like, just for random example, vibrating his molecules to phase through walls. What muscles would he even utilize to do that? He just does the things normal humans could always do, but faster.
     Barry also has no idea how he remains conscious despite the G-forces, or how he doesn’t burst into flames from air friction. His working theory is that his body generates some sort of bioelectric “Speed Force Field” to cushion the blow of any matter that comes his way, which gets stronger the faster he moves. But there are many other ways his powers seem to defy physics that this would fail to explain, so he claims no hard answers. But it’s definitely not, just for random example, magical powers granted by a Valhalla for people who run really fast. That would be pretty dumb for a sci-fi hero.
     He still, however, wears an extra-durable racing suit and helmet while fighting crime, just to be on the safe side. Force field or no, Barry always follows proper safety precautions while exploring scientific phenomena.

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     All right, now we're getting into real redesign territory! After briefly flirting with the idea of giving him Jay's Mercury helmet, for which I've always had a soft spot, I decided I liked the idea of the Flash in a racing helmet. Then I gave him racing stripes to match. Then I upped the amount of white in his costume, which to me make it feel like he was wearing a classic racecar color scheme, but maybe that's just me.
     I'm not intimately familiar with Barry as a character. I knew he was a scientist and a pretty good dude, so I leaned into those aspects and made him the League's resident nerd. (Batman is a brilliant detective, and J'onn is pretty cerebral as a psychic, but those don't feel like quite the same thing to me.) I don't think the retcon of his dead mother origin story is really necessary. Honestly it's kind of cliche. He can just be a cop. Sometimes people are just cops.
     Now the speed force... is dumb. I'm sorry, but it is. Unfortunately, it does fill the need of explaining how the hell Barry's powers even work (most superheroes break at least one law of physics, but speedsters break so many.) I brainstormed a couple of half-logical phenomena to replace it with, but ultimately I wasn't 100% satisfied committing to any of them. So I figured Barry wouldn't either. He's just getting these powers now, he doesn't have all the answers! It'll give him something to science about, possibly inciting many of his adventures.

Description

For years Barry Allen worked as a forensic scientist in Central City, where the beat cops teased him for both his nerdiness and his by-the-book mentality. Then, one night, investigating a break in at S.T.A.R. labs, a freak accident with an experimental photon accelerator gave him super-speed. Ain’t it always the way? Now he uses his powers to be an even better detective, as well as getting out of the lab and into the field more! He is still a geeky goody-two shoes, however. He is not a wise-cracking hothead like, just for random example, his nephew Wally.
     Barry--or “The Flash”, as the news dubbed him--was outrunning racecars on day one, and getting faster every day. It takes considerable effort each time he breaks a previous record, as it would for anyone, but he has no idea what his maximum speed is. Sometimes it seems like there isn’t one. He likes to use his powers in creative ways like causing mini-tornadoes or shaking something so hard it superheats, but nothing like, just for random example, vibrating his molecules to phase through walls. What muscles would he even utilize to do that? He just does the things normal humans could always do, but faster.
     Barry also has no idea how he remains conscious despite the G-forces, or how he doesn’t burst into flames from air friction. His working theory is that his body generates some sort of bioelectric “Speed Force Field” to cushion the blow of any matter that comes his way, which gets stronger the faster he moves. But there are many other ways his powers seem to defy physics that this would fail to explain, so he claims no hard answers. But it’s definitely not, just for random example, magical powers granted by a Valhalla for people who run really fast. That would be pretty dumb for a sci-fi hero.
     He still, however, wears an extra-durable racing suit and helmet while fighting crime, just to be on the safe side. Force field or no, Barry always follows proper safety precautions while exploring scientific phenomena.

---

     All right, now we're getting into real redesign territory! After briefly flirting with the idea of giving him Jay's Mercury helmet, for which I've always had a soft spot, I decided I liked the idea of the Flash in a racing helmet. Then I gave him racing stripes to match. Then I upped the amount of white in his costume, which to me make it feel like he was wearing a classic racecar color scheme, but maybe that's just me.
     I'm not intimately familiar with Barry as a character. I knew he was a scientist and a pretty good dude, so I leaned into those aspects and made him the League's resident nerd. (Batman is a brilliant detective, and J'onn is pretty cerebral as a psychic, but those don't feel like quite the same thing to me.) I don't think the retcon of his dead mother origin story is really necessary. Honestly it's kind of cliche. He can just be a cop. Sometimes people are just cops.
     Now the speed force... is dumb. I'm sorry, but it is. Unfortunately, it does fill the need of explaining how the hell Barry's powers even work (most superheroes break at least one law of physics, but speedsters break so many.) I brainstormed a couple of half-logical phenomena to replace it with, but ultimately I wasn't 100% satisfied committing to any of them. So I figured Barry wouldn't either. He's just getting these powers now, he doesn't have all the answers! It'll give him something to science about, possibly inciting many of his adventures.