| “ | IT STOPS ONCE I'VE FIXED IT! | „ |
| ~ Dark Flash refusing to give up trying to save his timeline. |
| “ | That's the whole thing! We can take as much time as it takes! | „ |
| ~ Dark Flash right before his third attempt at fixing Earth-89. |
| “ | It's not entirely your fault, Barry. I pushed you out of the Chronobowl on that September 29th so you could start me on this path. How do you like our endless paradox? I made you create me. And now you're the one... in my way. No matter how close I get to winning this fight, you go back and let Mom die. You're the inevitable intersection. And you do have to let go. | „ |
| ~ Dark Flash explaining his origins to the Flash. |
Bartholomew Henry "Barry" Allen, also known as the Dark Flash, is the main antagonist of the 2023 DC Extended Universe film The Flash.
He's the original version of The Flash from Earth-89, who sent his Future variation back to his past so that the loop could restart.
Like his original counterpart, he was portrayed by Ezra Miller, who also played Kevin Khatchadourian in We Need to Talk about Kevin, Credence Barebone in the Fantastic Beasts film series, the Trashcan Man in the 2020 The Stand miniseries and D.A. Sinclair in Invincible.
Biography[]
Past[]
A future variation of Barry Allen travels back to the past to prevent his mother from dying at the hands of a murderer. This alters his past to the point in which he has never become The Flash and no metahumans ever existed. Future Barry was pushed into the new altered reality by an unseen force, and eventually winds up meeting the Barry Allen of this timeline.
Upon meeting his future self, Barry gets to know more about him, as well as the Justice League, and has grown a bond with this reality's version of Batman and Supergirl. In Bruce Wayne's Batcave, Barry discovers that his mother was going to be murdered upon overhearing Future Barry explain that he prevented her death, though Barry took this as a sign that time can be changed for the better.
Bruce and Kara were later killed during the battle of General Zod, who saw that the codex was implanted into Kara's bloodstream and started terraforming Earth. Since Barry now has the ability to rewind time so that he can prevent the deaths of his new friends, he attempts to do so. However, it's shown that no matter how many times Barry rewinds time, he can not save his new friends, due to Zod being too strong, having the same strength as before and the team wasn't prepared like Superman was. Barry continues to rewind the timeline anyways, which results in his sanity deteriorating as he tries to 'fix' the timeline to the way he wants to shape it. Throughout the repetitive rewinds of the timeline, and the constant fight with Zod, he was covered in pieces of shrapnel that fused to his body.
Future Barry tries to stop him and make him see reason for his actions, but to no avail as his counterpart foolishly refused to even listen to him. Future Barry chases after Barry as he continues to make him see reason, with no avail whatsoever. At this point, Barry is corrupted into becoming the Dark Flash as Dark Flash continues rewinding time, Future Barry goes back and fixes the timeline back to the way it was before, where his mother was killed once again by the Reverse-Flash. This reverts the timeline back to the way it was before, but Dark Flash was left within the Speed Force. Dark Flash attempts to reverse time and save his mother once again, but Future Barry still prevents it, as the loop continues to close.
Future[]
Throughout the years, he continues rewinding time, as he tries to shape reality into the way he would want it. As he rewinds the timeline numerous times, he witnesses one of the features within the fabric of reality which contained the future variation of himself he met many years before.
The future variation of himself saves his mother once again, but before Future Barry could return back home to his point in the future, Dark Flash breaks through his reality to send him back into the point in reality in which Future Barry met Barry, whom of which will become the Dark Flash.
While staying within the Chronobowl, Dark Flash witnesses his past interaction with Future Barry, who attempted to regain his speed power after they were transferred to Past Barry during the incident in the laboratory, and gives him a quick scare as he awakens. Later on, as Past Barry continues to rewind the timeline to prevent the deaths of Batman and Supergirl, Dark Flash pulls Future Barry back into the Chronobowl and attempts to kill him for those numerous attempts at trying to stop his plans.
Past Barry comes back into the Speed Force after his next rewind, but finds Future Barry about to be killed by the Dark Flash. As both versions of Barry fight against Dark Flash, they reveal his face after some of the shrapnel that covered it falls off. Past Barry comes to realize that the Dark Flash is actually him, as he notices the scar on his face and the shrapnel covering his body.
Dark Flash tries to explain that he's almost figured out how to save everyone and fix reality back to the way he thinks it should be, but still fails numerous times and still foolishly believes he can prevent his mother's death despite his many times he failed to beat Zod alone, but realizing that Future Barry would let his own mother die at the hands of the Reverse Flash, he thinks he should kill Future Barry so that his plans would continue on without interruption, but both Past Barry and Future Barry see the fabric of reality destroy itself because of the results that the Dark Flash has caused.
As Future Barry plots to fix this and make Dark Flash see reason, Dark Flash begins to attack him with a supercharged bladed fist, only for Past Barry to stand in the way after seeing Future Barry was right and would have become a reckless monster, then he became impacted with the corrupted arm of Dark Flash, ultimately killing him. Since both Past Barry and Dark Flash are the same entity, this also kills Dark Flash as he crumples away into dust and erased from existence, undoing all the time altering and returning the world back to the way it was.
Personality[]
Unlike his younger counterpart, Dark Flash seems to have matured over the presumed years that he has been attempting to fix his timeline. He does not crack jokes, and only speaks when necessary. However, even if more mature, Dark Flash is just as impatient as Past Barry (Earth-89). He seems annoyed at the concept of explaining himself to Barry, instead only demanding that they work together again to fix Earth-89.
It appears that after all the time he spent retrying over and over and over to fix his timeline, he no longer shares the view his younger self had about how they can "take as long as they need to", which is further justified by his much older age. Dark Flash refuses to wait any longer, which is what builds his desire to do things quickly.
Dark Flash is also much more aggressive than his younger counterpart, seeing as he chose to torment Barry before revealing himself to him.
Powers and Abilities[]
- Super Speed: Dark Flash has the ability to travel at supersonic speeds.
- He is much more in control of his powers than his younger self, which is to be expected due to his experience.
- Dark Flash is certainly as fast as, and possibly even faster than, The Flash in the 2023 movie, as he was able to catch up to Flash's speeds and even attack him.
Gallery[]
.jpg "Dark Flash Concept Art 1(0).jpg (111 KB)")
Trivia[]
- In the comics, the name "Dark Flash" has been used for several villainous speedsters or temporarily evil speedsters, namely for Barry Allen himself when he temporarily becomes the Negative Flash for being corrupted by the Negative Speed Force and for his arch nemesis, Eobard Thawne, when he becomes the Reverse-Flash.
- Interestingly, weeks before the release of The Flash, director Andy Muschietti hinted at the Reverse-Flash's inclusion in the film with a sketch of the character, though it's possible Muschietti included the sketch as an homage to Thawne's role in the original Flashpoint comic book storyline.
- The Dark Flash's secret inclusion in the film was first revealed through the merchandising, as toy packages featuring him were the ones revealing who the shadowy figure in the trailer was. Weirdly enough, his action figure stated that he collected the souls of other speedsters, even though that never happens in the film.
- Similar to the Arrowverse's Savitar, he is an evil version of Barry Allen and considered as another loose adaptation of Future Flash.
- He is the only main antagonist in the DCEU to be an evil counterpart to the main protagonist.
External Links[]
- Dark Flash on the DC Extended Universe Wiki
- His heroic counterpart on the Heroes Wiki
