How Old Is The Flash (Barry Allen)? Comics & Movies
One of the details that we know about Flash as a superhero is that he seems to be one of the younger members of the Justice League because he isn’t the most mature in his approach. Sometimes, he sounds more like a teenager than an adult, as we know that he isn’t necessarily as old as guys like Batman or Superman. This was true in the DCEU, where he was seemingly a kid compared to the other superheroes. So, how old is Barry Allen or the Flash in the comics and the movies?
In the comics, Barry Allen should be in his late 20s to early 30s. However, we have no exact details in terms of his age. However, in the DCEU, the Flash was introduced at 24 in ‘Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.’ He was around 26 in the ‘Justice League’ movie and is probably around his early 30s in ‘The Flash.’
The thing about the superheroes’ storylines in the comics and the movies is that their ages aren’t exactly clear because many comic book storylines get retconned occasionally. Of course, there’s also the fact that many superheroes have been around for a very long time without necessarily aging. So, with that said, let’s look at how old the Flash is.
How old is Flash in the comics?
If something has allowed the Flash to become popular among younger comic book fans, it’s because he seems younger than most of the other top members of the Justice League. Although there’s no doubt that Barry Allen has been around for a very long time as a superhero, he has almost always been portrayed as one of the younger members of the Justice League and as a superhero that is on the younger side of the maturity scale even though he isn’t necessarily a teenager.
Nevertheless, we know for a fact that Barry is younger than most members of the Justice League. In one of the DC animated movies, he even joked about joining the Teen Titans because all of the other members of the Justice League were only calling him for clean-up duty. As such, he is quite young even though he is already an adult.
The problem, however, is that comic books have never been very precise and accurate regarding the ages of their characters. That’s because DC has experienced a lot of retcons throughout the years as newer universes get introduced from time to time to reset the storylines of the characters in the comics. This means we don’t have an exact age for the Flash in the comics, as we all know that storylines in DC’s universe tend to change occasionally.
But the one thing that we do know is that Barry Allen turned into the Flash at a young age as he was in his mid to late 20s when he was working as a lab intern before a lightning bolt struck him and doused him in different chemicals. He also worked as the Flash for several years before ” dying.” Barry never aged after he returned from the dead.
This means that there’s a good chance that Barry Allen’s age is likely between his late 20s and early 30s in the comics. This makes him younger than most other Justice League members, who are already around their 30s to 40s. The fact that Barry is younger than most of the other members of the Justice League justifies his somewhat childish demeanor and immature behavior.
How old is Flash in the Movies?
While we already know that Barry Allen was always a little less mature than the other members of the Justice League, the DCEU took that to another level by portraying him as an awkward young man that seemingly struggled to do things that most adults were already expected to do.
As such, he sometimes acts like a teenager even though he isn’t a teenager anymore. But we know that Barry Allen in the DCEU turned into the Flash at 18, as confirmed in the recent ‘The Flash’ movie, which allowed us to see Barry turning into the Flash in his first year in college.
However, Barry Allen was first shown in ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’ as a 23-year-old man. While we didn’t hear anyone saying he was 23, we saw Barry Allen’s student ID card at Central City University. The ID card said that he was born on September 30, 1992. While we don’t know what year ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’ took place, it may have happened in 2016, meaning that Barry was already around 24 years old.
Around two years passed between the events of ‘Batman v Superman’ and the ‘Justice League.’ That means that Barry Allen was already 26 years old when the Justice League was formed in the ‘Justice League’ movie.
It was said that around six years have passed since the formation of the Justice League and the events of ‘The Flash.’ If that’s true, that would mean that Barry Allen should be around his early 30s during the events of ‘The Flash’ movie. Of course, his younger counterpart was still just 18 years old in that film, which justifies the fact that he acted like a stupid teenager throughout most of the movie’s events.
But the fact that the entire DCEU will get a reboot under James Gunn means that we will probably see a younger version of the Flash in one of the future movies in this new universe. So, as far as Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen is concerned, he is somewhere in his early 30s.
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