Who Is the Dark Flash in ‘The Flash?’ Villain Explained

We already saw in the trailer of ‘The Flash’ that Barry Allen would go up against a villain that was only briefly shown in the trailer but is quite horrific. The recent release of the toy lineup of ‘The Flash,’ as well as the release of the movie, allowed us to see this horrific entity that is scarier than any other speedster we’ve seen in the storyline of ‘The Flash’ in the movies, shows, and comics. So, who is the Dark Flash?

The Dark Flash in ‘The Flash’ is a different and older version of Barry Allen. Specifically, he is the future version of the Barry Allen of the altered timeline in which the original Barry Allen got stuck. The Dark Flash spent a long time trying to alter the timeline to his favor and become who he was.

One of the lessons we learned in ‘The Flash’ is that some things cannot be fixed because they have no solutions. In short, some things need to happen, which the Dark Flash couldn’t accept as he became the dark entity obsessed with keeping everyone alive. So, with that said, let’s try to learn more about the Dark Flash.

The Dark Flash’s identity

It was never a secret that the storyline of ‘The Flash’ was all about Barry Allen trying to change the course of history by going back in time. Specifically, he tried to save his mother from certain death by going back in time. That’s because he attributed a lot of the bad things that happened in his life to the death of his mother. After all, that event led to his father getting blamed for the murder of his mom. As such, Barry didn’t have the best kind of childhood and adult life.

In the movie, Barry discovers that he can travel through time and space due to his speed. When he learned that he could alter the timeline without getting directly involved in saving his mother from her murderer, Barry took the chance because he wanted to enjoy a life wherein both of his parents were there with him. And he succeeded in doing so, only for a dark speedster to attack him while he was still in space beyond time.

This led to Barry getting pushed out when he was still 18 years old, and General Zod was about to attack Earth. He was happy enough to see that his mother was alive and his father was free. But some issues needed to be resolved because his younger 18-year-old version was also there and was kind of childish and stupid compared to him.

To make the story short, Barry realized he needed to give younger Barry his Speed Force powers because he thought he would cease to exist if his younger self didn’t have any powers. Barry also learned that Zod was about to destroy the planet, so he tried to seek the Justice League members‘ help, only to find out that Batman was the only superhero active and that Superman was still incognito.

Barry sought Bruce’s help to try to find Superman, only for them to find out that Kara Zor-El landed on Earth before Kal-El. As such, Supergirl was their big gun in the fight against Zod and his army of Kryptonians.

The fight didn’t go as planned because Supergirl and Batman both died. That was when the pair of Flashes tried to rewrite history by going back in time. Every single attempt to change history resulted in the deaths of Supergirl and Batman, as the older Barry realized that this was an unavoidable event in time. Younger Barry didn’t believe that they couldn’t do anything to save their friends as he repeatedly went back in time to fail time and time again.

Older Barry kept the secret that their mom was dead in his timeline. But younger Barry overheard this from older Barry and Bruce. As such, he didn’t want to change anything in that timeline because he understood that going back in time would kill his mom.

Younger Barry’s attempts to rewrite history caused several Kryptonian blades to get embedded into his body. Finally, the dark entity known as the Dark Flash appeared out of nowhere to convince the older Barry to help him.

The Younger Barry struck the Dark Flash, whose face was revealed after the attack. This allowed the Younger Barry to recognize they had the same scar on the face from a previous wound during the movie. As such, it was clear that the Dark Flash was none other than the older version of the younger Barry Allen. And the jagged armor he was wearing resulted from the many blades embedded into his body.

It was revealed that the Dark Flash traveled through time countless times in an attempt to rewrite history. That was why he was already an older version of the younger Barry, as it was clear that he spent decades in space beyond time to find a solution to their problems. While that was happening, different worlds started colliding with one another as the original Barry realized that he needed to allow his mom to die to prevent a multiversal collapse.

The Dark Flash tried to recruit the two other versions of Barry because he thought he was close to finding a solution. And he revealed that he pushed the original Barry into that timeline so that he could become the catalyst for the younger Barry to gain his powers.

When the Dark Flash attacked Barry to try to stop him from returning in time, the younger Barry stepped in to take the attack. As the younger Barry died, the Dark Flash also died because they were the same person. This confirms that the Dark Flash was an obsessed version of the younger Barry Allen from that timeline.

Is the Dark Flash the same as Black Flash?

The Dark Flash in the storyline of ‘The Flash’ is an entirely new character, even though there were fans that were speculating that he was the Black Flash. In the comics, the Black Flash is said to be an avatar of death and was an entity that hunted Speedsters down so that he could carry them to the afterlife. The history of the original Black Flash is shrouded in mystery, and that’s why his true identity was never revealed.

However, at one point in time, Barry Allen also became the Black Flash when the original one was found dead. Professor Zoom also became the Black Flash in one of the storylines in the comics.

There’s a reason to believe that the Dark Flash in ‘The Flash’ was meant to be the Barry Allen version of the Black Flash in the comics, although we can’t confirm it. But it is also possible that this Dark Flash in ‘The Flash’ is an original character.

There is also an alternate version of the Flash called the Dark Flash in the comics. This was Walter West, a Wally West variant from a different universe. Walter, however, was a more brutal version of Wally, so he was called the Dark Flash.

Of course, Wally and Barry are entirely different people. That means that the Dark Flash in ‘The Flash’ is not the Walter West version of the Flash in the comics because we have already established that the Dark Flash in the movie is an older version of the younger Barry Allen.

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