I will start this blog with my personal favorite superhero, the Fastest Man Alive, The Scarlet Speedster, The Flash. While there is a recent show on the CW about The Flash, we will focus on the comics for his backstory (as the two medium diverge on this point) and analysis. Since there have been 4 Flashes (many more actually, but let's not worry about those), I am going to narrow our view to the most iconic Flash, Barry Allen. Barry Allen lived in Central City as a police Forensic Scientist. He had a habit for always being late (a shot of irony for you right there) until one dark and stormy night in his lab, a lightning bolt struck Barry's chemicals and spilled these charged particles all over him, giving Barry superhuman speed, reflexes, and endurance.
One of the most obvious themes that will span all of these heroes is just that, heroism. An individual higher than the rest. This was a Romantic ideal of itself, that some people can separate themselves from everyone else and use this separation to do heroic feats.
Another Romantic theme you see in the Flash is his looking back on the past for inspiration. Henry David Thoreau shows this in his works with many biblical and Greek allusions. Barry's hero growing up was the first Flash, Jay Garrick. He used his childhood idol to guide him through turning into the hero he became.
Barry also helps show a break the Romantic view of childhood innocence by being the picture child for innocence. Barry's mother was murdered when Barry was a boy and his father was convicted of killing her. Instead of the classic innocent child who's innocence breaks once he reaches adulthood, Barry has been broken, but that drives him on.
So there's the Flash, Romantic in some aspects, a break with the norm in other aspects. Join me next time as we review another DC character who's a little more in tune with nature: Arthur Curry, Aquaman.
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