Barry Allen after FINAL CRISIS: reestablishing his civilian life?

[Buried Alien]

In reviving Barry Allen in the DC Universe, putting him back into the scarlet suit and having him speed around as the Flash again is the easy part. What will be a bigger challenge in the FLASH relaunch with Barry is reestablishing his civilian life...particularly his old career as a police scientist for the Central City Police Department.

Some things that need to be cleared up:

1. Just what is the public status of Barry Allen (not the Central City Flash) now? Barry was listed as missing when the Flash was on trial for the murder of the Reverse Flash. Just before his death in COIE, Barry Allen was, to the public at large, missing.

2. After the First Crisis, Wally went public with his identity and by association, revealed that Barry Allen had been the Flash before him. Iris West Allen even published a biography of her husband's life and adventures of the Flash. For years, Barry Allen's superhero identity as the Flash was public knowledge.

3. After Zoom (Hunter Solomon) murdered Wally's unborn children, the Spectre (Hal Jordan) erased all knowledge of Wally and Barry's Flash identities from public knowledge. Presumably, all copies of THE LIFE STORY OF THE FLASH were also eliminated from the timeline. The identities of Wally West and Barry Allen were once again secret to the public.

So that leaves us with a Barry Allen who will return to his public life after having disappeared for years. How will he explain this? Resuming his old line of work means a number of severe security clearances, and being unable to account for a a number of missing years will greatly hamper that. Moreover, among the DC superheroes, Barry was one of those (along with Superman and Batman) who was most adamant about keeping his civilian ID and his superhero ID separate and hidden. That'll be very hard to do if the Central City Flash reemerges at the same time as Barry Allen, especially considering that both disappeared at around the same time as well.

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[Kelson]

For background checks, depending on what state the DCU is in, the obvious choice would be Oracle. IIRC she provided convincing identities and records for Bart and Max when they set up shop in Manchester.

That still leaves the question of what explanation he'll give, though, and how he'll keep people from making the connection based on timing.

How did Hal and Ollie manage it?

[Buried Alien]

For background checks, depending on what state the DCU is in, the obvious choice would be Oracle. IIRC she provided convincing identities and records for Bart and Max when they set up shop in Manchester.

That still leaves the question of what explanation he'll give, though, and how he'll keep people from making the connection based on timing.

How did Hal and Ollie manage it?

I don't think they really tried. They're not as hung up on the secret identity thing as Barry is.

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[celticguy]

Well people have been found after being missing for yerars and presumed dead they would just need a good story.

Batman created an idenity for Wonder Woman and she seems to have pretty high clearance.

Jason Todd, Hal and Ollie all came back and Ollie even got elected Mayor.

I would expect it to get glossed over although it would make an intersting story.

[Buried Alien]

Well people have been found after being missing for yerars and presumed dead they would just need a good story.

Batman created an idenity for Wonder Woman and she seems to have pretty high clearance.

Jason Todd, Hal and Ollie all came back and Ollie even got elected Mayor.

I would expect it to get glossed over although it would make an intersting story.

You know what might be kind of fun?

Back in his days as a police scientist, Barry had a lab assistant named Patti Spivot. She was a good police scientist and loyal assistant to Barry for years. Undoubtedly, in the years since Barry's death, Patti (if she stayed with the CCPD) has been promoted to Barry's old position, and is probably now the senior police scientist on the CCPD.

If Barry returns to his old job, he'd likely be subordinate to Patti now...since he's been out of the loop for so long and she, presumably, has continued working in the job all these years. It'd be kind of fun to see Barry function in the crime lab as Patti's assistant.

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