Barry Allen The Super Villain?

I’m not the first one to ask this but another thread got me thinking about Barry Allen’s (potential) crimes. I am far from an expert in Flash so a true fan may be able to dismantle this thought easily, but Barry has done some very selfish things with catastrophic results and never seems to learn or be held accountable. I am specifically thinking about Flashpoint and the resulting New 52 but it seems like a pretty common storyline for him. He wanted to save his mother (understandably) so he messed with time and created a horrific timeline. He worked to correct that but while doing so caused the New 52 timeline. Lives were completely altered and many were even snuffed out. I know Dr. Manhattan retroactively played a part but it’s still on Barry.
Batman had secret files on colleagues and got ostracized but Barry wipes out an entire timeline and no one blinks? I hereby call for Barry Allen to be placed on trial for crimes against humanity!!

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So he really fell from grace. The actions of a madman!

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Changed to a madman!
Sorry, it’s schtick but I’m going all in.

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I think he is generally written as caring and compassionate but it seems odd that it’s kind of ignored that he has mucked with time a lot. I guess most characters are oblivious but more and more are learning about the timelines and you would think someone would be like “wait, so I had a family but you messed with time and now they don’t exist? Well at least you saved your mom. Oh, you had to let her get killed again to reverse a horrible future? So it was all for nothing. Gee thanks Barry.”

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This isn’t like an I’m angry bothered by it have to be told not to read it. Just a discussion I wondered about.

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If I somehow messed it up, I’m meaning current Flash stories when I talk about Flashpoint.

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I’m confused then. How am I looking at Silver Age?

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Just in case, my quoting you was in no way a dig on grammar. It’s because I can’t always remember what I’m responding to and I didn’t want to get confused. And I’m “upset” about nothing. The extra exclamation points were just for the sake of embellishment.
All I am saying is I’m surprised there hasn’t been a story where characters are upset with Barry. That’s all. Calling for a trial was a joke.

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I’m bothered that there were never any consequences for him going back in time and saving everybody in one of the crossovers with Arrow. Or did I miss any consequences from that action?

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I faded away from the Arrowverse but I think at one point people were at least mad at him.

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It’d be interesting to see a story where Barry goes rogue, and in so doing, becomes power-hungry, screws with time for his benefit and has no regrets about his actions.

Then the “real” Barry somehow splits from the above and the two have an epic showdown.

The overall concept of going bad and splitting from one’s self to defeat your dark mirror worked for Superman in Superman III, so why not the guy who’s faster than him?

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I was watching Red Son with my brother and he’s a Flash fan. He says that no matter the Elseworld or universe there’s never an evil Barry Allen or Flash.

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I haven’t read flash point or anything afterwards but I think what you are saying is wrong.

From my understanding Barry simply wanted to save his mother and went back in time to do it. It had unintended consequences and created a new timeline. so Barry saw what he had done and tried to undo it.

Now I could be completely wrong but that’s how I understand what happened. Barry simply tried to save a life, someone dear to him, everything that happened afterwards was a reaction to that and not Barry’s doing. Barry saw the wrong and saw that he had to undo what he did.

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I guess I shot myself in the foot trying to be over the top.
You are right about what Barry did and why. I do not think he’s evil or purposeful. BUT he did wipe out an entire timeline through his actions. Many characters stopped existing. I don’t know why that hasn’t warranted a conversation about responsibility now that people are learning about it.

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Honestly I do kind of agree with you. After he came back in Flash Rebirth, Barry was not the same hero he was before he died. He treated Bart Allen like he didn’t exist, and he was very selfish when he created the flashpoint universe. Destroying timelines was why people like Extant and Parallax were villains, why wouldn’t Barry fit into that category as well? Incidentally, they were also both former heroes who turned bad.

Really though, the root of the problem is whoever’s idea it was to give Barry a tragic backstory. If that never happened, there would be no reason for him to go back in time.

@mrsteamer96 I agree with your brother, there isn’t a truly evil Barry Allen.

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I think being categorized as a hero vs a villain can’t really be boiled down strictly to actions - look at the entire category of “antiheroes”, for example. I think what puts a character in the hero or villain category is disposition. Not like, “personality” disposition, but being generally disposed toward good or evil. A character can do the wrong thing with the right intentions, make mistakes, and even just to bad things, but if their overall disposition is toward the good (admitting mistakes and consistently trying to rectify any bad actions, for example) they are just an essentially human and complex character. Barry’s disposition is definitely oriented toward the good, and I would argue that solidly lands him in the hero category.

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Well, I didn’t really dig how Civil War characterized a lot of Marvel characters, so in my mind they all get a pass for whatever they did. I can’t blame it on the characters, but on the writers and editors of the time.

While Barry Allen isn’t my favorite Flash and while I honestly would have preferred it had he stayed dead, I also can’t hold anything against him as a character because the writers and editors did whatever they did to him during Flashpoint. They are the mistakes of a fictional character whose motivations and actions are decided upon by a committee devoted to merchandising and sales.

I’m with you on this one. The current status quo is the product of selfish, irresponsible choices that the character Barry Allen made. The world is noticeably and materially shaped by his selfishness and irresponsibility, so it’s really strange to argue that that somehow isn’t really him or that it doesn’t count because he’s usually a nice guy.

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That’s literally every character in every piece of fiction.

I think also a factor is that he has messed up time more than once and he’s smart enough to understand the ramifications but does it anyway.
I’m not comparing him to Hal because there was murder involved, but at least Hal was in the throes of grief and madness. Barry had all of the tools needed to know it could be disastrous and he thought it through and did it anyway.

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