The Black Flash is a fictional

comic book A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...

character from

DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...

. Created by writers

Grant Morrison Grant Morrison (born 31 January 1960) is a Scottish comic book writer, screenwriter, and producer. Their work is known for its nonlinear narratives, Humanism, humanist philosophy and counterculture, countercultural leanings. Morrison has writt ...

and

Mark Millar Mark Millar (; born 24 December 1969) is a Scottish comic book writer who first came to prominence with a run on the superhero series ''The Authority (comics), The Authority'', published by DC Comics' Wildstorm imprint. Millar has written ext ...

, and artist

Ron Wagner Ron J. Wagner is an People of the United States, American comics artist who has drawn for titles such as ''G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (Marvel Comics), G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero'', ''The Punisher'', ''Nth Man: The Ultimate Ninja'', and ' ...

, the character had cameos in ''The Flash'' vol. 2 #138 (June 1998), before appearing in full in ''The Flash'' vol. 2 #141 (September 1998).

Fictional character background

Original depiction

The Black Flash essentially fulfills the same role as

Death Death is the end of life; the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Death eventually and inevitably occurs in all organisms. The remains of a former organism normally begin to decompose sh ...

for those who possess super-speed in the DC Universe, returning the speedster to their power source: the

Speed Force A speedster is a character, primarily in superhero comics, whose powers primarily relate to superhuman speed (also known as superspeed). Primary abilities shared by all speedsters include running at speeds far in excess of human capability (to var ...

. It is reportedly seen before the deaths of

Barry Allen Bartholomew Henry "Barry" Allen is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. He is the second character known as the Flash, following Flash (Jay Garrick), Jay Garrick. The character first appeared in ''Showcase (comic ...

and

Johnny Quick Johnny Quick may refer to: * Johnny Quick (Crime Syndicate) * Johnny Quick (Johnny Chambers) See also * Jonathan Quick, hockey player {{dab ...

Max Mercury Max Mercury (Maxwell Crandall), also known as Windrunner, Whip Whirlwind, and Lightning, is a DC Comics superhero similar to Quality Comics' Quicksilver. Initially an obscure speedster, the character was rebooted by Mark Waid in 1993 in the page ...

has also seen the Black Flash while having had several near-death experiences. The specter speedster came for

Wally West Wallace Rudolph "Wally" West is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics as the original Kid Flash and the third Flash (DC Comics character), Flash. His power consists mainly of speedster (fiction), superhuman speed. T ...

to draw back to the Speed Force, but instead took

Linda Park Linda Park (born July 9, 1978) is a South Korean-born American actress. She is best known for playing communications officer Hoshi Sato in the science-fiction series ''Star Trek: Enterprise.'' Early life Park was born in South Korea and raised ...

. Having seen portents of Wally's death, Max Mercury and

Jesse Quick Jesse Belle Chambers is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Chambers, who mainly uses the superhero name Jesse Quick and briefly Liberty Belle, is the daughter of Golden Age of Comics, Golden Age heroes Johnny Qui ...

intercepted Wally before reaching the museum where Linda was waiting, with Linda thus being struck by the lightning that was meant to kill Wally. It later returns to try to take Wally again, freezing time except for those who possess a connection to the Speed Force. Max Mercury,

Jay Garrick Jason Peter "Jay" Garrick is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. He is the first character known as the Flash. The character first appeared in ''Flash Comics'' #1 (January 1940), created by writer Gardner Fox and ...

, and Jesse Quick all attempt to assist Wally by distracting the Black Flash; Wally finally defeats the Black Flash by racing the creature to the end of time, to a point where Death would have no meaning, causing the creature to dissipate. The Black Flash appears to

Bart Allen Bartholomew Henry "Bart" Allen II is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. A speedster (fiction), speedster, he first appeared under the alias Impulse and later became the second Kid Flash and the fourth Flash (c ...

when the Flash loses his powers while battling the Rogues at the

Getty Center The Getty Center, in Los Angeles, California, United States, is a campus of the Getty Museum and other programs of the Getty Trust. The $1.3 billion center opened to the public on December 16, 1997, and is well known for its architecture, garde ...

. Despite a clash with

Inertia Inertia is the natural tendency of objects in motion to stay in motion and objects at rest to stay at rest, unless a force causes the velocity to change. It is one of the fundamental principles in classical physics, and described by Isaac Newto ...

(another possible candidate for the Black Flash), Bart is killed shortly thereafter by the panicked Rogues when it appears Bart would win, even without powers. Most recently, the Black Flash is revealed to represent the Speed Force's dark aspect which is responsible for the empowerment of Wally's children. His connection to death is limited to those connected to the Speed Force. While an issue of ''

Captain Atom Captain Atom is the name of several superheroes appearing in American comic books, initially owned by Charlton Comics before being acquired in the 1980s by DC Comics. All possess some form of energy-manipulating abilities, usually relating to nuc ...

'' suggests Death of the Endless, the Black Racer, and Nekron are all aspects of the same force,

Neil Gaiman Neil Richard MacKinnon Gaiman (; born Neil Richard Gaiman; 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, audio theatre, and screenplays. His works include the comic series ''The Sandman (comic book), The Sandma ...

(creator of Death of the Endless) disagrees with this idea, stating that his creation is the ultimate personification of Death. DC Comics, however, tends to depict each character as a separate entity with no connection or relation to each other, seemingly giving merit to the idea presented in ''Captain Atom''. During the ''

Final Crisis "Final Crisis" is a crossover storyline that appeared in comic books published by DC Comics in 2008, primarily the seven-issue miniseries of the same name written by Grant Morrison. Originally DC announced the project as being illustrated solely ...

'', Wally theorizes that the Black Racer pursuing himself and Barry is in fact the Black Flash. A charred corpse, appearing to be the Black Flash, was found in

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

by two boys in '' The Flash: Rebirth''. The Black Flash is sent hunting after the Force Barrier's destruction, killing

Psych ''Psych'' is an American detective comedy-drama television series created by Steve Franks for USA Network. The series stars James Roday as Shawn Spencer, a young crime consultant for the Santa Barbara Police Department whose "heightened o ...

and attacking Steadfast and Fuerza. The cosmically enhanced

Hunter Zolomon Hunter Zolomon, otherwise known as Zoom is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The second character to assume the Reverse-Flash mantle, he serves as the archnemesis of Wally West and an enemy of Barry Allen. ...

takes Barry into the "Forever Force" (timestream) built by the Speed Force to which the Black Flash chases the two speedsters to kill, hoping to heal the Speed Force. Zoom later sacrifices himself to the Force Barrier in order to finally heal the Speed Force, trapping the Black Flash.

Barry Allen

The second Black Flash is

due to Professor Zoom altering the Speed Force for a time.

Eobard Thawne

The third Black Flash is the reanimated corpse of

Eobard Thawne Eobard Thawne, also known as the Reverse-Flash and Professor Zoom, is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by John Broome (writer), John Broome and Carmine Infantino, the character first appeared in ''T ...

, the Reverse-Flash, equipped with a power ring as a member of the

Black Lantern Corps The Black Lantern Corps is a fictional organization of wikt:corporeal, corporeal revenants (resembling intelligent zombies or jiangshi) appearing in comic books published by DC Comics, related to the emotional spectrum. The group is composed of d ...

Other versions

An original incarnation of the Black Flash,

, appears in '' Ame-Comi Girls: Featuring Duela Dent'' #3.

In other media

Television

Two incarnations of the Black Flash appear in the

Arrowverse The Arrowverse is an American Superhero fiction, superhero media franchise and shared universe that is centered on various interconnected television series based on DC Comics superhero characters, primarily airing on The CW as well as web series ...

series ''

The Flash The Flash is the name of several superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Harry Lampert, the original Flash first appeared in ''Flash Comics'' #1 (cover date, cover-dated Jan ...

''. * An original incarnation, Hunter Zolomon / Zoom, appears as the Speed Force's enforcer. * The Black Lantern form of Eobard Thawne / Reverse-Flash appears in the eighth season finale "Negative" as the Negative Flash.

Video games

* The original incarnation of the Black Flash appears in '' Justice League Heroes: The Flash''. Wally West / Flash is chased by the Black Flash when the player dies. Escaping the Black Flash is increasingly difficult after each death. * The original incarnation of the Black Flash appears in '' Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure''. * The Eobard Thawne incarnation of the Black Flash appears as an alternate skin for

Barry Allen / Flash Barry may refer to: People and fictional characters * Barry (name), including lists of people with the given name, nickname or surname, as well as fictional characters with the given name * Dancing Barry, stage name of Barry Richards (born c. 195 ...

in '' Injustice: Gods Among Us''. * The original incarnation of the Black Flash appears in ''

DC Legends This is a list of video games based on DC Comics. Video games 1970s–1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s See also * List of video games based on comics * List of video games featuring Batman * List of video games featuring Superman * Marve ...

''.

Miscellaneous

A demonic version of the Black Flash (also known as the Speed Demon and Black Racer) appears in ''

Smallville Season 11 ''Smallville'' is an American superhero television series developed by writer-producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, based on the DC Comics character Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. The series was produced by Millar/Gough ...

'' #12. It seeks out

Impulse Impulse or Impulsive may refer to: Science * Impulse (physics), in mechanics, the change of momentum of an object; the integral of a force with respect to time * Impulse noise (disambiguation) * Specific impulse, the change in momentum per unit ...

and

's souls, but comes into conflict with the former and

Superman Superman is a superhero created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, which first appeared in the comic book ''Action Comics'' Action Comics 1, #1, published in the United States on April 18, 1938.The copyright date of ''Action Comics ...

. As the fastest of the two speedsters, the Black Flash primarily focuses its attention on Impulse until the latter sacrifices himself to destroy the demonic speedster, which goes on to inspire Garrick to come out of retirement and form the

Teen Titans The Teen Titans are a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, frequently in eponymous monthly series. As the group's name indicates, the members are teenage superheroes, many of whom have acted as sidekicks to DC ...

.''Smallville Season 11'' #12

References

External links

Profile on Black Flash
{{Grant Morrison Characters created by Grant Morrison Characters created by Mark Millar Comics characters introduced in 1998 DC Comics male supervillains DC Comics characters who can move at superhuman speeds Fictional characters who can manipulate time DC Comics monsters Fictional personifications of death Zombies in comics Flash (comics) characters