Early life

Barry Allen was born on March 14, 1989 to Henry and Nora Allenas an only child. At some point
in his childhood he met Iris Westwho he became best friends with, and soon after formed a crush
on her. Her father Joe as well as Henry and Nora were aware of his crush. However, Barry was
also being bullied by a boy named Tony Woodward and came to resent him because of it. In
1995, Barry had begged his parents to take him to a science expo out of town, but on the way
they hit a flat tire. Their car had to be towed to the garage in a small town with a single street and
they were stuck there all day. They passed the time at the local diner where they had ice cream
and french fries with gravy, and spent the night watching the local fireworks. Barry had
considered this to be one of the happiest memories he has ever had with his parents, despite the
fact it wasn't his intention to do so in the first place. In 1999, Barry and his mother watched
Singing in the Rain together. On March 18, 2000 when Barry was eleven years old, he ran home
from school after getting into a fight. Though not being fast enough, his mother promised that he
had a good heart, and his father was proud of him for winning the fight. Later that night Barry was
comforted by his mother when he admitted he was afraid of the dark but she convinced him he
wasn't afraid of darkness itself, just being alone in the dark and wished him sweet dreams.
Nora's death and Henry's imprisonment
Later that night Barry was awoken by a commotion and went downstairs and saw his mother,
surrounded in streaks of red and yellow lightning. Barry attempted to reach his mother but she
told him to stay back and amidst the streaks Barry saw "the Man in Yellow" for a brief moment,
and his father told him to run. At that very moment however, Barry suddenly found himself 20
blocks away (because his future self took him away from the Reverse-Flash).

Unknown to Barry, his future self and Reverse-Flash were fighting around Nora after they vanish in the Crisis of 2024.
Barry returned home in time to see his father being arrested by police, and was told by his father
not to enter the house. He entered, seeing Joe standing solemnly over a body. When he walked
away, Barry approached the body and discovered, to his horror, that it was his mother. Following
the ordeal, Barry was fostered by Joe and Iris.[5]This also caused an inhibitor between Barry and
Iris as growing up in the same household prevented their feelings (at least on Iris' side) to mature
beyond sibling love.[6]
Initially, Henry asked Joe to not let Barry see him. Not knowing this, Barry kept trying to run away
to see his father at Iron Heights, and he was caught and stopped by Joe every time; at one point,
Barry called him out for it, telling him that he wasn't his father and that he hated him. Eventually,
Barry finally reached Iron Heights before Joe could stop him, and he finally came face to face
with his father. Henry told him that he simply did not want Barry to see him in prison. Despite this,
Barry begged for his father's release, insisting that the man in the lightning was who killed his
mother, not Henry. Henry told him that he couldn't help him and asked that he be a good boy and
let Joe raised him. Henry was promptly taken away and Barry became more accepting of Joe as
his new guardian.[7]

6 months after the murder Barry was still depressed and became grumpy towards everyone. Joe
saw this and understood why he was acting angry because he didn't want to let the pain of the
grief in, fearing his father and mother would be disappointed in him if he did. However Joe
convinced him it's ok to let the pain in and Barry finally let himself feel the grief and cried, with
Joe comforting him and promising that he'd always be there for him.

In school, Barry was relentlessly bullied by Tony Woodward. Joe noticed this and had Barry spar
with Iris who easily beat him. Joe then told Barry that if he ever got into a fight he couldn't win
that it was okay to run the other way.[3] At the age of 12, Barry went to a reptile camp, which was
paid for by Joe.[8] In high school, Barry attempted tryouts for the high school football team;
however, he failed horribly and made Joe swear to never talk about it again.[9]
Barry soon graduated from college majoring in two fields of science. It was with this skill that
Barry was motivated by his mother's murder to study criminology, in the hopes of proving that his
father was innocent.[10] Barry admired many successful scientists but his idol (who he was a little
obsessed with) was Dr. Harrison Wells, a scientist who was in the midst of developing a particle
accelerator that would open new fields of science and change the world. Barry came to idolize
Wells so much he paid for his autograph and read his autobiography twice.