Kid Flash

FIRST APPEARANCE: The Flash Vol. 2 #92 (July 1994)

When the second Flash, Barry Allen, decided to retire, he journeyed to the 30th century with his wife, Iris. There, they had two children, Don and Dawn Allen, who inherited Barry's super speed and connection to the Speed Force. When the Flash was called back to the past to fight in the Crisis on Infinite Earths, in which he died saving the universe, Iris raised their kids alone, and they grew up to be the heroic Tornado Twins. Don Allen grew up and married Meloni Thawne, daughter of the president of Earth, but also a descendant of Flash villains Cobalt Blue and Professor Zoom. Their son Bartholomew, or Bart for short, was born with a strong connection to the legacy of all speedsters, both good and bad.

Bart exhibited speed powers from birth, and not only did he have a super high metabolism, but he aged at hyperspeed as well. Although he was chronologically only a toddler, physically, he looked like a pre-teen. When his father Don was killed by the alien race known as the Dominators, they kidnapped Bart, with the intention of studying his super speed powers. He was then raised in a virtual reality environment, inside of which his mental age matched his physical one. With his super speed out of control, and threatening to kill him of old age by the time he was a few years old, his grandmother Iris West took stole him away, and brought him back to the present. It was her hope that her nephew, the third Flash Wally West, could teach Bart how to control his speed, and therefore save his life.

Wally was able to help him control his speed and slow down his aging, and now at the age of approximately a young teenager, Bart took on the name Impulse, and became the partner of the Flash, much as Wally had been Barry's sidekick. During this time, he also briefly joined the Titans, Wally's former team. Wally suggested that Bart needed to learn to slow down, so he suggested that Bart move to Manchester, Alabama, hoping the slow pace of life there would make him a little less hyper. While in Alabama, he was tutored by the Golden Age speedster Max Mercury, who became like a surrogate father to him. Max helped train Bart in controlling his powers, and when he vanished into the Speed Force, Bart was taken in by Jay Garrick, the original Flash, cementing his ties to several generations of speedsters.

Bart Allen would later create a team with several other youngsters of his generation: Tim Drake, Kon-El, and Cassandra Sandsmark, making him one of the founding members of Young Justice.