Those Who Ride the Lightning Trivia Quiz

Answer: John Stewart

The three Flashes that have been are: The Golden Age Flash Jay Garrick, who gained his powers after inhaling heavy water fumes over a prolonged period after a scientific experiment went wrong; The Silver Age Flash Barry Allen who was a fan of the original Flash comic books and gained his powers after a freak lightning bolt struck a shelf of chemicals which splashed over him; and Wallace 'Wally' West, the nephew of Barry's then girlfriend Iris West, Charter member of the Keystone City Flash Fan Club, and long-time Barry side-kick as 'Kid-Flash, who gained his powers in an identical accident to Barry's.

Future Flashes have also been depicted, showing a long lineage to follow...

John Stewart is a previous, and once again, Green Lantern.

Answer: The Reverse Flash

The Mirror Master was indeed Barry's first foe (in the very first Silver Age comic Book, "The Flash" #105); Captain Cold has also repeatedly come up against both Barry and his successor, Wally, while 'leading' the Flash's Rogue's Gallery on many occasions; The Turtle's 'powers' seem to make him the perfect antithesis to the Flash; but it is definitely Professor Zoom who is officially Barry's arch-foe.

After all he did 'kill' Barry's fiance, and get himself killed by Barry as well when trying to repeat the deed! As for those high speed duels of red vs. yellow? Sheer Flash wonder.

Answer: The Trickster

The other three are the classic Jay Garrick foes. They are also the villains the Silver Age Flash (Barry Allen) and Jay Garrick teamed up to defeat in their first adventure together, the landmark "The Flash" #123, which introduced the concept of multiple 'earths' and led to the reintroduction of the up-to-then defunct Golden Age JSA characters back into comic continuity. This of course eventually resulted in DC Comics most landmark event, "Crisis on Infinite Earths" in 1985, when it was decided they needed to do a clean-up mission on all the multiple earths that had been introduced over time.

"The Trickster" (James Jesse) only emerged to taunt the next Flash, Barry Allen. Recently, Jesse has reformed and been replaced by a new, younger version. He did (temporarily) come out of retirement to take on this new upstart as well as some of the other Flash "Rogues" in the 2005/2006 "Rogue War" storyline though.

Answer: Abra-Kadabra

The Pied Piper has become one of Wally's closest friends, and a good samaritan to boot. The Trickster become a law enforcement official (with the FBI) and the Heatwave has worked with the good guys for periods. Abra-Kadabra though has never shown a spark of honest redemption.

Answer: Lady Flash

The truly tragic character who was briefly 'Lady Flash' (Christina Alexandrova), was never part of Wally's inner sanctum-though she desperately wanted to be. She also called herself Lady Savage and Lady Savitar ,and probably also Lady Kobra (pathetically enough) while affiliating herself with the characters whose names she took on.

She was originally part of the Russian speed-team Blue Trinity. Poor thing-I guess all she ever wanted was to be loved-she eventually snapped all together and tried to take out Wally (in the horrible death sense!) during his honeymoon, but failed miserably.

Answer: Test pilot

The Flash's seem to be becoming decidedly less and less 'flashy' (!). Jay Garrick was a pure scientist, and one of the intellectuals of the Justice Society, Barry Allen a forensic scientist with the police force, and now Wally West is a motor mechanic with police force. Wally was briefly a millionaire though (twice), but then he was also penniless and homeless as well...

Hal Jordan (Green Lantern II) was a test pilot, amongst other things.

Answer: Composed of a compressible fabric which was kept in his ring, and expanded on contact with air

It was Jay Garrick's outfit that included a metallic headpiece-fashioned after a depiction of the Greek god Hermes.

Wally West is the "Flash" who eventually managed to manipulate the Speed Force into a costume-making it both frictionless and self-repairing.

Barry Allen's suit was indeed kept in a ring, from which he ejected it when he needed to The compressed fabric was of his own design.
(Wally also had such a ring and costume earlier in his career, and has recently reverted back to it)

An indestructible suit under the clothes-now how corny is that?

Answer: Jenni Ognats

Iris West (the second) is the daughter of Wally West according to the 'Kingdom' storyline. Named for his aunt Iris of course. Technically she was depicted as 'Kid-Flash'...but I'm sure you'll agree that suffices as a "Flash".

Jace Allen was one of the many future West/Allen descendants taking on the Flash mantle depicted in the 'Chain Lightning' storyline. He must have been named for Jay Garrick-he even wore a helmet styled similarly to Jay's original.

John Fox has appeared a few times-in the 'Race against Time' storyline, and also in the DC-wide '1000000' storyline as the Flash of the Justice Legion A of the 853rd century, as well as in 'Chain Lightning'.

Jenni Ognats is a direct descendant of Barry Allen-his grand-daughter actually, daughter of his daughter Dawn Allen, one half of the Tornado Twins. She didn't take on the Flash moniker-she is known as XS, and is a member of the rebooted Legion of Super-heroes. Her cousin Bart is the current Kid-Flash (previously 'Impulse'), and heir apparent to the Flash name.

Answer: Max Mercury

Ah, the the speed-villains...they made for some particularly interesting battles. Is there anything in comicdom more exhilirating than the exchanging of blows at near light speed?

Savitar fought Wally West-actually he was better than the Flash in every respect-faster, more skillful and better at using the speed force...he only lost due to his own ego-mania, and his wish to go ever faster-which landed him in speedster heaven, one with the Speed Force.

The Rival was a Jay Garrick foe-he was scientist who worked out how the original "Flash" gained his powers, and donned a darker version of Jay's costume, as well as a mask, and took on "The Flash". His speed was temporary though, coming and going. He recently re-appeared in current continuity after having disappeared for 50 years, only to dispappear once again. See the excellent www.hyperborea.org/flash/ for more info on this and other "Flash" trivia!

I threw in Eobard Thawne, the real name of the "Reverse Flash", Professor Zoom to try and throw some of you off! (Did it work?)

Max Mercury is actually a "Flash" ally with a convoluted past who probably deserves his own mini-quiz...so I won't go into further details here!

Answer: The Black Flash

Now which other character is so cool that he has beaten his own personal personification of Death? Wally has cheated death a few times-coming back from the brink of the speed force-but in "The Black Flash" saga he took on Death itself, and won-racing it back to the end of time...