The Flash is a 2011 comic book series published by DC Comics as part of their New 52 rebranding initiative in the wake of Flashpoint. It is initially written by Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato, and drawn by Manapul.
In the New 52, the franchise has basically undergone a hard reboot. Whilst Barry is still the Flash, he's no longer married to Iris and is now in a relationship with Patty Spivot; and whilst Kid Flash is still around and Bart is still in the suit, he's no longer related to Barry nor are his powers Speed Force-related. As for Jay Garrick, the event also re-established Earth 2, making Jay once again Barry's Alternate Universe counterpart, albeit one who's Younger and Hipper; in fact, he's younger than Barry. Wally West is still Iris West's nephew, but had been de-aged to 12 years old and is now biracial (as a result of The Flash (2014) giving a Race Lift to the West family).
The comic also introduced a new Reverse-Flash, seemingly the first — Daniel West, Iris' younger brother. In this universe, Barry never caught Eobard, and it was unclear whether Eobard even existed. He eventually resurfaced, going purely by Professor Zoom, and having an entirely different backstory. Though he is still the person who murdered Nora Allen.
In 2016 the comic was relaunched as part of the DC Rebirth initiative, with Joshua Williamson taking over the title. For more information, see The Flash (2016).
Tropes included in The Flash volume four:
- Abusive Parents: Iris and Daniel West's father was physically and emotionally abusive in their youth, due to blaming Daniel for the death of his mother when birthing him. Eventually, the old man killed his pet crickets out of sheer sadism, leading Daniel to snap and push him down the stairs...
- Accidental Murder: Well, most of the Future Flash's murders were decidedly non-accidental, but he really didn't mean to kill Future-Wally. He was actually aiming at his past self, and Future-Wally jumped in the way.
- Accidental Murder: While the Flash issue in which we see the aftereffects doesn't go into detail, Futures End strongly implies Daniel killing Wallace (and crippling Iris) in the future was not intentional on his part.
- Adaptational Badass: Golden Glider's much more capable in the New 52 with her Superpower Lottery. Not that she was much of a slouch beforehand.
- Adaptational Name Change: Following his Race Lift from New 52 and onwards, Weather Wizard's name is changed from Mark to Marco.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Girder's portrayed as Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas in New 52 while prior to reboot, he was a complete jerk that's convicted of rape.
- Adaptational Sexuality: David Singh is gay post-Flashpoint.
- The Ageless: Exposure to the Speed Force means that Selkirk ages extremely slowly.
- Age Lift: Before Flashpoint, Darryl was around Barry's age. In the New 52, Darryl Frye is old enough to be Barry's father.
- Age Lift: Chunk's New 52 counterpart is a young teenager, when his original version was close in age to the original Wally West.
- All Love Is Unrequited: In the New 52, Darryl Frye is in love with Nora Allen, but she was married to Henry Allen. Then she was killed before she had a chance to divorce Henry. Averted in pre-Flashpoint where he is Happily Married to Thelma Frye and has no feelings for Nora.
- Aloof Big Sister: In the New 52 Iris's later success in life distances her from her younger brother Daniel, who still hasn't moved past their abusive childhood.
- An Ice Person: Post-New 52, there was a period when Captain Cold had direct cryokinesis without having to use his freezing guns. It was later revealed that he used to use freezing guns, but used a machine to integrate his cold gun's powers into himself. This is reverted to cold gun again after the events of Forever Evil (2013).
- An Ice Person: Unlike most examples, Mogul's powers don't come naturally. Instead, he has to use his gun to achieve this.
- Anti-Villain: The Future Flash started out as idealistic and noble as Present-Barry, but years of being too late to stop horrendous tragedies (including Wally's death) have broken him down to the point where he genuinely believes killing criminals before they commit the crimes he ''knows'' they will is the best way to go about things — and is willing to kill his own past self to Ret-Gone all these events from the timeline.
- Particularly jarring as at points (like delivering a Scare 'Em Straight to a terrified Trickster, time-travelling to be with Captain Cold as he dies or trying to be more involved in Wally's life) we can see the Barry we know is still in there.
- Archnemesis Dad: Daniel West for the new Kid Flash. An interesting variant, as while Kid Flash is aware of their relationship, the two have never met while in their superpowered identities.
- Ascended Extra: Golden Glider went from minor villain (before Flashpoint) to leader of the Rogues (New 52).
- Astral Projection: In the New 52 Golden Glider has intangibility and prehensile binds as a spirit. Her body is kept in a hospital.
- Awesome Anachronistic Apparel: Overload dresses like a Victorian undertaker.
- Badass Biker: In Issue #15, Patty Spivot apparently became one in one of the possible futures Barry thinks of using his speed brain in defeating Grodd. Interestingly, her motorcycle outfit visually seems like a call back to her tenure as Hot Pursuit during the Flashpoint comics.
- Badass Longcoat: Weather Wizard in the New 52.
- Bait-and-Switch: The solicitation for the Future Flash's first appearance heavily implied he was the pre-Flashpoint Wally West. It specifically asked why "the fastest man alive", a line Wally is most famous for, would want Barry Allen dead. His costume, specifically the cowl, also invoked Wally's pre-Flashpoint costume. The creative team also went on to state that Wally was on the cover of the issue. It didn't catch on, however, as people knew it was too obvious, and in the end, NuWally was the guy doing graffiti on the cover.
- Beard of Evil: Selkirk has a pretty impressive beard.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Initially Darwin acts like a scientist that wants to help Barry in his use the Speed Force. But it turns out that he's a complete asshole that wants to gain control of the Speed Force.
- Body Horror: See the red part of Daniel West's suit? That's his skin. He got his look when he crashed a car into a monorail carrying a Speed Force battery. He became bound to the Speed Force and the remains of the monorail fused to him and created the black part of his suit.
- Brain Food: The New 52 version of Grodd ate the brain of his own father.
- Brought Down to Normal: Captain Cold has his powers pulled out of him by Deathstorm, the Crime Syndicate's Firestorm.
- Cain and Abel: Pre-New 52, Mark accidentally murdered his brother in a confrontation over the weather wand. Averted in the New 52, where him and his brother (renamed Claudio) were very close, and it was his sister in law who killed his brother.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Daniel West is introduced even before Reverse-Flash and seems to be just a minor supporting character before The Reveal.
- Chest Blaster: In the New 52, Heat Wave emits flames from a grate on his chest.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Darwin was supposed to be a close ally to Flash, going as far as giving him tech aid but once the first creative team left the book, he disappeared. The only mention about him comes from Deathstroke, with the implication of being killed by Slade after being used as an Unwitting Pawn.
- Color Character: Averted, as Golden Glider has dropped the "Golden" from her name in the New 52.
- Composite Character: In the New 52, Sam Scudder is the sole Mirror Master once more, but takes a lot of Evan's traits. He's implicitly younger, more imaginative, and makes more use of the Mirror Dimension's capabilities rather than developing different forms of mirror technology.
- Cool Big Sis: In the New 52 Iris is one for Daniel West through their abusive childhood. He latches onto her like no other until Iris gives up on his criminal behaviour.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: The Future Flash gives the future Grodd a particularly nasty one — implants a micro-bomb in Grodd's ear-canal, knowing that for all the gorilla's strength and intelligence, Grodd's gorilla physiology (specifically the size of his hands) will prevent him digging it out. It blows Grodd's head off seconds later.
- Daddy's Girl: Patty is implied to be one. Her father calls her princess.
- Decomposite Character: In the New 52 he was Reverse-Flash rather than Eobard Thawne, who went solely by Professor Zoom. However, in DC Rebirth Barry gets his pre-Flashpoint memories back and starts referring to Thawne as Reverse-Flash again (specifically calling him the first Reverse-Flash in #18 of the 2016 series), thus making Reverse-Flash a mantle attained by different evil speedsters once again.
- Decomposite Character: Turbine was supposed to be New 52 version of The Top but the characters are now officially seperate from each other.
- Deflector Shields: The Human Block can use her speed force powers to freeze the very air around her, making it solid and all but unbreakable.
- Demoted to Extra: After the first team of New 52 Flash left the book, Golden Glider prominence and status quo shifted back to her original roots.
- Demoted to Extra: Daniel West was initially introduced as the Evil Counterpart of Barry Allen in the New 52 until Eobard Thawne's return hit him pretty hard. Since Rebirth he's only appeared in flashbacks and dream sequences before being confirmed as dead by Captain Boomerang, leaving Eobard as the main Reverse-Flash again.
- Demoted to Extra: Pied Piper's alliance to Flash is downplayed due to change of lead character. He's now shown only as Barry's superior Detective Singh's boyfriend and most of his appearences are tied to his relationship with Singh now.
- Depending on the Artist: The New 52 suit's linework. As originally envisioned and as seen in the above picture, it's armor with tons of Tron Lines. But a lot of people weren't keen on that, and apparently that includes some artists. Generally, the lines on the stop of his mask are kept, but the ones on his body are removed or added depending on what the artist feels like doing, and even how much they light up, if they do at all, changes issue to issue, series to series.
- Dramatic Irony: A genuinely sad case: when Daniel West goes back in time to kill his father, his past self begs him to leave his/their father alone.
- Emotional Powers: After Weather Wizard's weather powers were integrated into his body in the New 52, they started affecting his emotions. When he made it rain enough to water crops, he became so depressed he had suicidal thoughts.
- Enemy Mine: During Year of the Villain, Golden Glider assists Barry in fighting Captain Cold's takeover of Central City. Once it's over, though, she helps bust Len out of jail immediately.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Daniel's sincere about his love for his sister, Iris. He attacks everyone who entered the Speed Force, except her, and is devastated when she Takes the Bullet for Flash and gets wounded. More complex with Wallace — all indications are he genuinely tried with his son and wanted him to make more of himself than Daniel ever did, but wasn't above lying to Wallace regarding his remorse over his crimes or the nature of their relationship.
- Evil Counterpart:
- In his initial "Reverse" storyline Daniel is presented as one to Barry Allen — both had a hugely traumatic event in their childhood, but where Barry was able to use his mother's murder to inspire him to help others (both as a CSI and later the Flash), Daniel never got over the effect crippling his father had on his life, obsessing over being able to change his past for the better. In addition, both care deeply for Iris, albeit in very different ways.
- Also, more obviously to his nephew Wallace (aka Kid Flash) once the latter gains his speedster powers. Both come from broken households and have criminal backgrounds (though Wallace was only getting started with his before Barry intervened) — but in this case Wallace is determined to not go down his father's path in life.
- Evil Luddite: Overload's condition makes him a technophobe; looking to shut down modern technology to grant him some relief.
- Evil Makes You Monstrous: Daniel West seems to be able to switch between normal and the look in the above image at will. However, his appearance in #24 really qualifies him as this — when he thinks he's killed his father and the Flash can't stop him, his powers shift him into a much larger and more demonic-looking form.
- Evil Uncle: To Wally West, at least technically. The two never actually met in their superhero identities, and Wally says he and Daniel were distant — given Wally's history with his family, it's possible they barely knew each other.
- Expy:
- Daniel West's principle motivation — to go back in time and undo the moment he feels led to everything going wrong for him — is remarkably similar to Hunter Zolomon/Zoom's reasoning for trying to use the Cosmic Treadmill, as well as his general theme of not moving beyond his past.
- Spitfire's pretty much Roxy Rocket with a different name.
- Fallen Hero: The Future Flash is Barry, worn down by years of tragedy that he arrived too late to stop. He's not quite evil, but he is a lot more of a Knight Templar about 'fixing' the mistakes of the past. All of his past friends and Barry himself are horrified at the killer he's become.
- Festering Fungus: Black Mold uses aggressive mold spores to kill his victims.
- Foil: Daniel West to Barry Allen, in that both experienced trauma in their childhoods and it has hugely impacted their lives. The difference is that Barry tries to move on from his mother's murder, whereas Daniel is obsessed over one incident that he has let consume him and has not learned from.
- For Science!: Darwin's general motivation for anything.
- Freeze Ray: Mogul invented a device that was able to create snow by absorbing moisture from the air around it.
- Freudian Excuse: Daniel West's mother died during his birth and his father was an abusive drunk. When his dad pushed him over the edge, he pushed him down the stairs; crippling him for life and estranging his sister, Iris. Horrified, he ran away and went down the path of crime. With his Speed Force powers, he wants to go back in time and kill his father before that moment; thinking it will fix everything for him.
- Fusion Dance: Merge is able to merge any two items that he touches with his gauntlets.
- Futureshadowing: When Daniel West gets his powers, the Speed Force showed him glimpses of others connected to the Speed Force. He figures out that he needs to kill these people to gain more power.
- Gayngst: Subverted. The reader and Barry is led to believe that Singh is hiding his relationship with Hartley because he is afraid of being fired for being gay. However, Director Singh reveals to Barry that he's actually afraid of being fired for dating an ex-Rogue. Eventually it all works out in the end.
- The Ghost: In a rather strange case, Rudy West's yet to make a single non-flashback appearance post-Flashpoint. This is despite him being the Disappeared Dad of Wallace West in the New 52, then the "reveal" that Wallace only believed Rudy was his father, the later development of Wally's public imprisonment for the events at Sanctuary and even later still it being established that West family get-togethers were a thing and Wallace and Wally were both there. Rudy's lack of appearance means his role in Wallace's Family Relationship Switcheroo has never been explained.
- Good Feels Good: In the New 52 as a member of the Justice League, Captain Cold started to realize that being a good guy feels good.
- Healing Factor: As a result of the regenerative formula he was treated with, Mob Rule can heal any injury, including regrowing lost limbs.
- Healing Factor: The Speed Force grants Selkirk accelerated healing.
- Heroic Sacrifice: The Future Flash both causes it and plays it straight in the same story. Present-Barry and Wally from five years in the future die trying to stop him (though it turns out Present-Barry isn't really dead later on). Then, once Present-Barry has returned, Future Flash sacrifices himself to stop William Selkirk, living long enough to regret what he became, and give the present day Barry a clue about his mother's killer.
- I Hate Past Me: The Future Flash tries to kill his past self to fix the Speed Force, and his comments while attempting it mostly revolve around him chewing out his younger self for being naive and failing as a steward of the power. He even admits that he would have gone back further to prevent them from being born if their particular kind of time travel worked that way.
- I Let Gwen Stacy Die: The Future Flash let Wally die and never stopped blaming himself.
- Instant Costume Change: Daniel West's Forever Evil tie-in issue implies that he can switch from human to the monstrous Reverse-Flash look in seconds, with his "costume" actually manifesting from within his body.
- Jerkass: Darwin suggested that he siphoned the Flash's excess speed force and store it in battery cells. When he did so, the Flash disappeared into a wormhole and was sent into the Speed Force. With the battery cells filled with Speed Force energy, Doctor Elias took advantage of his supply by claiming to have found a renewable energy. Claiming the credit and fame for its discovery, Doctor Elias was viewed as the "hero" and savior of Central City in the months of the Flash's absence.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Post-Flashpoint, David Singh is short tempered and puts his career above his boyfriend, but he invites Patty to his apartment to comfort her after Barry’s “death” and mourns him as well. After a near death experience, he starts putting Hartley first before his career.
- Kill and Replace: After the Future Flash believes he's killed present-day Barry (he hasn't) he does this, replacing Barry in the present-day with an eye to killing all the villains that would go on to cause Central City grief in the future.
- Lightning Can Do Anything: The Human Block was struck by lightning and survived the incident. She was also given powers from the Speed Force as a result of the incident.
- Like a Son to Me: The Future Flash loved future Wally II as his own son. His death at Reverse-Flash's hands is one of the major things that drove his Start of Darkness.
- Love Redeems: It's implied that Pied Piper left his criminal life after meeting a cop named David Singh.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: He pushes Turbocharger off a building to make it seem like he fell.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Barry is definitely Nora Allen's son, but in the New 52 there was speculation over whether the father was Henry or Darryl due to a possible affair Nora had with Darryl. Turns out Henry is the father, and Nora never cheated on him with Darryl.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: In the New 52, there was speculation over whether Barry was his son or Darryl's. Turns out, Barry is Henry's son.
- Mana Drain: Daniel West's able to steal the Speed Force powers from other speedsters and absorb them into his own.
- Meaningful Name: Ernest Flake becomes the snow-themed villain Mogul.
- Me's a Crowd: Any part of Mob Rule's body that is removed can grow into a full grown duplicate of Manuel complete with his skills and knowledge and sharing a psychic link with each other and Manuel, their 'father'. These duplicates have a limited lifespan and will drop dead without warning.
- Mistaken for Murderer: When Thawne framed him, everyone but Barry believed he did it.
- Murder Is the Best Solution: Daniel West believes killing his father in the past will make his relationship with Iris right in the present.
- Murder Is the Best Solution: The Future Flash believes that murdering villains is the best way to fix the mistakes he failed to stop the first time around, and his method of sealing the wound in the Speed Force is to kill a speedster in front of it so the energy their death releases will cauterise it. When he steals the present day Barry's life, he states he intends to kill every murderer that escaped justice — regardless of whether or not they've actually committed their crimes yet.
- My God, What Have I Done?: After the Future Flash accidentally kills Wally from five years in the future.
- My God, What Have I Done?: When Daniel West attempts to kill his father in front of a young Iris and younger version of himself, a terrified Iris dubs him a "monster", leading to a brief moment of this that allows Flash to temporarily borrow his powers to get them back to the present. Thoroughly subverted when they get back though, as he flatly tells the adult Iris he'll do it all over again when he gets another chance.
- My Greatest Failure: Letting Wally die for the Future Flash.
- My Suit Is Also Super: Can break off parts of his suit to use as blades; which is how he kills Sprint and Marissa.
- Neck Snap: How Future Flash kills an alternate version of Daniel West in the Futures End comic. May double as a Shout-Out to the pre-Crisis Barry's killing of Professor Zoom.
- Never My Fault: After the Flash disappeared he passed off the Speed Force energy he managed to siphon as a new energy source for the glory. One of his Speed Force batteries exploded in an accident and granted Daniel West powers, allowing him to go on a murder spree to gain enough power to time travel and alter history, wreaking havoc on the timestream. When the Flash manages to save the day, Elias accuses him of being irresponsible and too dangerous with the Speed Force.
- Never My Fault: Daniel West's defining character trait. Whether it's pushing his father down the stairs at an early age, pulling a bank job that was stopped by the Flash or actually killing multiple innocent speedsters as Reverse-Flash, he's utterly unable to accept responsibility for his own actions and how they've contributed to his life turning out, at one point flat-out lying to Wallace over having remorse for any of his crimes. He looked to have been finally subverting this as part of the Suicide Squad, but died before he could undergo a true Heel–Face Turn.
- "Not So Different" Remark: When the Future Flash tells Future-Iris he can "repair the damage" (including Wally's death) by going back in time, she immediately points out that he sounds remarkably close to Daniel/Reverse-Flash's line of thinking.
- Only in It for the Money: Lummox seems to have no interest in supervillainy beyond committing robberies.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Unlike the other Acolytes of Zoom, The Human Block's real name is unknown.
- Outlaw Couple: In the New 52, Golden Glider's in a relationship with Mirror Master.
- Papa Wolf: In the New 52, Henry willingly took the fall so that Professor Zoom would not harm Barry. When Zoom does come after Barry, he rounds up his fellow inmates and breaks out of jail to go assist his son. He does this again when Flash is captured by Captain Darryl Frye's task force and The Riddler.
- Parental Favoritism: Iris was the most beloved child of her family, much to the chagrin of Daniel, as he suffered the bulk of their father's abuse.
- Parental Substitute: The Future Flash tries to be this for present-Wally after his Kill and Replace with present-Barry. We don't see much of it, but he was definitely this for the future version of Wally — one of the reasons his death at Reverse-Flash's hands played such a huge role in Barry's eventual Face–Heel Turn.
- Parents as People: Henry loves his son Barry even going so far as to take him out for some quality father-son bonding when him was a kid, and Barry loves him enough to dedicate his life to proving his father's innocence. However, in both Pre and Post-Flashpoint, Henry was emotionally neglectful and short-tempered with Barry up to the events leading up to Nora's murder because of the stress from his strained marriage.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: The Future Flash Roaring Rampage of Revenge is a long line of these — he kills Grodd, Reverse-Flash and Mirror Master for causing major tragedies in his life. That the latter two technically haven't committed them yet doesn't bother him in the slightest.
- Pet the Dog: The Future Flash notably doesn't kill The Trickster for the bank job that resulted in the death of a family — as he knew from the future that it had been a complete accident on Axel's part, one he'd originally taken his own life over. That he tried a Scare 'Em Straight indicated Barry's morality wasn't completely gone.
- Playing with Fire: In the New 52, Heat Wave is a metahuman with pyrokinesis. However, he often defaults to using his heat gun anyway if he has it on hand.
- Powered Armor: Lummox has a super powered armored super suit, that gives him great strength and invulnerability.
- Psychic Link: All the duplicates of Mob Rule share a psychic link with each other and Manuel, their 'father'.
- Put on a Bus: Professor Zoom's return to the comics led to this for Daniel West, as he was shunted to the New Suicide Squad comic before being (supposedly) Killed Off for Real there.
- Race Lift: In the New 52, Weather Wizard's reimagined (along with his brother, by extension) as Latino with the name Marco Mardon.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: Daniel West's "outfit".
- Red Herring: Despite what the plot wants you to believe at first, Darwin's not the Reverse-Flash. Ironically enough, his counterpart in The Flash (2014) is.
- Remember the New Guy?: Black Mold has already retired as a supervillain in his first appearance.
- Remember the New Guy?: Merge was introduced as an already retired supervillain.
- Ret-Gone: After Flashpoint, Wally West was erased from the timeline.
- Ret-Gone: In the New 52, Sam Scudder is back to being Mirror Master so Evan didn't appear until Dawn of DC.
- Romantic False Lead: During the New 52, Patty Spivot's there to only prolong the eventual Iris/Barry romance. Her relationship with Barry gets cut abruptly when TV show starts airing with Iris as the clear lead.
- Romantic Runner-Up: Patty Spivotmay be plain and quite boring as a character in the New 52, but she was completely unharmful and still managed to be a supportive girlfriend to Barry. Unfortunately for her, things just simply didn't work out in the long run.
- Sanity Slippage: Years of being too late to prevent numerous tragedies (including Future-Wally's death and Future-Iris' crippling) have not done good things to the Future Flash's psyche.
- Scare 'Em Straight: While the Future Flash is a big believer in Murder Is the Best Solution, he doesn't always go for it — one of his time-travel escapades sees him thoroughly terrifying the Trickster into not going ahead with a robbery that would have resulted in the accidental deaths of a family, including a one-month old baby girl. As the future Trickster was so broken up by this he'd committed suicide, Future Flash elected to invoke this trope with the past version, giving him a You Are Better Than You Think You Are speech before departing.
- Secret Identity: Surprisingly, Future Flash kept his identity secret from Iris until his forties!
- Sensor Character: Daniel West can sense those connected to the Speed Force.
- Serial Killer: The story arc, "Reverse", has Daniel West killing people affected by the Speed Force; his first victim being Albert Lim/Turbocharger in issue #19. He later kills Floyd Gomez/Sprint, Marissa and now has his sights on the Flash. The more of them are dead, the more Speed Force he gets.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Daniel West's motivation is to go back in time and prevent the event that estranged Iris from him and ruined his life.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Future Flash's goal, though it's played up as a villainous thing.
- Shock and Awe: Overload has electricity based powers.
- The Sociopath:
- Darwin turned popular opinion against the Flash just to see what it would take, and gave the Rogues super-powers just to see what would happen.
- It is revealed that Darwin views the use of the Flash's powers in saving lives as irresponsible, thinking it will do more good if used to advance the world towards the future.
- The Starscream: Golden Glider usurps Captain Cold as leader of the Rogues in the New 52.
- Successful Sibling Syndrome: Iris carving out a successful path for herself fueled Daniel's bitterness about how his life turned out and contributed to his Start of Darkness.
- Supernatural Gold Eyes: When in "costume", his eyes are always a bright, glowing, uniform yellow.
- Super-Strength: The Human Block has the unique ability to slow down her atoms. In doing this, they become denser than steel and grant her super strength.
- Super-Toughness: The Human Block has the unique ability to slow down her atoms. In doing this, they become denser than steel and grant her invulnerability.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Future Flash is basically a more evil Walter West, the Dark Flash: a dark version of the protagonist Flash from the future who's suffered a great tragedy that makes him more brutal, and he goes back in time to take his past self's place. Both are also generally portrayed as more skilled than their past counterparts (though Wally was faster than Walter; he just didn't have some of the skills), and have blue lightning. The difference is Walter respected Wally and kept his darker tendencies in check, whereas Future Flash hates his past self and doesn't hold anything back.
- Tangled Family Tree: Iris's family gets even more complicated because of her younger brother Daniel and all drama relating to their relationship with Wallace West.
- The Team Normal: The Axel Walker Trickster is the only member of the Rogues to not have his weapon integrated into his DNA during the New 52 era.
- There's No Kill like Overkill: Daniel West appears to kill Marissa with a flurry of blades, but her autopsy reveals lacerations, burns, electrocution, and extraction.
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: Grodd invokes this when Future Flash confronts him, taunting him that their fights often end with Barry running away because he won't kill him. Unfortunately, this time Future Flash decides to dispense with it entirely. It doesn't end well for Grodd.
- Time Master: He has the traditional speedster power set, but he can also "rewind" time — the more Speed Force energy he has, the further back in time he can "rewind" to. By killing numerous other speedsters to absorb their speed, then temporarily stealing Barry's, he's able to go back in time to try and kill his father before he ruined his life.
- Time Stands Still: The Human Block can do more than simply lock down her physiological structures atomic motion for might and resilience. She can use her speed force powers to freeze the very air around her, making it solid and all but unbreakable. Even speedsters have a difficult time phasing through her hard air construction.
- Timey-Wimey Ball: Future Flash's banishing of Barry to the past (though he thinks he's killed him) somehow de-ages him to Barry's current age (about mid-20s), allowing him to pull a Kill and Replace with Past Barry.
- Took a Level in Badass: While Captain Cold was certainly dangerous Pre-New 52, in the reboot he takes an offer by Dr. Elias to merge his cold gun's powers into himself. Doing so this made him a metahuman who can slow down the Flash just by being near him, making their fights even more equally matched, as Barry can no longer just disarm him. Many of the other Rogues also became metahumans with powers based off of their tech. This was eventually undone for most of them though.
- Touched by Vorlons: In the New 52 Solovar was a simple un-evolved ape who lived during the rise of the Mayan Empire. When an extra-dimensional phenomenon his society would eventually dub The Light touched him and his herd they gained a vastly augmented state of being enabling them to read and write and speak their open minds.
- Tragic Villain: Daniel West clearly thinks he's this, and has at least some justification due to his abusive father and generally awful childhood. However, it's clear that in reality he's a selfish superpowered murderer who cannot accept his own part in driving Iris away, and how his life in general has turned out.
- Trapped in Another World: In the New 52, when the Rogues tried to integrate the abilities of their gadgets into themselves, Mirror Master ends up getting trapped in the Mirror World. He's still of use, as he can bring others into the Mirror World as well. By Forever Evil (2013), he found a way to free himself.
- Tricked-Out Gloves: Merge's gauntlets allow him to merge any two items he touches.
- Tron Lines: Even more than the New 52 Flash, as Future Flash seem to be leaking energy at all times. He apparently upgraded his suit many times in the twenty years since the present.
- Tron Lines: Post-Flashpoint, Barry's costume now has these. They light up when he's running
◊, but when he's standing still or walking, they're black seams, barely visible. - The Un-Favourite: Daniel West's father hated him for supposedly causing the death of his wife and made no secret of the fact.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Darwin is targeted by the super-powered Rogues, seeking revenge for blessing them with suck. While he is saved by Barry, he isn't thankful at all.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
- Daniel West's the major reason Future Flash became the way he did. Even Eobard can't boast causing such an enormous change in Barry's character.
- It was Reverse-Flash's use of time-travel to alter his own past in #24 that leads to the Speed Force rupture that causes Future Flash to "lose" time whenever he runs, leading him to be "late" for multiple tragedies, including...
- ...Daniel's accidental killing of Wallace/crippling of Iris in the future timeline, which is what leads the future Barry Allen to become so bitter and withdrawn.
- In addition, Daniel gets captured by Grodd at some point — when the gorilla devours his brain, he becomes able to access the Speed Force and time travel. This leads to Grodd causing even more damage to the timeline, eventually prodding Future Flash into his Start of Darkness by killing the gorilla, followed by his time-travelling to stop his enemies' worst excesses by ANY means and eventually trying to kill his past self.
- Future Flash's use of the "vibrating hand" technique to murder a future campus killer. Patty Spivot picks up on it, having previously seen an autopsy on someone else killed in the same way by Reverse-Flash. Knowing Reverse-Flash is in jail, it leads her to realise another speedster is the killer. And as "Barry" had been acting rather suspiciously lately, it eventually clues her in that he's not all he seems.
- Daniel West's the major reason Future Flash became the way he did. Even Eobard can't boast causing such an enormous change in Barry's character.
- Uptown Girl: Averted with Iris in the New 52, as she is trying to save her mother's house from foreclosure and lives very modestly.
- Vibro Weapon: A further sign of how far the Future Flash's fallen — like Reverse-Flash and Professor Zoom he can kill people by vibrating his hand through them, disrupting the organic processes of the body part — like the heart — he phases though.
- Villain Episode: Daniel West gains his own issue in DC Comic's Villains Month which details his Start of Darkness. Interestingly enough, it's told in reverse-chronological order.
- Weather-Control Machine: In the New 52, Weather Wizard integrates the powers of the weather wand into himself. Now he can control the weather himself. He still uses the wand to call down lightning. The wand itself is reimagined as more of a staff.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Future Flash is trying to stop all of space and time from being torn apart by a rupture in the Speed Force, and save everybody that the effects of the rupture made him too late to save — especially Wally. He plans to do this by killing his past self and anyone that gets in his way.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Darwin disappeared from the Flash books. The closest thing to a mention would be that his tech was attained by Deathstroke and incorporated into his Ikon suit years down the line.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Future Flash catches an epic one from Patty after he claims that not killing Overload is a sign he can become the Flash he used to be once more.Patty: Let me get this straight — I should be grateful because you didn't murder someone?!
- Worthy Opponent: Future Flash admires the future Captain Cold enough as this (as well as his going straight and joining the Justice League) that unlike all his other time travel trips, where he stops a particularly bad crime (usually by killing the perpetrator), he specifically travels to the time of Leonard's death so he can be with him as he dies, something he says he missed the first time around.
