title: Legion (2010 film)

text: Jeep, his body covered in the same mysterious drawings seen on Michael's body, concludes that the tattoos are his instructions. Gabriel appears and a scuffle ensues in which Audrey is killed. Gabriel corners them in the nearby mountains and is about to kill them when Michael descends from Heaven, healed and restored to the rank of Archangel. Michael tells Gabriel that Gabriel gave God what He asked for, but Michael gave Him what He needed, giving humanity another chance; Michael says that this was God's plan to test his angels, believing they had become blind in their loyalty, and that as Gabriel continues to blindly obey God, Gabriel has failed Him. Ashamed, Gabriel leaves. Michael explains to Jeep that he is the child's true protector and that they will see Michael again. Michael flies away. Charlie and Jeep reach the top of the mountain and see a small town in the valley below.


title: Legion (2010 film)

text: Later, Charlie, Jeep, and the baby drive away – the shot widens to show that the back of their vehicle is full of weapons.


title: Legion (2010 film)

text: "Legion" was released on January 22, 2010, in 2,476 theaters and took in $6,686,233—$2,700 per theater its opening day. On its opening weekend, it grossed $17,501,625—$7,069 per theater and placed second behind "Avatar". It placed No. 6 on its second weekend, and grossed an estimated $6,800,000—$2,746 per theater, a 61.1% drop from the previous weekend. The film has come to gross $67,918,658 worldwide.


title: Legion (2010 film)

text: Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 19% based on reviews from 104 critics, with an average rating of 3.78 out of 10. The site's consensus is: "Despite a solid cast and intermittent thrills, "Legion" suffers from a curiously languid pace, confused plot, and an excess of dialogue." Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 0–100 reviews from film critics, has a rating score of 32% based on 14 reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C-" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Legion (2010 film)

text: Paul Nicholasi of Dread Central gave the film a one and a half out of five stars, saying, "The finished product is shockingly bad. If countless angles of people firing guns with spent shells clinking to the ground is all your heart yearns for, then "Legion" may be your ideal Saturday night. Hoping for anything more is an exercise in futility. Spare yourself the agony." Brad Miska of Bloody Disgusting gave it 1 out of 5 stars, calling it "a prude film with some potential. It's boring, slow paced and it takes itself way too seriously." "Variety" film critic Joe Leydon gave the film a mixed analysis. Leydon claimed "Even when the blood-and-thunder hokiness of the over-the-top plot tilts perilously close to absurdity, the admirably straight-faced performances by well-cast lead players provide just enough counterbalance to sustain curiosity and sympathy." Frank Scheck of "The Hollywood Reporter" also gave the film a mixed review stating, "the goings-on in "Legion" are seriously silly (not to mention more than a little derivative of endless movies, especially the "Terminator" series), but director Scott Stewart has provided enough stylish finesse to make the proceedings a real hoot."


title: Legion (2010 film)

text: Kim Newman compares the film to "Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight", "The Terminator", and "The Prophecy", stating, "In most religious-themed-end-of-the-world films - and there are more than you'd think - its the righteous who stand against the dark. Here, it's gun-owners, which suggests how thoroughly screwed-up Legion's values are."


title: Legion (2010 film)

text: Collis Clark of "Entertainment Weekly" refers to this movie as dull: "The problem lies not with the cast, and Kate Walsh in particular deserves some sort of medal for the scene in which she narrowly escapes being dissolved by pus. Alas, the script is a rough beast that slouches toward utter ludicrousness. 'The future has been unwritten!' intones Paul Bettany's Michael at one point. But "Legion" barely seems to have been written at all."


title: Legion (2010 film)

text: Mike Hale of "The New York Times" says, "Unfortunately, the script by Scott Stewart, who directed, and Peter Schink emphasizes stagebound melodramatics and banal television-style catharsis over action and humor... Amid a bull market for end-of-days tales, 'Legion' stands out for its explicitly biblical underpinnings and its claustrophobia."


title: Legion (2010 film)

text: Peter Bradshaw in "The Guardian" says, "Not many horror movies have the decency to let elderly performers steal the show. But Jeanette Miller absolutely walks off with this one, in the robustly written role of a potty-mouthed satanic old lady who takes a fatal bite out of someone's neck. Paul Bettany plays the particularly badass angel who comes to earth in an attempt to stop God and his heavenly armies wiping out humanity."


title: Legion (2010 film)

text: In 2014, Syfy began airing the television series "Dominion", a sequel set 25 years after the end of the film. Scott Stewart, the writer/director of "Legion", served as executive producer. Stewart also directed "Dominion"s pilot episode, which was written by Vaun Wilmott and aired on June 19, 2014.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: The Flash (Bartholomew Henry "Barry" Allen) is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character first appeared in "Showcase" #4 (October 1956), created by writer Robert Kanigher and penciler Carmine Infantino. Barry Allen is a reinvention of the original Flash, Jay Garrick.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: Because he is a speedster, his power consists mainly of superhuman speed. Various other effects are also attributed to his ability to control the slowness of molecular vibrations, including his ability to vibrate at speed to pass through objects. The Flash wears a distinct red and gold costume treated to resist friction and wind resistance, traditionally storing the costume compressed inside a ring.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: Barry Allen's classic stories introduced the concept of the Multiverse to DC Comics, and this concept played a large part in DC's various continuity reboots over the years. The Flash has traditionally always had a significant role in DC's major company-wide reboot stories, and in the crossover "Crisis on Infinite Earths" #8 (November 1985), Barry Allen died saving the Multiverse, removing the character from the regular DC lineup for 23 years. His return to regular comics is foreshadowed during the narrative (and a single image of a blur) in Grant Morrison's crossover story "" #3 (November 2008), fully actualized in Geoff Johns' accompanying "" #1 (June 2009), kicking off a six-issue limited series. He has since played a pivotal role in the crossover stories "Blackest Night" (2009), "Flashpoint" (2011), "Convergence" (2015), and "DC Rebirth" (2016).


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: Barry Allen has been featured in several media, first appearing in animated form in the 1967 "The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure" and then in the related "Super Friends" program. Since then he has appeared in several DC Universe Animated Original Movies. Actor John Wesley Shipp portrayed the character in the live-action 1990s television show "The Flash" and the Arrowverse. Allen is currently portrayed by Grant Gustin in the Arrowverse shows in a main capacity, especially the 2014 television series "The Flash", while Ezra Miller portrays the character in the DC Extended Universe films "", "Suicide Squad", "Justice League", the director's cut "Zack Snyder's Justice League" and the HBO Max series "Peacemaker".


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: The Flash (Barry Allen) first appeared in print in "Showcase" #4 (October 1956). The creative team on Showcase #4 was Julie Schwartz, editor; Robert Kanigher, writer, Carmine Infantino, penciler (illustrator); Joe Kubert, inker (assistant illustrator). Robert Kanigher is on record as saying he still considers Gardner Fox as "the creator of The Flash" and his creation of Barry Allen is a reworking of that original work. As a result, no one name is easily identifiable as the "creator" of The Flash (Barry Allen).


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: Fox's superhero, "The Flash" first appeared Flash Comics #1 in 1940. In this story the man in the costume (he wore no mask) was named Jay Garrick. He rose in popularity and appeared in three comic book titles.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: After World War II, superheroes declined in popularity, causing many of the Flash's comic book series to be canceled. All-Flash was canceled in 1948 after 32 issues. Flash Comics was canceled in 1949 after 104 issues. All-Star Comics was canceled in 1951 after 57 issues, marking Garrick's last Golden Age appearance.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: The popularity and circulation of comic books about superheroes had declined following World War II, and comic books about horror, crime and romance took larger shares of the market. However, controversy arose over alleged links between comic books and juvenile delinquency, focusing in particular on crime, horror, and certain elements of superheroes. In 1954, publishers implemented the Comics Code Authority to regulate comic content.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: In the wake of these changes, publishers began introducing superhero stories again (as preferable to crime and horror), a change that began with the introduction of a new version of DC Comics' The Flash in Showcase #4 (October 1956).


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: In 1956, DC Comics reinvented the Flash character, giving him a new costume, name, and background. This new Flash, named Barry Allen, was completely unrelated to Jay Garrick. In fact, Garrick had never existed, as far as the new books were concerned. Barry Allen's first appearance shows him reading a copy of Flash Comics, lamenting that Garrick was "just a character some writer dreamed up". Readers welcomed the new Flash, but still had an interest in the old one.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: Also introduced at this time was Iris West, Barry Allen's then love interest (and later wife), and "Lois Lane" to his "Clark Kent". Like Lois Lane, Iris West was a reporter, in this case for Picture News.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: Wally West, the nephew of Iris West, first appeared in Flash #110 (1959), which depicted his transformation into Kid Flash, the "Robin" to the Flash's "Batman". Wally West would later go on to become the new Flash many years later.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: Jay Garrick made a guest appearance in 1961 in Flash #123 "Flash of Two Worlds". In this issue, Garrick was treated as residing in a parallel universe (Earth-Two), which allowed the character to exist without any continuity conflicts with Barry Allen (who existed on Earth-One), yet allowed him to make guest appearances in Silver Age books.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: Barry Allen and Iris West were shown to get married in 1966 in "Flash" #165 "One Bridegroom Too Many!"


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: Barry Allen is a forensic chemist with a reputation for being very slow, and frequently late, which frustrates his fiancée, Iris West. One night, as he is working late on a new case, a lightning bolt strikes and shatters a case full of unspecified chemicals and drenches all over Barry, temporarily knocking him out. As a result, Allen later finds that he can run at super-human speeds and possesses equally enhanced reflexes, senses, and healing. He later dons a red bodysuit, sporting a lightning bolt in the chest (reminiscent of the original Fawcett Comics Captain Marvel), dubs himself the Flash (after his childhood comic book hero, Jay Garrick), and becomes Central City's resident costumed crime fighter and protector.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: Central City University professor Ira West (Iris's adoptive father) designed Allen's costume and the ring which stores it while Allen is in his civilian identity. The ring can eject the compressed clothing when Allen needs it and suck it back in with the aid of a special gas that shrinks the suit. In addition, Allen invented the cosmic treadmill, a device that allowed for precise time travel and was used in many stories. Allen was warmly received by his superhero colleagues, so much so, that nearly all speedsters that come after him are often compared to him. Batman once said "Barry is the kind of man that I would've hoped to become if my parents had not been murdered."


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: As presented in "Justice League of America" #9, when the Earth is infiltrated by alien warriors sent to conquer the planet, some of the world's greatest heroes join forces, Allen among them. While the superheroes individually defeat most of the invaders, they fall prey to a single alien and only by working together are they able to defeat the warrior. Afterwards, the heroes decide to establish the Justice League.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: During the years, he is depicted as feeling slightly attracted to Black Canary and Zatanna, but he never pursues a relationship because he feels his real love is Iris West, whom he ultimately marries. Allen also becomes a good friend with Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), which would later be the subject of the limited series "Flash and Green Lantern: The Brave and the Bold".


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: In "The Flash" #123—"Flash of Two Worlds"—Allen is transported to Earth-Two where he meets Jay Garrick, the original Flash in DC Continuity; it is revealed that Jay Garrick's adventures were captured in comic book form on Earth-One. This storyline initiated DC's multiverse and was continued in issues of "Flash" and in team-ups between the Justice League of America of Earth-One and the Justice Society of America of Earth-Two. In the classic story from "Flash" #179—"The Flash – Fact or Fiction?"—Allen is thrown into the universe eventually called Earth Prime, a representation of "our" universe, where he seeks the aid of the "Flash" comic book's editor Julius Schwartz to build a cosmic treadmill so that he can return home. He also gains a sidekick and protégé in Iris' nephew, Wally West, who gains super-speed in an accident similar to that which gave Allen his powers.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: In time, he married his girlfriend Iris West, who learned of his double identity because Allen talked in his sleep. She kept this secret, and he eventually revealed his identity to her of his own free will with Moreno's persuasion. Iris was eventually revealed to have been sent as a child from the 30th century and adopted.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: In the 1980s, Flash's life begins to collapse. Iris is murdered by Professor Zoom (a supervillain from the 25th century who had long loved her and been jealous of Allen), and when Allen prepares to marry another woman, Zoom tries the same trick again. Allen stops him, killing Zoom in the process by breaking his neck. Unfortunately, when Barry is unable to make an appearance at his own wedding, his fiancée eventually descends into madness and stomps


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: Placed on trial for murder in connection with Zoom's death, Allen is found guilty by the jury. When he is told by a juror Nathan Newbury, who is being possessed by a mind from the future, that Reverse-Flash (whom Allen knows to be dead) brainwashed the jury into this verdict, Flash flees his trial. The Flash is then attacked by Reverse-Flash, and realizes that the answers to this mystery, and restoring his good name, lie in the future, so Newbury uses a time device to send them forward. They discover that Abra Kadabra was disguised as Reverse-Flash to ruin the Flash's good name. Defeating Kadabra, he retreats to the future to be reunited with Iris, having learned that Iris' spirit was in fact drawn to the 30th century, and given a new body (and was in fact the mind inhabiting Newbury). The final issue of "The Flash" ends with Flash and Iris kissing passionately and the caption "And they lived happily ever after... for a while". There are a few references in the final issue ("The Flash" #350) to the upcoming events, and Flash's impending death.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: In the controversial storyline "Identity Crisis" (sets within the post-"" continuity), it is revealed that Barry voted to allow Zatanna to edit Doctor Light's mind with four of the members of the Justice League six months after Iris's death, essentially lobotomizing him. When Batman discovers what the League was doing, they have his memories edited as well despite the opposition from Green Arrow. Both Doctor Light and Batman would eventually recover from their respective mindwipe, leading Doctor Light to swear vengeance to all heroes and Batman's distrust towards his allies.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: Following the trial, Allen retires and joins Iris in the 30th century. After only a few weeks of happiness, the "Crisis on Infinite Earths" intervenes, and Allen is captured by the Anti-Monitor and brought to 1985; according to the Anti-Monitor, the Flash was the only being capable of traveling to other universes at will, so the Anti-Monitor could not allow him to stay free. Allen escapes and foils the Anti-Monitor's plan to destroy the Earth with an anti-matter cannon, creating a speed vortex to draw the power in, but dies in the process as the power becomes too much for his body. It has been said that Allen travels back through time and becomes the very same lightning bolt that gives him his powers, but later it is also strongly implied that the soul of Barry resides in the Speed Force, the mystical source and Valhalla open to all dead speedsters, and from which the living ones draw their amazing powers. After Allen's death, Kid Flash Wally West, his nephew and sidekick, takes up the mantle of the Flash.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: Marv Wolfman, scribe for the "Crisis on Infinite Earths", has repeatedly stated (first hinted at in his introduction to the original "Crisis" collected edition hardcover), then fully explained on his website that he left a loophole in the script wherein the Barry Allen Flash could be reintroduced, without a retcon, into DC Universe continuity. This loophole would allow a writer to pull Barry out of his desperate run to annihilate the anti-matter cannon. However, Barry would know he must someday finish his death run, and would become more determined to use his speed to help others.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: In "Deadman: Dead Again", Barry is one of the heroes whose spirit Deadman helps to enter Heaven, and the "Green Arrow" storyline "Quiver" depicts Barry Allen in Heaven. His spirit seems to still be alive within the Speed Force, along with Max Mercury and other speedsters.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: In "Quasar" by Marvel Comics, released between December 1990 and May 1994, an amnesiac Barry Allen, misremembering his name as "Buried Alien" and the Speed Force as the "Hyperforce", and surprised to have "form" again, enters the Marvel Universe in the middle of the great race to be the "Fastest Man Alive" after the players had passed the first warp junction, where he is discovered by the Runner co-ordinating it and invited to participate in his great race. Beating several other speedsters (Pietro "Quicksilver" Maximoff, Wendell "Quasar" Vaughn, Robert "The Whizzer" Frank, Captain Marvel, James "Speed Demon" Sanders, Ariana "Black Racer", Martin "Super Sabre" Fletcher and Makkari) he is declared to be the "fastest man alive", a title he believes feels "right", though he never recovers his memory during his time in the universe. He later adopted the alias "FastForward", before he is returned to his original universe with Makkari's assistance.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: Iris is pregnant, and she has two children who have super-speed powers, the Tornado Twins, who later meet the Legion of Super-Heroes. In the multiversal variant known as Earth-247, each of her children themselves have children with speed-based abilities. One, Jenni Ognats, grows up to become the Legionnaire XS, while the other, Bart Allen, is born with an accelerated metabolism that rapidly ages him, and is sent back to the 20th century where he is cured by Wally West. He remains there as the superhero Impulse under the tutelage of Max Mercury, and later becomes the second Kid Flash as a member of the Teen Titans. One year after the events of "Infinite Crisis", Bart becomes the fourth Flash until he is abruptly killed by his clone Inertia and the Rogues. Wally then retook the identity of the Flash. Bart would later be resurrected as Kid Flash by the Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st century to combat Superboy-Prime.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: Barry Allen appears in issue 3 as the Flash in the JLA when the two realities start changing, along with Hal Jordan. When the two teams see their real futures, Barry witnesses his death during Crisis on Infinite Earths as the Grandmaster shows the heroes how reality should be, but nevertheless resolves to help restore the timeline as it is not his place to play God. He talks with Hal Jordan over the similarity of their situation, stating that dying could not be so bad so long as they have left a legacy for others (Wally West and Kyle Rayner, in their cases) to fight for what they believe. He helps the team get into Krona's base by using his running on a treadmill to pass the ship through the dimensional barrier. With the Wasp, he is ordered by Captain America to find ways through Krona's defences, and alerts the group to a probably lethal force field. During the final battle, Barry saves Hawkeye from being killed when the Absorbing Man breaks the ground beneath him, but both of them are blasted and apparently killed by Dreamslayer. At the end, it is revealed that Barry got the two of them out alive and at Captain America's suggestion they laid low and because of this, Hawkeye is able to destroy Krona's machine with a TNT arrow while Barry distracts him, then Barry takes the 12 items of power. As a result, reality is restored, Barry disappears and Wally returns.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: Wally West, wracked by grief for the loss of his unborn twins at the hands of Zoom, regrets the public knowledge of his identity. Barry appears from somewhere in time—stating that he is from a period shortly before his death—counseling his nephew, and talking the Spectre into granting his wish, erasing all public knowledge of Wally and Barry's identities as the Flash (Although Wally himself also loses his memory of his identity for a time). Barry then disappears, telling his nephew that he will come to his aid three times, on the three most difficult days of his life of which this is the first. In fact, when Zoom enlists the aid of the original Professor Zoom to make Wally relive the loss of his beloved twins, Barry is already there, trying to stop his "own" Reverse-Flash; Zoom apparently retrieved Eobard Thawne from the day that he attempted to kill Fiona Webb, with Barry following his nemesis. For the second time, he helps Wally to undo the damage dealt by Zoom, also allowing Wally to save his twins, and then he returns to his proper time, dragging his Zoom with him and breaking his enemy's neck in his timeline.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: In the fourth issue of "Infinite Crisis", Barry Allen comes out from the Speed Force, along with Johnny Quick and Max Mercury, to help his grandson Bart deal with Superboy-Prime, taking the villainous teen with him in the Speed Force. Bart Allen appears wearing Barry Allen's costume in Tokyo near the end of "Infinite Crisis" #5 to tell the heroes that Superboy-Prime has escaped the Speed Force. Bart again reappears in "Infinite Crisis" #7 in Barry Allen's costume to combat Superboy-Prime once more.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: In "Flash: The Fastest Man Alive" #6 (2006) (with a portion taking place shortly before "Infinite Crisis" #5) it is told how Barry spent four years in an alternate Keystone City along with Max Mercury, Johnny Quick, and an alternate Jay Garrick, until he met Bart and Wally West, joining him after the battle against Superboy-Prime. After Superboy escapes, Barry suggests that someone has to absorb the whole Speed Force and cross the dimensional bridge back to Post-Crisis Earth. As Bart volunteers, Barry gives him his suit as a last gift, to keep the Force contained, and stays behind. Wally West did not go because of his wife and kids. Bart says he knows Barry would go if he could, but why Barry Allen could not make the journey himself is not stated.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: Twenty three years after his death in "Crisis on Infinite Earths" #8, Barry Allen's essence made a return to the present DC Universe proper in "DC Universe" #0, preceding his full-time return in the pages of writer Grant Morrison's "Final Crisis".


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: "DC Universe" #0 features an unnamed narrator who initially associates himself with "everything". As the story progresses, he begins to recall his past and association with Justice League members, particularly Hal Jordan and Superman. The lettering in which he speaks to the reader is yellow on backgrounds that are initially black. As the story moves forward, the background slowly begins turning red. In the final pages, the narration boxes feature a yellow lightning bolt. Over time, as he recalls friendships and connections with other people, his mind begins to narrow, remarking "I...know him. I am no longer everything. I am a shaft of light split through a prism". Yet he is still the only one able to see "the shadow falling over everything", in the form of Darkseid. On the final page, the moon appears in front of a red sky, as a yellow lightning bolt strikes diagonally in front of it creating the logo of the Flash, as he remarks "and now I remember". The title of the story is revealed to be "Let There Be Lightning".


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: A "Daily News" story released on the same day proclaimed that Barry Allen has returned to life, with issue co-writer Geoff Johns stating, "When the greatest evil comes back to the DC Universe, the greatest hero needed to return."


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: Barry makes his corporeal return in "Final Crisis" #2. On the second to last page, Jay Garrick and Wally West feel vibrations to which Jay remarks, "but, don't you recognize those vibrations? It can't be... Not after all these years... Not after all this time." On the final page, Barry Allen is seen in hot pursuit of the bullet which kills Orion, outrunning the Black Racer and shouting to Jay and Wally to "Run!"


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: During "Final Crisis" #3, Jay Garrick speaks to Barry's wife, Iris, and tells her that her husband is truly alive. Meanwhile, Wally and Barry run a few weeks into the future. When they come to rest, Wally asks Barry if it is really him. Lamenting on Orion's death, which he was unable to stop, Barry wonders why he is now alive after being dead for so long. It is then that Barry and Wally are confronted by Wonder Woman, Batwoman, Catwoman, and Giganta, who have all been transformed into the new Female Furies following the release of the Anti-Life Equation.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: Despite the fact that this new version of the Female Furies is equipped with the ability to track down speedsters, perceived by Libra and Darkseid as the only obstacle left between them and world domination, Barry's expertise allows him to overcome their foes and run through the ruined Earth.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: Barry stops to see his wife Iris and save her from the slavery of the Anti-Life Equation. Seeing his wife again for the first time in years, Barry is overcome with emotion and gives his brainwashed wife a deep kiss. While kissing her, the Speed Force sparkles out of his body, enveloping Iris and freeing her from the Equation. The Allens and Wally West are left to fend in a conquered world. In the seventh and final issue of "Final Crisis", Barry and Wally lead the Black Racer to Darkseid, dealing the cosmic tyrant a blow that, coupled with Batman shooting him in the shoulder with the god-bullet, would facilitate his ultimate defeat.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: In 2009, writer Geoff Johns and artist Ethan Van Sciver created "", a 6-issue miniseries bringing Barry Allen back to a leading role in the DC Universe as the Flash, much in the same vein as "". When asked what Flashes would appear in the series, Johns and Van Sciver said, "All of them."


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: The series begins with the cities of Central and Keystone celebrating the return of, "Central City's Flash", Wonder Woman having used her government contacts to create the story that Barry was in witness protection to account for his resurrection. Avoiding the parades, parties, and other celebrations of his return, Barry instead contemplates why he is alive again. A visit to the Flash Museum and from his friend Hal Jordan is not enough to put his mind at ease as he runs off as the Flash. "I can't be late," he says. When asked by Hal late for what, Flash replies, "For whatever the rest of the world needs me for."


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: It is then revealed that Flash's mother was murdered when he was a child, and his father was arrested for the crime (this is pointedly contrary to previous Flash stories, in which both his parents appear alive). Flash describes this as "the only one open case I left behind." Before he can contemplate this any further, the speedster villain Savitar escapes the Speed Force through Flash. When Flash manages to put his hand on Savitar's shoulder, the villain screams in agony and crumbles into dust, not before telling Flash, "...You were the beginning, Allen...and you're the end." At that moment, Wally West, West's children Iris and Jai, Liberty Belle, Jay Garrick, and Kid Flash all experience painful convulsions and are engulfed in lightning.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: Barry's conflict with the speed cult culminates in the death of their new leader who was attempting to avenge Savitar's death. It causes pain once again to all the speedsters, though Wally West manages to catch a glimpse of Allen directly afterwards, and sees him as the new Black Flash. When he realizes that his presence could damage or kill other innocents, Barry flees back into the Speed Force, where he encounters old friends Johnny Quick and Max Mercury. Max attempts to tell Allen that his becoming the Black Flash is not his fault. When Max and Barry are pulled into another pocket of the Speed Force, the real culprit reveals himself: Professor Zoom.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: Zoom reveals his plan: after Barry briefly aided Kid Flash against Superboy-Prime during the "Infinite Crisis", Thawne was able to send a subliminal pulse into the Speed Force to draw back what was left of Barry's self-awareness. This led to the hero's reappearance during the "Final Crisis". Afterward, Zoom transformed himself into "a new kind of speedster and created his negative Speed Force to contaminate Barry and the other heroic speedsters. Before Barry can fight any further, Zoom fades away. Wally enters the Speed Force to retrieve his uncle, and after venturing deeper into the Speed Force, Max reveals to Barry that it was Allen himself who created the Speed Force. Meanwhile, Wally manages to reach Barry and Max, and the three begin their escape. As the heroic speedsters are recharged with energy, Barry, Wally, Jay, Max, and Bart charge towards Zoom.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: The seven speedsters (the 5 men plus Jesse Chambers and Iris West-Park) battle against Zoom, and despite being outnumbered, Zoom pulls Barry away. He reveals that everything horrible that happened to Barry, including the murder of Barry's mother, was caused by Zoom. Zoom then decides to destroy everything by killing Barry's wife, Iris, before they met.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: Barry chases after Zoom, and is joined by Wally, who tells Barry to push as hard as he can to break the time barrier. They reach Thawne, becoming the lightning bolt that turns Barry into the Flash as they are able to stop Zoom from killing Iris. As the two Flashes push Zoom back through time to the present, they see that the Justice League, the Justice Society, and the Outsiders have built a device specifically for Thawne. Barry tosses him in and activates the device, severing his connection to the negative Speed Force. The Flashes tie Zoom up to stop him from running. With the threat ended, everyone celebrates by welcoming Barry back and the speedsters in general. Later, Barry closes the case on his mother's death and opts to take all the other cold cases they had after his death. Barry spends some time with Iris before racing to Washington to celebrate his return with the Justice League, apologizing for being late.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: Barry Allen is one of the main characters in Blackest Night alongside Hal Jordan. Allen appears alongside Jordan in the Free Comic Book Day issue "Blackest Night" #0 that acts as a prologue to the July company crossover.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: At the grave of Bruce Wayne in Gotham City, Hal and Barry reflect on Batman's death and how the hero community is avoiding linking Wayne and Batman.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: This reflection turns to the pair looking at their own deaths, comparing the sadness that Barry's death engendered in others while Hal's death produced anger. Hal sums it up by telling Barry, "I died a sinner. You died a saint." (though he admits he's not and reflecting of his past sins.) The conversation moves on to the world becoming "more dangerous" after Barry's death and observing that the deaths of Arthur Curry and Martian Manhunter cost the Justice League its "heart and soul". As they leave the cemetery, Barry expresses hope that their dead comrades will be returned to them. He specifically cites Batman noting, "If there's an escape, you can bet Batman's already planning it."


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: Barry also appears alongside Hal in the July issues of "Green Lantern" tying into the event. Recently, in a fight with Black Lantern J'onn J'onzz, he found a mysterious black residue at Bruce Wayne's grave—a black form coagulating much like blood that started corrupting him by partly decaying his skin and muscle during the fight against his former friend, who is intent on killing both Hal and Barry, seeing how they both died, and in the eyes of the Black Lanterns, must return to that state to keep the universe in balance.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: After fighting off the undead Martian and the subsequent Black Lanterns with Hal and the arriving Atom, Mera, Firestorm, and two of the Indigo Tribe members, Barry, along with Wally and Bart, races across the globe to warn every superhero community across the planet. His message also inadvertently warns the Rogues. They all realize that their deceased members would come after them and decide to strike first at Iron Heights Penitentiary, unaware that the undead Rogues are ready for them. While doing so, Barry meets a Black Lantern version of Professor Zoom for a brief battle. Barry decides to go to Gorilla City to seek aid from its ruler Solovar, unaware the gorilla leader had been killed years before. Finding the city attacked, Barry assumed Grodd had struck only to be horrified to learn Solovar was now a Black Lantern. Their fight was shortened by Barry racing to Coast City.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: He stops at the city's memorial, where he witnesses the arrival of the Black Lanterns' demonic lord, Nekron, and his disciples Scar and Black Hand. The Justice League, the Titans, Wally, and Bart arrive to aid Barry to take a stand against Nekron. Nekron reveals that all the resurrected heroes are tied to him, because he allowed them to rise again. As such they belong to him. Nekron then used a series of black rings to turn Superman, Wonder Woman, Troia, Green Arrow, Bart, and several other resurrected heroes into Black Lanterns. Barry and Hal find themselves being targeted by black rings and are forced to flee or risk joining the others as Black Lanterns.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: Barry manages to save himself and Hal through time travel two seconds forward, leaving the rings with no present targets. As Barry and Hal rejoin the heroes against Nekron and his army, Ganthet, one of the Guardians of the Universe and a leader of the Blue Lantern Corps, summons a blue power ring and Barry is chosen as a Blue Lantern so he would be more effective during the battle.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: After being chosen as a Blue Lantern, Barry joins forces with the veteran Blue Corps member Saint Walker to continue battling the Black Lanterns alongside the understanding of the potentials and limitations of his new power ring. During the battle, Barry is forced to fight his own grandson, who his ring detects is still alive but would eventually die if not free from the black ring soon. Barry is shown to be skilled with his ring in creating energy constructs based on his imagination and an ability of flight (possibly because of the understanding with Hal's ring), as he is able to create images of Bart as Impulse and Kid Flash against him in order to make him feel again. Barry's plan almost works as Bart reacts to the images of his past and the constructs begin to attempt to take the black ring from him, but later is interrupted by the Black Lantern Professor Zoom and Solovar. Wally and Walker later join Barry to fight against them. Barry and Bart temporarily joined the White Lantern Corps during the final events of Blackest Night.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: The new "Flash" series begins after the completion of "Blackest Night" and the beginning of "Brightest Day". After the events of "", Barry Allen is reintegrating himself into life in Central City. Under the cover of having been in witness protection, Allen returns to the Central City Police Department's crime lab and returns to the streets as the Flash. While readjusting to life as the Flash, a man appears out of thin air in the costume of Flash rogue the Mirror Master, and promptly dies on the street.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: When Barry arrives on the scene to investigate, he sees the man is neither original Mirror Master Sam Scudder, or the current Rogue, Evan McCulloch. Hearing of another portal appearing, Barry transforms into the Flash and runs to investigate. When he arrives, a group of people in costumes similar to the Rogues, called "The Renegades" appear and tell Barry that they are from the 25th century, and that he is under arrest for murdering the "Mirror Monarch". Barry tells the crew that he has not killed anyone, to which their leader, "Commander Cold", tells him, "Not yet. But you will."


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: After a brief struggle, where Weather Warlock's time disc was damaged, the Renegades were forced back to the 25th century, which also caused the destruction of an apartment building due to their uncontrolled jump back. Barry saves everyone in the building, even rebuilding the building in minutes, and goes on to search for the true killer of Mirror Monarch. He is attacked again by the Renegades, but only before Captain Boomerang shows up, now wielding explosive energy boomerangs. Boomerang fights both the Flash and the Renegades, and a confused Top (one of the Renegades from the 25th century) questions his teammates on whether or not Barry Allen is the man they are looking for, pointing out that in their timeline, Boomerang never showed up.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: The Renegades finally corner Captain Boomerang when the Rogues arrive with a giant mirror left by the previous Mirror Master that says "In Case The Flash Returns Break Glass". An all out brawl ensues as the Rogues battle the Renegades. Meanwhile, Flash is confronted by Top who warns him that the reason he will eventually kill Mirror Monarch is because of Iris's death, which he claims will be caused when the giant mirror breaks, releasing the Mirror Lords. Top tells Barry that one of the Mirror Lords will possess Iris and take her away from him. Barry races to stop the mirror from breaking, with Top at his side. However, when the White Lantern entity reaches out to Captain Boomerang, telling him to "Throw the Boomerang", Boomerang responds by throwing dozens of boomerangs in every direction. One of them hits the glass and it begins to break. Top tells Flash to stop the Mirror Lords, while he goes and protects Iris. Flash questions does not make sense, but Top throws him into the mirror and flees.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: In the mirror, Flash is exposed to strange visions of his mother. Outside, the Rogue Mirror Master tells the others that the mirror is actually a slow acting poison and they flee. Barry escapes the mirror confused and asks, "Where are the Mirror Lords?" He is then arrested by the Renegades, who realize that this was all a setup by Top to frame the Flash for his own personal gains. Barry is transported to a 25th-century court, while Top confronts Iris.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: The story concludes with Barry escaping the 25th century court and going after Top. Top reveals that the reason for all of his crimes is because Barry reopened a previously closed case. Barry felt that the person convicted was actually innocent. The person who is actually guilty of the crime is one of Top's ancestors. Top reveals that they do not allow anyone in the Renegades who has any ancestors with a criminal record. The Flash is able to beat Top, and convict the right man for murder, letting go the innocent man who was sent to prison. Afterward, the 25th century court and the Renegades go over the facts, realizing that the Flash was right and that their entire record of history is wrong. This alludes to the upcoming Flash event, "". Meanwhile, a man on a Speed Force-powered motorcycle (later revealed to be a Speed Force police officer under the name of Hot Pursuit) moves through the desert and says that if Barry does not find the flashpoint, it will destroy the world. As he continues through the desert, Speed Force lightning strikes in the distance.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: In a "Green Lantern" storyline, Barry becomes the latest host for the embodiment of fear, Parallax, after he joins Hal Jordan's quest of locating all of the entities who each represent aspects of the power of the emotional spectrum. Barry was susceptible to the entity's attacks due to his fear for Jordan's safety. Barry is eventually freed after the embodiment of compassion, Proselyte, helps him remember his capability for benevolence over his fear.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: DC has also announced via the Flashpoint Friday Blog that "The Flash" (vol. 3) #12 will be the last in the series despite a thirteenth issue originally having been announced for sale on May 25, 2011, but which has since been withdrawn.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: As the story begins, Barry Allen wakes up in his office and discovers that his mother is alive, there is no trace of Superman, Wonder Woman and Aquaman leading their respective nations in a war, his wife Iris West is unmarried, and himself currently powerless. Barry seeks the aid of Batman, driving to Gotham City and entering a run-down Wayne Manor. He explores what turns out to be a small Batcave until he is attacked by Batman. Barry tries to explain who he is by saying he knows Batman is Bruce Wayne, only to find that in this reality, Batman is Thomas Wayne. While Barry is being beat up by Batman, he explains about his secret identity as the Flash and his relation to Bruce Wayne. Barry's memories spontaneously change and he realizes that the world of Flashpoint is not an alternate dimension, but his own. Barry uses his ring, which he uses to contain his Flash outfit, but the ring instead ejects Professor Zoom's costume. Barry tells Batman that Zoom is taunting him with it. Barry explains that both he and Zoom have the ability to alter time, leading Batman to ask him about how Bruce was to have lived in his place and if he can really change the world. Barry states that he needs his speed first. Later, Barry and Batman create an electric chair-like device to try and recreate the accident that gave him his speed; however, the first attempt meets with failure, leaving Barry severely burned.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: Barry awakes on an operating table in the Batcave and is covered in bandages and third degree burns. Despite Thomas' advice, Barry sits back down in the electric chair device. When lightning strikes a second time, Barry's super-speed returns, and he then saves the Batman from being impaled on a fence. Barry's injuries are healing rapidly due to his speed-enhanced regeneration. He also makes a new copy of his Flash costume. The Flash researches the incarnations of heroes of the DC timeline, believing that Zoom deliberately changed their lives to prevent the Flash from creating a Justice League, and learns of a rocket that crashed into Metropolis which carried the infant Superman, who instead of being raised in Kansas was taken in by the government. They then contact Cyborg for his help in sneaking into the government bunker of "Project: Superman" that is 'raising' Superman after his rocket destroyed Metropolis upon its arrival, only to be disappointed at Superman's frail appearance. They head towards Project: Superman's underground base via the sewer. The group comes across a giant vault door bearing the Superman logo. After they open the door, the three see a pale, weakened Kal-El. Despite his appearance, Barry says that no matter what, Superman will always be a good person. When the arrival of guards forces them to escape, Superman's powers begin to manifest and he flies off leaving them at the hands of the guards.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: While they fend off the guards, they are rescued by Element Woman. Barry's memories begin to change much more drastically, altering his past. He states that he is running out of time and soon he will not be able to restore the timeline to normal. After Barry is recovering, he asks the heroes to stop the Atlantean/Amazon war from creating more casualties, although the heroes are not willing to unless Batman wants to join them. Cyborg explains to him that they believe Batman was invincible. However, Barry convinces him that no one is invincible; the Marvel Family and Batman agree to join him. The heroes arrive at New Themyscira to stop the Atlantean/Amazon war, and appear to be winning until Enchantress reveals herself as the Amazon spy and uses her magic to separate the Marvel Family and restore them to their mortal forms. Penthesilea kills Billy Batson just as Professor Zoom reveals himself to Barry. Professor Zoom reveals to him that the "Flashpoint" timeline was actually created by Barry himself, after he traveled back in time to stop Zoom from killing his mother, but the timeline diverted into the near-apocalyptic world they find themselves in. He continues to taunt Barry with this knowledge, but is suddenly stabbed in the back by Batman wielding an Amazonian sword. Before Barry returns the timeline to normal, Batman thanks him for all he's done and gives him a letter addressed to his son. After this, Barry bids a farewell to his mother, knowing he must travel back in time to stop his younger self from altering time. Through the fusions of the time stream, Barry seemingly hears a voice explaining that the three timelines and worlds, need to become one again and would need his help to do this. After the ordeals, he visits the real Bruce Wayne and gives him the letter from his alternate father. Bruce is grateful to Barry of informing him of the events of the "Flashpoint" before the timeline was apparently returned to normal.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: DC Comics relaunched "The Flash" with issue #1 in September 2011, with writing and art chores handled by Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato as part of DC's company-wide title relaunch, The New 52. As with all of the books associated with the DC relaunch, Barry Allen appears to be about five years younger than the previous incarnation of the character. He gains his powers after getting frustrated and throwing a small machine at the window of his lab. The machine broke through the window, leaving a hole big enough for a bolt of lightning to charge through the hole and strike him.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: In the second issue of the new "Justice League" title (the first released comic series of the New 52 initiative and "opening shot" of the new DC Universe), Flash is called to assist Green Lantern and Batman in wrangling an out-of-control Superman, and later assists with the pursuit of an alien, revealed to be an agent of Darkseid. In this new continuity, Barry's marriage to Iris West never took place, and he is instead in a relationship with longtime co-worker Patty Spivot. In this new series, the Flash draws deeper into the Speed Force, enhancing his mental abilities while still trying to get a full grasp on his powers, which he does not yet exert total control over.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: As revealed in issue #0 of the current series, Barry Allen's father was placed in prison for the murder of his mother. The murder occurred shortly after Barry returned victorious from a school spelling bee, and Barry placed the trophy he won on his mother's grave in her memory. While the evidence seems to indicate his father's guilt, Barry makes proving his father's innocence a priority.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: Barry is also part of the main cast of the relaunched "Justice League" series, making his debut in the series' second issue. Following Convergence, Barry has a new suit in issue #41, which has a darker shade and features more streaks.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: During DC Rebirth, Barry is no longer the only Flash. It is revealed that Wally West has been lost in the Speed Force for ten years, realizing during this time that Barry is not responsible of changing the timeline after the "Flashpoint" crisis, the unknown entity used Barry's time travelling as an opportunity to fundamentally alter reality. The fallout of the recent Darkseid War allowed Wally to try and reach out to his former friends in the hopes of either returning or warning them of the truth, but each attempt caused him to fall further into the Speed Force. After realizing not even Linda (his traditional "lightning rod") could remember him, Wally sank into desolation and chose to appear before Barry one last time to thank him for the life he had given him. Just before Wally disappeared, Barry remembered him and dragged him free of the Speed Force. Following a tearful reunion, Wally gave Barry his warning of the true source of the universal change and the dangers to come. Because of Wally, Barry is now aware that the timeline is not reset correctly after Flashpoint and thus another alternate timeline. However, he still cannot remember his pre-Flashpoint life, such as people like Jay Garrick, his long-last marriage with Iris and the details of his feuds with the Reverse-Flash / Eobard Thawne (who now remembers their pre-Flashpoint history), and remembers Wally from their new DC Rebirth timeline history. Despite being informed by Wally that another party is responsible, Barry remains in guilt over his mistakes, and seeks to find and stop them in hopes of making amends. Although the two decide to keep Wally's return secret from Iris based on Wally's own experience with Linda, Barry encourages him to return to the Titans, but also recommends that he don a new costume to reflect that he is the Flash rather than 'Kid Flash'. While Wally considers his options, Barry visits Batman to discuss the new evidence of some outside force attacking them, musing on how personal this assault appears, but despite the potential danger, Batman and Barry agree to keep their investigation to themselves until they know what they are up against. Later, when Eobard Thawne attacks Iris and Wallace, Iris had glimpses of her pre-Flashpoint life with Barry and learns his secrets as the Flash in the process. Barry then learned of their marriage in the other timeline as well. Knowing from Thawne that her entire life has been drastically altered and that Barry is indirectly responsible for it as the result of his time-traveling actions, Iris now distrusts Barry. To make matters worse for Barry, while he's entering the Negative Speed Force, he becomes the Negative-Flash which is more lethal than the original, and mostly dangerous to control.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: After gotten rid of the Negative Speed Force, he investigates with the death of Turbine, but thanks to Godspeed's help, he discovers that Captain Cold was the one who killed him because he seeks redemption. He visits Wally after defeating the Top, he discusses about him telling Iris that he's alive and existed. While he's rekindling his relationship with Iris, the city is being attacked by Gorilla Grodd and his organization the Black Hole where Grodd mind-controlled Meena Dhawan to be the group's Negative Flash.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: After defeating Grodd and getting Wally to meet Iris for the first time, they've been encountered by the Renegades. The Renegades take the Flashes and Iris back to the 25th century to get answers about why Iris killed Eobard Thawne, only to discover that Hunter Zolomon has been manipulating everyone as a plot to bring conflict between Barry and Wally for the fate of the Speed Force. After Wally defeated Hunter, Barry place him under watch at the Sanctuary while he's moving with his girlfriend Iris at her place after Wallace angrily left them. Barry begins searching for the other foer Hunter Zolomon arrives, powered with the Sage and Strength Force, claiming to be the "one true Flash". He defeats Barry and takes Steadfast away to claim the Still Force for himself. Black Flash also arrives and warns the defeated Barry not to interfere in his mission. Zolomon tortures Steadfast to give him the Still Force, but Steadfast resists. Finally a revived Barry tracks down Zolomon and tries to rescue Steadfast but Zolomon's power of other forces prove to much for him. Steadfast tries to use the Still Force to stop both the speedsters, but the plan backfires as Zolomon approaches and takes the Still Force. With the control of all the four forces, Zolomon enters the Forever Force taking Barrrces such as Sage Force and Strength Force after the Force Barrier's broken; he ends up discovering about the four forces conflicting for the control of the Forever Force. He manages to track down the Still Force user Steadfast and the Strength Force user Fuerza to bring them to his team after the Black Flash starts hunting the other force users to prevent them from using their powers as the other forces weaken and deplete the Speed Force. However the Sage Force user Psych refuses to join Barry's team only to be later tracked down and killed by the Black Flash. To safeguard the other force users Barry sends Fuerza and Commander Cold to the Strength Force and stays behind with Steadfast.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: Barry has the ability to run at super-human velocities. He was at times during the Silver Age described as faster than the speed of thought. "The Flash" #150, "straining every muscle", he ran at ten times the speed of light. However, when he pushed himself further (during the "Crisis on Infinite Earths") he appeared to waste away as he was converted into pure energy, traveled back in time, and was revealed in "Secret Origins Annual" #2 to be the very bolt of lightning that gave him his powers. This was later retconned in "The Flash: Rebirth" #1, where Barry stated that he "ran into the Speed Force" and that, "When he stopped the Anti-Monitor, when (he) ran into the "Speed Force" and joined it, it was like shedding (his) identity". His speed allows him, in certain circumstances, to "vibrate" between dimensions. In Grant Morrison's "Final Crisis", using the Speed Force, Allen was able to undo the effects of the Anti-Life Equation upon an individual: an ability he used on his wife Iris to free her from the bondage of Darkseid's mind control.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: Barry's speed has numerous secondary applications. He can use it to generate cyclones by spinning his arms quickly. Barry can also manipulate the electrical Speed Force energy he generates. He can channel the energy into arcs of lightning, as well as use the electricity to manipulate magnetism on a minor level. He has also used the lightning to create blinding amounts of light. By interlocking his lightning with that of another speedster, Barry can short circuit their connection to the Speed Force. Barry is also immune to telepathic attacks and control as he can shift his thoughts at a speed faster than normal thought. Through "speed-reading", he can absorb large amounts of information into his short-term memory, which remain in his mind just long enough for him to make use of it. Using this technique, Barry was able to learn enough about building work to rebuild a destroyed apartment building. The Speed Force also supplies Barry with a protective aura that shields him from friction and kinetic impacts, as well as grants him superhuman durability. Other aspects of Barry's powers include an enhanced metabolism, which grants him a regenerative healing factor. In the New 52, Barry learned that his body is using the Speed Force to its full extent but his brain was not. With the help of Dr. Elias he was able to learn how to use the Speed Force to process more information, and make even quicker decisions, to the point where he feels like he can see everything before it happens. Barry also developed the ability to speed up the flow of time around him, which he used to negate the powers of Zoom, who was able to slow down time. In terms of DC's internal lexicon, Barry is classified as a metahuman: a human being who possesses extranormal abilities either through birth or (as in Barry's case) as the result of some external event.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: Some of the Flash's enemies formed a loose association and referred to themselves as the Rogues, disdaining the use of the term "supervillain" or "super-criminal". These criminals typically have unusually modest goals for their power level (robbery or other petty crimes), and each have adopted a specific theme in his or her equipment and methods.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: Ezra Miller portrays Barry Allen/The Flash in the DCEU. Barry is a college student, working multiple jobs while trying to fund his search for evidence to clear his father's name. His suit is described as being created using the same material used on the hull of the space shuttle, although it is not clear how he acquired the resources to create it. By the end of the events of "Justice League" he has a job as a forensic scientist for the Central City police department.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: "Ballad of Barry Allen"—A song by the band Jim's Big Ego on their album, "They're Everywhere". The song portrays Barry as a tragic character, whose perception of the world is so accelerated that all of reality appears to proceed at a snail's pace, causing him to gradually slip into depression. The band's frontman, Jim Infantino, is the nephew of Flash (Barry Allen) co-creator Carmine Infantino, who provided the cover art for the same album.


title: Flash (Barry Allen)

text: IGN ranked Barry as the 49th greatest hero of all time stating that even in his 20-year absence, Barry's legacy as the greatest Flash of them all lived on.


title: Isma'ilism

text: Isma'ilism () is a branch or sub-sect of Shia Islam. The Isma'ili () get their name from their acceptance of Imam Isma'il ibn Jafar as the appointed spiritual successor (imām) to Ja'far al-Sadiq, wherein they differ from the Twelver Shia, who accept Musa al-Kadhim, the younger brother of Isma'il, as the true Imām.


title: Isma'ilism

text: Isma'ilism rose at one point to become the largest branch of Shia Islam, climaxing as a political power with the Fatimid Caliphate in the 10th through 12th centuries. Ismailis believe in the oneness of God, as well as the closing of divine revelation with Muhammad, whom they see as "the final Prophet and Messenger of God to all humanity". The Isma'ili and the Twelvers both accept the same six initial Imams; the Isma'ili accept Isma'il ibn Jafar as the seventh Imam.


title: Isma'ilism

text: After the death of Muhammad ibn Isma'il in the 8th century CE, the teachings of Ismailism further transformed into the belief system as it is known today, with an explicit concentration on the deeper, esoteric meaning () of the Islamic religion. With the eventual development of Usulism and Akhbarism into the more literalistic () oriented, Shia Islam developed into two separate directions: the metaphorical Ismaili, Alevi, Bektashi, Alian, and Alawite groups focusing on the mystical path and nature of God, along with the "Imam of the Time" representing the manifestation of esoteric truth and intelligible divine reality, with the more literalistic Usuli and Akhbari groups focusing on divine law (sharia) and the deeds and sayings (sunnah) of Muhammad and the Twelve Imams who were guides and a light to God.


title: Isma'ilism

text: The larger sect of Ismaili are the Nizaris, who recognize Aga Khan IV as the 49th hereditary Imam, while other groups are known as the Tayyibi branch. The biggest Ismaili community is in Gorno-Badakhshan, but Isma'ilis can be found in Central Asia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Lebanon, Malaysia, Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, India, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, East Africa, Angola, Bangladesh, and South Africa, and have in recent years emigrated to Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and Trinidad and Tobago.


title: Isma'ilism

text: Ismailism shares its beginnings with other early Shia sects that emerged during the succession crisis that spread throughout the early Muslim community. From the beginning, the Shia asserted the right of Ali, cousin of Muhammad, to have both political and spiritual control over the community. This also included his two sons, who were the grandsons of Muhammad through his daughter Fatimah.


title: Isma'ilism

text: The conflict remained relatively peaceful between the partisans of Ali and those who asserted a semi-democratic system of electing caliphs, until the third of the Rashidun caliphs, Uthman was killed, and Ali, with popular support, ascended to the caliphate.


title: Isma'ilism

text: Soon after his ascendancy, Aisha, the third of Muhammad's wives, claimed along with Uthman's tribe, the Ummayads, that Ali should take (blood for blood) from the people responsible for Uthman's death. Ali voted against it, as he believed that the situation at the time demanded a peaceful resolution of the matter. Though both parties could rightfully defend their claims, due to escalated misunderstandings, the Battle of the Camel was fought and Aisha was defeated, but was respectfully escorted to Medina by Ali.


title: Isma'ilism

text: Following this battle, Muawiya, the Umayyad governor of Syria, also staged a revolt under the same pretences. Ali led his forces against Muawiya until the side of Muawiya held copies of the Quran against their spears and demanded that the issue be decided by Islam's holy book. Ali accepted this, and an arbitration was done which ended in his favor.


title: Isma'ilism

text: A group among Ali's army believed that subjecting his legitimate authority to arbitration was tantamount to apostasy, and abandoned his forces. This group was known as the Khawarij and Ali wished to defeat their forces before they reached the cities, where they would be able to blend in with the rest of the population. While he was unable to do this, he nonetheless defeated their forces in subsequent battles.


title: Isma'ilism

text: Regardless of these defeats, the Kharijites survived and became a violently problematic group in Islamic history. After plotting an assassination against Ali, Muawiya, and the arbitrator of their conflict, Ali was successfully assassinated in 661 CE, and the Imāmate passed on to his son Hasan and then later his son Husayn, or according to the Nizari Isma'ili, the Imamate passed to Hasan, who was an Entrusted Imam (), and afterward to Husayn who was the Permanent Imam (). The Entrusted Imam is an Imam in the full sense except that the lineage of the Imamate must continue through the Permanent Imam. However, the political caliphate was soon taken over by Muawiya, the only leader in the empire at that time with an army large enough to seize control.


title: Isma'ilism

text: Even some of Ali's early followers regarded him as "an absolute and divinely guided leader", whose demands of his followers were "the same kind of loyalty that would have been expected for the Prophet". For example, one of Ali's supporters who also was devoted to Muhammad said to him: "our opinion is your opinion and we are in the palm of your right hand." The early followers of Ali seem to have taken his guidance as "right guidance" deriving from Divine support. In other words, Ali's guidance was seen to be the expression of God's will and the Quranic message. This spiritual and absolute authority of Ali was known as , and it was inherited by his successors, the Imams.


title: Isma'ilism

text: In the 1st century after Muhammad, the term was not specifically defined as " of the Prophet", but was used in connection to Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and some Umayyad Caliphs. The idea of , or traditions ascribed to Muhammad, was not mainstream, nor was criticised. Even the earliest legal texts by Malik b. Anas and Abu Hanifa employ many methods including analogical reasoning and opinion and do not rely exclusively on . Only in the 2nd century does the Sunni jurist al-Shafi'i first argue that only the sunnah of Muhammad should be a source of law, and that this is embodied in s. It would take another one hundred years after al-Shafi'i for Sunni Muslim jurists to fully base their methodologies on prophetic s. Meanwhile, Imami Shia Muslims followed the Imams' interpretations of Islam as normative without any need for s and other sources of Sunni law such as analogy and opinion.


title: Isma'ilism

text: After the death of Imam Hasan, Imam Husayn and his family were increasingly worried about the religious and political persecution that was becoming commonplace under the reign of Muawiya's son, Yazid. Amidst this turmoil in 680, Husayn along with the women and children of his family, upon receiving invitational letters and gestures of support by Kufis, wished to go to Kufa and confront Yazid as an intercessor on part of the citizens of the empire. However, he was stopped by Yazid's army in Karbala during the month of Muharram. His family was starved and deprived of water and supplies, until eventually the army came in on the tenth day and martyred Husayn and his companions, and enslaved the rest of the women and family, taking them to Kufa.


title: Isma'ilism

text: This battle would become extremely important to the Shia psyche. The Twelvers as well as Musta'li Isma'ili still mourn this event during an occasion known as Ashura.


title: Isma'ilism

text: The Nizari Isma'ili, however, do not mourn this in the same way because of the belief that the light of the Imam never dies but rather passes on to the succeeding Imām, making mourning arbitrary. However, during commemoration they do not have any celebrations in Jamatkhana during Muharram and may have announcements or sessions regarding the tragic events of Karbala. Also, individuals may observe Muharram in a wide variety of ways. This respect for Muharram does not include self-flagellation and beating because they feel that harming one's body is harming a gift from Allah.


title: Isma'ilism

text: After being set free by Yazid, Zaynab bint Ali, the daughter of Fatimah and Ali and the sister of Hasan and Husayn, started to spread the word of Karbala to the Muslim world, making speeches regarding the event. This was the first organized daʿwah of the Shia, which would later develop into an extremely spiritual institution for the Ismāʿīlīs.


title: Isma'ilism

text: After the poisoning of Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-Abidin by Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik in 713, the first succession crisis of the Shia arose with Zayd ibn ʻAlī's companions and the Zaydīs who claimed Zayd ibn ʻAlī as the Imām, whilst the rest of the Shia upheld Muhammad al-Baqir as the Imām. The Zaidis argued that any sayyid or "descendant of Muhammad through Hasan or Husayn" who rebelled against tyranny and the injustice of his age could be the Imām. The Zaidis created the first Shia states in Iran, Iraq, and Yemen.


title: Isma'ilism

text: In contrast to his predecessors, Muhammad al-Baqir focused on academic Islamic scholarship in Medina, where he promulgated his teachings to many Muslims, both Shia and non-Shia, in an extremely organized form of Daʿwah. In fact, the earliest text of the Ismaili school of thought is said to be the "Umm al-kitab" (The Archetypal Book), a conversation between Muhammad al-Baqir and three of his disciples.


title: Isma'ilism

text: This tradition would pass on to his son, Ja'far al-Sadiq, who inherited the Imāmate on his father's death in 743. Ja'far al-Sadiq excelled in the scholarship of the day and had many pupils, including three of the four founders of the Sunni madhhabs.


title: Isma'ilism

text: However, following al-Sadiq's poisoning in 765, a fundamental split occurred in the community. Ismaʻil ibn Jafar, who at one point was appointed by his father as the next Imam, appeared to have predeceased his father in 755. While Twelvers argue that either he was never heir apparent or he truly predeceased his father and hence Musa al-Kadhim was the true heir to the Imamate, the Ismāʿīlīs argue that either the death of Ismaʻil was staged in order to protect him from Abbasid persecution or that the Imamate passed to Muhammad ibn Ismaʻil in lineal descent.


title: Isma'ilism

text: For some partisans of Isma'il, the Imamate ended with Isma'il ibn Ja'far. Most Ismailis recognized Muhammad ibn Ismaʻil as the next Imam and some saw him as the expected Mahdi that Ja'far al-Sadiq had preached about. However, at this point the Isma'ili Imams according to the Nizari and Mustaali found areas where they would be able to be safe from the recently founded Abbasid Caliphate, which had defeated and seized control from the Umayyads in 750 CE.


title: Isma'ilism

text: At this point, some of the Isma'ili community believed that Muhammad ibn Isma'il had gone into the Occultation and that he would one day return. A small group traced the Imamate among Muhammad ibn Isma'il's lineal descendants. With the status and location of the Imams not known to the community, the concealed Isma'ili Imams began to propagate the faith through Da'iyyun from its base in Syria. This was the start of the spiritual beginnings of the Daʿwah that would later play important parts in the all Ismaili branches, especially the Nizaris and the Musta'lis.


title: Isma'ilism

text: The Da'i was not a missionary in the typical sense, and he was responsible for both the conversion of his student as well as the mental and spiritual well-being. The Da'i was a guide and light to the Imam. The teacher-student relationship of the Da'i and his student was much like the one that would develop in Sufism. The student desired God, and the Da'i could bring him to God by making him recognize the Imam, who possesses the knowledge of the Oneness of God. The Da'i and Imam were respectively the spiritual mother and spiritual father of the Isma'ili believers.


title: Isma'ilism

text: Ja'far bin Mansur al-Yaman's "The Book of the Sage and Disciple" is a classic of early Fatimid literature, documenting important aspects of the development of the Isma'ili da'wa in tenth-century Yemen. The book is also of considerable historical value for modern scholars of Arabic prose literature as well as those interested in the relationship of esoteric Shia with early Islamic mysticism. Likewise is the book an important source of information regarding the various movements within tenth-century Shīa leading to the spread of the Fatimid-Isma'ili da'wa throughout the medieval Islamicate world and the religious and philosophical history of post-Fatimid Musta'li branch of Isma'ilism in Yemen and India.


title: Isma'ilism

text: While many of the Isma'ili were content with the Da'i teachings, a group that mingled Persian nationalism and Zoroastrianism surfaced known as the Qarmatians. With their headquarters in Bahrain, they accepted a young Persian former prisoner by the name of Abu'l-Fadl al-Isfahani, who claimed to be the descendant of the Persian kings as their Mahdi, and rampaged across the Middle-East in the tenth century, climaxing their violent campaign by stealing the Black Stone from the Kaaba in Mecca in 930 under Abu Tahir al-Jannabi. Following the arrival of the Al-Isfahani, they changed their qibla from the Kaaba in Mecca to the Zoroastrian-influenced fire. After their return of the Black Stone in 951 and a defeat by the Abbasids in 976 the group slowly dwindled off and no longer has any adherents.


title: Isma'ilism

text: The political asceticism practiced by the Imāms during the period after Muhammad ibn Ismail was to be short-lived and finally concluded with the Imāmate of Abdullah al-Mahdi Billah, who was born in 873. After decades of Ismāʿīlīs believing that Muhammad ibn Ismail was in the Occultation and would return to bring an age of justice, al-Mahdi taught that the Imāms had not been literally secluded, but rather had remained hidden to protect themselves and had been organizing the Da'i, and even acted as Da'i themselves.


title: Isma'ilism

text: After raising an army and successfully defeating the Aghlabids in North Africa and a number of other victories, al-Mahdi Billah successfully established a Shia political state ruled by the Imāmate in 910. This was the only time in history where the Shia Imamate and Caliphate were united after the first Imam, Ali ibn Abi Talib.


title: Isma'ilism

text: In parallel with the dynasty's claim of descent from ʻAlī and Fāṭimah, the empire was named "Fatimid". However, this was not without controversy, and recognizing the extent that Ismāʿīlī doctrine had spread, the Abbasid Caliphate assigned Sunni and Twelver scholars the task to disprove the lineage of the new dynasty. This became known as the Baghdad Manifesto, which tries to trace the lineage of the Fatimids to an alleged Jewish blacksmith.


title: Isma'ilism

text: The Fatimid Caliphate expanded quickly under the subsequent Imams. Under the Fatimids, Egypt became the center of an empire that included at its peak North Africa, Sicily, Palestine, Syria, the Red Sea coast of Africa, Yemen, Hejaz and the Tihamah. Under the Fatimids, Egypt flourished and developed an extensive trade network in both the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean, which eventually determined the economic course of Egypt during the High Middle Ages.


title: Isma'ilism

text: The Fatimids promoted ideas that were radical for that time. One was a promotion by merit rather than genealogy.


title: Isma'ilism

text: Also during this period, the three contemporary branches of Isma'ilism formed. The first branch (Druze) occurred with the al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah. Born in 985, he ascended as ruler at the age of eleven. A religious group that began forming in his lifetime broke off from mainstream Ismailism and refused to acknowledge his successor. Later to be known as the Druze, they believe Al-Hakim to be the manifestation of God and the prophesied Mahdi, who would one day return and bring justice to the world. The faith further split from Ismailism as it developed unique doctrines which often class it separately from both Ismailism and Islam.


title: Isma'ilism

text: Arwa al-Sulayhi was the Hujjah in Yemen from the time of Imam al Mustansir. She appointed Da'i in Yemen to run religious affairs. Ismaili missionaries Ahmed and Abadullah (in about 1067 CE (460 AH)) were also sent to India in that time. They sent Syedi Nuruddin to Dongaon to look after southern part and Syedi Fakhruddin to East Rajasthan, India.


title: Isma'ilism

text: The second split occurred following the death of al-Mustansir Billah in 1094 CE. His rule was the longest of any caliph in both the Fatimid and other Islamic empires. After he died, his sons Nizar, the older, and al-Musta'li, the younger, fought for political and spiritual control of the dynasty. Nizar was defeated and jailed, but according to Nizari sources his son escaped to Alamut, where the Iranian Isma'ilis had accepted his claim.


title: Isma'ilism

text: The Musta'li line split again between the Taiyabi and the Hafizi, the former claiming that the 21st Imam and son of al-Amir bi-Ahkami'l-Lah went into occultation and appointed a Da'i al-Mutlaq to guide the community, in a similar manner as the Isma'ili had lived after the death of Muhammad ibn Isma'il. The latter claimed that the ruling Fatimid caliph was the Imām.


title: Isma'ilism

text: However, in the Mustaali branch, Dai came to have a similar but more important task. The term "Da'i al-Mutlaq" () literally means "the absolute or unrestricted missionary". This da'i was the only source of the Imam's knowledge after the occultation of al-Qasim in Musta'li thought.


title: Isma'ilism

text: According to Taiyabi Ismaili tradition, after the death of Imam al-Amir, his infant son, at-Tayyib Abu'l-Qasim, about 2 years old, was protected by the most important woman in Musta'li history after Muhammad's daughter, Fatimah. She was Arwa al-Sulayhi, a queen in Yemen. She was promoted to the post of hujjah long before by Imām Mustansir at the death of her husband. She ran the da'wat from Yemen in the name of Imaam Tayyib. She was instructed and prepared by Imam Mustansir and ran the dawat from Yemen in the name of Imaam Tayyib, following Imams for the second period of Satr. It was going to be on her hands, that Imam Tayyib would go into seclusion, and she would institute the office of the Da'i al-Mutlaq. Zoeb bin Moosa was first to be instituted to this office. The office of da'i continued in Yemen up to 24th da'i Yusuf who shifted da'wat to India. . Before the shift of da'wat in India, the da'i's representative were known as Wali-ul-Hind. Syedi Hasan Feer was one of the prominent Isma'ili wali of 14th century. The line of Tayyib Da'is that began in 1132 is still continuing under the main sect known as Dawoodi Bohra (see list of Dai of Dawoodi Bohra).


title: Isma'ilism

text: The Musta'li split several times over disputes regarding who was the rightful Da'i al-Mutlaq, the leader of the community within The Occultation.


title: Isma'ilism

text: After the 27th Da'i, Syedna Dawood bin Qutub Shah, there was another split; the ones following Syedna Dawood came to be called Dawoodi Bohra, and followers of Suleman were then called Sulaimani. Dawoodi Bohra's present Da'i al Mutlaq, the 53rd, is Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin, and he and his devout followers tread the same path, following the same tradition of the Aimmat Fatimiyyeen. The Sulaymani are mostly concentrated in Yemen and Saudi Arabia with some communities in the South Asia. The Dawoodi Bohra and Alavi Bohra are mostly exclusive to South Asia, after the migration of the da'wah from Yemen to India. Other groups include Atba-i-Malak and Hebtiahs Bohra. Mustaali beliefs and practices, unlike those of the Nizari and Druze, are regarded as compatible with mainstream Islam, representing a continuation of Fatimid tradition and fiqh.


title: Isma'ilism

text: In the 1040s, the Zirid dynasty (governors of the Maghreb under the Fatimids) declared their independence and their conversion to Sunni Islam, which led to the devastating Banu Hilal invasions. After about 1070, the Fatimid hold on the Levant coast and parts of Syria was challenged by first Turkish invasions, then the First Crusade, so that Fatimid territory shrunk until it consisted only of Egypt. Damascus fell to the Seljuk Empire in 1076, leaving the Fatimids only in charge of Egypt and the Levantine coast up to Tyre and Sidon. Because of the vehement opposition to the Fatimids from the Seljuks, the Ismaili movement was only able to operate as a terrorist underground movement, much like the Assassins.


title: Isma'ilism

text: After the decay of the Fatimid political system in the 1160s, the Zengid ruler Nur ad-Din, atabeg of Aleppo had his general, Saladin, seize Egypt in 1169, forming the Sunni Ayyubid dynasty. This signaled the end of the Hafizi Mustaali branch of Ismailism as well as the Fatimid Caliphate.


title: Isma'ilism

text: Very early in the empire's life, the Fatimids sought to spread the Isma'ili faith, which in turn would spread loyalty to the Imamate in Egypt. One of their earliest attempts was taken by a missionary by the name of Hassan-i Sabbah.


title: Isma'ilism

text: Hassan-i Sabbah was born into a Twelver family living in the scholarly Persian city of Qom in 1056 CE. His family later relocated to the city of Tehran, which was an area with an extremely active Isma'ili Da'wah. He immersed himself in Ismāʿīlī thought; however, he did not choose to convert until he was overcome with an almost fatal illness and feared dying without knowing the Imām of his time.


title: Isma'ilism

text: Afterward, Hassan-i Sabbah became one of the most influential Da'is in Isma'ili history; he became important to the survival of the Nizari branch of Ismailism, which today is its largest branch.


title: Isma'ilism

text: Legend holds that he met with Imam al-Mustansir Billah and asked him who his successor would be, to which he responded that it would be his eldest son Nizar (Fatimid Imam).


title: Isma'ilism

text: Hassan-i Sabbah continued his missionary activities, which climaxed with his taking of the famous citadel of Alamut. Over the next two years, he converted most of the surrounding villages to Isma'ilism. Afterward, he converted most of the staff to Ismailism, took over the fortress, and presented Alamut's king with payment for his fortress, which he had no choice but to accept. The king reluctantly abdicated his throne, and Hassan-i Sabbah turned Alamut into an outpost of Fatimid rule within Abbasid territory.


title: Isma'ilism

text: Surrounded by the Abbasids and other hostile powers and low in numbers, Hassan-i Sabbah devised a way to attack the Isma'ili enemies with minimal losses. Using the method of assassination, he ordered the murders of Sunni scholars and politicians who he felt threatened the Isma'ilis. Knives and daggers were used to kill, and sometimes as a warning, a knife would be placed on the pillow of a Sunni, who understood the message to mean that he was marked for death. When an assassination was actually carried out, the Hashasheen would not be allowed to run away; instead, to strike further fear into the enemy, they would stand near the victim without showing any emotion and departed only when the body was discovered. This further increased the ruthless reputation of the Hashasheen throughout Sunni-controlled lands.


title: Isma'ilism

text: The English word "assassins" is said to have been derived from the Arabic word "Hasaseen" meaning annihilators as mentioned in Quran 3:152 or Hashasheen meaning both "those who use hashish" and "throat slitters" in Egyptian Arabic dialect, and one of the Shia Ismaili sects in the Syria of the eleventh century.


title: Isma'ilism

text: After the imprisonment of Nizar by his younger brother Ahmad al Mustaali, various sources indicate that Nizar's son Ali Al-Hadi ibn Nizari survived and fled to Alamut. He was offered a safe place in Alamut, where Hassan-Al-Sabbah welcomed him. However, it is believed this was not announced to the public and the lineage was hidden until a few Imāms later to avoid further attacks hostility.


title: Isma'ilism

text: It was announced with the advent of Imam Hassan II. In a show of his Imamate and to emphasize the interior meaning (the batin) over the exterior meaning (the zahir), only two years after his accession, the Imām Hasan 'Ala Zikrihi al-Salam conducted a ceremony known as "qiyama" (resurrection) at the grounds of the Alamut Castle, whereby the Imam would once again become visible to his community of followers in and outside of the Nizārī Ismā'īlī state. Given Juwayni's polemical aims, and the fact that he burned the Isma'ili libraries which may have offered much more reliable testimony about the history, scholars have been dubious about his narrative but are forced to rely on it given the absence of alternative sources. Fortunately, descriptions of this event are also preserved in Rashid al-Din’s narrative and recounted in the Haft Bab Baba-yi Sayyidna, written 60 years after the event, and the later Haft Bab-i Abi Ishaq, an Ismaili book of the 15th century AD. However, Rashid al-Din's narrative is based on Juwayni, and the Nizari sources do not go into specific details. Since very few contemporary Nizari Ismaili accounts of the events have survived, and it is likely that scholars will never know the exact details of this event. However, there was no total abrogation of all law - only certain exoteric rituals like the Salah/Namaz, Fasting in Ramadan, Hajj to Makkah, and facing Makkah in prayer were abrogated; however, the Nizaris continued to perform rituals of worship, except these rituals were more esoteric and spiritually oriented. For example, the true prayer is to remember God at every moment; true fasting is to keep all of the body's organs away from whatever is unethical and forbidden. Ethical conduct is enjoined at all times.


title: Isma'ilism

text: Though it had successfully warded off Sunni attempts to take it several times, including one by Saladin, the stronghold at Alamut soon met its destruction. By 1206, Genghis Khan had managed to unite many of the once antagonistic Mongol tribes into a ruthless, but nonetheless unified, force. Using many new and unique military techniques, Genghis Khan led his Mongol hordes across Central Asia into the Middle East, where they won a series of tactical military victories using a scorched earth policy.


title: Isma'ilism

text: A grandson of Genghis Khan, Hulagu Khan, led the devastating attack on Alamut in 1256, only a short time before sacking the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad in 1258. As he would later do to the House of Wisdom in Baghdad, he destroyed Isma'ili as well as Islamic religious texts. The Imamate that was located in Alamut along with its few followers were forced to flee and take refuge elsewhere.


title: Isma'ilism

text: After the fall of the Fatimid Caliphate and its bases in Iran and Syria, the three currently living branches of Isma'ili generally developed geographically isolated from each other, with the exception of Syria (which has both Druze and Nizari) and Pakistan and the rest of South Asia (which had both Mustaali and Nizari).


title: Isma'ilism

text: The Musta'li progressed mainly under the Isma'ili-adhering Yemeni ruling class well into the 12th century, until the fall of the last Sulayhid dynasty, Hamdanids (Yemen) and Zurayids rump state in 1197 AD, then they shifted their da'wat to India under the Da'i al-Mutlaq, working on behalf of their last Imam, Taiyyab, and are known as Bohra. From India, various groups spread mainly to south Asia and eventually to the Middle East, Europe, Africa, and America.


title: Isma'ilism

text: The Nizari have maintained large populations in Syria, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and they have smaller populations in China and Iran. This community is the only one with a living Imam, whose title is the Aga Khan. Badakhshan, which includes parts of northeastern Afghanistan and southeastern Tajikistan, is the only part of the world where Ismailis make up the majority of the population.


title: Isma'ilism

text: The Druze mainly settled in Syria and Lebanon and developed a community based upon the principles of reincarnation through their own descendants. Their leadership is based on community scholars, who are the only individuals allowed to read their holy texts. There is controversy over whether this group falls under the classification of Isma'ilism or Islam because of its unique beliefs.


title: Isma'ilism

text: The Tajiks of Xinjiang, being Isma'ili, were not subjected to being enslaved in China by Sunni Muslim Turkic peoples because the two peoples did not share a common geographical region. The Burusho people of Pakistan are also Nizaris. However, due to their isolation from the rest of the world, Islam reached the Hunza about 350 years ago. Ismailism has been practiced by the Hunza for the last 300 years. The Hunza have been ruled by the same family of kings for over 900 years. They were called Kanjuts. Sunni Islam never took root in this part of central Asia so even now, there are less than a few dozen Sunnis living among the Hunza.


title: Isma'ilism

text: One of the most important texts in Ismaili historiography is the "ʿUyun al-Akhbar", which is a reference source on the history of Ismailism that was composed in 7 books by the Tayyibi Mustaʻlian Ismaili "daʻi"-scholar, Idris Imad al-Din (born ca. 1392). This text presents the most comprehensive history of the Ismaili Imams and "daʻwa", from the earliest period of Muslim history until the late Fatimid era. The author, Idris Imad al-Din, descended from the prominent al-Walid family of the Quraysh in Yemen, who led the Tayyibi Mustaʻlian Ismaili "daʻwa" for more than three centuries. This gave him access to the literary heritage of the Ismailis, including the majority of the extant Fatimid manuscripts transferred to Yemen. The "ʻUyun al-Akhbar" is being published in 7 volumes of annotated Arabic critical editions as part of an institutional collaboration between the Institut Français du Proche Orient (IFPO) in Damascus and The Institute of Ismaili Studies (IIS) in London. This voluminous text has been critically edited based on several old manuscripts from The Institute of Ismaili Studies' vast collection. These academic editions have been prepared by a team of Syrian and Egyptian scholars, including Dr Ayman F Sayyid, and this major publication project has been coordinated by Dr Nader El-Bizri (IIS) and Dr Sarab Atassi-Khattab (IFPO).


title: Isma'ilism

text: In the Isma'ili belief, God’s Speech ("kalam Allah") is the everlasting creative command that perpetuates all things and simultaneously embodies the essences of every existent being. This eternal commandment “flows” or “emanates” to Prophets (Prophets and messengers in Islam) through a spiritual hierarchy that consists of the Universal Intellect, Universal Soul, and the angelic intermediaries of "Jadd", "Fath", and "Khayal" who are identified with the archangels Seraphiel, Michael (archangel), and Gabriel ("Jibra'il" in Arabic), respectively. As a result, the Prophets receive revelations as divine, spiritual, and nonverbal “inspiration” ("wahy") and “support” ("taʾyīd"), through the means of the Holy Spirit, Gabriel, which is a heavenly power that illuminates the souls of the Prophets, just as the radiance of light reflects in a mirror. Accordingly, God illuminated Muhammad with a divine light (Nūr (Islam)) that constituted the divine nonverbal revelation (through the medium of archangel Gabriel), and Muhammad, then, expressed the divine truths contained within this transmission in the Arabic terms that constitute the Quran. Consequently, the Isma'ilis believe that the Arabic Qur’an is God’s Speech in a secondary and subordinate sense, as it only verbally expresses the “signs” ("āyāt") of God’s actual cosmic commandments.


title: Isma'ilism

text: According to the 14th Isma'ili Imam and fourth Fatimid Caliph Al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah, “[The Prophet] only conveyed the meanings of the inspiration ["wahy"] and the light – its obligations, rulings and allusions – by means of utterances composed with arranged, combined, intelligible, and audible letters”. Hence, according to the Imam, the Quran is God’s Speech only in its inward spiritual essence, while its outward verbal form is the words of Prophet Muhammad.


title: Isma'ilism

text: The Isma'ili view on God’s Speech is therefore in contrast with the Hanbali view that it is eternal sounds and letters, the Mu'tazila view that it is a temporally created provision of sounds, and also the Ash'ari and Maturidi views that it is an everlasting nonverbal attribute contained in God’s essence. Even so, the Isma'ilis agree with most other Islamic schools of thought that the Holy Quran is a miracle that is beyond imitation and without equal ("mu‘jiz"), for its external linguistic form and presentiment of spiritual meanings transcends the limits of eminence of Arabic poetry, prose, and rhyming speech.


title: Isma'ilism

text: The Isma'ilis believe that Prophet Muhammad is the living embodiment of the Quran. For instance, the renowned Isma'ili Da'i and poet Nasir-i Khusraw (Nasir Khusraw) believed that the Prophet’s soul expressed God’s nonverbal divine inspiration in the form of two symbolic oral discourses – the Holy Quran and Prophetic guidance (Hadith). Therefore, on one hand, the Prophet constructed the verbal form of the Qur’an, and, on the other hand, through his existence, he embodied the living and speaking Quran: “The cause of all existents ["ʿillat al-aysiyyāt"] is only the Word of God, . . . [T]he Speaker Prophet is found to be a receptacle ["mahāll"] for the Word of God in the corporeal world and is designated by its names”. As such, Prophet Muhammad is the “locus of manifestation” ("mazhar") of God’s words, just as a reflective mirror to the radiance of light, and the Quran and Prophetic guidance (Hadith) are verbal manifestations of God’s words, which are reflections from this mirror.


title: Isma'ilism

text: The Isma'ili view of revelation also influences their perception of the meaning of the Quran. In this view, the Quran and Prophetic guidance (Hadith) are encoded in symbols in parables that preserve a superior level of meaning. As such, the literal interpretation of the Quran is only the “outward dimension” ("zāhir") of the divine revelations that Prophet Muhammad received, and beyond it lies the “esoteric dimension” ("batin") of the religion that contains the divine truths ("haqāʾiq"). The Ismailis maintain that divine guidance is required to access the divine truths and superior meanings contained within the revelations.


title: Isma'ilism

text: The method of spiritual hermeneutics that is used to reveal this “esoteric dimension” or "batin" of the divine revelation is known as "taʾwīl". According to Nasir Khusraw, "taʾwīl" is the process of “returning” something to its metaphysical source. In the context of ontology, "taʾwīl" is to discern an object in its original ontological domain as a symbol and parable that represents a reality in a higher ontological domain The opposite of "taʾwīl" is "tanzīl", which is to encode divine realities in the form of symbols and parables that are interpretable to human beings in the material world.


title: Isma'ilism

text: The Isma'ilis believe that besides Prophets, God’s Speech also illuminates the souls of the Legatees and Imams, through the medium of the Holy Spirit, which allows them to perform many of the spiritual functions of Prophet Muhammad. For example, in the Isma'ili hierarchical ranks ("da’wa"), the Prophet Muhammad is the Messenger, Imam ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib (Ali) is his Legatee, and his successors from Imam Husayn ibn Ali to the Fatimid Caliphs (Fatimid Caliphate) are the Imams. As a result of being divinely inspired ("muʾayyad"), the Prophets, Legatees, and Imams can perform "taʾwīl" and disclose it as instruction ("taʿlīm") to the lower ranks of the Ismaili "da’wa", including regular people.


title: Isma'ilism

text: Unlike Prophets, the Imams cannot compose a new "tanzīl", instead they interpret the "tanzīl" (Quran) and Prophetic guidance (Hadith) by reanalyzing them in the context of new circumstances, while retaining the underlying principled spirit, and help guide “spiritual adepts” to the divine truths by disclosing their inner meanings through the spiritual hermeneutics of "taʾwīl". Every Imam provides this authoritative instruction ("taʿlīm") to the community during their own time. As a consequence, the Isma'ili Imam acts as the “speaking Qur’an”, while the Arabic Qur’an, in its written or recitative form, is consigned the position of the “silent Qur’an”. This means that for regular religious guidance, regarding legal or ethical matters, for example, the Isma'ilis refer to the instructions of the Imam rather than the Quran or Hadith, unless specifically instructed by the Imam to do so.


title: Isma'ilism

text: The Ginans are Nizari religious texts. They are written in the form of poetry by Pirs to interpret the meanings of Quranic ayat. In comparison to Ginans, Ismāʿīlīs of other origins, such as Persians, Arabs, and Central Asians, have qasidas () written in Persian by missionaries such as Nasir Khusraw and Hasan bin Sabah. As van-Skyhawk notes, an important link was established between the ginānic and qaṣā’id traditions when, in 1961, the 49th Ismāʿīlī Imām termed ʿAllāmah Naṣīr al-Dīn Hunzai's Burushaskī qaṣā’id a "ginān book in [the] Hunza language".


title: Isma'ilism

text: Ismāʿīlīs believe numbers have religious meanings. The number seven plays a general role in the theology of the Ismā'īliyya, including mystical speculations that there are seven heavens, seven continents, seven orifices in the skull, seven days in a week, and so forth.


title: Isma'ilism

text: For this sect, the Imām is the manifestation of truth, and hence he is their path of salvation to God.


title: Isma'ilism

text: Classical Ismāʿīlī doctrine holds that divine revelation had been given in six periods (daur) entrusted to six prophets, who they also call "Natiq" (Speaker), who were commissioned to preach a religion of law to their respective communities.


title: Isma'ilism

text: Whereas the Natiq was concerned with the rites and outward shape of religion, the inner meaning is entrusted to a "Wasi" (Representative). The Wasi would know the secret meaning of all rites and rules and would reveal them to small circles of initiates.