I thought we could use a thread dedicated to my favorite Smallville hero (besides Clark, don't blow a gasket). I'm going to concentrate on Bart Allen, even though there were other Flashs, just because BA is the one in Smallville.
Thus far, four different characters, each of whom somehow gained the power of "super-speed", have assumed the identity of the Flash: Jay Garrick (1940-Present), Barry Allen (1956-1986), Wally West (1986-2006), and Bart Allen (2006-present). The Wally West version of the Flash is featured in the animated series Justice League, voiced by Michael Rosenbaum, who is now the face of Lex Luthor on Smallville. blaugh
Bart Allen was the grandson of Barry Allen and his wife Iris. Bart suffered from accelerated aging and, as a result, was raised in a virtual reality machine until Iris took him back in time in order to get help from the then current Flash, Wally West. With Wally's help, Bart's aging slowed and he took the name Impulse. After his kneecap was shot while working with the Teen Titans, Bart changed both his attitude and his costume, taking the mantle of Kid Flash. During the events of Infinite Crisis, the Speed Force vanished, taking with it all the speedsters save Jay Garrick. Bart returned, four years older, and for a year claimed that he was depowered from the event. However the Speed Force had not disappeared completely, and was absorbed into Bart's body, making it such that Bart contains all of the Speed Force. Bart's costume is Barry Allen's Flash suit.
All incarnations of the Flash can move, think, and react at superhuman speeds. All possess an aura that prevents air friction from affecting their bodies and clothes while moving.
Barry Allen was believed to be the fastest of all known Flashes, and was known to have travelled faster than the "speed of thought". However, when Barry Allen pushed himself further (while imploding the Anti-Monitor's chief weapon during the Crisis on Infinite Earths) he appeared to waste away as he was converted into pure speed energy, travelled back in time, and was revealed to be the very bolt of lightning that gave him his powers (passing them on to his grandson, skipping a generation). Barry Allen possessed several other abilities that Jay Garrick and Wally West have not always been able to duplicate. He could run on thick snow clouds. Most unusual was Allen's complete control of his molecules, allowing him to vibrate through solid matter and, on one occasion when transformed into a mirror, "melt" himself and reform as a human to defeat his foe the Mirror Master.
On several occasions, the Flash has been shown in various races against Superman to determine which one is faster (or as part of a mutual effort to thwart some type of threat); these races, however, often resulted in ties (or indeterminate results). However, in recent races between Wally and Superman, West has been shown to be the faster of the two. It should, however, be noted that the Silver Age Superman was much faster than the current one.
Speedsters may at times use the ability to speed-read at incredible rates and in doing so, process vast amounts of information. Whatever knowledge they acquire in this manner is usually temporary (the current Flash seems to be the exception, though in earlier years, Max Mercury believed that Bart's speed learning would not stick).
Flashes and other super-speedsters also have the ability to speak to one another at a highly accelerated rate. This is often done to have private conversations in front of non-fast people (as when Flash speaks to Superman about his ability to serve both the Titans and the JLA in The Titans #2). Speed-talking is also sometimes used for comedic effect where Flash becomes so excited that he begins talking faster and faster until his words become a jumble of noise (Wally West once became so surprised that he generated a small sonic boom with his voice).
I hope that Bart Allen (in Smallville) goes back home to learn about his grandfather and to discover who he is and who he is destine to be. I am also hoping that in the next new episode they will delve a little more into his past, or future.
