As revealed Saturday in the Comic-Con International trailer for Season 5, The Flash will at long last introduce the iconic costume ring to Barry Allen's ensemble. It's one of the stranger aspects of the Scarlet Speedster's comic book history, but also one of the most visually interesting.

The ring has been part of The Flash for as long as Barry Allen has been in existence, but it has gone through a number of ups and downs over the years in terms of the speedsters who have worn it.

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The idea of a compressed costume fitting into a small space predates The Flash by a number of years. Batman, for example, hid his entire costume in a compressed container that was so small the vigilante was able to disguise in a bandage made to look like his skin. Granted, that was a special, lightweight version of the Caped Crusader's costume, but still, the idea was certainly there. However, the revelation that Superman used "super-compression" to squeeze his street clothes into his cape was introduced after The Flash's costume debuted. Not only that, but surely neither superhero displayed the same flair as The Flash does with his costume ring.

Amazingly enough, the ring practically predated The Flash's costume in his first story! In 1956's Showcase #4, by Robert Kanigher, Carmine Infantino and Joe Kubert, Barry Allen gains super-speed and decides he will become The Flash, based on the comic book hero of the same name from his childhood (yes, in the early stories, the Jay Garrick Flash was merely a comic book character), and seemingly the second thing he does is create a special chemical solution that will allow him to hide the costume in a special ring. It ostensibly operates on the same principles of inflatable life rafts, except it obviously doesn't work on any of those principles other than "it folds down small." As noted, in the context of Barry's origin story, the ring technically appeared before the costume, as we don't see the red-and-yellow suit until after it is released from the ring.

Like the classic question surrounding Peter Parker and his amazing web-shooters, you have to wonder how Barry is able to create a chemical in his spare time that can shrink a costume small enough to fit into a ring.

The creators clearly thought the ring idea was a good one, as they revisited it right away in the second story in the issue.

While it is not shown, it is implied that Barry uses his super-speed to re-fold the suit and places it back inside the ring when he returns to his civilian identity. Oddly enough, years later, it was revealed the suit is actually sucked back into the ring via the release of a special gas when the trinket is opened.

Barry continued to wear the costume ring until he died in 1985 in DC's Crisis on Infinite Earths #8.

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Soon after Barry Allen debuted with his costume ring, his sidekick, Wally West, was introduced in 1959, in The Flash #110, by John Broome, Carmine Infantino and Joe Giella. Once he gained superpowers, The Flash made a ring for his new sidekick as well.

Wally used that costume ring for years, until he assumed the identity of The Flash following Barry's death. He either used his old ring and just put Barry's costume into Wally's old ring starting with the 1987 debut issue of the next volume of The Flash, by Mike Baron, Jackson Guice and Larry Mahlstedt.

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Wally used the costume ring until The Flash #131, by Grant Morrison, Mark Millar, Paul Ryan and John Nyberg, when he gained the ability to create a suit out of the Speed Force itself.

A couple of issues later, he was able to make his new "speed suit" appear just like his old costume.

Wally made a replica of Barry's costume ring and gave it to Bart Allen, Barry's grandson from the future, who used it to keep his costume from his time as Impulse and then as the new Kid Flash...

By the time Wally seemingly gave up the Flash identity during Infinite Crisis, Wally was back to using the costume ring again...

During Infinite Crisis, while Wally and his wife and children seemingly vanished, Bart Allen was also aged to young adulthood. He took over as the new Flash in the short-lived series, Flash: The Fastest Man Alive, with Bart taking over the costume ring in the second issue (by Danny Bilson, Paul Demeo and Ken Lashley)...

After Bart was killed, Wally West returned to the Flash title. Then, during Final Crisis, Barry Allen was brought back to life.

Barry took back the Flash name and, sure enough, he used the Flash costume ring in 2010's Flash #1 (by Geoff Johns, Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato)...

Barry has used the costume ring ever since, even when his costume was revamped during the "New 52" reboot of the DC Universe, although the process that the ring opened up to turn into Flash's costume seemed to be closer to when Wally used to use the Speed Force to create a costume for him...

Interestingly enough, before Barry Allen came back to life in Final Crisis, we got to see what happened to his original costume ring when his old friend, Oliver Queen, used the band from Barry's costume ring to form the basis of the engagement ring that Oliver used to propose to the Black Canary in Green Arrow #75 (by Judd WInick, Scott McDaniel and Andy Owens)...

Therefore, Barry presumably made a new costume ring when he came back to life.

Barry still uses the costume ring today in the current Flash series.