The Flash is easily among the top ten most popular DC Comics heroes. Barry Allen made his debut way back in 1956, assuming the mantle of the Flash from Jay Garrick and kicking off the Silver Age of comics. With nearly infinite speed powers, interesting adventures that span space and time and busy personal and professional lives that he struggles to balance with his costumed activities Barry Allen swiftly became one of DC's most popular new heroes. The fact that he was brought back as the Flash after being killed off in 1986 during the "Crisis on Infinite Earths" crossover, speaks volumes about his popularity.
The two recent live-action adaptations of the Scarlet Speedster both adapted the Barry Allen version of the character, even though some would argue that Wally West is the most popular Flash. In 2014, The CW premiered The Flash, in which Grant Gustin plays Barry Allen. That same year, Ezra Miller was announced as Barry Allen in the DC Cinematic Universe and in 2016 Miller's Barry appeared for the first time in Batman v. Superman. The two Barrys are different, but also similar. However, most importantly, we think both are great and want to celebrate them with these 20 hilarious Flash vs. Flash memes.
20 WHO’S THE BETTER FLASH?
The Drakeposting meme has become the go-to meme for when you want to communicate disdain towards one thing, person or idea and love towards its opposite. And well, since we have two Flash actors who both play the Barry Allen version of the character and are in two different, some would even say competing, universes it’s expected that someone would feel the need to create a Drakeposting meme about it.
Clearly, the person who made this meme thinks Grant Gustin is the better Flash, but there’s probably one that has these images switched. The fact is, however, that both Gustin and Miller are doing an excellent job with Barry Allen and it’s almost impossible to choose a side. And who says we have to. We should consider ourselves lucky to have two great versions of the Flash.
19 WHO NEEDS A TEAM?
The Flash, Arrow and Supergirl all revolve around teams that work together with the titular hero in order to protect their respective cities. In the comics, of course, there are no teams. Cisco Ramon and Caitlin Snow are not the Flash’s support team, Harrison Wells doesn’t exist, and don’t even get us started on Iris West. The show, however, revolves around Team Flash (they actually call themselves that) as they, as a team, work together to stop the big bad of the season and the freak of the week villains.
In contrast, the DCEU’s Flash works alone. In fact, according to his own words, he doesn’t even have any friends to speak off, let alone ones that would help him in his superhero adventures. Ezra Miller seems to be puzzled by Grant Gustin’s need for a team.
18 BARRY, IT’S TIME YOU GOT HELP
When your super friends feel that they need to hold an intervention to stop you from messing with the timeline, perhaps it’s high time you admitted you need help. We’re talking to you, Mr. Barry Allen. We keep hearing about the addictiveness of things like video games or social media, and it just goes to show that apparently anything can become an addiction if not exercised in moderation. And this, Mr. Allen, includes time travel too.
Barry’s hobby is becoming increasingly dangerous for the people around him, the universe, but also for him. And it seems like Barry’s addiction to time travel has finally taken a heavy toll on him, since he seems to be turning into that freaky Flash vision Bruce Wayne had in Batman v. Superman.
17 THERE’S A NEW FLASH IN TOWN
Grant Gustin has been nothing but welcoming and supportive about Ezra Miller’s casting in the role of Barry Allen in the DC Extended Universe. Likewise, Miller has had so many nice things to say about Gustin’s portrayal of the character on The CW television series. In all honesty, these two seem like they could be great friends, both on and off the screen. If there ever was any friction here it came from the fans, rather than the actors.
However, it would have been interesting to be a fly on the wall when Grant Gustin found out that Ezra Miller has been cast as Barry Allen in the DCEU. Obviously, this has intrigued someone else too, since they decided to create this hilarious meme. It’s nice of Ezra to deliver the devastating news personally.
16 ROLE MODEL
The CW's show The Flash introduced time travel way back in season one when the main villain was revealed as a time traveler from the future. Ever since then, the show has revolved around time travel, alternate timelines, and the multiverse. At first, Barry took his new-found ability too lightly and thought he could just go back and fix whatever he deemed broken. He soon realized that altering the past can have dire consequences in the future.
The DCEU’s Flash, on the other hand, has only started using his powers and up until now he hasn’t made any mistakes that resulted in world-ending consequences. However, if his solo movie really is going to be an adaptation of the Flashpoint storyline, his spotless record will be no more.
15 PLAYING FAVORITES
When Ezra Miller was cast as Barry Allen, aka the Flash, in the DC Extended Universe, the fans had already spent some time with Grant Gustin as Barry Allen on The CW’s The Flash. We have all grown to love Gustin’s Flash, since he does portray the character almost flawlessly. Needless to say, a lot of fans of the show disliked the idea that their favorite speedster will be played by a different actor.
It didn’t help that Ezra Miller looked even less like the Barry Allen from the comics and that, to most people, he was a relatively unknown actor. Even now that we’ve gotten to see Miller in action and watch him be one of the best parts of Justice League, Gustin seems to be the more popular Flash. Someone made a hilarious meme about Ezra Miller discovering this harsh truth the hard way.
14 BARRY’S SOLUTION TO EVERY PROBLEM
Costumes -- something we can all argue about days on end in any comic book movie or series. Are the costumes comic book accurate? Are they functional? Did a different show/movie did a better job with the same characters? And so on and so forth, we continue asking question after question in order to determine who has the better costume.
The two Flashes we have at the moment have very different costumes. The Barry Allen from the Arrowverse got his suit from Cisco, while the Barry from the DCEU created his own suit out of plates and strings. While a lot of people didn’t like Ezra’s costume at first, Gustin’s first costume wasn’t all that great either. In fact, a lot of other characters on the show had much better costumes. So, what does Barry do when everyone has a better costume than him, change the timeline of course.
13 THE FLASH: CIVIL WAR
In 2013, The CW introduced Barry Allen, portrayed by Grant Gustin, in an episode of Arrow titled "The Scientist." The following season, Gustin got his own show, The Flash, which is currently in its fourth season and has been renewed for a fifth one. Over time, fans got attached to Gustin’s Barry Allen so much so that many found it difficult to accept a Barry Allen played by a different actor in the DCEU.
On the other hand, those who didn’t like Gustin’s Flash saw this as an opportunity to get a better version of the character. The quarrel about who makes a better Flash -- Grant or Ezra, caused a war among DC fans, which an internet comedian decided to sum up in the infamous Civil War meme.
12 WATCH OUT SNYDER, GREEN ARROW IS COMING FOR YOU
Grant Gustin’s portrayal of the Flash on The CW’s hit show has gotten overwhelmingly positive reviews from both the critics and the audience. Granted, the show has dipped in quality since its gripping first season, but Grant Gustin is one of its redeeming qualities. He just makes an awesome Flash, even without blonde hair and blue eyes. Gustin is adorable, nerdy, funny and incredibly likable.
Naturally, a lot of fans of The Flash were disappointed when Snyder announced that they will not be using Gustin in the DCEU. Gustin was nothing but supportive and expressed excitement about Miller's take on the Scarlet Speedster. His Arrowverse co-star Stephen Amell, however, openly criticized the DCEU for passing over Grant Gustin. Seems like the Green Arrow believes Zack Snyder failed the DCEU.
11 THAT’S HOW I LIKE MY FLASH
One of the things we love about the Arrowverse is that it knows how to have fun. While the heroes do fight formidable opponents and tackle difficult obstacles, every once in a while, you get an episode such as "Duet" in which Flash and Supergirl are transported into some kind of a virtual reality by an extra-dimensional being, who calls himself the Music Meister, in order to learn important lessons about love.
As for the DCEU, it has, since the very initiation, aimed to create a far more serious and dark universe, in which there was very little time for silly shenanigans. Luckily, Ezra Miller’s Flash is an adorable, goofy, awkward nerd, even if he is stuck in the grim Snyderverse. Yet, a good number of fans, much like the meme suggests, still prefer Grant Gustin's dancing Flash.
10 THIS EXPLAINS A LOT
Thus far, Barry Allen’s incessant meddling with the timeline has led to some rather interesting developments. After creating the Flashpoint timeline and then attempting to return to the previous one, Barry created a third timeline. Although similar to the one he started from, this new post-Flashpoint timeline introduced a number of changes.
Cisco’s brother Dante was now dead, Caitlin Snow was a metahuman known as Killer Frost, John Diggle’s daughter Sara became John Diggle’s son John Jr. and who knows when we’ll find more of these growing inconsistencies. Due to Barry’s tendency to screw things up, the fans have started blaming him for everything that goes wrong. So, in case you were wondering why we have two different versions of the same hero, this meme holds the answer.
9 HARRY POTTER AND THE SCARLET SPEEDSTER
In season three of The Flash, we were introduced to Julian Albert, Barry’s colleague from work and later member of Team Flash. Julian was played by the Harry Potter actor Tom Felton and was a result of Barry's meddling with the timeline. Felton left the show after only one season, perhaps because he got tired of dealing with dorks who got hit by lightning and somehow became special.
However, this is not where the curios connection between the world of Harry Potter and the Scarlet Speedster stops. The actor who plays Barry Allen in the DCEU, Ezra Miller, was then cast in the Harry Potter spin-off, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The fans took note of this and, naturally, decided to meme about it.
8 THE TIMELINE WON'T SURVIVE THIS
Barry’s constant meddling with the timeline has become the butt of every joke. Not that he doesn’t deserve it, considering how many times he’s screwed things up by running back and forth in time. His superhero friends even held an improvised intervention in order to make Barry realize the dangers of time travel.
But if one Flash can cause so much trouble for the timeline, imagine what would happen if there were two of them. What if the Barry Allen of the Arrowverse and the Barry Allen of the DCEU somehow met and realized that they are both the Flash? What would they do? Well, as this hilarious meme suggests, the two speedsters would probably do something they have in common -- run and mess with the timeline. The question is, can the timeline sustain two mischievous speedsters?
7 SERIOUSLY THOUGH, DID YOU EVEN TRY?
Despite what The CW’s show and the DCEU would have you believe, Barry Allen is in fact blonde with blue eyes. Yet, both current live-action versions of the character, as well as the one from the 1990s TV series, have had brown or black hair. You’d think that Hollywood has a serious shortage of blonde actors with blue eyes and DC just couldn’t find one able to fit playing Barry Allen into his tight schedule.
Of course, there are plenty of handsome, blonde, some even blue-eyed, and talented actors who could have taken on the role of Barry Allen in both the TV show and the movies. Among the ones most commonly suggested by the fans were Bradley Cooper, Ryan Gosling and Chris Pine. Although, hair color is certainly not essential, it’s kind of funny that neither of the three live-action versions of Barry had blonde hair.
6 NEVER MIND THE TIMELINE, WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SUIT
This hilarious meme accomplished something truly amazing. With just three images it captured the essence of all three characters. Barry Allen -- the time-travel addict whose meddling with the timeline often causes irreparable and dangerous consequences. Cisco Ramon -- loves his babies more than anything else in the world, and by babies we mean the suits he’s created. Harrison Wells -- in constant fret over the imminent and unavoidable threat of Barry screwing up the timeline again.
Clearly, whoever created this meme wanted to mess with at all three characters at the same time. Honestly, it’s not hard to imagine Cisco worrying more about the suit than about the timeline if Barry did happen to do something to his precious creation. Never mind the fact that Caitlin is now a pediatric ophthalmologist and Joe West is an alien baseball player, show me the suit!
5 FOUND THE PERFECT REPLACEMENT
In the final moments of season three of The Flash, Barry Allen entered the Speed Force, leaving behind his loved ones with the hope that they will keep protecting Central City in his absence. Of course, his team rose to the occasion and did its best to keep Central City safe, all the while trying to figure out a way to bring Barry back -- well, at least that’s what Cisco did.
This hilarious meme combines Barry’s goodbye scene from the season three finale with the awesome scene from Justice League, in which Bruce starts explaining to Barry that he’s putting together a team. Whether you’re a fan of the DCEU’s Flash or not, you can’t deny that Barry’s reaction was priceless. Also, memes like this kind of make us wish for these two to actually meet and interact. Imagine the hilarity.
4 THE REAL FLASH
We’d like to take this opportunity to thank the X-Men: First Class writers and director for creating this superbly memeable scene. You have provided us with tons of hilarious memes, even if that wasn’t your intention, and for that we are forever grateful. There's just so much you can do with this meme. The possibilities are endless. And just when you think the internet is done with the Perfection meme, along comes a fresh, funny one that breathes new life into it.
Here’s the Perfection meme that finally settles the debate over who’s the best Flash. The fans seem to be either set on Grant Gustin or Ezra Miller, but they're overlooking one very important player, Adam DeVine, who voiced the Flash in The LEGO Batman Movie. True perfection.
3 COMING SOON TO THEATERS NEAR YOU
Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do? Well, time travel, what else! If these two ever do meet, which unfortunately doesn’t seem likely to happen, they will immediately become best friends. Much like Barry and Kara did back in season one of Supergirl. Both Grant Gustin’s Barry Allen and Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen are sweet, nerdy, likable, kind, a bit awkward, but also approachable.
Most of us like to imagine seemingly impossible scenarios, such as Gustin and Miller’s Barry meeting each other, but the creator of this meme took it a step further. Ladies and gentlemen, we are proud to present the next installment in the Bad Boys franchise. Bad Boys III: Trouble in Time stars Grant Gustin as Barry Allen and Ezra Miller also as Barry Allen as the two embark on a journey through time in order to bring chaos to the timeline.
2 WAIT, WHO’S THE FLASH?
Oh Iris, why are doing this to us, to yourself? You used to be a passable character. Kind of boring and utterly pointless if you take away the romance subplot, but at least you didn’t make us cringe all the time. What possessed the writers on The Flash to write this line will perhaps forever remain a mystery, but for whatever reason the "we are the Flash" line keeps popping up and it doesn’t look like it’s going away any time soon.
This nonsense annoyed almost every single fan of the show, and those who found it exceptionally insufferable resorted to memes. This one sends a clear message, being married to a speedster doesn’t make you one, having super speed does. Now, if only the writers would realize this that would be great.
1 YOU CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MANY SPEEDSTERS
Whenever there are multiple actors playing the same role there are bound to be comparisons and some competition. Most people have a favorite Batman, Spider-Man, Superman, and so on. But even if you think Keaton was the best Caped Crusader or that Holland is the perfect Peter Parker, it doesn't mean that you shouldn't value other versions of the character.
At the moment, we have two different versions of Barry Allen Flash, as well as a Jay Garrick Flash played by an actor who portrayed Barry Allen in the past. Oftentimes, these speedsters are pitted against each other. But is there really a need to pick one when we can just kick back and enjoy all of it? The DCEU and the Arrowverse are very different but both have a lot to offer. Even John Wesley Shipp agrees.