DC's Flash Forward may be exploring a cosmic event that includes the rise of the Dark Multiverse, but it is also looking at the potential redemption of Wally West, the hero who has grown from Kid Flash to take over as the Flash, only to then be erased from the universe during a cosmic reshuffle.
Of course, Wally isn't the only member of the Flash Family of DC speedsters who have had to seek out redemption. The Flash Family is full of characters who have, quite frankly, done terrible things and it can be hard to believe they were able to come back and still be considered heroes. While there are extenuating circumstances in some cases, these are still some of the worst things that members of the Flash Family have ever done.
10 BARRY KILLED REVERSE FLASH
As we often find with heroes in cases like these, it takes an extreme act from a villain to get an equally extreme act from the hero, as was the case with The Flash and Reverse-Flash. Eobard Thawne had fallen in love with Iris West-Allen and forced her to choose between him and Barry. Obviously Iris didn't choose Thawne, so he killed her while a drugged Barry was in the other room.
When Barry was set to remarry after Iris' death, Eobard reappeared to once again threaten the life of Barry's love, which pushed Barry to the brink. He ran as fast as he could and grabbed Reverse-Flash away from his fiance, snapping his neck in the process. Barry would go on trial and be convicted of second-degree murder, even though Reverse-Flash would return to influence the trial.
9 BARRY BRAINWASHED THE TOP
Roscoe Dillon was a frequent member of Barry Allen's Rogues Gallery who took his love of Tops and telekinetic ability to turn himself into a spinning criminal. The Top and Barry had an odd relationship, as Barry was partially responsible for the death of the Top, though the villain would return again to torment the Flash.
As revealed during the Identity Crisis event, Barry had asked Zatanna to mindwipe the Top into becoming a hero after the villain had crossed a line by desecrating Iris West-Allen's grave. Top was driven insane by the evil he had caused and attempted to brainwash other members of the Rogues as well. When it was revealed he had manipulated the villainous team, Captain Cold froze and shattered the Top.
8 WALLY TRAPPED ZOOM IN HIS WORST MEMORY
When Wally West took over as the Flash, he gained his own Reverse-Flash as well. His came in the form of Hunter Solomon, who took on the Professor Zoom identity while wearing the costume of Eobard Thawne. Zoom used speed in a unique way and was at times even more ruthless than his predecessor.
Wally's pregnant wife Linda Park suffered a miscarriage during a battle between Wally and Zoom, and after Zoom again threatened Linda's life, Wally was forced to fuse Zoom with a time fusion that he had created, causing Zoom to become trapped in suspended animation, locked in the memory of his worst day set to repeat over and over for all eternity.
7 WALLY MINDWIPED THE WORLD
Wally blamed his decision to unmask to the world for the later miscarriage and attack on Linda and started thinking of how he could undo the trauma his family had experienced. He was stopped from attempting to fix the problem with time travel by a time-traveling Barry Allen, who was there from the future before his death in the Crisis because comics.
While Wally was talked out of time-travel, Hal Jordan/The Spectre did wipe everyone's memory of the secret identity of the Flash, including Wally and Linda. Eventually, Wally would get his memory back, but during that period of time crime had skyrocketed in Keystone City due to his absence as the Flash.
6 JAY KILLED WILDCAT
While Barry and Wally each had a few terrible things in their past, the first Flash Jay Garrick was not without his own share of controversial moments. Most of it was innocent enough, like when early in his heroic career he used his super-speed to play college football in order to win a date with his future wife, Joan.
However, during a mission with his long-time JSA teammate Wildcat, Jay was influenced by the mystical Spear of Destiny into attacking Wildcat and then forced to kill his oldest friend. Thankfully Wildcat had one of his nine lives left and they were able to save the day, but Wildcat no longer had any resurrections under his belt.
5 WALLY FROZE INERTIA IN TIME
There have been a few characters to take over as the Flash over the years, with the youngest being Bart Allen, Barry's grandson from the future who had traveled to the present. Bart began his career as Impulse before taking on the role of Kid Flash, and eventually the Flash.
Unfortunately, his time as the scarlet speedster was short-lived, as Bart sacrificed himself to save the west coast from his rival speedster Inertia's plan. When Wally discovered what Inertia had done to Bart, he trapped him in a living suspended animation, conscious but unmoving. He was last seen in the Flash Museum pre-Flashpoint, forced to look at monuments to Bart Allen.
4 BARRY REWROTE TIME IN FLASHPOINT
Speaking of pre-Flashpoint, we have to talk about Barry again. After Barry returned to the DC Universe from years trapped in the Speed Force, he remained tormented by the death of his mother at the hands of Eobard Thawne/Reverse-Flash when he was a child.
One day Barry woke up to find the world changed, and his powers and life as the Flash had never existed. The new world, known as Flashpoint, was close to destruction as the worlds of Atlantis and Themyscira were at war. This timeline was revealed to have been created by Barry himself, who had gone back in time to stop Thawne from killing his mother. The Flashpoint timeline was undone, though the DC Universe was never the same again.
3 FUTURE BARRY KILLED HIS ROGUES
The New 52 universe was the result of Flashpoint, and every DC character got a hard reboot that reduced their age and mostly changed their histories. Barry Allen's future in the New 52 was now uncertain, yet a version of the Flash from the future would soon reveal himself.
This future version of Barry wore an updated armor and had been driven mad by his failure to save Wally West II in his timeline. Barry would run back to the present, killing the various members of his Rogues Gallery at the times in his past that he failed to stop them, and then attempted to kill and replace his present-day self, though he died himself.
2 GODSPEED MURDERED OTHER SPEEDSTERS
It may be hard to believe that Godspeed would be considered part of the Flash Family, but before his most recent disappearance, August Heart was working alongside Flash and his other speedsters as a bonafide member of the new Rebirth-era Flash Family.
Unfortunately, prior to August's change of heart, he had become obsessed after he gained his powers in a Speed Force storm and craved more. This led him to steal the powers from the other people affected by the Speed Force storm which ultimately killed them. He was stopped by Flash and imprisoned but was later recruited to the Flash Family to help stop Grodd and attempt to earn his redemption.
1 WALLY KILLED THE HEROES IN SANCTUARY
As we previously mentioned, Wally West might attempt to earn his own bit of redemption in the pages of Flash Forward, which is due to the events of Heroes in Crisis by Tom King, Clay Mann, and Mitch Gerads. The series was a murder mystery following the massacre of a number of heroes and villains seeking treatment at the secret retreat known as Sanctuary.
The murderer was revealed to be Wally West, who had been dealing with the trauma of losing his family due to the Flashpoint/New 52 reboot. Wally had lost control of the Speed Force and killed the inhabitants of Sanctuary, including one of his oldest friends, Roy Harper. And the worst part of their accidental deaths was the fact that Wally attempted to cover up his involvement and frame two other heroes.