This is "Got Me a Secret," a brand-new feature where we look into how superheroes have revealed their secret identities over the years.

We start with the rather unusual case of how Iris found out Barry Allen's identity as the Flash in the Flash comics.

Right from the first appearance of the Barry Allen version of the Flash in Showcase #4 (by Robert Kanigher, Carmine Infantino and Joe Kubert), the set-up between Barry Allen and his girlfriend, Iris West, was established.

Iris would give Barry guff over being late...

And Iris, like almost all girlfriends of guys who are secretly superheroes, would moon over the Flash to Barry (okay, there are also those superhero girlfriends who HATE the hero in his other identity, like Gwen Stacy blaming Spider-Man for the death of her father, but for the most part, girlfriends of superheroes tend to dig their boyfriends' alter egos even more than they dig their boyfriends).

In the case of Iris West, however, since built into the set-up was the fact that Barry Allen would always be late for stuff and always disappearing on her, the comic books tended to almost lean into Iris being a bit of a jerk to Barry. She would complain about him CONSTANTLY. There were plenty of stories where she was a nice person, but most of the time she is giving Barry grief.

A funny recurring gag is that they would often end issues with Iris giving Barry grief. It happened so much that it became its own shtick.

You can practically imagine the stories ending in a freeze frame on the last line by Iris and then the audience all laughing.

Oddly enough, even while she spent most of her time in the comics complaining about Barry, she also was irritated that Barry wasn't proposing to her sooner...

That scene is literally later in the same issue as the one where she's telling him that he never does anything! Why does she want to marry this guy so badly?

In Flash #156, the world learns the Flash's identity, but after he stops the bad guys, he goes back in time to erase everyone's memory of his identity. He first offers Iris the option of NOT erasing her knowledge...

So, simple solution, right? He just tells her when they get married.

However, when they do end up getting married in Flash #165...

Barry seemingly ignores his vow and continues to keep his identity a secret, despite now being married to Iris! Total jerk move, right? He even asks the audience if he's handling it wrong...

He is almost forced to tell her when he ingests a truth serum in the next issue, but he stops himself and then cures the truth serum by the end of the issue, where he continues to wonder what he should do...

He continues to debate the issue, even going so far as to consider giving up his powers when given the opportunity by a cosmic being, because then at least he wouldn't have secret identity problems any more.

Doesn't he just sound like the biggest liar here?

Okay, so almost a year after Barry and Iris got married, the secret came out...in a very bizarre way.

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Even Jay Garrick (whose wife knows his secret identity...granted, Jay didn't wear a mask) was like, "Dude, just tell your wife!" So Barry resolved to let Iris know in Flash #174, which had one of the more amazing Flash covers...

Here he is, resolving to tell her...

Finally, after he defeats the Rogues, he heads home to tell her...

Bizarrely enough, they SKIP OVER him actually telling her and go right to her telling HIM that she found out on their wedding night and has kept it a secret since then!! Thus, Barry sort of DID keep his vow (thanks to my pal Joshua for noting that I should explain the context of the "vow" part).

Also, I think it is unintentional by the creative team on the issue (John Broome, Carmine Infantino and Sid Greene), but did you notice how Barry tells her at their home but then while it LOOKS like they're just continuing their conversation, they are now at a restaurant. So, what, she held off saying whether she would spill his secret until they got to the restaurant? COLD, IRIS! Cold!

What was THAT car ride like?

Okay, that's it for this opening installment of this new feature! Send in suggestions for future editions of Got Me a Secret to brianc@cbr.com!