There's an old saying, "behind every great man is a great woman". For Iris West, that kind of thing just isn't going to play. Maybe some of the other hero's partners are happy to stay behind and let their love go save the city, but Iris isn't about to let Flash have all the fun. She may not have powers, but that's never stopped her from being there for the big fights. Like Iris says, "we are the Flash".
The life story of Iris West is one filled with lots of love, plenty of tragedy, and some really wild twists and turns. A reporter by training and a hero by design, Iris West has acted as the matriarch of the Flash Family for years, being married to one Flash and the aunt of another. Without Iris, it's possible there would be no Flash today.
10 The First Life
In the time before the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Iris West was raised by Ira and Nadine West in Central City. Ira, a Nobel prize-winning physicist, was often aloof, his mind lost in his work, but Nadine was there for her three children. Iris was the baby, with Rudy and Charlotte being her older siblings. Unlike her siblings, Iris enjoyed learning, something that Ira helped her with. Iris was sent to the best schools and traveled the world to learn all she could.
9 The Secret Revealed In Sleep
Iris West and Barry Allen were in love long before Barry gained his powers. Becoming the Flash, Barry chose to keep his secret from Iris and when Iris's nephew Wally West became Kid Flash, Barry made him promise to keep it a secret from his aunt. Iris and Barry married, but he still kept his life as the Scarlet Speedster a secret from her.
Barry may never have told his wife the truth, but his mouth was too fast for him. During their honeymoon, as he slept, Barry started to mumble. Iris listened closely and heard him say "I am the Flash". Knowing the truth, Iris would keep it to herself for a while before telling Barry.
8 The Truth
While Iris didn't mind that her new husband had kept such an important part of his life from her, she wasn't able to forgive her parents for their secret quite as easily. One day, going through her father's papers, Iris learned that she was not Ira and Nadine's biological child, but one they adopted from another family. Even more shocking, her biological parents lived a thousand years in the future. Learning the truth, Iris's relationship with her adopted parents became strained, but she decided not to tell her siblings what she learned.
7 Killed In Costume
The rivalry between Flash and Reverse-Flash had been ongoing for years, but Eobard Thawne had never stooped to the level he would on one fateful night. Reverse-Flash was in love with Iris and demanded that she choose - him or Flash. He then used a hypnotic device to make Iris forget that he had come to her, but the question would exist in her subconscious for twenty-four hours.
The next night, Barry and Iris went to a costume party. The couple had planned to attend as Batman and Batgirl, but the costume shop didn't have a Batman suit, so Barry just went as Flash. At the party, Reverse-Flash appeared to Iris and demanded an answer to his question. When Iris refused to leave her husband for him, Reverse-Flash vibrated his fingers into her skull, killing her.
6 The Second Life
Barry Allen was distraught. His wife, the love of his life, was dead, killed by his greatest enemy. Even Captain Cold and the other Rogues would have never of gone so far as murder. But what Flash didn't know was that Iris was, in fact, alive. Iris's biological parents, living a thousand years in the future, knew what would happen to their daughter, and a moment before Reverse-Flash killed her, they pulled her soul from the present and brought it to the future where it was put into a cloned body of Iris.
5 Back From The Future
After a number of his own tragedies, Flash joined his wife in the future and together they had two children, twins named Don and Dawn. Not long after the birth of the twins, Flash was called to action during the Crisis on Infinite Earths, during which he sacrificed his life to save the Multiverse. Don and Dawn were born with their father's power and soon became the Tornado Twins. They each had children of their own before they were killed by the Dominators. In a relatively short amount of time, Iris West watched her husband and two children die. When the government used Don's son Bart for scientific experiments, Iris stole him away and brought him to the past so that her nephew, Wally West, could help.
4 Lovers Reunited
Iris settled into her new life in the present, watching as her nephew carried on the legacy of the Flash and her grandson took on the name Impulse and became a hero in his own right. While the speedsters kept the world safe, Iris wrote her book, The Life Story of the Flash, telling the world about her husband and the life he led.
But when it comes to superheroes, they never stay dead for long. And while Barry Allen had been gone for a long time, he did indeed return, and the moment he did, the first thing he did was run to the arms of the woman he loved. Neither time nor death can keep Iris West and Barry Allen apart.
3 The Third Life
When Barry Allen went back in time to save his mother's life, he inadvertently created an alternate timeline called Flashpoint. Upon his return to the real DC Universe, things had changed thanks to the unseen hand of Doctor Manhattan. One major change in the lives of the Flash Family was Iris West's past. Iris now had two brothers, Rudy and Daniel, and their father was an abusive man named William. Despite it all, Iris still became a reporter and still fell in love with Barry Allen. Daniel would become a new Reverse-Flash and his son, Wallace, would become a new Kid Flash.
2 Memories Return
One person who vanished in part because of Doctor Manhattan was Wally West. When he returned to the universe in the DC Rebirth, Iris West's memories of her previous life started to come back to her. She remembered being married to Barry Allen and being from the future. Worst of all, she remembered being murdered by Reverse-Flash.
When Iris learned that Barry and Wally chose to keep his return a secret from her, Iris didn't handle it well. She had grown tired of people deciding what she should and shouldn't know about her own life, and she wasn't about to let it happen again. Under her watch, Iris would keep the younger members of the Flash Family safe, but she would never let anyone tell her what to do.
1 Revenge
Reverse-Flash, as he often does, reared his ugly head and came after the Flash Family again, Iris wasn't going to idly sit by. Seeing the man who once murdered her almost kill her nephew, Wallace West, Iris did the only thing she could; she killed Eobard Thawne. For a time, Iris would refuse to have anything to do with Flash, but before long she couldn't deny her true feelings for Barry and the two got back together. Unfortunately for them, Reverse-Flash returned and created the Legion of Zoom, but this time, the Flash Family was stronger than ever.