On the hit CW television series The Flash, Barry Allen has been framed for the murder of Clifford DeVoe (who is secretly alive, having transferred his brain to the body of another metahuman), and he is about to stand trial for the capital crime. This, of course, is a reference to a classic DC Comics arc from the 1980s that lasted for well over two years and encompassed the final storyline in Barry Allen's original ongoing series. Read on to learn the story of how Barry Allen came to be place on trial back in the 1980s and what happened in the comics.

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It all started with 1979's The Flash #275 (by Cary Bates, Alex Saviuk and Frank Chiaramonte), which has to be one of the strangest major character deaths in comic book history. First of all, it takes place at a costume party, with Barry amusingly dressed as The Flash and his wife, Iris West-Allen, dressed as Batgirl. At the end of the issue, both Barry and Iris are in bad shape (Barry had just been dosed with angel dust), so we don't even know who died until the next issue!

The Flash

Obviously, we soon learn that it was Iris who died. Barry was still dealing with the effects of the angel dust, so he handled it very poorly. He even fought against his own Justice League teammates while dealing with the tragedy. He had just started to get his life back together when, in Flash #283 (by Bates, Don Heck and Frank Chiaramonte), we learned that it was the Reverse Flash that had murdered Iris!

The Flash

After a big fight through multiple dimensions, the Flash abandoned the Reverse Flash (also known as Eobard Thawne and also known as Professor Zoom) in another dimension...

The Flash

The Flash made his way back home and he appeared to finally be moving forward with his life. He eventually even met a new love interest, Fiona Webb (the name that Beverely Lewis was given when she entered into the Witness Relocation Program). He ultimately proposed to Fiona and they got engaged. They planned to marry quickly. By this time, legendary Flash artist Carmine Infantino had returned to the series for the first time in years and had become the regular artist again. In Flash #323 (by Bates, Infantino and inker Rodin Rodriguez), Barry learned that Thawne had somehow escaped his dimensional prison and was slowly making his plans to screw with Barry once more.

Barry ended up having to stand Fiona up at their wedding while he was off fighting Zoom!

The Flash

Their battle took up most of the next issue, while Fiona was having a breakdown over being left at the altar by Barry. Then, Barry learned Zoom's plan - he was going to kill Barry's wife (well, soon-to-be wife) again! Zoom is one twisted dude.

Barry, though, managed to catch up with Zoom before he managed to kill Fiona, but in the process, Zoom's neck was snapped!

The Flash
The Flash
The Flash
The Flash

Fiona was spared, the villain was dead, if there were any justice in the world, any ramifications from Barry's actions would stop there.

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In the following issue, the district attorney decided to charge the Flash with manslaughter. In the next issue, the Flash was arrested.

The Flash

In Flash #327, the grand jury decided to indict the Flash. Meanwhile, his Justice League teammates decide on whether he will be kicked out of the League due to him killing the Reverse Flash. The League is shockingly kind of half-assed about it. They don't even have the whole roster come in to vote on the topic. In the end, Superman is the deciding vote. The issue ends with a cliffhanger. Then, in one of the boldiest (or perhaps irritating?) moves imaginable, the next issue opens with Superman about to make his decision and then the rest of the issue if a reprint of a classic Silver Age Flash/Reverse Flash issue, with the issue ending with a second cliffhanger that was the same cliffhanger as the previous issue! Yes, Superman seriously ended one issue with "This is my decision" and then the next issue also ended with "This is my decision."

In Flash #329, Superman votes against automatic expulsion, but if the Flash is found guilty, he still gets kicked off of the team. Flash, rightly so, tells the team, "Yeah, sure, I can't exactly be worried about this right now." The Flash hires an old friend of Barry Allen, Peter Farley, as his lawyer. Meanwhile, we see that Fiona has seriously snapped from the effects of Barry's disappearance and is now in a mental institution, where Barry's parents visit her and she is not doing well. Meanwhile, he has had to ditch his Barry Allen identity all together while all of this is going on.

The Flash

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The next couple of issues were mostly unrelated to the trial, but then in Flash #332, someone tries to kill the Flash's lawyer. The Flash saves him from dying, but he is still badly injured.

The Flash

Peter's partner agrees to take on the case with her partner out of commission, but she lets Flash know that she is doing it begrudgingly in Flash #333 (meanwhile, the underhanded defense attorney, N.D. Redik, wants the case badly, but Flash won't accept him).

The Flash

Cecile Horton also almost died in an explosion by some goons hired by Redik to eliminate the competition (the dead woman is not Horton).

The Flash

Through all of this, the Rogues have been using all of their powers to turn Central City's views against the Flash. So public sentiment is not in the Flash's favor at the moment. After defeating the Pied Piper, the Piper also suffers a nervous breakdown and the Rogues blame the Flash. They create a super-powerful new villain called Big Sir to punish the Flash. The Flash manages to convince Big Sir to not attack him. This brings us to Flash #340, now 17 issues into the storyline and the trial has finally begun! Oh, by the way, the charges were re-filed and now the Flash was on trial for second-degree murder!

The Rogues, though, brainwash Big Sir and force him to attack the Flash again (yes, we are spending an awful lot of time on Big Sir) and Big Sir beats the Flash nearly to death, leaving him barely recognizable as Barry Allen anymore.

The Flash

King Solovar uses the technology of Gorilla City to heal Barry's injuries. Around the same time, Barry learns why his lawyer hates him. She was convinced by a supervillain, Goldface, that the Flash had called Goldface's bluff on an ultimatum and her father was killed when Goldface carried through on his threat. She ultimately learns that Goldface lied about the whole thing and she reconciles with the Flash.

The Flash

In the next issue, Wally West, Kid Flash, is subpoenaed to testify against the Flash. Most of this issue was also reprints of old Flash/Kid Flash stories, but it ends with Wally testifying that it was not necessary for Flash to kill the Reverse Flash!

The Flash

Things were not looking good for the Scarlet Speedster...

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Cecile finds out that the Flash is Barry Allen, and tries to use that to help him win the case (figuring the jury wouldn't find against a guy who is saving his second wife from being murdered by the guy who murdered his first wife), but Barry outsmarts her and gets plastic surgery to disguise his identity. The Reverse Flash then seems to show up alive!

Then, in Flash #348, a verdict is reached - guilty!

The Flash

However, as it turns out, the return of the Reverse Flash and the guilty verdict were both caused by the villain from the future, Abra-Kadrabra, who pretended to be the Reverse Flash and also hypnotized the jury into finding the Flash guilty.

As it turned out, though, one of the other jurors was intent on fixing things. You see, this juror was also from the future, but while he looked like a middle age man, he was actually someone close to Barry...

The Flash

Yep, Iris wasn't actually dead! You see, years earlier, we had learned that Iris was born into the future and was sent into the past. So when she died, her birth parents just rescued her soul/essence/whatever and transported it to the future to a new body. They then sent her back in time to clear Barry's name. She suceeded and, once Abra-Kadabra's involvement was revealed, the Flash was cleared of the guilty verdict.

Of course, by this point in time, Barry had just went off into the future to live with the resurrected Iris happily ever after, as the Flash series ended with Flash #350.

Oh, did we say "happily ever after?" Oh, right, yeah, about that, right after this, Barry had to travel back to the present because of Crisis on Infinite Earths and he died saving the universe in Crisis on Infinite Earths #8, which came out a mere month after Flash #350.

Crisis on Infinite Earths

But hey, at least he wasn't really convicted of murder!

Time will tell what fate awaits the TV version of Barry Allen in his trial.