Owner: Keystone City Council
Designation: Public Museum
Affiliation: The Flash
First Appearance:
~ The Flash #154 (August 1965)(Central City Museum)
~ The Flash #208 (May 2004)(Keystone City Museum)
Brief:
The Flash Museum is a public museum dedicated to the superhero The Flash.
Originally located in Central City and later rebuilt in Keystone City, the museum features various exhibits on the Flash; including depictions of his various battles and his rogue's gallery of foes.
In addition to the exhibits, the Flash Museum also houses a vast storage of various artefacts and weaponry that the Flash has encountered in his adventures.
Originally, the museum was founded to honour the achievements of Barry Allen, the first Flash of the modern era and stalwart member of the Justice League of America. As years passed, the museum began also showcasing materials related to the original Flash, Jay Garrick, as well as Barry's protege and successor, Wally West and Kid Flash Bart Allen.
The museum contains such exhibits as a Flash Timeline, a Gorilla City habitat, and an IMAX Theater that runs the Johnny Chambers' documentary "The Golden Age". With gift shops by the exit, all proceeds go towards helping the homeless in Keystone and Central City.
History:
Less than a year into Barry Allen’s career as the Flash, the grateful citizens of Central City raised the money to establish the Flash Museum. The museum, built in Central City where Barry operated, would celebrate the career of the city’s resident champion, at first housing mainly mementos from his cases, but over time expanding into more and more types of exhibits.
Much of the museum’s popularity can be attributed to its curator Dexter Myles. The retired actor started as a guide, but his stirring renditions of the stories behind the exhibits were so popular that he quickly became its curator—a job he holds to this day.
Meanwhile, the museum was expanding, collecting the Rogues’ costumes and weapons and displaying the adventures of both Flash and Kid Flash. With the reappearance of Keystone City, an exhibit dedicated to the original scarlet speedster, Jay Garrick, was added, and after Barry Allen's death, it was decided to follow the careers of all the speedsters.
As a monument to the Flash, the Flash Museum has been nearly destroyed on several occasions; the Pied Piper hypnotized three people into vandalizing it during the lead-up to the Flash (Barry Allen)’s murder trial. It was later severely damaged in a battle between Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), Darkstar and Eobard Thawn; who at the time was posing as Flash (Barry Allen). Cobalt Blue nearly completely destroyed the building in his opening attacks on the Allen-West legacy and it was completely destroyed in an accident when Hunter Zolomon attempted to activate the Cosmic Treadmill.
After this last collapse, the museum was rebuilt on a new site in Keystone City; where the then-current Flash (Wally West) was operating. While suffering some minor damage due to a battle between Gorilla Grodd and Flash (Wally West) just before its opening, the museum remained intact throughout Infinite Crisis.
Following his return from the planet Solovan, Flash (Wally West) hunted down Inertia in vengeance for the death of Bart Allen and stole all of the villain's speed; leaving him frozen in place as a statue in the Bart Allen wing of the Flash Museum until he was forced to remove him when a mob, driven to hysterics by Gorilla Grodd shortly before the Final Crisis, set the museum on fire.
The Flash Museum is shown to still exist in the 25th and 30th centuries. By the later era, the museum contains exhibits on the many Flashes of the previous 1,000 years. The new curators are a pair of robots named Dexter and Myles.
However, following the Dominator invasion that occurred about 15 years before the Legion of Superheroes are formed, the Flash Museum is shown to be a derelict wreck. This is because the current President of Earth, President Thawne, despises the Allen genealogical line. Despite this, it hosts the functioning Cosmic Treadmill.
Central City Museum
Keystone City Museum
Trivia[]
- One of the museum's most infamous items is the Cosmic Treadmill, which the Flash uses to open worm-holes in the Speed Force and travel through time.
- The museum's curator since its founding was Dexter Myles, a former Shakespearean actor given the job by Barry Allen after his assistance in foiling a robbery.
- Following its rebuilding in Keystone, the museum received a mural donated by Bruce Wayne.
- Following the death of Bart Allen, Wally West caught Inertia and removed all kinetic energy from the villain's body; keeping him trapped as a statue of himself to be kept in Bart Allen's wing of the museum. Inertia would later be freed by Hunter Zoloman.
- Following the Infinite Crisis and prior to his own suicide attempt, ex-superhero Ralph Dibny donated everything that his murdered wife, Sue Dibny, and himself owned to the museum.
- During his tenor as the city's protector, Walter West operated from beneath a lightning-shaped obelisk in front of the museum.
- The museum possesses a safe that holds the more dangerous tech and weapons that the Flashes uncover in their adventures.