Top 5 superheroes with the most tragic origin stories

4. The Flash

We’ve already talked about how the superheroes’ actions after becoming heroes don’t necessarily count towards their tragic backstories (because they didn’t shape them into the superheroes they ultimately became), so Barry Allen’s multiple timeline resets don’t count here… tragic as some of them were.

Barry’s mother died at a young age at the hands of his future rival Eobard Thawne (a.k.a. the Reverse-Flash). To add to Barry’s misery, his father was wrongfully convicted of the murder and wrongfully sent to prison.

As we have seen through flashbacks various flashbacks on The CW TV series The Flash, Barry had a fairly up-and-down relationship with Joe West – the man who took him and cared for him. He had the cliche “you’re not my real dad” moment with him but things were ultimately resolved and the pair formed quite the bond.

The more troubling part of his new family was that he was secretly in love with Iris, meaning the he had to repress how he felt about his best friend since he now lived with her… but since Iris inevitably became Iris West-Allen in the future, it’s clear that his affection for her never wavered.

Going to back to the Reverse-Flash however, Barry was struck by lightning as a young man, fell into a coma and very nearly died… until Reverse-Flash came along and kept Barry alive.

Then in an unforgivable twist, the villain trained Barry in disguise, pretended to bond with him – all just to use him so that he could get back to his time. To get played for that long definitely hurt Barry and built his anger and disgust towards Eobard Thawne.