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Bart Allen’s Characterization, as per his CREATOR. | Dare I say, the Bart Allen post, to end all Bart Allen posts? |
Bart Allen is a character that is so often badly characterized that most people out there have no idea what he’s like. He’s constantly characterized as essentially a 7-year-old, and was even believed by some fans to be only 10-years-old to 12-years-old when his solo started. This is not the case, as while he arrived as a 12-year-old at the very beginning of his first appearance, his struggle was that he aged rapidly, meaning that by the end of that fiasco, his age settled at the age of 15-years-old.
This isn’t even close to the only misconception about Mister Bartholomew Henry Allen the second. As due to later writers consistently infantilizing this once magnificent representation of a teenager with ADHD, that had fun dynamics as a fish out of water, his original personality is something that many Bart Allen fans wish would come back from the war once again. It was what allowed Bart to be an initially popular character, that had a decently lasting solo series, that was eventually slowly killed by bad characterization and infantilization.
Heck, it’s hard to begin to know where to start since there’s so many misconceptions about what was intended by his creator. I’m going to do my best, though, as I am one of those many that wish for Bart’s original characterization to come back. He’s not a hyper little boy as people think (Again, he was never 10-years-old. They just didn’t care to draw him properly when he returned. And his return panel is so widely shared these days). He’s actually the most teenagery teenager that’s ever existed.
So I’m going to start with the first issue of his solo series and go from there. I’m using the first ten issues of his solo as my line of research, since by then his characterization is readily fleshed out, and you can understand a lot of his true depth.
Also, this is going to be super long, but if you want to know Bart’s character like a pro-Bart-Allen-Er (?) this is the post for you.
What makes Bart unique, and what’s Bart like at school?
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