Don Allen
2969 - Don Allen & Dawn Allen, the twins of Iris Allen & her deceased husband Barry Allen, are born on the moon.
2985 - 16-year-old Don begins training as a science police office in the academy.
2987 - 18-year-old Don's sister Dawn Allen attends Metropolis University, studying tachyon theory.
2989 - 20-year-old Don Allen's niece Jenni Ognats is born, with no apparent connection to the speed force.
2990 - 21-year-old Don becomes a full officer in the science police. He is partnered with Meloni Thawne.
2992 - 23-year-old Don begins sleeping with his partner Meloni Thawne.
2993 - 24-year-old Don's sister Dawn Allen earns her doctorate in tachyon theory.
2995 - 26-year-old Don & Meloni Thawne's son Bart Allen is born with hyper-accelerated metabolism, threatening to kill him of old age in a matter of a few years. Dawn Allen designing a virtual reality environment to keep up with him.
2997 - 28-year-old Don & Meloni Thawne, at the suggestion of Dawn Allen, bring their son Bart Allen to the Legion of Super Heroes to try to find a solution to his hyper-acceleration. Querl Dox is able to determine that he can be sent back in time to meet Wally West. Don & Meloni are heartbroken but agree to do so to save their son's life.
3003 - 34-year-old Don & Meloni Thawne move to Earth to join the resistance against the Dominators, trying to track his sister Dawn Allen and her family, Jenni Ognats & Jeven Ognats who have been taken captive.
3005 - 36-year-old Don, Iris Allen & Meloni Thawne help free Dawn Allen, Jenni Ognats & Jeven Ognats from Dominator captivity. Jenni then goes on to help the Legion of Super Heroes & the Green Lantern Corps free Earth.
3006 - 37-year-old Don's niece Jenni Ognats joins the Legion of Super Heroes. He attends her induction ceremony.
Believe it or not, the thing we spent the most time mulling over with these two is their name. We originally had Iris using the name West-Allen, which meant these two would have done the same... but Bart isn't West-Allen, is he? If HE'S Bart Allen, then his parents really had to do the same, so it made more sense for us to just go back and make EVERYONE ALLEN. We also considered making Don actually Barry Jr, since he's born right after the death of his father and it does make sense for Iris to give her son his dad's name... and we really weren't sold on the idea of twins named Don & Dawn... but the reality is, that IS their name, and it does have a fun amount of theatricality to it, so in the end we just decided to embrace it.
Don Allen's Comic HistoryThe Tornado Twins, Don & Dawn Allen, appeared in a really great single Legion of Superheroes story from Adventure Comic #373 in 1968. They twins started showing up to crimes and disasters and saving the day before the Legion ever arrived, all while displaying some truly impressive powers, showing up the Legion like they were so much cooler than them they couldn't be bothered. Don even gets into a fistfight with Karate Kid. It's great. Eventually they reveal that they are descendants of Barry Allen who were granted temporary access to his powers. The twins were referenced a few more times before we saw them dying during the Dominator Invasion in the five years later time jump Legion story in 1991.
Later on, when Mark Waid was working on Wally Wests story in the Flash, he introduces a new version of the twins; this time, they are the actual children of Barry Allen & Iris, born in the 30th century in the months after they both retired there, before Barry returned to our timeline and died during the first Crisis. These twins lived in a time when super heroics were outlawed, but once they met Wally during some time travel shenanigans, they decided to start secretly fighting crime anyway, serving as inspiration for what would one day become the Legion. These characters would each one day have children that would become heroes all their own, with Dawn's daughter Jenni becoming XS of the Legion, and Don's son Bart becoming Impulse. |
|
|
Our Don Allen StoryI actually really love the take on the Tornado Twins that appeared in that classic Legion story, but the real utility of these two comes from their role in the larger legacy of the speedsters. We COULD depict them having heroic adventures of their own, but for the purposes of our story, we actually like it better if they had civilian lives.
For Don, we knew that he would wound up marrying Meloni Thawne. Our timeline doesn't actually allow us for Thawne to be a direct descendant of the Reverse Flash and for their relationship to be the end of a generational feud between the Allen's & Thawnes... but lets be honest, it's a thousand years. That's a DUMB amount of time for a feud to exists. Instead we just made it a fun detail that Meloni's name happens to be Thawne. We decided to make them partners in the Science Police, a career that would give Don a chance to honor his father's heroic legacy even though he doesn't have powers of his own. Of course, the main story we see play out with Don is the tragedy of having to send his son back in time to save his life. It's a singular story and one that I think would be really heartbreaking to see told. |