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[Valerie Perez]
Known Relatives: Manfred Mota (father), unnamed mother
Occupation: Scientist intern
Base of Operations: Keystone City, Kansas(?)
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black
First Appearance: Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #1, August 2006

Valerie Perez had a dream job. Not only was she working as an intern at S.T.A.R. Labs, but her supervisor, Dr. Tina McGee, was studying the speed force. This put her in contact with Bart Allen, on whom she had had a crush since high school, when the former Kid Flash saved her life during a riot.*

It came tumbling down because of her father. Valerie had spent years trying to distance herself from him, but when a bomber targeted the building where she worked, S.T.A.R. subjected all employees to extensive background checks. They learned that her father was Flash foe Manfred Mota, and fired her as a security risk. To make matters worse, her father resurfaced and kidnapped her, ready to kill her in order to regain his own corporeality (Flash: TFMA #4–8, 2006).

After Mota was defeated, Valerie had a brief relationship with Bart. He was killed trying to give her time to reverse the effects of a machine Inertia had built to capture the speed force (Flash: TFMA #13, 2007).

Text by Kelson Vibber. Do not copy without permission.

Top of Page Art

  • Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #11 (June 2007) - Tony Daniel and Art Thibert

Significant Appearances

  • The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #1–6 (August 2006–January 2007): “Lightning in a Bottle,” Danny Bilson & Paul DeMeo
  • The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #7–8 (February–March 2007): “Speedquest,” Danny Bilson & Paul DeMeo
  • The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #9 (April 2007): “Full Throttle Prologue: Split Decision,” Marc Guggenheim
  • The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #11–13 (June–August 2007): “Full Throttle,” Marc Guggenheim
  • All-Flash #1 (September 2007): “Justice, Like Lightning,” Mark Waid (cameo)

Notes

* Valerie says the riot at her high school happened when she was 16, and Bart was already Kid Flash at the time. She is clearly an adult now, and has completed enough education to get a job at S.T.A.R. Labs. One problem: Bart’s been artificially aged. A year ago, he was 16 himself. If she’s supposed to be the same age as he is, 21, then Bart was 12 years old when he saved her. Not exactly crush material for a 16-year-old girl.

However, if we assume that (a) she graduated high school at 16, and (b) she completed an undergraduate degree in 3 years, she could be 19 now. That would make the riot 3 years ago, and Bart 14 at the time—a more reasonable age gap.

This still leaves the problem of when Bart changed from Impulse to Kid Flash. This timeline means that ~30 issues of Teen Titans have to have taken place over two years (14–16), but ~90 issues of Impulse and another 20 or so of Young Justice also took place over two years (12–14), or possibly just one (13–14).