Barry Allen, the Silver Age Flash, had a pretty good run - no pun intended. He was one of the most popular superheroes in DC's second wave, bringing the legacy heroes of the universe into the modern day. And he had a very respectable death. During Crisis On Infinite Earths, Barry sacrificed his life to prevent the Anti-Monitor from firing his ultimate weapon that would have deleted the entire universe.
It took twenty-three years for DC to bring Barry back, but they did it. In the interim, former Kid Flash Wally West had been doing a very capable job as the crimson speedster, but Final Crisis did the deed, pulling him out of the Speed Force and having him reclaim his mantle. Admittedly, the new Flash series is one of the best of DC's New 52, but why couldn't it have been Wally? No reason.
