Joe is displayed to hold Barry Allen in high regard. In "Pilot", he covered Barry's tardiness by saying he had him run an errand. It is revealed he is Barry's foster father, after Barry's biological father was convicted of murdering Barry's mother, and has always treated Barry like a son. He tried to talk Barry out of living the life of a superhero only out of concern for his safety, and was deeply hurt when Barry told him he's not his father and has no right telling him what to do to the point that he fought to hold back his tears.
Publication Information
- Flash : Joe West
- Multiverse : Earth One
- Version : The Flash Series
- Known As : Detective Joseph West
- Type :
- Relative :
- Affiliation :
- Gender : Male
- Origin : Central City, United State
- Season : The Flash
- First Appeareance : The Flash Season 1 Episod 1 : Pilot
- Last Appeareance :
- Number of Appeareance :
- Potrayer : Jesse L. Martin
- Main View : Full Episod
Joe, despite having a rather difficult job and witnessing some of the strangest and strongest meta-humans around, is rather good-natured and has a light-hearted sense of humor. He once threatened to "shoot" Barry if he changed one more time for his date, after Barry could not decide what to wear for his date. He is also shown to be noticeably upset when Barry tells him they'd have to reduce how much pizza Barry goes and obtains from another city if Wally were to move in with them.
He can often be seen laughing at many of Cisco's crazy antics, such as Cisco's enlarged cutouts of different members of Team Flash being in awkward positions that were prepared to train Linda Park in order to act as Dr. Light. Perhaps, this is the most differentiating characteristic between Joe and Quentin Lance, who is very similar to Joe, but is often seen being rather pessimistic and foul mannered in general, even before tragedy had struck his life, threatening to shoot Oliver if he had found Oliver and Laurel making out again under his roof.
In many ways, Joe plays the role of the voice of conscience towards Barry, similarly to how John Diggle does for Oliver Queen; though Joe tends to act more of a father figure than a comrade-at-arms, having known Barry as a child. Joe later received encouragement from Eobard Thawne who noted that doubt was what kept Barry from realizing his true potential; and Barry cannot believe in himself if Joe, the man who acted as his surrogate father, has no faith in him. This led to Joe acknowledging that there are things and limits to what everyone can do and that Barry is no longer the boy he protected since childhood.
Joe is known to let his job as a police detective blind him, like after Nora was murdered, he willingly believed the idea that Henry Allen, his good friend was a murderer, when he should have realized that Henry would never kill his wife, no matter what the situation was. 14 years after the fact, Joe finds out that Henry is in fact innocent, and goes to visit his friend in jail for the first time since he had been incarcerated. He admits to Henry that he feels ashamed for not believing in his friend's innocence. He apologized to his friend, but Joe was hurt when Henry was cold to him. However, he knows he deserves it for not believing in his friend's innocence, and tell Henry he now believes he is innocent and vowed to get him out sooner or later.
Joe can sometimes be stubborn, like when Barry told him that Clyde Mardon was alive and that he gained the power to control the weather, even when there was some evidence to back up Barry's statements, he still refused to believe Barry, only to find out the hard way that his foster son was right. Despite his stubbornness, Joe is not above apologizing or admitting when he is wrong.
Joe also seems to hold grudges. As when the Harrison Wells from Earth Two showed up, Joe didn't trust him and constantly insulted him for the actions that weren't even from his Earth One counterpart. It wasn't until he realized that Harry was willing to do anything for his daughter that Joe stopped comparing Earth Two Harry to Eobard Thawne. As a result, the two started to form a trusting friendship based on their love for their children. Due to his protective streak when Barry is concerned, Joe is willing to break the law for him as seen when he was about to plant evidence at the DeVoe house to save Barry from going to jail for having been framed for Clifford DeVoe's murder. Joe is only stopped when Ralph Dibny talked him out it.
Supporting Barry's heroics
Thirteen years later, Joe was at a crime scene with his partner, Detective Chyre, were assigned to a robbery at a bank in Central City. They discovered it was the work of the Mardon brothers, and after discovering that they'd escaped to one of several farms, they visited each farm. At the last farm, they discovered Clyde Mardon. He began shooting at them as he ran away, hitting Chyre in the neck. Also, before he could escape, Mardon's plane was blown to pieces by a shock-wave from the explosion of S.T.A.R. Labs' particle accelerator. On the same night, Barry Allen, Joe's foster son, was struck by lightning, putting him in to a coma.
Potential futures
In 2024, in one potential timeline, Joe became the Chief of the Central City Police Department. In one potential future, it was revealed that Joe will be honored at City Hall. Barry read this out when him and Cisco vibed to the future and H.R. Wells wrote it as headlines.
Abilities
- High-level intellect / Expert detective : As a police detective of the Central City Police Department, Joe has proven himself a highly skilled detective and has been in the line of duty for a number of years. Repeatedly, Joe has shown very sharp and trust-worthy instincts, being one of few people who was able to see through Reverse-Flash's deception as Harrison Wells, which the speedster openly complemented him for.
- Expert hand-to-hand combatant : As a police detective, Joe is an expert in hand-to-hand combat. He is also apparently a capable teacher, having effectively taught Iris how to defend herself.
- Expert marksman / Firearms : As a police detective, Joe is skilled in the use of firearms.
- Police training : Joe has received training, as all Central City Police Department members do.
- Expert driver : Joe is capable of driving a car.
- Expert of deception : Joe is very proficient at telling lies and avoiding the truth. He even lied to his daughter Iris, by telling her that her mother was dead when in fact she had only left because of her drug addiction.
- Skilled torturer : Joe was able to torture information out of Alchemy's Acolyte.
- Guns : Joe is very proficient in using guns.
- Handcuffs : Joe carries handcuffs whenever he is out on patrol.
- Firearms :
- Main Article : Joseph West (Earth Two)
