The seminal event in Barry Allen’s life, prior to becoming The Flash, was the murder of his mother. Once he becomes The Flash, Barry has the power to go back in time to prevent his mother’s death. One of Barry’s arch nemesis, Eobard Thon, aka the Reverse Flash, convinces Barry to go back in time and save his mother. The question is: what are the potential consequences of this action? This is the focus of the classic Flash story “The Flashpoint Paradox”.
In game theory, if you know the payoffs in a sequential game you can work backwards to try and manipulate the game. Thon wants to achieve an outcome where Barry causes the end of the world. He knows this will drive Barry mad and that makes Thon happy. To get to this outcome, Thon needs Barry to make specific choices, so he reverse engineers the decisions and nudges Barry down the path that Thon wants him to go. This reverse or backward induction has all the hall marks of a game theory model.
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