The CW’s latest episode of The Flash introduced a new villain of the week that wasn’t killed by the end of the episode, and Warner Bros. once again sprinkled in nods and references to DC Comics’s The Flash and DCU once again.
LET’S ALL GO TO THE MOVIES
Did you catch the feature Barry and iris went to see this week? “Blue Devil II – Hell to Pay, the Rita Farr Story” refers to two DC Characters. The first is The Blue Devil, aka Daniel Patrick Cassidey, a special effects specialist and stuntman who was wearing a costume for the movie Blue Devil, when a freak accident fused him with the exoskeleton of the suit and turning him into the real life Blue Devil. The Blue Devil was created in 1984 by Dan Mishkin, Gary Cohn and Paris Cullins, and he first appeared in Fury of Firestorm #24. On television, the Blue Devil movie first appeared in the CW series, Arrow, and apparently it was so popular that the studio decided a second flick needed to be made.
The other character referenced in the movie sign is Rita Farr, you know her as Elasti-Girl from the Doom Patrol. In the DCU, Rita is an Olympic swimming medalist turned Hollywood actress, who was turned into Elasti-Girl when she inhaled volcanic gas while shooting on location in Africa. Created by Bob Haney, Arnold Drake and Bruno Premiani in 1963, Rita joined the Doom Patrol in My Greatest Adventure #80.
FIRESTORM AGAIN
This week, Ronnie Raymond finally gets a face in form of actor Robbie Amell. Since we know we will be seeing his face again (in one form or another) as Firestorm, it’s probably a good idea to point out a few things about the real Mr. Raymond. In his original incarnation, Ronnie was a high school student who was caught in a nuclear blast with Nobel Prize-winning physicist Martin Stein (to be played by Victor Garber). In the comics, Ronnie was the one who controlled the Firestorm body with Dr. Stein serving as a disembodied voice sharing information and talking with Ronnie. Ronnie Raymond was created by Gerry Conway and Al Milgrom in Firestorm, The Nuclear Man in March of 1978.
The smart guys and gals over at The Outhousers noticed that the entrance to the containment facility looks an awful lot like Firestorm’s logo. Good catch!
THE MIST
The monster of the week in this episode doesn’t die at the end, which allows Warner Bros. to bring him back as needed. The Mist, as created by Gardner Fox in Adventure Comics #67 (October 1941), was originally the enemy of the Golden Age Sandman. In his origin story, Kyle fought in World War I as part of the Canadian Army, and as a scientist, created a formula to turn himself into gas. It wasn’t until the 1980s Starman series that The Mist took on the name Nimbus, thus giving us the full name of our villain this week as Kyle Nimbus.
WHAT’S IN A NAME
Those that follow me on Twitter (@MajorSpoilers), may have already seen me question the full name of Dr. Harrison Wells. The fact that he has access to footage and newspapers from The Future, and his comment about waiting for centuries to turn on the particle accelerator has me convinced that the name is a false one used as an homage to H.G. Wells (the author of The Time Machine), and we are really seeing Abra Kadabra, the magician/scientist from the 64th century. I don’t think he will be revealed to be Professor Zoom, as Detective Eddie Thawne is the “real” name of the future Professor Zoom. Considering Warner Bros. and The CW are playing a little loose with characters that appear here, we may be seeing a clever ruse to throw fans off their tracks.
BIG BELLY BURGER
Yet another crossover from The CW’s Arrow series, Big Belly Burger is another one of those famous food chains from the DCU. The restaurant was founded in Coast City and thanks to parent company LexCorp was able to spread across the United States. Fans of Superman: The Animated Series probably remember the chain being dropped in at least one episode, but the first appearance of the hamburger joint happened in Adventures of Superman #441 in June of 1988 in the story “The Tiny Terror of Tinseltown”. The issue was written by John Byrne with art by Jerry Ordway.
CENTRAL CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT
This episode made a couple of references to comic book officers of Central City. First up is officer Paulson, who many may recognize as Chief Harvey Paulson, who held the office in seven issues of The Flash. He was created by Cary Bates and Alex Saviuk and appeared in The Flash #273 in 1979.
The other you have to really dig deep for. Barry is asked for the report from the Orloff case. Pytor Orloff is the bio-geneticist who helped develop the Red Trinity, three Russian superspeedsters. Orloff first appeared in December 1987 in the pages of Flash Vol. 2 #7 written by Mike Baron with art by Jackson Guice.
THE FLASH MUSEUM
Did you hear Barry say he didn’t want a museum made in his name? Of course you did, you were hanging on to every word uttered in this episode, just like me. While Barry may not want a Flash Museum, it is indeed a real place in the DCU.
The museum features various exhibits about the Flash, including his battles and his rogues gallery of foes. The museum also contains a working cosmic treadmill, the device that allows Flash to travel to other dimensions and across time. In addition to the exhibits, the Flash Museum houses a vast storage of various artifacts and weaponry that the Flash has encountered. Depending on the story, some of these weapons are actually part of public exhibits, and are occasionally used during a fight.
It wouldn’t surprise me if we see a character by the name of Dexter Myles appear in this show at some point. Dexter Myles is the actor turned curator of the Flash Museum. The building first appeared in The Flash #154 in August 1965.
BLUR MY FACE
Like Superman, Barry Allen and other speedsters have routinely vibrated their faces, which results in witnesses not being able to easily identify who is under the mask. It also makes all photos of the heroes come out blurry.
LEVEL 52
The particle accelerator is on level 52 of STAR Labs. DC Comics New 52 was a huge event and turned the company around by rebooting their entire slate of heroes… except for Grant Morrison’s Batman, Inc., the events of Blackest Night, and Hawkman… because no one can get his history figured out.
ARCHIVE DATE
The interrogation date of Barry’s father is March 10, 2000. March 10 was a Friday, so it isn’t tied to New Comic Book Day (the best day of the week).
A quick Google search results in pointers to the DC Comics Millennium event, which reprinted old issues of DC Comics. The real kicker for me, and the only reason I’m bringing this up here was the Flash issue that was released in March featured one Abra Kadabra….
DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUN!
I hope you enjoyed this week’s look at The Flash. What did you miss? What did I miss? Use the comment section below!
3 Comments
I’m really hoping they’ll work Blue Devil in as a character at some point rather than just a movie series within the setting of the Arrow/Flash world.
Not sure if you noticed, but when Caitlin is talking about Ronnie, she mentions they “were very different, like Ice and Fire.”
Nice reference since she is supposed to be Killer Frost and Ronnie is supposed to be Firestorm :)
Yup, I did catch that. Thanks for your comment!