Flash Back: Going Rogue (S1E4)

Another great episode of The Flash aired last night on The CW, and we have studied the episode frame by frame and bring you another rundown of the Easter eggs and possible spoilers you may have missed during the episode.

Blackhawk Squad Security

The Blackhawks were created by Chuck Cuidera, Bob Powell, and Will Eisner in  August, 1941 (Military Comics #1) as a rag tag group of pilots who worked from a hidden military base fighting tyranny and oppression around the world.

At the height of his popularity in the early-1940s, Blackhawk titles routinely outsold every other comic book but Superman. Blackhawk also shares the unique distinction of being just one of four comic book characters to be published continuously from the 1940s through the 1960s (the others being Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman)

Blackhawk Squad Security in the television universe first appeared in the first season episode of The Arrow (Trust But Verify). Which is a nice tie-in to the series that spun-off The Flash.

Felicity Smoak

Also appearing from The Arrow this week is Felicity Smoak played by Canadian actress, Emily Bett Rickards.  In the comics, Felicity Smoak first appeared in The Fury of Firestorm #23 (May 1984) as the step-mother to Ronnie Raymond (Firestorm).  It’s really weird how often Firestorm references pop up in this television series.

In Arrow, Felicity Smoak is the socially awkward but brilliant IT girl at Queen Industries who Oliver comes to rely on for her technical expertise. Eventually, she is introduced to Oliver’s inner circle and becomes integrated into his vigilante efforts as an expert hacker and technology expert. She is also seen having a flirtatious relationship with Oliver as well as with Barry Allen.

Felicity Smoak was created by Gerry Conway and Rafael Kayanan.

Kahndaq Diamond

If you are a fan of Shazam, you know Black Adam calls the country his home. Located in Africa between Egypt and Israel, Kahndaq has been referenced or appeared in 59 stories throughout the DCU, with the first mention of the country in Hawkman #19 (November 01, 2003).

The capital city of Kahndaq is called Shiruta, named after Black Adam’s deceased first wife. Its flag consists of three horizontal, black and white stripes combined with three golden pyramids, each representing a dead member of Adam’s family. At least one of its official languages, as seen in 52 #14, is Arabic.

The Rogues

This week’s episode gives us the start of Flash’s most notorious group of villains – the Rogues. The team of villains have varied depending on which Flash is currently in use, but typically we see Captain Cold, Mirror Master, Heat Wave, Weather Wizard, The Trickster, Pied Piper, the Top and Captain Boomerang among the regulars.

The Weather Wizard appeared in the pilot episode of the series.

Captain Cold

Leonard Snart (aka Captain Cold) first appeared in Showcase #8 (June 1957). He was created by John Broome and Carmine Infantino, and was The Flash’s second supervillain – even though he doesn’t have any super powers, instead relies on technology – his cold gun – to commit his crimes.  The character in comics varies quite a bit from the television show appearance. Instead of being a thief who never finished high school, the comic version of Snart has him designing and building his cold gun.

Snart read an article that theorized that the energy emissions of a cyclotron could interfere with the Flash’s speed. He designed a weapon to harness that power and broke into a cyclotron lab, intending to use the device to charge up his experimental gun. As he was finishing his experiment, a security guard surprised Snart. Intending to use his gun only to scare the guard, he inadvertently pulled the trigger and discovered that his weapon had been altered in a way he had never imagined. The moisture in the air around the guard froze. Intrigued by this twist of fate, Snart donned a parka and the aforementioned visor and declared himself to be Captain Cold – the man who mastered absolute zero.

In comics, Captain Cold is usually the leader of The Rogues.

Heat Wave

In the closing moments of this week’s epsiode, Captain Cold pays a visit to Mic Rory, aka Heat Wave.  Heat Wave first appeared in Flash #140 (November 1963) and is usually in the company (or adversary) of Captain Cold, which makes this team-up at the end of the episode very fitting. A pyromaniac from a young age, Mick set his family’s house ablaze, a house of a boy that bullied him in school, and a traveling circus that he worked for as a fire eater.

He created a protective costume made of asbestos (this was back before the dangers of asbestos were known), built a gun-sized flamethrower, and became Heat Wave. It was Captain Cold who introduced Heat Wave to the Rogues, and in his first appearance they teamed up to get rid of the Flash as they competed over a newscaster they had both fallen in love with and fought each other as they each tried to compete a larger crime spree, but the Flash jailed them both.

In the comics, Mick Rory would follow the straight and narrow and became a firefighting consultant before Abra Kadabra brought him back during Kadabra’s attempt to release Neron from the Underworld (Underworld Unleashed).

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

4th and Kolins

Not a real location in the DCU, but Scott Kolins is a comic book illustrator who has worked on on The Flash in the past.

Keystone City

Though it isn’t mentioned in the series, Central City has a river that runs next to it, and in at least one shot we see a giant bridge going across the river to an empty area, which could house Keystone City if Warner Bros. and The CW ever decided to pull the trigger and introduce the original Flash.

Starting in the 1990s, Keystone has been treated as being located in Kansas, near the Kansas/Missouri border, adjacent to Central City. JSA #16 (November 2000) explicitly states that Keystone City is in Ohio, but Flash (vol. 2) #188 (September 2002) states that it is in Kansas. In the latter, the Flash constructs a bridge that connects Keystone City and Central City. (His internal monologue reads, “Keystone City, Kansas. Central City, Missouri. Forever united, and under my protection.”)

52!

Once again we see the number 52 pop up in a number of locations. The first was the number of the Blackhawk Squad Security armored truck.  The other time we saw the number was in Star Labs on level/section 52-3 where the cold gun was stored.

WHAT’S IN A NAME

Mugshots

When Barry is quickly flipping through the Central City Police Department mugshots, he instantly spies Leonard Snart. Also featured in the album are Bob Levesque, Tim O’Leary, Lorenzo Furian.

Leonard Snart is played by Wentworth Miller, who you may remember from four seasons of the FOX television series, Prison Break. If you love the sound of his voice, you may have also heard him as the voice of Slade Wilson (aka Deathstroke) in the Young Justice television series from 2013.  I expect we’ll see Mr. Wentworth again real soon – like episode 10.

Bob Levesque – Not listed in the IMDB page, but referenced on a couple of different sites, Bob Levesque is apparently part of the art department on the show.

Lorenzo Furian – IMDB has a number of gems waiting to be discovered in the television series. Mr. Furian is listed as the transportation captain for the show.

Tim O’Leary – I couldn’t find anything about Tim O’Leary in the basic internet searches, so I don’t know if this is a member of the crew, or if the crew decided to play a fast one on close observers.  Do a search for Tim O’Leary and Flash and the first thing that comes up in the Internet search engine is a story about a Mr. O’Leary who was arrested for streaking (flashing) in public.

Basil Nurblin

Captain Cold buys/steals his weapson from Basil Nurblin in this episode. Nurblin originally appeared in Checkmate Vol. 2 #11 (December, 1981). Played by Robert Mann, Basil Nurblin is also known to comic book readers as Colonel Computron.

The armored Colonel Computron appeared out of nowhere to attack Willard W. Wiggins, president of Wiggins Toy Corporation, shortly after the release of the top-selling Captain Computron toys. The primary suspects were the disgruntled employee who invented the toy, Basil Nurblin, and his wife Francine and daughter Luna. After a follow-up attack on the Flash with Captain Boomerang, Colonel Computron faded from view.

Dexter Myles (played by Bruce Harwood)

I mentioned last week that it wouldn’t surprise me if we saw Dexter Myles surface in an upcoming episode, and it is fitting the future Flash Museum curator would appear as the museum director in charge of the Kahndaq diamond exhibit.

Dexter Myles first appeared in Flash #138 (August, 1963) as an out of work actor who helps The Flash defeat Vandal Savage.  Dexter Myles was created by John Broome and Carmine Infantino.

Oswald Loomis

During double date night, Iris, Wally, Felicity, and Ethan all take part in the CC Jitters Trivia Night hosted by Oswald Loomis.  If that name sounds familiar, you have probably heard of a Superman villain called the Prankster.  The Prankster first appeared in Action Comics #51 (August, 1942) and used practical jokes to commit his crimes.

The Prankster has an arsenal of trick items that he uses in his crimes. Thanks to Brainiac 13’s upgrade of Metropolis, the Prankster has a new set of advanced tricks. The Prankster’s tricks include: ultrasonic devices that cause a person to laugh uncontrollably, joy buzzers, exploding whoopee cushions, and Nano-Robots.
The Prankster uses a vehicle that allows him to fly.

In the Smallville season 11 comic series published by DC Comics, Oswald Loomis is a gun for hire for InterGant and partners with Mr. Freeze. I bet if Mr. Freeze appeared on The Flash he would get a cold reception from Leonard Snart. Get it… cold reception…

The Ultimate Sacrifice

Did anyone catch the comment by Felicity about Barry running too fast?  “If he runs too fast, does he turn into dust in a red costume?” instantly made us think of Crisis on Infinite Earths…

Remember kids, we’ve already seen a future newspaper headline that mentions that the Flash has gone missing and the red sky crisis has been averted. DUN DUN DUN!

ONE MORE THING

If you pay close attention to the IMDB cast and crew listing for The Flash, you may have noticed on Gardner Fox appearing as a writer for the series.  Gardner Fox is legend when it comes to comic book writing, having created Jay Garrick – the original Flash, and though he died in 1986, seeing his name in the credits is a nice nod to the character creator as well as possibly tipping a hat to a Golden Age version of the character appearing soon?  Interestingly, John Fox is The Flash from the Future (Flash Special #1, 1990), and was named after Gardner as an homage for creating the Golden Age Flash.

Did you catch something we missed? Use the comment section below to share your thoughts, reactions and theories about the episode!