by Chelsea Dee, Editor-at-Large

DC has excelled in television, although we all know they’ve had a harder time in movies. Arrow is one of my favorite TV shows currently airing, so you can imagine my excitement when I heard Barry Allen was going to be a guest star. Arrow has tried to keep away from the superhero plotlines, since Ollie himself is human, so The Flash was a chance for them to go wild. They embraced the superpowers, or the meta-humans as they’re called, without flinching. For a fledgling show, it was extraordinarily well-focused and established a strong plot and characters right off the bat. So I’m a big Flash fan of the comics, and that means I might speculate on plot points in the show, which might include some potential spoilers. They’re not solely doing comic plots, but it does seem very similar. Consider this a spoiler warning, for the first half of The Flash, and for referencing comic book characters who might become important eventually.

Barry Allen was introduced on Arrow first, as a crime scene investigator for the Central City Police Department. He was there to investigate, but he ended up becoming friends with Team Arrow, and flirting with Felicity Smoak. After returning to Central City, he was hit by lightning mixed with a type of radiation caused by a advanced particle accelerator malfunction. He was in a coma for many months before waking up with super speed. With a little push from Oliver and the people in his life, Barry decided to try being a superhero, and do the best by Central City. That’s the general summary, but here are the details. When Barry was a child, he witnessed his mother being killed by what appeared to be a yellow blur. His father was taken away for her murder, and no one believed him when he said what really happened. He was taken in by Detective Joe West and raised with Joe’s daughter Iris, who he eventually fell in love with. Barry got a job with the police because of Joe’s influence, but he privately never stopped researching his mother’s death. He kept searching for the paranormal and cold cases, hoping for a link, or anything that pointed to him not being crazy. After gaining his abilities, Barry connected with the team that created the particle accelerator: leader Harrison Wells, bioengineering expert Caitlin Snow, and mechanical engineering genius Cisco Ramon. Wells was injured by the malfunction and became paralyzed, plus his company went under due to his failure. Caitlin lost her fiance Ronnie, who died trying to save the rest of them. The three of them team up with Barry to study his powers, and also to point him in the direction of trouble.

Joe finds out in the first episode that Barry has superpowers, and I’m glad they didn’t bother with a slow reveal on that. It’s still annoying that Quentin Lance has no idea on Arrow. However they followed this up by him insisting Iris can’t know, and then I sigh and facepalm. This never goes well, and it usually means that person stumbles into trouble without warning. She’s a grown woman, these are people she cares about, I hate those plotlines. Barry deals with his unrequited feelings for her, while Iris gets into a serious relationship with her father’s partner Eddie Thawne. The first few episodes of Flash were Barry adjusting to his powers, and learning that he heals quickly and needs to keep himself nourished because of his advanced metabolism. He agrees to hunt down other people hit by the particle accelerator, leading them to gather these meta-humans and either lock them away, or try to help them. Usually it’s locking them away. Kind of strange how none of them want to be superheroes, right? Meanwhile Wells is revealed to be a time traveler and constantly tries to make sure the timeline goes a certain way. He’s also not actually stuck in the chair.

I did really enjoy the Arrow crossover, because it taught Barry it’s not as simple as running into every situation. He has to be smart about it. He’s learning how to be a better superhero, because let’s face it, one-on-one he gets his ass kicked. He needs to learn how to fight just in case people get in too close or manage to catch him. This show is lighter in spirit, and that fits in with the wackiness of the superpowers. They let themselves go full comic, and it’s beautiful. I could do without the love triangle, but isn’t that always true? I do like that Eddie and Iris seem genuinely happy, and she isn’t required to return Barry’s affection. She made her choice (for now). Now if only he would tell her the truth about himself, jeez. Instead he flirted with her as Flash. In the comics he eventually marries Iris, but I don’t feel like the show needs to be restricted that way. They have a different relationship here. I liked the episode when Barry was possessed and angry, because it set him loose a little. While it was not him, it was in a way, he was saying things that on some level he believed. I enjoyed watching the gang go from strangers to real friends. I like the nods to the real grief process everyone is going through. I find Barry’s father the most boring storyline, it’s more a plot point, I don’t get any real sense about him as a character. It contrasts badly with how wonderful the father-son dynamic is with Joe.

At the end of the season, Ronnie is revealed to be alive, but he is unstable and not fully himself. With superpowers! Firestorm, many of us saw that coming. Barry confronts Reverse-Flash, the super fast man who murdered his mother, and gets his ass whooped all over the place. He tells Iris he loves her, but she moves in with Eddie, and they all try to have a happy Christmas at the end. It ends on Wells looking at the Reverse-Flash suit and smiling evilly. I was disappointed that Wells was the bad guy, pretty much what everyone thought. I was hoping he’d end up more like a time travel police man, or something like that. He’s obsessed with keeping the time line a certain way. I mean you could argue that as Reverse-Flash he would be doing that, because killing Barry’s mother kept him on the path he needed to be. I would prefer a story like that over him being a psychopath. I think it’s most likely that he is Professor Zoom, or a version of Professor Zoom. Zoom is the Reverse-Flash in the comics, the archenemy of Barry Allen, and actually is a Thawne. When they cast Eddie Thawne, people speculated that he was the same character, and it’s possible he is. Or Wells could be a descendent of his from the far future, which happens a lot in the comics. The Thawnes and Allens have a legendary feud, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they introduced that.

There are several Reverse-Flashes. The Rival was in the Jay Garrick days (the original Flash), and Hunter Zoloman for Wally West. I think it’s very likely they’ll just stick with Thawne, considering he is specifically tied in with Barry. They could yoink details from the other ones … or maybe there’s more than one. I worry that if they delve too much into the most confusing parts of the timelines, the audience could get turned off. Time travel is hard to keep straight even for those of us who love it. So far they’re handling it carefully. I just want Wells to be an ambiguous anti-hero or someone who turned evil but maybe didn’t start that way. I think there’s more to him, I feel like his feelings for the others has seemed genuine. Also in the comics Caitlin and Sisco have super powers, so I have to wonder if they’ll get them eventually. I’m on board, no matter what. The next part of the season I suspect we’ll get more of Firestorm and find out the truth of who Wells is. How did he attack himself? Is he really the Reverse-Flash who he fought against, or another version? Or a future version? My head is already hurting and I love it. This show manages a light hearted tone with a few emotionally sincere moments. The acting is solid, although not exceptional outside of Jesse L. Martin. In general I’m having a blast and I can’t wait to see what’s ahead. Also more Arrow crossovers please.
Rating:

ComicsOnline gives The Flash Season 1 Part 1 5 out of 5 smiling speedsters.

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