An Attack of the Flash Facts, Part 1 (By Eric Farwell)

The new television show The Flash has been a huge success for the CW.  I asked my friend Eric Farwell to fill us in on everything we need to know about The Flash to enjoy the TV show.  In Part 1, Eric tells us about The Flash's publication history and his enemies.  Click here for Part 2.  --Dave

Of course, the greatest strength in the concept of The Flash is also its weakness: he moves impossibly fast. Huge thrills come from his ability to run a mile in seconds; to shower the crooks with dozens of punches; to evacuate a burning building in moments. But with no jeopardy, there’s no thrill. The guy who moves and sees and thinks at such a blur should be able to take down every opponent every time. His life would hardly ever be in danger. His enemies’ schemes would be instantly thwarted. In short (and it would be short) there would be no story. As a result, there have to be some absurdities added to the beyond-unlikely power of super speed. Back in the 1960s, the Flash was shown in his comic running around the world in seconds… yet he would also engage in lengthy banter with his rogues as he was running towards them. In the current hit TV show, the young Flash inexplicably pauses in the face of every villain in every one of the first four episodes. After all, if he’s unbeatable, there is no story… but he looks so lame when, lost in thought, he turns his back on Wentworth Miller's Captain Cold. Not once, but twice!    

         

This show is a nitpicker's dream.

                And so what? The legions who complained about the useless red shirts on Star Trek and the useless stormtroopers on Star Wars still loved those shows with a passion. It isn’t the appearance of conceits that doom a show, it’s usually uninspired writing that makes the fans puke (as both of the above franchises will attest). So far, The Flash has fine writing. Why wouldn’t it, with comic book greats like Greg Berlanti and Geoff Johns producing? The cast is dynamite, the backstory (from Johns’s comic miniseries The Flash: Rebirth) is riveting and heartbreaking, and the special effects are almost always a treat. It’s gratifying to see a decent screen version of a beloved icon that has been around since World War II. He was an icon as American as baseball, but steeped in old world myth.

The Flash known as Jay Garrick appeared in his Mercury-inspired helmet, with lightning bolts and wings on his snug-fit costume, on the cover of a comic dated January, 1940. Since the early days, issues came out months ahead of their cover dates, so The Flash is one of the elite heroes, including Superman and Batman, who debuted in the late 1930s. Well, they’re elite now. Back then they were merely seen as kid’s stuff, churned out by writers and artists who were held to a low standard. Perhaps the most notable benchmark of the original Flash’s career was his membership in the first super hero team in history, the Justice Society of America. Alongside such notables as Hawkman, the Spectre, and Green Lantern (whose costume was mostly red, for some reason), the Flash took part in thrilling JSA adventures. They were thrilling largely due to the novelty of a brightly-colored team of adventurers, not due to fine execution of the comics themselves.

By the early ‘50s, super heroes who weren’t Superman or Batman were old news. The hot sellers were War, Romance, and especially EC Horror and Crime comics and their imitators. Within just a few years, the cultural climate of the times doomed Horror and Crime, and the Comics Code Authority was imposed upon the industry. Without the hard-edged competition, DC (named after their Batman title Detective Comics) decided that they might be able to update some of their characters and capture the imaginations of the young baby-boom generation. A new version of the Flash was launched, and with him came the Silver Age.

Although the Silver Age would end up being dominated by Stan Lee and his collaborators (such as Jack Kirby) over at Marvel, their speedster Quicksilver never caught on the way the Flash did. Part of the reason why can be seen in the Flash’s debut back in 1956. The Scarlet Speedster, Barry Allen, had an eye-catching red suit. Carmine Infantino’s art had grace and fluidity. It didn’t hurt that the Flash joined the new super-team, Justice League of America, which included Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and the new-and-improved (mostly green!) Green Lantern on its roster.

                This Flash had a rogue’s gallery of villains that equaled Batman’s, and that’s why so many of them are showing up on the new TV show. Captain Cold has always been DC’s most interesting ice villain, and his ruthless leadership of the rogues brought with it a twisted code of honor. Heat Wave was his fiery counterpart, and sometimes romantic rival. The Mirror Master had a jaunty attitude, and wielded clever illusions. The Weather Wizard blew up a storm. The Pied Piper would one day become one of the comic world’s first openly gay characters. Such gadgeteers as the Trickster, Captain Boomerang, and the Top kept Flash guessing. Captain Cold’s sister, the Golden Glider, finally made the rogues co-ed.

But it was the big guns who really gave Barry a headache. Gorilla Grodd came from a hidden African city of super gorillas, and his force-of-mind was legendary. Abra Kadabra combined science with magic out of his home era, the 64^th century. The one who would haunt him forever, though, was the super-fast psycho of the 25^th century known as Professor Zoom, the Reverse Flash. (Spoiler Alert!) It’s because of him that Barry ended up having a tragic origin story to rival Batman’s; a new origin that’s so good, it became a part of the CW television series.

Look for Part 2 this Friday.