By Andrew A. Smith
Tribune Content Agency
Arrow and Flash have returned at The CW for seasons 5 and 3, respectively. Both are covering familiar ground, but cleverly enough that it feels new.
(Spoilers ahoy, so back out now if you must.)
The season premiere of Flash Oct. 4 was named “Flashpoint,” and is directly inspired by a comics story of the same name. That’s why it will seem familiar to comics fans.
But where “Flashpoint” was big and bombastic in comics, the TV version was small and emotion-driven. Where “Flashpoint” changed the entire DC superhero universe in comics, the TV version changed only the one TV show. And where “Flashpoint” ran for five months in comics, the TV version ran for exactly one episode.
The Flash (Grant Gustin) is sometimes joined by Jay Garrick (John Wesley Shipp), a Flash from a parallel world on The CW’s The Flash. Photo: Dean Buscher/The CW
“Flashpoint” began in 2011, when Barry “Flash” Allen did what everyone knows you’re not supposed to do: He changed time. He went into the past and prevented Eobard “Reverse Flash” Thawne – a super-speedster from the future – from killing Allen’s mother Nora. This changed the course of history; the Scarlet Speedster returned to the present to find out that Aquaman’s Atlanteans and Wonder Woman’s Amazons were at war, that Thomas Wayne was inspired to become the mysterious Batman by the murder of his son, Bruce, and there doesn’t appear to be anybody named Superman. It took many months for the Wizard of Whiz to fix all that.
TV’s Flash (Grant Gustin) made exactly the same decision in the season two finale, and changed his own timeline, too. But the changes are smaller. In “Flashpoint” he discovers that his formerly dead parents are alive, but his foster father Joe West (Jesse L. Martin) is a shiftless drunk, his friends Cisco Ramone (Carlos Valdes) and Caitlyn Snow (Danielle Panabaker) are strangers and his foster brother Wally West (Keiynan Lonsdale) is The Flash – and is mortally wounded. The Crimson Comet has to weigh his personal happiness against those of his friends and family. Should he restore the timeline, by allowing his mother to die in the past?
Again, some of this may feel a bit familiar, since Flash faced a similar decision in the first season finale. But possibly also because TV seems to have discovered time travel as the ultimate writer’s crutch, serving as the raison d’etre of shows like Frequency, Legends of Tomorrow, Outlander and Timeless.
In the alternate history of “Flashpoint” on The CW’s The Flash, Wally West (Keiynan Lonsdale) is The Flash, and wears an outfit similar to that of Wally “Kid Flash” West in the comics. Photo: Katie Yu/The CW
Rest assured, though, that time travel has been a regular component of Flash comics since Barry Allen invented his first Cosmic Treadmill in 1961. (Yes. I said “Cosmic Treadmill.” Deal with it!) At one point Allen even moved to the future, where he met some of his descendants. (You really don’t want to figure out his family tree.)
And that’s not the only comic book elements you’ll see in this season’s Flash. For example, in “Flashpoint” we meet a speedster named Edward “The Rival” Clariss (Todd Lasance), who first appeared on the newsstands as a foe of the original Flash, Jay Garrick, in 1949. (And, yes, that selfsame Jay Garrick is currently appearing on Flash, played by John Wesley Shipp, wearing essentially the same outfit as the O.G. Flash.) Wally West on TV dresses in a red-and-yellow uniform that has been worn by Wally “Kid Flash” West in the comics -- both of them. And the coda to “Flashpoint” indicates we’re going to see classic Flash villain Dr. Alchemy (Tobin Bell), who can transform one element to another.
Meanwhile, in Star City …
The fifth season of Arrow looks a little like the first, since “Team Arrow” consists of little more than Oliver Queen (Stephen Arnell) and Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rikards). That’s pretty much how the show started, and now how the fifth season starts (with the episode “Legacy”).
Laurel “Black Canary” Lance (Katie Cassidy), as you may remember, was killed last season. For personal reasons, both Thea “Speedy” Queen (Willa Holland) and John “Spartan” Diggle (David Ramsey) have quit the team. And now Ollie is the temporary mayor, with responsibilities piling up in both of his lives. What’s a superhero to do?
Felicity’s answer – which Ollie eventually agrees to – is recruitment. That gives the writers an opportunity to plumb the depths of DC’s vast character library for obscure super-types that few creators have any interest in using. Since DC has been continually publishing comics since the early 1930s, there’s plenty to work with, and Arrow has come up with some interesting choices.
(From left) Curtis Holt (Echo Kellum), Rene “Wild Dog” Ramirez (Rick Gonzales) and Evelyn Sharp (Madison McLaughlin) join Green Arrow (Stephen Amell) and Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards) on Arrow this season. Photo: Bettina Strauss/The CW
On Felicity’s monitor screens in “Legacy” we see three potential recruits, which have been tentatively identified by various Internet sleuths as Wild Dog, Adrian Chase and Evelyn Sharp. Evidently all three will begin appearing. And all three require a little fansplaining:
* Jack Wheeler was a former Marine who mustered out in the “Quad Cities” (there’s probably one near you), opened a garage and dated a nice girl – who turned out to be the daughter of a mobster trying to start a new life, and got assassinated. She left Jack a lot of money, which he invested in buying body armor, “shock” gloves, big guns and a hockey mask to become an avenging vigilante that the cops wanted to shoot down like a wild dog. (Hey, the police named this one, not the newspapers or Cisco!) Wild Dog, whose secret ID will be Rene Ramirez on TV (played by Rick Gonzales), wore a very comics-like outfit in “Legacy.”
* Adrian Chase was a crusading district attorney (which is about the only kind you find in comics) who decided to take the law into his own hands as the ski-masked and –goggled Vigilante. Not the most imaginative name, especially since DC has had a number of characters named Vigilante, the first one appearing in 1941! Anyway, Chase couldn’t handle the dichotomy of being a law-enforcer by day and a law-breaker by night, and committed suicide. Let’s hope the TV version is better adjusted.
* Evelyn Sharp takes some explaining. For one thing, she has already appeared on “Arrow,” as a Black Canary impersonator, in season four (played by Madison McLaughlin). That may be a clue as to her eventual look.
But not her nom du combat, which will apparently be “Artemis.” That’s a name that DC has used for a variety of characters, not the least of which was a female archer who was the daughter of supervillains Sportsmaster and Huntress, the latter sometimes called Tigress. No, that’s not the Huntress that has already appeared on “Arrow,” which is a different character entirely who uses the same name. Nor is it the Tigress that appears on “Gotham,” which is on another network, but is still a character derived from DC Comics.
Artemis also appeared on the animated show Young Justice, which was also a comic book. Only in the “Young Justice” comic book, Artemis was replaced by a female archer named Arrowette. There have been two characters with that name, while Artemis is apparently only in Young Justice on a parallel world.
In addition, Felicity’s partner in techno-geekery, Michael Holt (Echo Kellum), also wants to be trained in the ways of the superhero. Comics fans have long awaited this development, as the Michael Holt in comics is not only a genius, but is the superhero Mr. Terrific, the second to carry that name. Yes, it’s a stupid name, but Holt on TV is such a terrific (cough) character that we can let that slide.
Oh, and the Interwebs also promise that a fellow named Rory “Ragman” Regan will make an appearance in season five. Regan is a junk dealer who is occasionally possessed by the spirits of the worst people to ever live – Nazis, Roman emperors, serial killers, politicians, etc. – who must expiate their sins by righting wrongs and such. They inhabit a pile of prehensile rags that wrap themselves around Regan and send him out into the night as The Ragman (played by Joe Dinicol).
Confusing? Welcome to the world of comics, where the old is forever made new.
Reach Captain Comics by email (capncomics@aol.com), the Internet (captaincomics.ning.com), Facebook (Captain Comics Round Table) or Twitter (@CaptainComics).
Replies
My head hurts.
It's alarming how many DC characters have used the names "Huntress" and "Manhunter"