After that episode it was painfully obvious that Ronnie wasn’t gonna stay dead, but I didn’t make the connection to Firestorm until reading Dave’s post. In the comics Firestorm was always two personalities…no one in the show to this point comes to mind as the second, given that they already passed up a perfect chance to have Cisco trapped in the accelerator with him. Maybe they’ll introduce some other guy from that night later. We’re still missing Caitlin falling in love with someone else before he comes back, though.
I sure do like spotting other little DC-world references in these shows. The Blue Devil II movie on the marquee was a nice touch. I’d totally be down for a guest appearance by Dan Cassidy.
I hope they find a way to incorporate the much older professor character, whose name currently escapes me. The interplay between him and Ronnie was the best thing about Firestorm in the 80’s, when my brother bought every issue and then loaned them to me.
I’m not liking The Flash half as much as Gotham so far. Gotham has its problems, but The Flash has too much stuff that’s downright painful to watch. Every time something sciency happens on screen, or really any time Barry’s talking. He looks and acts about 15, and I simply cannot take him seriously as a crime scene tech. I gather that’s something of the CW’s thing, being excessively teen-oriented, with Barry and Cisco both looking way too young.
I’m also have a little problem with the consistency. Ignoring the comic version of the Flash entirely, this Flash drops into normal-speed at the oddest moments. Particularly in fist fights. If he can move that fast and see things as if they were in slow motion, why does he throw normal-speed punches let himself get hit by normal speed opponents? It’s like they’re artificially and randomly gimping him so he’s experiencing more of a challenge. I know the Flash is inherently one of those overpowered characters, but it feels like letting Superman sometimes feel punches from ordinary mooks.
I’ll give it one thing, it’s better than the 1990 version. Shipp’s Barry Allen may have been an adult, but he was a huge asshole, and he was fighting villains who had the dumbest plot lines imaginable. The one that stuck with me was the one who was hell-bent on giving himself super-strength so he could murder homeless people. That was his life’s ambition, to kill all the homeless.
The main reason I prefer this show over Gotham is I have zero interest in a Batman show without Batman. This show features The Flash, which is how it should be. I know there’s never been a point from childhood till now where I thought “Dammit, when are they ever going to tell me what Gordon was doing before Batman showed up?”.
This defines more my initial interest in the shows. Gotham? Umm, concept doesn’t do much for me. However, I have enjoyed it so far. But a ten year tease on Bruce Wayne developing into Batman is way too slow motion for me, so we will see. The Flash? Hell yeah! He was one of my favorites from Silver Age DC. Heck, he literally kicked off the Silver Age in comics, leading the rebirth of the super-hero (Superman, Batman, and oddly, Green Arrow having all survived The Dark Ages post WWII). And yeah, Gus’ nitpicks are again right, The Flash stands around with a big sign saying hit me rather than the flecheen passant attack. But hell, it is so boisterously comicy without being camp that I enjoy it for what it is.
I guess it reminds me of the 1977 Spiderman TV series, where Spidey was decidedly not super. He climbed walls but he wasn’t particularly strong, and was so slow he got shot once. When the first Spiderman movie finally got Spidey’s powers right it seemed like a big deal to me. This version of the Flash just seems… off, even if they do have the basic running scenes mostly right.
I mean, for a reasonable powered Flash. The comic Flash got so power inflated that he was running faster than light. In at least one case he faced a villain who could turn himself into a beam of light to get from point A to B, and flash beat him to his destination by running faster. The TV Flash’s stated top speed in the 300 MPH range is a better limit.
Hell, there was an instance in the comics where the Flash evacuated a large city of ALL of its inhabitants in the second or two after a nuclear bomb detonated, getting each of them (one-by-one, having searched every nook and cranny for homeless folks and lost children in shopping malls and druggies hiding from cops) far enough away to not be irradiated.
I think someone did some back-of-the-envelope math and concluded he was moving ~13m x the speed of light there.
The tv show has The Flash in the early part of his superhero career. I’ll allow for him not always be ‘on’. There have even been implications that he’s not exactly the most dependable/competent person. I seem to recall in the first episode his superiors commenting on him being late again, and why is he stilling working for us, which hints at a history of not always having his focus on the task at hand. He’s juggling his desire for a closer relationship with the girl, his desire to free his dad, the sadness of seeing his mom killed, and a full time job.
Pretty pleased with the Captain Cold character thus far. Thought they did a good job making him menacing, with the bank robbing background and the stone-cold killer aspect. Nice work with the first of the major Rogues Gallery character, and tying in Heat Wave at the end.
The Felicity thing went pretty much exactly as expected, nice to have that out of the way so they can move on in the personal relationship department. Nice work too with the Cisco-Barry interaction, thought it was well written to provide a nice explanation for the cold tech. Last week we got the Caitlin bonding, now Cisco. Since we already know that Dr. Thawn is nefarious, there’s not much tension there, but I can certainly see them building up some suspense over Barry’s support staff unknowingly helping him.
I won’t argue that (can’t, I haven’t seen the new Flash) but I have a place in my heart for the old Flash TV show. For one thing, they had Mark Hamill on as The Trickster, doing what must have been his trial run at a Joker persona. There was one episode where he hypnotized The Flash into doing crimes with him, and at one point the police corner them and open fire, so of course The Flash caught the bullets. Then he said “You know what? Guns don’t kill people - these little hard things do!” and then threw the bullets at the feet of the cops, making them dance. I loved that episode.
I love the way Dr. Wells’ motives remain mysterious and very likely nefarious, yet all we know for sure is that at the moment, his primary concern is to keep Barry safe. That’s an interesting dynamic.
Great episode again, such a cheerful series. I keep saying this, but I so love the way it’s superpower-positive. So many superhero scripts are so ponderously over-concerned by the potentially problematic nature of superpowers, and so stingy in doling out scenes with them, it’s really refreshing to have a show that positively delights in superpowers and splashes them about with gay abandon (the saving people-from-the-train-wreck scene was top notch CGI).
I won’t go into details to spoil anything for the non-80s-comics folks, but let’s just say that this is very thematic for a certain villain whose stated goal was to make the Flash “a better hero”. Somewhat heroic goal, very villainous means. Well represented in the early going in this show.
Finally, the classic villain that walks away unbeaten. Looking forward to the reunited Prison Break tag-team of Miller and Purcell. Waited a looooooooonnnnng time for this from my youth:
Dang, even longer than I waited to see that flying Porsche 904 (okay, okay, I’ll take the 'Vette, close enough).
And checking the date on that, this would be the beginning of the end for me with DC at the time. Next month I’d get my first Marvel comic, Spider-Man #7.
That was a great episode, it’s amazing how quickly this show has hit its stride. Even the throwaway moments, like him flipping through the mugshots, are entertaining. I don’t know if this was intentional but I laughed at how empty the train was at the end, appropriately empty since that ride takes place after a major derailment which probably scared away a lot of travelers.
The only thing I didn’t like about the episode was Snart boarding a fast moving train with closed doors. How did he manage that? Sure, it was convenient for the plot since it left the cops behind, but still…
I was a bit put off by Captain Cold, since it felt like he wasn’t really any more dangerous than a guy with a gun. For example, the security guard could have just shot him. So he had a freeze ray. That doesn’t make him invulnerable, any more than a pistol would.
Similarly, they made a big deal out of Cold shooting the Flash with the freeze gun, but the times he did - particularly the second, when Barry was standing still - he could have gotten the same effect with a gun. The beam appeared to travel slower than a bullet, and thus would be easier to dodge. Cold just doesn’t seem like a supervillain. I remember his image from the comics, but don’t really remember how they managed to make him menacing giving the power disparity between “guy with a fancy gun” and the Flash.
He is, of course, a regular-grade killer. And I did like his interactions with everyone but the Flash.
I did like the Flash thwacking most of the armored car robbers in a few moves. That’s how it seems the Flash ought to fight - you don’t know he’s coming until he’s already hit you. I also like that they’re not doing the “lots of wimpy punches” thing from the comic. Somehow the comic writers never quite understood momentum, and how a single punch by a guy doing 300+ MPH would be like getting hit by a cannonball.
Interestingly, from what I’ve read/been given to understand, Captain Cold is one of the Rogues, who traditionally don’t murder (there’s honor there, but also an element of self-preservation–if your principle foe is a guy who can snap your neck before you even realize you’re about to die, preventing a “lethality arms race” is probably in your own best interest), while still being fairly menacing/on Flash’s level.
So, in a sense, the show got him all wrong: he didn’t seem to have a compelling reason to be able to stand toe-to-toe with Flash in terms of abilities, and he was extremely willing to kill.
You might argue that his advantage was purely tactical. He understood that Flash would work to save civilians first, catch bad guys second. The freeze ray wasn’t necessarily more deadly to any one individual than a pistol (except insofar as even a glancing connection from it seemed to be enough to turn anyone into a popsicle), but rather, that it presented an opportunity for fairly widespread and impressive destruction at a faster clip than most conventional, aimable weapons. It has the tactical usefulness of a targeted attack, but the pressing danger of a bomb or similar. Combined with his acumen, it proved difficult to deal with for Flash, if not, necessarily, especially deadly.
