THE FLASH - MORE SPEEDSTERS!

One thing about The Flash that's undeniable is that, for a TV budget, the special effects are outstanding. Between Barry, Kid Flash, Gorilla Grodd, King Shark, and the other various speedsters, villains, etc the show proves that no villain is too big or too small. One area of expertise that the VFX guys have nailed is the speedsters. It started with Barry then we got the Reverse Flash, Zoom, Jay Garrick, Trajectory, Kid Flash, Rival, Jesse Quick, Savitar and others I'm probably forgetting. I probably named them all . . .

Anyway! DC Comics is not short of any speedsters. There's ones from the future, the past, alternate Earths, I mean it's crazy! The Flash hasn't been shy about using these characters and tweaking their stories as they see fit.

 Case in point . . . 

As I've mentioned before, I rarely stop thinking about these shows on the CW. Mainly because I think they're wonderful and it's the type of stuff I wish I had had as a kid. There are still tons of stories that can be told and many more speedsters that can be introduced on the show. I'd like to run through (pun intended) a list of my favorite speedsters that have not yet made an appearance. 

REVERSE-FLASH aka DANIEL WEST

He's one of the more recent additions to the canon, and might actually be retconned with Rebirth now that I think about it, but he was a great character. Daniel West was the son of William West, brother to Iris and uncle to Wally.  His mother died during childbirth and his father never let him forget it. He grew up under the abusive nature of his father. While Iris grew up and rose above that trauma, Daniel did not. He grew up angry and spent most of his adult life in prison. After an accident gave him super speed, he decided to go back in time and kill his father to prevent the trauma that turned him into a criminal. 

While Daniel is a great character, there's no denying that he has a great visual. His costume seems to be morphing around him and can even come off as projectiles to hurt the Flash. Granted, it's too late to tell a "long lost brother" story with Daniel, since that arc was given to Wally, but there's still room for this particular West family member. He could be Wally's doppelganger from another Earth, perhaps Earth 2? He could be Joe's brother which could work because we don't know much about Joe's parents or family. Or maybe if the writers are lazy enough he could just be another long lost brother, but I wouldn't bet on that considering the writers are better than that on The Flash. Either way, this version of the Reverse Flash offers a much different visual style than we've seen before. He's got the tragic backstory, now we just need him to come wreak havoc on Central City! 

GODSPEED aka AUGUST HEART

The most recent addition to Barry's Rogues Gallery, even though he's not a Rogue . . . It's complicated, Godspeed is really August Heart, a detective with the Central City Police. He has one of the most interesting backstories of any of the Barry's villains. He was the only witness to the accident that made Barry into the Flash. He was in Barry's lab trying to obtain evidence of his brother's murder. Unfortunately, the lightning strike destroyed all of the evidence and the suspected killer was set free. Years later, a Speed Force storm hit Central City and August was one of the people affected by it. At first, he posed himself as an ally to the Flash but was secretly the dark vigilante known as Godspeed. He got revenge on his brother's killer but it did little to satiate his new bloodlust. He ended up killing several other people affected by the Speed Force. 

Godspeed was the first new Rogue Barry fought during DC's Rebirth launch last summer. Again, he's another character with a great visual that would look really cool racing next to the Flash on TV. Plus, assuming the producers and writers don't change his story too much, he has the added benefit of being connected to Barry right from the beginning. Although sometimes this type of story is hard to swallow, if done right it could be interesting. They could easily make August a part of Barry's past. Let's say he was in a coma but instead of just nine months like Barry, he's actually been in the coma for years. He comes out of it, realizes his brother's murderer has gotten away with it, and snaps. That's definitely within the realm of possible storylines we could see on the show. In fact, I'm hoping it's what they go with for season 4! 

IMPULSE aka BART ALLEN

Bart Allen is Barry Allen's grandson from the future. There's no real back story other than that! He came back from the future to fight alongside his grandpa in the present. He started off as Impulse but later became Kid Flash when Wally became the Flash and then eventually the Flash, then he died, then he came back to life as Kid Flash again. COMIC BOOKS!

My fondest memories of Bart Allen were from Geoff Johns's run on Teen Titans. By then he had graduated to Kid Flash. He was a great character and a lot of fun to read. When he was killed off I was very upset. Luckily, Johns must have felt the same way and brought him back. His origin seems to have been changed somewhat since the New 52 which bugs me. However, that may get rectified soon enough with Rebirth making changes like bringing back characters and, at least somewhat, retconning their origins.

I'm hoping he'll come into the Flash in the near future. I have a sneaking suspicion that due to Barry seeing his own future, albeit only six months from now, that we're on the way to him seeing much further on and possibly even encountering Bart. I think that would be a great story and hilarious to see a young Bart calling 26-27 year old Barry "grandpa." With season 4 officially announced I'm sure we'll see Bart sometime in the future (pun intended).

JOHNNY QUICK aka BARRY ALLEN (from Earth 3)

I've been banging this particular drum for quite a while now so I won't get super into all the details but I will say it again - THIS NEEDS TO HAPPEN.

Johnny Quick is an evil Barry Allen from an alternate Earth. He's just as fast as the Flash but for as good as the Flash is Johnny is bad. I truly think that this character needs to end up on the show and I can't stress enough that Grant Gustin should play him. With the characters travelling through the multiverse like all the fuckin time, this story is not out of the realm of possibilities. Maybe the next crossover could include the Crime Syndicate with evil versions of each of our heroes. Or Johnny could find his way to Earth 1 and mess up Barry's reputation. A similar story was done on Smallville with Clark switching places with Ultraman. It was one of my favorite stories from Smallville and I'm a little surprised it hasn't happened yet on any of the Arrowverse shows. However . . . I'm sure it will . . . Maybe . . . Hopefully. 

By the way, in the Smallville version Tom Welling played the evil Clark and was believably a very different version of the character. I have no doubt Grant Gustin is capable of doing the same thing :) 

THE FLASH aka WALLY WEST 

But JJ, you may be thinking, the Flash already has a Wally West! What on Earth would they need another one for? I hear you but I have a pitch here:

During last summer's DC Universe Rebirth story, it was revealed that the original Wally West was trapped in the Speed Force and was desperate to escape and warn the heroes of Earth that a great threat was coming. We assume this great threat is Dr. Manhattan and/or the other characters from the Watchmen universe. Barry was able to pull Wally out of the Speed Force and Wally was finally able to warn someone and reveal that time had been taken away from them. Basically, after Flashpoint, some unknown force (again probably Dr. Manhattan) had meddled with time in an attempt to weaken the heroes of Earth. Wally is one of the few characters that actually remembers the DC Universe pre-new 52. 

OK, here's the pitch:

As was revealed during the season finale of The Flash in season 1, the characters were all living in an alternate reality due to the Reverse Flash killing Barry's mom. We've never heard of that story ever again. The only glimpses of it were from the holographic future newspaper the fake Wells (real Eobard Thawne) used to look at in his Time Vault.

That paper was from April 2024, ten years after the season started. Let's say something similar happened where everything is now changed in the Arrowverse and there's another Wally West lost to the Speed Force. He finally finds a way to communicate with Barry and Barry starts to remember his life where his father was never sent to prison and his mother wasn't murdered. With hints like "Red skies vanish" and talk of a "Queen Consolidated-Wayne Tech" merger in the paper, there's clearly some story opportunities there. I would love to see this revisited as opposed to just referred to as a future event. Because let's face it, it comes from a future where Barry as the Flash vanished chasing Eobard Thawne. I know that technically that Barry was erased from the timeline, per the aforementioned season 1 finale, but so was Eobard and look at him! He's causing trouble for the Legends on their show! It might sound like a long shot but I truly think that this particular story and that timeline should be revisited. 

These are my suggestions for my favorite speedsters making their way to The Flash. The show so far has done an excellent job of telling great stories with these characters. I have no doubt that most, if not all, of the characters I mentioned here will be included at some point during the show's run (pun intended). Hopefully they'll take my suggestions and let me write an episode or two! Ya never know . . . 

Till Next Time!

JJ - the Comic Junkie!