Episode 11: The Flash

In episode 11, Dani and Ify deep dive in to DC Comic's 'The Flash.' They are joined by Sam Bashor, host of Only Stupid Answers podcast, to discuss the history of the character, the first time the character showed up and his story lines throughout the years, how it's possible that he is faster than Superman, the CW television show, the new reincarnation in the Justice League films, and more! 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, Hello, Hello, welcome Tonatives. I am one of your hosts.
Danny fran isn't sitting across from me as always is?
What's good everybody? One day it's going to be someone else.
One day we're going to be one of us will
be out and it will be jarring because we won't
even know just sitting across from this. Well, what's up Drake?

(00:29):
That's who specifically is going to be joining us. It's
in my contract. The only guest host that can replace
me as Aubrey Drake Graham. Who would mind be? Who
do I sound like? What is my ven diagram of?
Like other hosts or actors that are like me? I
don't know. Well, what I was going to say is
that we are joined up top, which we're not always,

(00:51):
but today we have a lovely guest. He is the
host of Only Stupid Answers and a good friend in
my heart. Mr Sam Basher, Hello, Thanks for having me.
When I knew that we were doing the flash, I
was like, literally, Sam, I was actually having like okay morning,
like not a great morning. But then you sent me
a message and I was like, Okay, this week changed
your whole week. I need to vent some flash frustration,

(01:15):
some flash frusties fresh you have been. I mean I
feel like with me, like everyone knows my brand is
like dragon ball Z and Goofy movie, but I feel
like you're the known at least in like the nerd
community or like the known flash person. Well, I have
the this isn't good for audio listening tattoos. We'll have

(01:36):
to get a picture of that and post it. And
I have a dragon ball Z tattoos. So there you go. Nice. Yeah, No,
it's so when the show came out in for CW,
I got into it and I was like on the
fence because when you saw his all leather running suit,
You're like, that doesn't make it whatever, that doesn't make
a lot of sense. But I was like, I'll be
on board, and right off the bat it was. It
felt like the perfect mixture of a sci fi but

(01:58):
also like romance and mystery story. Yeah. So I started
getting into it, and the show did a really good
job of actually like picking my interest in like I
should maybe reading two comics, And actually that TV show
got me into comics and since then I've had a
really unhealthy binging habit of like just reading like so
many graphic novels and series. So I've been I'm up
to date, and I've been working backwards through a lot
of series, and so Flash is the reason that I
am a comic book nerd. Now that is insane, you know,

(02:21):
I've heard that from other people, but that that the
show has actually made them go back and read the comics.
I didn't know that about you, sam Oh. I thought
you grew up reading these. Can we reschedule? No, I'm
just kidding no, But that's probably better because you actually
have a more fresh memory because you've been going back
and reading all of the comics trying to try. Also,

(02:43):
you didn't, like, you know, come into the show with
your own baggage. I feel like that's why it's so
hard for nerds to like anything, because they already have
their idea of what a perfect X movie is because
they've read X their whole lives and have dreamed about it.
So when one aspect is all, they're losing their minds.
Oh yeah, especially with Flash. A lot of comic book fans,

(03:03):
for you guys know that like if like someone gets
a new mantle, they're like, but remember when the other
person had it, and that will be the like most said.
Thing they'll ever stay in their entire life is about
that other characters like we get it, we get it,
you like that other person with red hair. It's they're
the same people basically. Yeah, But like when you look
at decades and decades, it's like you kind of have
to take these risks and try something else. I feel like, so,

(03:26):
do you want to get into the history. Yeah, let's
dip into the history. So the flash created by writer
Gardner Fox and artists Harry Lampert. The original Golden Age
Flash first appeared in Flash Comics number one in That's
Back in the Day and Jay Garrick was a college
student who during a smoke break, accidentally knocks over his

(03:48):
science experiment in hard water gases whatever what hard water?
Roy Thomas on like Marvel said, he's done like a
great job of like going back and having to fix
a lot of the big question mark origin stories for characters,
Like if you watch Jessica Jones season two, they introduced
a character like named the Wizzard, who was another speedster
who got it from mongoose blood, which doesn't make any sense.

(04:09):
But with this it doesn't make any sense. What it
eventually like became was that he had a meta gene
in his body, Jake Eric and the hard water was irradiated,
so that caused his powers to emerge. But yes, it
does not make a lot of sense. Why that plus
that equal speedster? Gotcha? Yeah? So he was inspired by Mercury,
the speedy god of Roman mythology, and Geric is even

(04:30):
called the reincarnation of the god in his first issue,
and he's known as the Scarlet Speedster. That's it. Yeah.
Have you seen what he looked like originally? Hell? Yeah,
it was basically a flash shirt. I mean I would
have you ever seen anyone wearing that design? There's a
lot of people who really pull it off, and I
really did it. But my favorite part of Jay Geric
is what he eventually got adapted into. For while he

(04:51):
West who is the third Flash, which we'll talk about him,
but he became more of a mentor to not just Flashes,
but all younger generations. And even if I don't know
if you guys are Smallville, I understand if you didn't
because it was kind of garbage, but I rewatched all
of it. But they made an extension comic and they
introduced Jake Garrick as the like mentor two younger generations,
because that's a perfect role for him. He's kind of
like this a perpetual grandpa. And I always enjoy that

(05:13):
type of characterization in comics. At least it's different from
someone who was always like chiseled or has a perfect morality.
He's like, no, he's kind of dated, but he just
has his wife that he cares, his family that he
loves a lot. Yeah, this one that we're looking at,
he's basically in a long sleeve. You know, it's something
that you would work out in. I would say it
looks like a workout tea, very tight with this tin

(05:34):
his metal top hat with his little golden wings. Yeah.
I feel like I feel like if someone cosplayed as
this and you didn't know the reference, he'd be like, Oh,
he's doing like a casual flash cosplay. That's cool. Yeah,
the actual flash. Yeah, I've always been a fan of
that helmet, even though it is silly because in comics,
like I was reading up on recently because Mark Wade

(05:56):
he did like one of these. He's like one of
the most important writers for the Flash during Wally, and
he did a lot for j and for Bart and
just kind of filling out their lore, but um, they
started playing around with like the stuff he could use
with the helmet, and also like how he hit his
identity because at first he was like public It's like, yeah,
I'm I'm just wearing a hat, like there's no reason
you shouldn't be able to identify me immediately. But then
he started like he finally introduced like the shaking of

(06:17):
his face to hide it. Did y'all see that picture
of Zoe de Chanelle and it was her without her
bangs or glasses, And it was like, I never understood
how people didn't know that Clark Kent was Superman until
I saw this photo. It's uh, I saw that one too,
It's crazy. I love it. So the Flash, as we know,

(06:38):
has super speed, which includes ability to run, move, and
think extremely fast, so he's not just physically fast and
uses superhuman reflexes to seemingly violate certain laws of physics
m M. And eventually, like we'll talk about the speed
force and what that big mess of a concept is.
But Jake Grek originally didn't have that. He was just
a superpowered person who could just move really fast. Eventually

(07:00):
he got that and he could move even faster. But
It's kind of cool because when a comic book writers
just decided to get rid of the speed force to
simplify some stories, Jay can still be a speedster, which
is always really cool. He can still he's not as fast,
and since he's an old man, it's kind of sweet
that he's like, I gotta take a breath, I have to, like,
I have to take a break for a second. But
that's another element that I enjoy about him being different
from everybody else. So it seems like, so there's four flashes.

(07:23):
You have Jake Garrick, Barry Allen, Wally West, and Bart Allen.
So so there are a lot of flashes like instead,
which is interesting because you know, there's been Bruce Wayne forever.
There's been Clark Kent forever. You know, I think the
closest would be the Robbins that kind of swapped out.
But as far as it makes it interesting that there

(07:46):
have been so many flashes, yet, you know, there's also
been a whole bunch of um green lanterns as well.
I was going to say a blank ton, but you know,
we don't curse family friendly now. We can always bleep
it out get him out of the way now, Well,
I've always been a fan that they can switch it
out pretty often. Bart I did pick up his run

(08:07):
like recently, and it's super short. Like people really weren't
on board with bart being for some reason He's so
that's Barry Allen's grandson, grandson from the future, ram back
in time, so all the time travel mess that you
could ever want in a story. But yeah, Barry came next,
and there's a lot of really cool things that Actually,
there was an article a couple of years ago that
painted a really good picture of why the Flash is

(08:28):
so important to comics and actually and sci fi storytelling
and as a whole, like he's used to introduce a
lot of bigger concepts to comics, like the idea of
the protegey taking over the mentor's role like he Flashed
was the first person to do that, introducing the multiverse.
That actually happened between Jay and Barry. And that's such
a cool story and it's now something they really are

(08:48):
trying to push as far as the multiverse. Yes, it's
so cool, and I love the way they do it
with Jay and Barry because for some reason Barry knows
about say but it then it becomes so much more convoluted,
like when they kind of consolidate everything. But I do
like that the Flash has been so important for all
of that. Yeah. So the first Flash Jay Garrick. This
was during the Golden Age of comics, so back in

(09:10):
the forties, and essentially he was also battling crooks and
Nazi agents, and he was also alongside the Justice Society
of America. That's what it was called until declining interests
in superhero comics led to the end of the Golden
Age of comics and the cancelation of the Flash in Yeah. Yeah,

(09:32):
it was sad, but my man Barry. Yeah, so that
so Barry came in and that was the Silver Age
of comics. And I would say arguably, no, I'm going
to get in trouble for this being in the nerd world.
What I have heard from a lot of Flash people
is I feel like Barry Allen is the majority of
people's favorite Flash. Depending on your generation. A lot of
people will fight to the death for Wally West because

(09:57):
we can talk about that, but Barry, I really because
his origin has been changed in like Flash Rebirthday. If
you watch the Flash show, you know what his origin
is now. But originally it was so cool that he
by accident got his powers. Originally, like there's so many
that's convoluted, but and then he got them, and he
just chose out of the goodness of his own heart
to do good things. It wasn't because of a tragedy,
it wasn't because of an obligation to somebody else. He

(10:20):
just wanted to be a good person. And I feel
like you just can't do that anymore for some reason, like, oh,
we can't believe the motivation. I feel like it's because
as humans we can't possibly understand having a kind character
that would just do something out of the kindness of
their hearts. I feel like we need to relate to
them in a way that they have some type of motivation,
you know, or cynicism or something that they're doing it from.

(10:42):
Eventually they do change it so that his mom was
it's just which I like. I like that idea when
they got into that with reverse Flash. But it's also
was nice for just a second to have someone who
just genuinely wanted to be a good person, had the
ability to be the best version of himself, and he
was so if he did, you want to go into win.
Barry got started, So yeah, the Silver Age Flash was

(11:04):
Barry Allen, a police scientists who gains his superpowers after
an unlikely running with a lightning bolt in some chemicals.
Once again, chemicals and oops, that's that's a teenage mutant
ninja turtles. Uh. And funnily enough, the Jay Garrett Flash
is even acknowledging Allen's origin tail as a comic book

(11:25):
character that inspires the new Flash is heroics, and by
nine Aland was popular enough to get his own comic
new texts on old characters would launched. A variation of
the Justice Society was born called the Justice League of America,
which has been the what it's been since. And even
Jay Garrick was reintegrated into the new continuity in the
classic Flash of two world story thanks to the concept

(11:47):
of parallel earths, which that comics love that idea. I
think media loves the idea that there might be a
parallel universe because it just it opens the door for
literally anything, and it you don't have the complications of
like time travel, of like well what if it had
to happen before now, or like does that influence the
present or whatnot. It's like, no, it happened it's concurrent,
but also that story gets even more complicated because part

(12:10):
of that world gets merged back, like Jay Garrick's city,
Keystone City, buries Is Central was like part of our world,
and then magic happened because of a villain, and then
it was kind of gone. But eventually they just like retcon.
It's just like there's another Earth Earth too, and that's
where like Jay and your goldename heroes are and we can,
like the Justice League in the Justiciety always like pair
up and and work together. But it's so cool that

(12:31):
Barry was a fan and he literally just wanted to
copy this fictional air quote fictional character and be more
like him. I kind of like Barry's cost him a
little bit more, but I do like Jay's helmet as well,
But I don't know if you could wear that now,
it would totally give him away. Not that not that
Flashes costume doesn't give him away now. So yeah, So

(12:53):
Barry Allen actually remained the flash forward over thirty years
and in the comics was romancing his fiance and eventual wife,
who was Iris West, and picking up a young sidekick
in the form of Iris's nephew, Wally West. Yes, I
have to say, Wally West is a great flash Kid
Flash and I U Carmen Infantino was the artist for

(13:14):
the Flash and I loved his design for Kid Flashes costume.
It's like it's reversed that you got the yellow with
the giant red lightning bologna and like they recently like
re upped it for the new for ann Birth. Yeah,
when he brank Wally West's whole story with that, that's
really convoluted, but they showed it again. It was just
nice to see because it's so simple but it's so
iconic at the same time. And it's crazy that Wally's

(13:36):
origin was like basically mirrored what happened to Barry just
happened by accident. It gets more convoluted that like lightning
in chemicals, yes, and it was like in Barry's office,
it was just like, oh no, like lightning snuck through
a window and hit him. But hey, this is an
unlucky family. Yes, but they have metal like in there.
I know, like who has like a metal plate in

(13:57):
their head or something that they're getting struck by lightning?
This this off did. There was one comic that said
that Barry subconsciously influenced to that to happen to Wally.
But then I everyone's kind of like it just condoun
was an accident because it makes it sound like, why
would you make a kid you go through that. Well,
maybe he wasn't aware, maybe he knew that that was
going to be his origin. Maybe. But also Wally was

(14:18):
the head of the Flash fan club for his school,
which is really fun that like, oh, you're the you're
the top fan for the Flash and you actually get
to work with him, and you get to work with
your hero. And it's before everyone got really depressed in comics,
so it's like, this is actually a good thing. You
don't hate each other. Oh yeah, this is back when
people were still happy just a little bit. So we're
kind of rounding out the Silver Age of comics, which

(14:40):
would then lead up to the insanity known as Crisis
on Infinite Earth, which, if you do, you want to
give us some background on that before we have Sam totally. Yeah.
So yeah, when Barry realized that the universe was about
to be destroyed by the nefarious Anti Monitor, who I
often mix up with dark Side because they look a
lie or a dark side and uh no, no, it's

(15:02):
dark Side and Doomsday that these are all about equal,
they're all stony looking balance. But he was about to
fire his anti matter cannon. Then the Flash literally ran
himself to death to stop the weapon from firing, and
Barry's heroic sacrifice saved the day and brought the rest
of the heroes the time they needed to finish the job.

(15:24):
It's actually a really cool event because d C like
when they came up with like, oh, garrickson another if
that's cool, and then they're like, well, what if we
did other earths? And then they more and more and
then it was kind of like people didn't know if
I was reading this Flash comic, does that actually have
anything to do with anything else that's happening, And they're
like answers no. So it was getting really complicated. So
the anti Monitor for reasons, was deleting a lot of
the multiverse, and it got down to your last couple

(15:46):
of earths and he was going to delete everything. Barry
sacrifices himself and actually that's the first time a character died,
like really really died. And it's pretty violent when you
like watch it, like, I mean they take out blood
and other like gory effects, but he does run himself
to death, and he does pop up in other ways
in the future, but it's always in the sense that,

(16:06):
like he already knows his time is limited, he doesn't
get to really live more life after that until we
get further down the load the road. But it's a
very permanent thing that the writers chose to do for
a very iconic character, and that it's the very first
time a character actually died. They in a few years
after that they did with Superman in London goes so well,
and with Batman then and then goes so well. But well,

(16:29):
what I would say with Batman a Superman is that
might be also why those characters have never officially had
someone else take up their mantle is because it doesn't
go well. I mean those are such not that the
Flash isn't and not that Barry Allen isn't. But I
think the two title characters, you know, or three if
we're throwing in Wonder Woman, who is my o g
like Superhero, but I think it would be so difficult

(16:52):
to kill off Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent. I mean,
as a real Batman was tight. Yeah, I really costs
it might be. Yeah, I think that's about it. But
I would say for fans of that of those franchises, no,
you're not wrong, because they are like when you think superheroes,
the first to are Batman Superman, Like that's pretty impossible
to really kill them for that long, but they do

(17:14):
open the door for other characters to step up, Like
that's how you got Dick grayce and as Batman, and
that's actually a really cool combo. And you get Conner
Kent and you get Steel and you get Cywork Superman,
who's a really popular villain for d C comics. So
there's there's room like opportunities for new characters to pop
up and really grow and make a name for themselves
outside of that character. But I get it, and I
also the Flashes death wasn't permanent, which is a bit

(17:35):
of a bummer, but for at least like thirty years,
he was not there. We tackled this in our Infinity
War episode about how a lot of deaths aren't permanent,
and now it just doesn't have as much weight. I
mean to me, like I understand. I remember people are like, well,
you know, do we have to have them die permanently?
You can still have steaks without having them die. But
I just feel like if you know that they're going

(17:57):
to be alive no matter what, it really does kind
of remove at least for me. Yeah, the only character
that was died pretty permanently was Jean Gray, and then
now she's technically kind of back right because they got
the old school class and now they're stuck in current
time and I'm like, that just feels like it messes
up the time continuum. Oh yeah, they never really Like

(18:18):
there was a one offline once where it's like, oh, yeah,
you guys aren't from the past anymore. You're fine at
a time's fine, and it was like, what is that
We're not coming back to that, I guess. But also
Jean Gray straight up is there and the young one,
so it's like good, it's just super complicated now. But
the Flash gets into that territory as well, which is
a bit of a moment. But I do agree when
you do make like make those kind of sacrifices, it

(18:38):
makes the story a little bit more legitimate for me,
but not for everybody. Yeah, well no, I think it
was funny. You know. I was having a conversation with
someone the other day that talks about why you know,
something like game of Thrones. Why does that fantasy show
stick so much? Why has it caught so many people?
And it's I think it's because death is constant and
it's permanent in and I feel like that's what made

(19:01):
for One Person, yeah, which we all knew because they
were a favorite, But then like the same thing for
Walking Dead. I think that's what made it so crazy
because and you see the effect of it. It makes
people lose their mind when their favorite character dies because
they know they are dead. So there is a jadedness
to it. But the alternative isn't as fun either. Yeah.

(19:24):
I just wanted to say that Crisis on Infinite Earth
came out in um the eighties, so I don't know,
don't write me that we didn't give you a spoiler.
Essentially we still get no did I don't know if
I showed you, but I tweeted and it was somebody
that was breaking down the top ten Twilight Zone episodes,
which spoiler alert, we're gonna be talking about because my
favorite thing in the world. But someone on the article said,

(19:46):
way to spoil the episodes, and they were like it
came out in the fifties or not, Like, you know,
you don't deserve a spoilers of the whole people that
came out between that. Not only that, but it's often
referenced in pop culture like the Simpson's ace Ventura. Like
you know, there's so many things that Twilight Zone references
have been made, you know, rebooted like twice, right, there's

(20:08):
a new Twilight Zone coming and that there was a
one on sci Fi, and then there's Jordan Peel's that's
coming out on CBS. He was on that one. That
moving on to the Modern Age, which we have the
third Flash, Wally West. So he was originally introduced in
the Flash volume one, number one ten in nineteen fifty
nine as Kid Flash. He's Allen's nephew by marriage. He

(20:31):
gained the Flashes powers as we were saying, and then
he maintained membership in the Teen Titans for years. So
following Allan's death, he adopted the Flash identity in Crisis
on Infinite Earths number twelve and was given his own series,
which started in nineteen eighties seven. And it's really cool
because right off the bat there's him having to live
up to the mantel, which since I wasn't around in

(20:53):
the eighties, so I don't know how fans responded to
losing Barry Allen. I know if that happened now, people
would lose their minds. But it was cool that Wally
took the approach of I know that I'm not Berry
and that's okay, So I'm just going to be the
best person I can be. And he's he's like a
blue color superhero, which is very cool. Eventually people know
his name and they know that he is there for

(21:14):
them and he's meant to help the little guy, which
is very cool. And also he started out slower, like
he intentionally was slower than Barry like it was because
writing writing, writing, you find out that it was like
a mental block, and he ends up unlocking more speed
force abilities and Speedster powers than Barrier any flash before.
He's extremely powerful, but at the same time he's very grounded.
He has a family and his love story is very sweet.

(21:36):
I recently read when he had his kids and it
was a really sweet story. Yeah, you get like invested
in in the characters. I was going to say many
issues began with the catchphrase my name is Wally West,
I'm the fastest man alive. That's great. Then the TV
show took that because it sounded really good. Yeah, it's
it's a pretty tight catch. Yes, sweet, So tell me

(21:59):
about what happened when there was a certain period of
time when he ended up misusing his powers and then
winning millions in a lottery and then became like a
womanizing playboy. Yeah, because that sounds tight. But I want
you all to hear this after the break and we're back,

(22:23):
and Sam, you told me that Wally West was a
really good person. Uh, and then I found out that
when given the opportunity, when you have millions of dollars,
which I'm you know, this is just human psychology, one
oh one, Uh, you turn into this playboy? Ask person,
what is this? Jaded comics? It was that that's true.

(22:45):
He did win the lottery, very fun and but eventually
hasn't he gotten enough superpowers and millionaire? I mean that's
Bruce Wayne. No, Bruce Wayne doesn't have the superpowers. That's
why he's a millionaire because he needs that. I'm sorry, continue, No,
you're you're not wrong. But also that womanizer character got
kind of attached to the Wally West flash on the

(23:07):
Justice Leage animated series and that and that was a
very fun character that he's always like no women want
to talk to him ever, but eventually that leads to
him getting with Linda Park. They kind of con that
lottery went pretty quick because it's like this is a
little un like, you're right, this is a little unfair
for you to have everything, Um, but it is pretty
fun to read a hero like that. He's he's fast

(23:28):
talking in every sense of the word, and but he
never scores until like he actually meets someone who calls
him out on a ship and that's Linda Park And
she actually has a bit of a role on the
Flash TV show. But it's gonna be a bummer that
we're not going to get more of her. Hopefully we
get her in the movies because she's really she's a
great character. So then moving on, I wanted to talk

(23:49):
about the extremely confusing thing known as the Speed Force. Yeah,
so this was introduced with Wally and they're like Berry
made it and like it got really confusing. Basically, it's
like a place. It's a place, a thing in a
connective tissue a whole multiverse. Right, It's kind of like
the Jedi or whatever, like in its connectivity power kind

(24:11):
of Yeah, that it for people who can tap into it.
Also just to get even more complicated, Barry made it
like Berry made it when he got electrocuted with with
chemical whatever it was, and like he and by that happening,
he created it, and then it existed from that point
on throughout all of time past, present, future, So like
that ignited it, and it's actually the new fifty two.

(24:32):
They talked about how it's actually what moves time forward
and moves all of time and space war that's why
he can move so fast and break the laws of physics,
because he is the factor that makes it all work
for for some reason. But writer Grant Morrison, he did
a book called Multiversity, which I highly recommend. It's a
story where each issue takes place in another universe and
it's like a mystery across all universes, and you get

(24:54):
to see a map of what the DC universe looks like.
And what holds it all together is the speed Force.
It's like a speed force wall how they depicted in
the map. What else to say is that it's kind
of sentient a little bit depending on who's writing it,
but for the most part, it kind of creates a
shield and allows the Flashes or whoever can tap into
the speed force too, like you said with Jake Garrick,
but like think very quick. They have fast reflexes depending

(25:15):
on which flashes they have a higher metabolism says to
eat more. But also they can face through objects. It
can go on and on and on what they are
capable of doing with the speed force, but what it
is is big question work for what the writer wants.
For the most part though, it's just part of the
universe that helps time and space move forward. Dang, Yes,
it gets heavy and then some people are like they

(25:38):
down to first. It's really cool. It has so dang,
we should link that cool in our footnotes. It's super
cool that has a breakdown where heaven and Hell are
and it also incorporates Sandman from Neal Game in there.
It's very cool. It's okay, whoa, you're you're blowing away.
It has heaven and hell Heaven and can they like
can they move between those? Yes? And they have Hades

(26:01):
and Olympus like a, oh yeah, they have Greek mythology people.
I mean that makes sense because he's Mercury. Yeah, and
wonder Woman as well. My mind is blown. You know.
It was funny because before we started this, if I
hope this is okay to say that you like said
you're not really into the Flash. No, yeah, I didn't.
Flash was not my guy. Look, when you read capes,
which is slang for superhero comics, you have to choose

(26:24):
who you're going to zero in on. And at the
time I was reading Flash, I was reading d C
and Marvel, and on Marvel, I think I was on
Black Panther. Of course, Actually no Black Panthers stopped running
unless this is the time, because this is when they
went our crossover crazy, and a crossover event is when
an event takes place across all of their comics. So

(26:46):
Marvel was going insane with like Fear Itself. Then they
had the Heroic Age, and then they went and did
their huge whatever tied to the movie, and then they
had shadow Land, which was an amazing crossover, which I
hope they do on The Defenders, which is when the
Daredevil tries to use the Hand for good but obviously
turns evil. And then Black Panther comes and watches Overhill's kitchen.

(27:10):
So I'm reading all that and at the same time,
I get in during Brightest Day, right after the Darkest
Night crossover event. Dark Blackest Night is really cool. Day
is rough. It's it's brightest day just really was because
they built up to nothing. For those who don't know,
Brightest Day kept talking about this white lantern and and

(27:32):
that how because darkest night is when they kind of
created all of the different lanterns, which were orange for
avaice read for rage, indigo for compassion. Then what was
the violet Violet was this love star sapphire. That's them,
and then you had hope hope, and green for and

(27:54):
then yellow for fear fear, and so they there was
this huge battle between all of the ease and it
just kind of shook, and then it created the black lantern,
which was death and it was gnarly. It was really cool.
It's the coolest cross. It's space zombies. That's what it
came out. Everyone who is dead, every corpse. I don't
know if that meant animals too, but like they'd get

(28:16):
a black lantern ring and they are alive, and that
is at the army. If you kill one, you can't
kill one because they'll just come back, exactly. And so
all of the lanterns had to work together to fight it,
which was cool because now all these lanterns that were
warring are now friends, and I was a big red
Lantern fan. I loved Oh my gosh, a Trocitus was ridiculous,

(28:36):
and he had a cat named Dexton that would would
always that he loved. It was insane. It was like
peak DC comics. And then after the event they had
Brightest Date where there was this big, fabled white Lantern
that everyone was hyped and then it turns out that
white Lantern isn't all of us. It was super con

(28:56):
I tried to read it, and it's super convoluted. It's
really hard to follow. I like what they did with
dead Man. That was cool that they gave a body.
It was like dead Man's story was so good. Actually
that was like a heartwarming story. But everything else and
the truth is we were the heroes. It was so dumb.
It made me so bad. I screamed when I turned that.

(29:21):
And then there was like a Dare like thing next
to like don't do drugs, a right next to it.
But because of that, I was reading so many comics
and I had to one had to go. And Flash
was my guy that was getting the axe, but he
came back into my life and I had to like
go back and grab a few because the flashpoint event happened,
and uh, we'll get into that in a second. But yeah,

(29:42):
once flashpoint happened, I was like, let me jump into
this flash and then I was like, nah, you gotta
get the cut. Like this Flashpoint was cool. I actually
liked it, but just his solo comic just could not
keep me snatched. Currently, Joshua Williamson is writing, and I
really did what he has been doing, Like he's been
very creative with how he uses the speed Force and

(30:02):
he actually creates something like it's called the speed Force Storm.
They just made a bunch of new Speedsters, so there's
new characters that they can play around with. But going back,
like that was around the time with Brightest Day, that
would have been around like Wally West. Oh Barry was
back for that at that point and bart Allen was
running around as well. But um, like going back a
little bit further, like Wally West, he had probably the
most famous run for the character, Like if you want recommendations,

(30:26):
Mark Wade's run for Wally West and Jeff John's. He
has my favorite run for the Flash period because it's
at first it starts out really wonky, like he's in
this mirror world. It's like medieval and you're like, I
don't know where we are. It ends and eventually comes
back to the blue collar side of his character, and
it's really sweet that he works with unions and he
tries to make like big businesses work with the smaller
like like the industrial side of Central City in Keystone

(30:48):
City or this is yeah, both of these cities. I
feel like maybe you also really like that because that's
who they based um. Jeff John's was so heavily involved
in the c W show like how that Barry Allen
was going to be, so they definitely copied the best place,
and also he was instrumental in reinvigorating people's interest in
Barry Alan. Jeff Johnson was especially with Flash Rebirth, but

(31:10):
with Wally. He was also training bart Allen during that.
That's when they introduced him his impulse, and he was
a really interesting character because he should have been extremely annoying,
which for some people he was because he's born a
speedster in the future and they bring him back in
time and he was raised in a simulation that can
keep up with how fast that he thinks, so he's
never interacted with real people before and He's like, oh
my god, I can't I can't take how slow you

(31:33):
are talking right now. So and he's very excited at
the time. He's very positive, and it was cool to
see Wally, who was mentored by like in everyone's minds
in the world the best Flash now having to take
up that mantel and actually be a good teacher, which
was pretty interesting. Yeah, so let's dive into Flashpoint. Um,
there's a lot to tackle their aside from the fact

(31:55):
that that is also the name of the new movie
that is coming out, which they changed from a flash
movie too. Now it's flash Point, which Sam you were
saying is kind of a weird choice to have as
a movie, Like you get it, like you get it,
like so flashpoint in the comics, so like for timeline
of how things went while he was was Flashed for
a while, they wanted to invigorate it, and so they

(32:15):
made Bart like He's like cool, like you get another
younger Flash to be him. He didn't work out for
very long while he came back and they're like, well,
we have a big event called Final Crisis, might as
well like have another big twist there for people to
pick it up. Barry comes back to life. It's actually
a really cool moment where he's literally while he accidentally
runs into the speed Force since he's Barry out running death.
It's a really cool moment. But then we Barry comes

(32:36):
back to life, we get the flashpoint, and that's Barry
choosing when he finds out what actually happened to his
mother who was murdered by the Reverse Flash. Which I'm
excited to talking about Reverse Flash because he's actually one
of my favorite villains that DC's ever created, and I
think that be fun to kind of dive into him.
But when he finds out that Reverse Flash went back
in time and killed his mother, he's like, if time
wasn't supposed to be that way, let me try to
fix it, and it immediately everything goes wrong. It's another

(33:00):
thing with the speed Force. To add in that there
is a speed force and a negative speed force that
bad speedsters use the negative one and good well it
sounds yeah, just like this other thing that we know,
and with speedsters they can run faster. But even though
this came out before Star Wars, but it feels very

(33:20):
Jedi City. Oh. The speed Force, I think was timeline
wise came out after Star Wars, I think, yeah, I think,
oh no, but I think it's a common not even
a trope. I don't want to say, but it's a
common like theme I would say in a lot of
superhero I've actually never thought of it that way, but actually,
really it's definitely because the Jedi can tap into and like,

(33:43):
so the good can use it for good, and they're
kind of all connected in that way, in the same
way that people that can use a speed force are
kind of connected, Like it's a thing that they can
just kind of tap into, and kind of like how
the Sith can kind of use cooler powers, the Speedsters
can go through tiny have cooler lightsabers. So essentially, what
would you say that the main bullet point of flash
Point for people that don't Barry went back in time,

(34:06):
saved his mom, and it created an entirely new timeline,
and uh, for the most part, I really dug what
they did, and it was so cool. Everyone changed. Batman
is no longer Bruce Wayne, it's his dad, and freaking
wonder Woman is like Queen of the Mascaria going to
war with Atlantis. Like Aquaman and Wonder Woman are at
each other's throats, so they sunk Europe. They like a

(34:32):
Superman never came into being in his story. Actually, if
you want a really cool story, read Batman's Flashpoint story.
I've ever read it. It's where you find out who
flash Point Joker isn't. Oh, it's dark, it's amazing. Oh
I think I do remember that one, really really good.
But the main point is Barry realizes that you can't
just make decisions like this, and you have to. He
makes another big sacrifice like he did before, and he

(34:53):
chooses to stop himself from saving his mother, complicating the
timeline so much that a lot of different universes start
to merge together, kind of like how Crisis of Infinite
Earth's happened. And it created a new timeline that created
the new fifty two with Barry Allen as the main
flash and a lot of new things in the DC
universe that weren't there before, and a lot of things
have been deleted. Ed got uh, Barbara Gordon out of

(35:14):
the wheelchair. It basically reversed the killing joke, and people
weren't too happy about it. No, no, and they're still
and they're still not happy about it. It's been like
what eight years, but they're still set in their defense.
That was kind of a whack move that the Killing
Joke literally has the Jokers showing up and just paralyzing
a female character, And it became like super important part

(35:37):
to the just sleek to Batman, to a lot of heroes,
being the one who coordinates everybody and makes it all
work and actually keeps them together and organized and make
sure that's that's the nice way to put it. It
turned into a receptionist for superheroes. It turned bad Girl
into a superhero receptionists. So I was very pro, yes,
let's get her back in the cow. There's so much
debate around that. Yeah, Like I'm like, no, I want

(35:59):
her back in a cow, because I did think it
was weird that just as a plot device, you paralyze
one of your female heroes. Oh, if we want to
do Killing Joke, I'm not a big fan. I am
not a big fan of that book. People love people
love people will write y'all, but not me. No, people,
because because it seems like there was a point where

(36:20):
killing Joke was the top, and then I felt like
a few years ago there was a point where I
was like, actually, killing Joke was not that tight. We
were like everyone kind of got there. Definitely will be
people who was like, no, I still think it's great.
That's you can read That argument would be that she
overcame that. I think that is what I see a
lot of people's arguments. But I'm always like, also, not

(36:42):
to take away it did introduce a disabled character. I
don't want anyone who kind of like sees themselves in
Barbara Gordon in a wheelchair to think that I want
to snatch that from you, because that is an aspect
of it that I don't want to forget about as well.
Good point, that's fair, But we got her back and
she got a really cool costume. She actually has my
favorite like bat costume out of everybody because she got

(37:04):
the boots and she got the purple. It's it's super tight.
But from there, from flash Point, we got Barry Allen
as the main flash again, and they actually had to
do a lot of work to like make him interesting
because while Barry was flashed for like the longest period
of time, it was in the time when like these
comics like there, there's not like a lot of depth
to them. It's just like what you have to flourish

(37:25):
for the cool guy, and like he like, and then
like he was like, well he just used to go faster,
and like that's that's how old comics went. So they
actually had to like really build them up and make
him interesting. And it is fair why I understand why
you dropped the Flash after New fifty two because some
of the writing got wonky, got super wonky. Also, Wally
Wester was gone. He was just like not in comics anymore.

(37:46):
They totally deleted. Remember people were a little bit salty
about that, Yes they were. And then they moved forward
and reintroduced him as Wally West, but they changed his race,
which is good to like like have diversity. Is like
when you read a Flash comic, it's just like it's
just pale, pale everybody. They're all Flash. Yeah. When they

(38:06):
say we are the Flash, it's like collective, like hive mind,
well the Flash, but it's like they yeah, but you
had fans like freaking out about that for no reason.
But it's cool that that Wally was what they based
the Wally for the Flash TV show off of, and
it gave diversity that show, which is very nice. It
was just nice that they're willing to like take a
chance and actually do something different, and I think the

(38:26):
thing is, like, yeah, it is shocking, because I think
as humans, change is very jarring, especially when it's like
your dude, your character and it changes. But as long
as you just keep the writing good and press on
and ignore the haters for a bit, they fall in line.
You know. Yeah, I wanted to Sam because you had
touched on Reverse Flash, who is arguably one of the
most liked slash popular villains DC history period, but essentially

(38:53):
Professor Zoom. He was actually the first villain to call
himself Reverse Flash, because there's a couple of Reverse Flashes
or people that go by that name, who was a
century scientist who fought Barry Allan in the Silver Age.
I feel like he's pretty complicated, Like that's the best
way to describe him. He's extremely complicated. The best version
of his story Jeff Johnson Mark Wait, if you kind

(39:14):
of like boil their origins down together, you kind of
get a good idea. Actually, Mark Waite again giving him
a shout out. He has one of the best Reverse
Flash stories, and you actually find out why he is
so obsessed and why he actually fights Barry for any
reason whatsoever, Like why would he even care? He was
the Flash's biggest fan. He was a curator at the
Flash Museum, which I do love that Flash has a museum.
His city actually loves him. Yes, he's openly yeah superhero

(39:38):
and it's it's I love that aspect of the character.
But Reverse Flash EO Bard silly name, and he was
obsessed with him. And he ends up finding in a
time capsule a version of the Flashes suit that has
some of the Speed force in it. Again, what does
that mean? Doesn't matter because he's able to replicate the
powers run back in time and he goes to the
Flash Museum, and the other one writing gets a little
confusing because he notices when he walks into the Flash

(39:58):
Museum of the Past that he sees the Reverse Flash
and he sees the name of who the Reverse Flashes,
and it's his name, and he's like, what wait, what
are you talking about? Like why would I be the
bad guy? I don't understand if you worked at the Flash,
if you se him in the future, you didn't see
your name on that on that exhibit. But regardless, from there,
he kind of goes a little crazy important tidbit. He
got plastic surgery to look like Barry Allen, that's how

(40:19):
much of a family was, So it's already unhealthy his
obsession with Barry. But when he runs back in time,
he actually pretends to be Barry like because he's like,
I'll just be better. I can be better because I
know all the Flashes stories. I can be a better hero.
And he doesn't want Wally to succeed. Eventually, while he
does overcome and EO. Bard chooses, he's like, you know
what if I can't be a better Flash, I'll make

(40:40):
the Flash is better. And I think that's such a
crazy threat to make for somebody. But when you add
in time travel, it means he can do just about anything.
And Jeff John's Are actually has one of my favorite
stories just about EO. Bard, And there's this whole issue
where he edits his own timeline. He goes through and
he kills like one of his parents, like where he's like,
what can I edit and make sure that time's okay?

(41:01):
Like what can I change? And that's what he does
to Barry, Like he goes back in time and he
alienates Barry's childhood, like he takes away his friend. He
makes sure he breaks his legs so he can't join
baseball and I can't like make a social life. And
then he finds out that like he can actually take
away his mother and Barry will still be the Flash,
but he won't be who he was before, and it's like,
how can he mess with someone? And how could you
even plan to fix that? But the whole point is

(41:22):
that he actually loves Barry more than anybody. He cares
more in the air quotes, he loves him more than anyone.
He's willing to do the things that no one else
would do to make him a better hero whatever that means.
And better heroes have better more tragic back stores. It's
really messed up, like the more you like read about it,
but he is. That's usually the motivation for most reverse
Flashes is to make the other flash better. Yeah, well

(41:43):
you know that. I want to get more into this,
more into how it appeared in the c W and
more in too, our thoughts on the oncoming Flashpoint movie
and what it's supposed to be, But we'll get into
that after these messages. And we're back here with Sam Basher.

(42:09):
So the c W show is what got you into
the comics. I love that, and that's you're not the
only person that has said that that they loved the
show so much that it made them go back, and
we should just say that. So Grant Gustin is the
actor who when he was cast, I remember there was
a lot of blogs and blogs, there were a lot

(42:30):
of debate about him being Also he was younger, so
typically our Barry Allen is you know, can be a
little bit older, has a family, same with Wally West.
And I actually like the fact that he, like, there's
so much about The Flash that I was the same
with if he were I didn't really like I didn't
really grab onto him the way I did other characters.

(42:51):
If I'm being totally honest, I was a Batman girl,
like I just love he was like dark and broody.
He gets me and my evanescence and inkst like, you know,
my my chemical romance phase whatever. And uh, I really
liked that. Well. I liked him back with the animated series,
but I liked the darkness of him and I didn't
really understand kind characters. So I love the fact that

(43:11):
both Grant Gustin and Ezra Miller have this like awkward,
like you know, relatable, likable character kind of child like
a little bit child it's very innocent too, and they're
pretty innocent. You could like some people were like, oh,
he's immature. It's like no, it's more innocence that he
kinda sees the people. Yeah, he's naive. And I really

(43:36):
was excited because Great Guston showed up a Barry as
just Barry, not the Flash on Arrow, and I was
watching that right right, yeah. He Actually those are some
of my favorite episodes as a two parter, and you
get to see that he's just excited, like he's excited
about this world of something bigger out there, and those
I remember were heavily well received. When he dropped in
on Arrow, it was like game over. This kid's getting

(43:56):
his own show now. There was actually some talk, just
rumors through the grapevine or whatnot, but I had heard
that later on in the Seat that would be season
two of Arrow, they were thinking of having a kind
of like back to our pilot in that in that
season for Barry to see if like maybe we don't
know if it's gonna be good, but since that tart
did so well, they're like, no, we'll do a actual
full pilot with like the full like order. And because

(44:19):
if that wasn't going to do well. They were actually
gonna maybe add Barry into Arrow as like a supporting character,
which is actually also interesting. But I'm glad that he
got his own show because I think season one of
The Flash two, three, four, we just finished four have
been because they have to make some certain decisions to
make sure that Barry doesn't solve everyone's problems. But in
season one, I think it's almost like a perfect Superhero

(44:41):
origin season because it deals with the Reverse Flash. It
was just really interesting and basically you're seeing it from
the point of view of EO. Bard Cho. This is
light spoilers for season one like if that, if that's cool,
that's cool, but basically came out. Yeah, it's on Netflix.
You can go watch the whole thing. So basically it
opens with you, like you see Barry losing his mom

(45:03):
and him growing up and there's no plan for him
to be the Flash, and he ends up getting a
mentor named Harrison Wells, and from there Harrison's kind of
partially responsible for giving him his powers. But what you
find out is Harrison is Reverse Flash and you realize
that even though he wanted to take down Barry, in
doing so, he stopped the speed force from ever being created,
so he doesn't have speed power, so he's stuck in
the past. And from there he actually has to create

(45:26):
the person that he hates more than anything so that
he can go home, like he can't go home without him.
And it's this kind of tragic, complicated feeling where a
villain falls in love kind of like as a father
figure for the person he hates the most, and he
helped raise and helped create him to become the best
version of himself because that means he gets to go home,

(45:47):
and it makes him have to question everything about himself. EO.
Bard is still a very bad person in that show,
Like he's extremely about, very creepy, and it's um Tom
Kavanaugh who plays him, and he's an amazing actor. But
it's such an interesting choice to make where this person
is from the future. He literally knows exactly what's going
to happen, and he's going to manipulate every little chess

(46:08):
piece so that he can get what he wants, and like,
how do you plan for that? How how could you about?
How could you plan for that? And it it basically
you get this amazing touching moment. It's actually a great
moment where it showed that Grant Gustin like he can
act like he's he as a theater actor, but you
got to see him really spread his wings where you
have this moment where he actually gets to talk with
his mom, like right after Reverse Flash, that's what he does.

(46:29):
And it's this moment where it's just like, you understand
why people love Bury Allen because he can make that
kind of sacrifice you saw it in Crisis on Infinite Notes.
He's able to see that like this is something he
can't maybe even fathom, because like with time travel, sometimes
you can't fathom the problem, like the consequences of it.
But he's still willing to make that kind of sacrifice
for the greater good and for the people that he loves.

(46:49):
And so that's one of that's one of my favorite
elements of basically every Flash is that they are able
to lay down their life and make these kind of
crazy sacrifices while he's done it, be or in some
way or another, but Berry is the one who does
it the most often. And I think, trust me, there's
so much more to season one of The Flash if
you want to go watch it. It has actually one
of the coolest uses of time travel because it's an accident,

(47:10):
and it's really cool showing someone discovering time travel by acting,
because you see how dangerous that can be if you
don't know that he Barry does it by accident. It's
a it's an amazing, beautiful scene and something. Anyway, I
can go on and on and on, but I think
if you want to know why I love Barry so much,
that show does a good job and thanks to Jeff
John's being a part of that and really kind of

(47:31):
boiling down the best of wall In the best of
Barry in creating this new character who is Grant Gustin's
Berry Allen. But also I did like Ezra Miller's character
in the Justice League movie. While that movie was played problems,
I enjoyed it as much as a Fast and the
Furious movie, if that means anything. That's such a weird comparision,
because it's like when you really try to like break
it apart, you're like, what's what's happening? Actually, I just

(47:53):
enjoy it for like the action of it. Yeah, I
was gonna say, before we move on to Ezra Miller,
I wanted to talk just a little bit more about
the c W shows of the Flash premiered in North
America on October seven. The pilot became the second most
watched premiere in the history of the c W, and
that was after Vampire Diaries. And so calling Atwood actually

(48:15):
worked on the costume. So his costume, if you haven't
seen it, it's like a has a burgundy color scheme,
a masked helmet, gold accent. So Grant actually had to
have the Uh, it would take him approximately forty minutes
to get into his costume, and just sitting in the
makeup chair, I'm like, when whenever I hear these stories
of like and it took seven hours of makeup, and

(48:37):
like now when I'm in it for like twenty minutes,
I'm like, what the hell? And then they actually had
to glue his mask to his face because it kept
like sliding off. This was and then one other fact
about it is the sound design for the show was
handled by Mark Camperell, who he said, essentially the sound
effect for Berry is made up of elements of thunder, electricity,

(48:59):
jet fireballs, and various custom wishes and impacts. Yeah, I
was gonna. He essentially wanted it to be treated like
a hot rod he said, yeah, so that's a little
that's in fact, that's actually a really cool fact. And
I think it's the show that's used an air cannon

(49:19):
more than anyone in the world. Whenever it takes off,
there has to be an air cannons and everyone's hair
gets blown every all papers go everywhere, Like, could you
imagine if you did that like nine times a day,
for five days a week. It's four years now, I
get a little tired of it. But also in the
first season, it was the only season where they actually
had Grant and the team were like, oh, we gotta
make him run, so that the like like in between

(49:40):
shots were like you see him on a green screen
or whatever, like that's actually him running. But later they realized, like,
you were wasting a lot of time. Actually you don't
have to sweat in that leather number. You can just
we'll put your face on a CG person in a
fine And that's surprising. Actually a lot of the CG
stuffy're able to pull off in the Flash TV show
actually looks pretty done good. It's not bad. Also very

(50:02):
fun rogue. When we like talking about villains, Gorilla Grod
is a very Yeah, he's a super popular telepathic ape
telepathic talking ape from the Flash comics. But the way
they introduced him in the Flash TV show is nothing
like how they do in the comics, and they kind
of make him like, uh, like a movie monster. The
way he is portrayed, it's very cool, like we don't
know if he's real or not. There's like whispers off him,

(50:24):
and when he finally makes his debut, he looks awesome.
And also classic actor Clancy Brown does the voice for
him and he has a very important role with Grod.
So another little reason to check out that season of
The Flashy Check it out Netflix. Yeah, when you talked
about the CG being good, you just took me back
in time. Do you remember that show Mutant X. Yeah,

(50:45):
well wait, it's the it's it was the X Men show.
That wasn't the x Men show or like and they
and I remember the c G and that was not
that tight, and I remember thinking like, oh man, they
it's gonna be hard for them to do superhero shows
and just looking how far we've come. But yeah, it
just you just made me remember that. I remember the
Mutant XS. It ran It has sixty six episodes, but

(51:08):
that's a lot it's actually a lot. Yeah, it ran
for a minute. My favorite was small Ville. The way
they do effects is that Clark just runs in pushes
people against the wall, and then that's the that's they
don't want them to fly. They don't want to have
like laser vision too many times. It's always running and wooshing.
You can always tell an early odds on the TV
show because this cast photo was just oh wow, it's
like very n c I s very insight. I love

(51:31):
the fact that Linda Carter came up with the spin
for Wonder Woman because it was like, how are we
going to how is she going to get changed into
her Wonder Woman outfit? And it was like having her
arms out and spinn because that's not in the comics,
So she came up with that for the show. I
was bummed we didn't get Linda Carter at all in
the movie, like not even like just like walking by
and giving a wave or something. What if it turned out?

(51:53):
She was like, under, I bet that they will in
the second one, hopefully, and maybe we get a nod
to this. You know, it would be amazing if she
were a villain, that'd be really cool. Hi, let me
call up Patty Jenkins right now, So moving on our
final baby Flash right here is my favorite Ezra Miller.
I feel like he was one of the best parts

(52:15):
of Justice League. So he actually made his first cameo
and Batman verst Superman Dawn of Justice that was back
in then he had a cameo and Suicide Squad also,
and then later as a lead in Justice League. In
this is Kelly Canna Yama from Nurdics said, Ezra Miller's
portrayal of the Flash made me a believer. As Barry Alan,

(52:36):
Miller was not merely super speedy, but vulnerable, eager, awkward, alienated,
and all around endearing. I mean he was also just
comedically hilarious. But yeah, I thought he brought this element
to the Justice League that was so needed. This like comedic,
you know, lighthearted, also like just someone how would you

(52:57):
act for you had superpower? You would probably be weird.
Oh yeah, he's like kind of like he's fast talking.
He doesn't have the patience for people like he like,
and it's not meant to be rude. It's just that
he can't understand why people won't talk faster and think
faster and understanding faster because he can like he that's
how his entire universe works. And I was on the fence,
but I wasn't gonna go in and be upset about.

(53:18):
I was like, let's just see because I like Ezra
Milan a lot of roles, and I liked what he
did because it was he was endearing and I love
that he was a kid kind of like he was
like he was like naive like Grant Gustin. And I
love that line from Batman when he says, just save one,
like he doesn't know what to do in such a
big scenario. It's just like just if he's the EVA
guy perfect, that's fine. Like he gets the people out
of there and he just does like the quick run

(53:39):
ins and get outs like that's I mean, sometimes that's
all you need from the Flash, but you also get
really awesome moments. So I wouldn't mind him in his
own solo flash well. So, so he is going to
be in his own and he's going to be in
Flash Point. I personally feel like that he's going to
crush I. I know you're concerns with the story as
far as a movie and like what it's actually going
to cover and if it can do so successfully covering

(54:00):
the actual Flashpoint arc. But I don't know. I'm excited
for and and the other characters that will get to
from it. We could get a lot of really cool
characters out of it. And basically, the original Flashpoint was
meant to be a reset because comics at certain points
become a little too dense for new readers to hop in.
So the New fifty two was a reset. And that's
what a lot of people are looking at. If if

(54:21):
you made a Flashpoint movie, that means you want to
reset the movies that you've already done, which seems it
seems but but the fact is, if that's what they
were doing, I'd be like, okay, yeah, color me interested,
you know, especially with Ben Affleck not being Batman anymore.
And so that does give them agency to be like, Okay,

(54:41):
we're gonna recast, We're gonna wipe the world. But I
don't think that's what they're doing. I don't think so either,
because it's just kind of confusing to like, do we
even watch those old movies anymore? Does that mean anything
to anybody? But it could lead to a more positive outlook.
They could just pretend, remember when we covered our Marvel one,
it was like the whole oh no, he's not Edward Norton.

(55:04):
You know, they didn't bring that up at all, So
let's not forget X Men first class. They came out,
we're a little better and there in the time, and
I guess, yeah, yeah, I think that would be interesting.
I don't think that they're going to get rid of
our girl gal though as wonder Woman, Like there's no
way they're touching her in the next like eight years
at least, So she's going to be our wonder Woman

(55:24):
for a while just because of how successful she was
as and she's great and very well loved in America's
Sweetheart DC Sweetheart. So yeah, so I don't see them
necessarily touching that. But I do think it would be
so interesting if they had a different Batman or a
different you know, it would be and like, like we
talked about the Flashpoint, like we found out that Thomas

(55:45):
Wayne was the one who was playing Batman, and we
already saw Jeffrey Dean Morgan play him in the flashback
for Batman Supermans of seeing him take up the mantle
as also Flashpoint, Batman has like the coolest costume, Like
my favorite Batman costume for like the male Batman characters.
I really like the red and the red eyes and
the red like his chest, so that would be really cool.
And Cyborg plays a really big role in that. And

(56:06):
you could see Gal playing like a more serious, like
militaristic wonderment for just for just for a second. It's
like a little else world story. And you could throw
Zachary Levi's Sam in there as well. And Jason Momo
could actually get more room to play because he didn't
get to play that much as Aquaman in Justice League
and seeing him be like this big, badass character could
be really interesting. Yeah. I just pulled up this is

(56:28):
um flashpoint Batman teased again by Jeffrey Dean Morrigan. This
was back in December. Look at this image here do
you see this? Uh? It's pretty cool. But I will
say Flash could also be This was pitched a lot
when Justice League was they're doing the press junkets that like,
Flash could be like a Spider Man for d C
because he's always lower tier. He always kind of deals

(56:50):
with like ground based like thieves and whatnot. There are
sci fi threats he goes against, but like seeing him
go against his rogues in a movie would also be
interesting as well, and it could since he's so h
naive and he likes to make jokes, and he's very
and his powers are kind of all over the place.
You could get a really sweet and endearing story between
him dealing with his father who's in prison, and dealing
with the death of his mother. There's a lot of

(57:11):
elements there that could lend to really good storytelling that
doesn't need to be as big as Flashpoint, which could
be interesting as well be true. So before we sign
off on this, I know you mentioned several comics, but
where should people start if they want to get into
the flash comics. There's two flash rebirths. There's one about
Barry Allen, like Reintroduced. That's a good one written by
Jeff John's and then there's another flash rebirth where it's

(57:33):
just like this is the beginning of a big story
and you can start there, and that's written by Joshua Williamson.
There's two walies right now. Don't worry, I'll figure out
what that means exactly, and you'll get a bunch of
new speedsters. So that way you get to feel like
you're in on it. But my and again I mentioned
Mark Wade, that's a that's a classic run for Wally West.
But my personal favorite interpretation of the Flash is Darwin Cook.
He wrote and he drew do you see a new Frontier?

(57:54):
And that's so beautiful. It's amazing, and I wish I
could buy all the prints from it. But the premises
when the characters were creating in our world is when
they actually appeared in their world. So the stories come
from the nineteen thirties and the forties and the fifties.
And when you see baryons introduction in the way, they
show his powers and they show just like how fun
loving he can be and actually how powerful he actually

(58:14):
is and why he deserves to be on the Justice
League and how important he is. Darwin Cook nails it
like he it's a beautiful story. So if you want
beautifully drawn, so beautiful. I remember when he passed away,
I like went out and picked up something they had,
like a ton of his comics and stuff. I think
it was that Golden Apple comics here in Hollywood. It
was so you just want to like take I mean,

(58:36):
I know that people don't like this, but I just
want to cut the pages of the frame them. I
got to everybody just chill man. Well, if you do
have any has Sam you know enlightened you at all?
And some of the more in depth aspects of the
Flash not being so singular, because I do have to
say you kind of like a very singular character in

(58:58):
our other show that we're both of sessed with who
reminds me quite of the Flash because he's naive and
also sacrifices himself. I will say as a recommendation, it's
my favorite Flash moment that has ever been captured in
like film or TV. The Justice League cartoon, I think
it right now it's off, but once that d c
app comes out that they're doing for Titans and Doom Patrol,
you can check it out there the final stretch of

(59:20):
the show, they have this amazing moment where they really
solify why the Flash is important to the Justice League.
Because he's so young and he has a younger outlook
on life. He's able to kind of keep them in
check when they get more militaristic. Even Superman can kind
of lose it after a while, like being around Batman
and Wonder Woman because they're more serious. And there is
this moment where the Justice League is taken out and
Flash runs away and you think, like, is he leaving

(59:43):
and no, it's just it's a moment where they show
just how powerful he is and how far he's willing
to go to protect the people that he loves, and
you get this awesome moment where you actually see him
run around the world on multiple times and showing the
kind of like raw power he actually has. While there's
sci fi elements that kind of get confusing that are
attached to his character, you can see that deep down

(01:00:05):
keys of Powerhouse and given the chance, he could take
out most of the heroes and the villains in the
DC universe, And there's a perfect example of that in
that episode. So check that out if you guys want
to check that out. Just League cartoon is still also
just really entertaining if you don't want to just watch
that part. So, so we're talking about the new one
Justice League Unlimited or the Unlimited. Did you like the
Flashpoint paradox I dug that. Yeah, there's those very surprise

(01:00:28):
of how well they adapt a lot of those stories
and just how entertaining those animated movies are. Yeah, So
if if people don't know, you can watch that. That's
an animated film that came out in it was Justice
League The flash Point Paradox. It might be another one
to check out. Pretty good. Yeah right, Well, Sam, where
can people find you at? Sam bash Er s A
M B A S h O R on everywhere that matters, Twitter, Instagram, whatnot,

(01:00:51):
but also only super Answers dot com. It's a nerdy
podcast host co host and we talked about movies, TV shows,
comic books and kind of anything we want too and
we'd love to have you guys on to talk about
whatever you'd like. Hell yeah, and you know me, you
can always find me at if you wad way on
Twitter and Instagram, and you know Lancio, I've been coming

(01:01:11):
through a lot of the nerd fam hashtag nerd Fam
coming in on my twitch stream, so yeah, definitely twitched
out TV slash if ds. Give me a follow, and
you know, if you have Amazon Prime, if you're like
I want to support Iffy, but for free. If you've
got Amazon Prime, you can subscribe to my twitch for free,
but you'd have to come back every month to give
me that Prime s up. But thanks, uh, thanks everyone

(01:01:33):
for stopping by. I just wanted to give you a
real thank you. From my voice on the cast. I've
been seeing y'all in my chats whiling out. Yes, I'm
at MS Danny Fernandez. It's M S d A N
I F E r n A N d e Z.
I appreciate everyone that takes the time to write us
and to write at Nerdificent. Please follow at nerdificent on

(01:01:54):
all the socials and you can also subscribe to us
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of you if you like these episodes that we're doing. Man,
we've got so many people that wrote us about the
m c U one that we did with Hector. I
think it's our most listened to, most commented on episode,
which we're very proud of. If you haven't listened to
that is a full breakdown of the m c U.

(01:02:15):
Who knew that you could do that in one sitting?
We did it. Um it was but it was good.
It was like entertaining. Yeah, Sam told me that he
listened to it too. And Hector, of course is just
an encyclopedia of Marvel knowledge and so definitely check that out.
And if he and I con season is here, and
so if he and I are going to be at
all the cons so hit us up if you're we'll

(01:02:37):
be tweeting you know where we're at and where you
can catch us, what panels and where we're hosting and stuff.
But definitely don't be afraid to reach out to us
if you're going to be at you know, Anime Expo
E three. I think by the time this drops it'll
be E three, But E three Anime Expo, Comic Con,
everywhere we are, everywhere we want to be in your lives. Yeah,

(01:02:58):
definitely want us know. If there's enough of us going
to be at some of these cons, maybe we'll do
a nerd difficent meet up, you know. So yeah, tweet
at us let us know which cons will be at
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