I should start by mentioning that I’ve never seen an episode of Arrow before, and thus many of the established characters and ongoing storylines were a bit of a mystery to me. That said, it wasn’t too difficult to figure out what was happening. Spoilers after the cut.
I thought Barry was handled well, even if I’m slightly exasperated to see the dead mother plot happening again (it’s a pet peeve). Poor Henry Allen always gets the short end of the stick in every type of continuity! It was definitely a surprise to hear about the obvious implication of Professor Zoom, something I figured would either not happen in the show(s), or at least not be revealed until after Barry gets his own super-speed. However, it does provide an excellent reason for Barry’s interest in metahuman cases, and explains why he’d risk his job to come to Starling City. And for all we know, the intervention of another speedster may be why Barry gets his powers.
I enjoyed the little nods to comics continuity in the episode, such as Barry handling the lab chemicals during a thunderstorm, and always being late. He does seem a bit unbelievably young to me, though, and at least the characters acknowledged it by asking about his parents. But I guess his age is appropriate if he’s to be a love interest for Felicity. Overall I enjoyed the episode, even if it was paced a bit slowly (deliberate irony?), and am looking forward to the second part. And my fingers are crossed for the Flash pilot; Grant Gustin definitely handles Barry well, and the role appears to be in good hands.
The “tragedy” origin for the Flash has ruined the character. It makes no sense for Barry, given that he was already the Flash prior to the reboot and neither adds nor detracts from him. It was just lame pandering to “batmanize” every one of their characters for the sake of a trend and a slap in the face to the loyal fans of a long-established continuity.
I still dislike that they felt like they had to add tragedy to Barry’s story, that to me was one of the things that made him unique as a character, that he didn’t have some major death in his story (in addition to him being the only major DC character to have his powers from an accident, and to have them because of his flaw (lateness)), but I’ve eased up to it a little because the Thawne angle is interesting and part of me likes that – HOWEVER, it raises a number of questions that don’t make any sense for me and I feel like I may have liked the idea a little better had they been answered/fleshed out (or thought out?) a little more, namely, if Barry’s mother was murdered when he was 11 and his father was blamed for it and went to jail, who raised 11 year old Barry then? Aunt May? Alfred? That’s one of the things I hate the most about that retcon, because there’s a huge gap, and also because it makes Barry seemingly another tragic orphan (because there aren’t enough of those in fiction), when really all the tools to make Barry “interesting” and tell good stories with him are already there all along in his character to me. He’s just a regular, down-to-earth, everyman guy who’s a little clumsy and likes comics and becomes a superhero because he wants to help out and compete with his day job and is also a brilliant scientist. Works for me. Anyway I thought Grant Gustin did well, his age wasn’t as big a deal to me as it was to others because Barry was 24 when he got his powers in the comics, even if Gustin seems a little young here, I’m cool with it. Anxious to see where The Flash show goes, can’t wait, hope it’s at least as good as the 90s show and does well.
While the death of his parent and being an orphan is certainly a cliche in DC comics, I feel like his spin on it is really interesting. I like his quest to exonerate his father more than to avenge him and the time travel angle makes it really interesting as well.
Cliche and original at the same time. I personally like it.
New 52 diminished it a little bit, we will see how that turns out in the long run I guess.
Missed the original airing (hey, I found a Lego Marvel cut-scene movie….Lego humor will win out over most things with me), but I skimmed through the episode via their website looking for the Allen scenes since I could care less about this show’s fake Oliver Queen.
Yeah, same complaints I had before watching: dead mom (Gee wiz, Johns, get over the tragedy-in-order-to-be-heroic plots?), brunette, too young. Pro: good acting, nice ‘late’ touches, a lot of science geek info that was perfect for Barry.
Have him gain about three years plus dye the hair and I would have given it five stars.
4.5 stars?
I think it’s stated Captain Frye raised him, and he was coaxed towards the police department even more because of that.
Arrow is a great show. I expect a young Barry to be nerdy. But I don’t expect him to be that wimpy and childish. The Beaver Cleaver act isn’t doing it for me. He just doesn’t strike me as a hero. They should have cast someone who looks as if they can develop into the role from a callow youth to a solid mature man.
I will probably check out the pilot. But Gustin isn’t the kind of person I would want to watch week in-week out.
I liked his performance: but after he gains power I would expect him to man up a bit. If he can portray that, I’ll be happy.
I thought he did the nerdy Peter Parker sort of thing REALLY well, so let’s see if he can handle the other angle as well
Consider that Barry also said that he saw a “whirlwind” of motion and a figure inside… It would mean that Thawne (Zoom) was responsible for his mother’s murder. This would mean that DC has provided a means to escape this rebooted universe by having Barry discover a way to eventually save his family from Thawne, since it presupposes that the previous universe (where he lived s happy childhood) still exists intact somewhere in continuity.
Of course, I doubt DC would chose to return things to normal since it changed everything for almost all the characters except for Guano.
I would imagine it will be Danny West, rather than Thawne… Or Zolomon…
Any of the above would make me happy, though. Every Reverse-Flash is awesome to me.
Ah okay well that is good to hear then about Frye… I don’t think I ever remember hearing that. Interesting. And Luis, I thought the same thing about Barry doing that and saving his mom once but supposedly he’s unable to change that and I think him trying to was the cause of Flashpoint if I remember.
Not necessarily, Luis. They could treat it as a stable time loop (like Twelve Monkeys).
I agree. And that would be better. like Twelve Monkeys, a stable time loop is amazing. I prefer.
The “tragic origin” is fine. If anything, it doesn’t really tie to him becoming the Flash. While it nudged him to become a cop, It is just something that has happened to him in the past (at least in the New 52). Barry is still a good guy who becomes a hero because it is the right thing to do; not because he’s hung up on avenging his mother’s death. Also, lets not forget folks, the “tragic origin” was really first introduced in the 1990’s Flash show. So, don’t go pinning this all on Johns.
Didn’t much care for the old tv series either and for pretty much the same reasons.
While I felt too that he resembles Andrew Garfield, let’s not forget that Barry was nerding it up years before Peter Parker existed.
‘While I felt too that he resembles Andrew Garfield, let’s not forget that Barry was nerding it up years before Peter Parker existed.’
-I’ve read the original treatment from Showcase #4, and nowhere is pre-Flash Barry as nerdy or as dweeby as Grant Gustin is in this show. Mild mannered and bookish? yes? Nerdy? No. There’s even a Flash back in the current Nu52, where Barry as a young child asks his mother if the tie he is wearing makes him look like a nerd.