The Arrowverse is now home to so many heroes and villains that we have lost count. It has become the biggest shared comic book universe on TV, something that its counterpart has failed to create. On one hand DC’s roster of superheroes like Arrow, Flash, Legends, Supergirl etc. who are extremely popular and attracts lot of eyeballs, on the other hand Marvel’s roster of heroes like Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Daredevil culminating into ‘The Defenders’ are not even in 10 mile radius of DC’s popularity or TRP’s.
It all began with the Arrow. Oliver Queen came back from his long stay on a desolate island with only one goal – to save his city. The show became an instant hit and set a trend for others to follow suit. It shattered TRP records and studio myths that a comic book show based on a popular superhero has limited shelf life as it caters to a small niche. Well, Arrow has completed five full seasons, the sixth season is going on and it has been renewed for another one.
Barry Allen soon made his debut in his own TV series as the Flash and later also starred alongside Arrow in a crossover episode. Then there’s DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, the time traveling, a globetrotting group of outcasts from the former two shows that decide to save time and history and make a difference.
After taking the show over from ABC, Super Girl has also become a part of The CW’s Arrowverse. In all their seasons, the heroes have faced so many villains but the one who faced the quirkiest and weirdest of bad guys is the scarlet speedster aka the Flash.
The season 1 of ‘The Flash’ is still the best season till now not really because of Grant Gustin’s performance as Scarlet Speedster but Tom Cavanagh’s spectacular portrayal of Prof. Wells aka Reverse Flash. Barry Allen’s life mission was to track man in a yellow suit who killed his mother and caused the imprisonment of his father Henry Allen in the murder of Nora Allen. Well, as it turned out Prof. Wells of Star Labs, a man who was behind particle accelerator explosion and who inspired Barry, was Man in a Yellow suit and the rest is history.
The season 2 had Hunter Zolomon aka Zoom as the big villain who was traumatized as a child and then gained powers due to the release of dark matter from particle accelerator explosion on Earth-2. He kidnapped Jesse Quick and Wally West, then took Caitlin Snow and tortured her psychologically and finally killed Barry’s father Henry Allen right in front of him. He was finally defeated and grabbed by time wraiths.
The season 3 saw another evil speedster as a villain named Savitar aka Speed God who was nothing but the future version of Barry himself. When Zoom invited Flash to power the magnetar in order to produce huge amounts of trans-dimensional energy which would wipe out the multi-verse, Flash used a trick and created his own time remnants to beat Zoom in his own game. Well, one of those remnants was Savitar, but in the future Barry’s friends such as Cisco, Joe West etc. abandoned Savitar so he came back in time to avenge the humiliation by killing Iris West. Team Flash has to race against time to prevent that from happening and they did crack it.
From season 1 to 3, we saw a speedster villain who has some dark, twisted agenda of his own and Team Flash found a way out to thwart his evil designs. But in season 4, for the first time, there is a non-speedster villain and Team Flash does not have the slightest clue on how to beat him. It is next to impossible at this point as he can literally anticipate every move that his opponents will make. He/She calls himself Clifford DeVoe aka The Thinker who is the smartest man alive.
Clifford was a university professor who was one of the finest minds of his discipline. He found a female colleague with whom he fell in love with, together they created ‘Thinking Cap’ which after being exposed to dark matter originated from particle accelerator explosion turned DeVoe into a meta-human. But it had a detrimental impact on his body and crippled him. All the cybernetics that allowed him to stay alive were made by Marlize aka The Mechanic. DeVoe found a way around it and transmitted his consciousness into another person’s body. Meanwhile, he has absorbed the powers of 6 bus metas. Nobody still knows what’s his end-game really is.
In all the chaos that is unfolding in Season 4 of the show, we forgot to ask one question – Why is The Flash’s Superhero costume not even remotely comic book accurate?? Here’s why.
The Arrowverse writers are hard at work to make these shows as grounded, realistic and approachable as possible. One of the biggest strengths of the shows from the Arrowverse is that they are really relatable even though the shows regularly feature talking shark men, multiple universes and magic using supervillains. The Flash is no stranger to this phenomenon. So, when the designers themselves say that making a comic book accurate suit would be too much for a show like this, we have to pay attention.
According to Arrowverse lead costume designer Andy Poon, that is indeed the case. He believes featuring the Flash’s iconic Golden Boots would have made the suit look ‘too cartoony’ and ‘childish’ and make the Flash look like a Saturday morning character. So the show ultimately made the decision to let go of the golden Boots in place of something more realistic.
“I’ve done concept of the gold boot, looks too cartoony,” Poon explains in detail while answering a commenter’s question on the subject. “Earth-2 Flash was fairly updated from comic and it doesn’t have yellow boots. Also Earth-2 characters are a bit more comic booky in tone.”
Here is what his Instagram feed said:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BhFOa2JFllY/?taken-by=andypoondesign
Andy Poon was responding to previous good news for Arrowverse fans. All the shows of the Arrowverse have been renewed for another season. Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl and Black Lightning will all be getting new looks and new costumes next season. Andy Poon writes:
“All DCTV shows has been renewed! New seasons new suits, bring it!”
It is customary for the Arrowverse to come up with new costumes and suits for each superhero starring in the lead roles every time a season is renewed. The Green Arrow, the Flash, and the Legends along with Black Lightning and Supergirl will be sporting different appearances than the ones you see them in right now.
The shows will also likely introduce new characters, some of the villains and some of the allies to the good guys, in the renewed seasons. Andy Poon and the rest of the designers will be having their hands full for now. So it makes sense for him to answer these questions before things start bustling too much for him to type replies on social media.
Airing on Tuesdays, The Flash features Grant Gustin as the titular Scarlet Speedster. The Flash airs on The CW Network on 8 P.M. The Flash Season 4 Official Synopsis reads:
“Running up against an evil time remnant version of yourself is something no one should ever have to do, but that’s exactly what faced Barry Allen (aka The Flash) as he fought to save the life of fiancée Iris West from the God of Speed known as Savitar.”
“Barry’s victory was short-lived, however, as an unbalanced Speed Force began to wreak havoc on Central City, forcing Barry to sacrifice himself for the greater good.”
“With The Fastest Man Alive now trapped inside an extra-dimensional energy, and unknown dangers lurking in the shadows, it will be up to Team Flash to free Barry from his own personal Hell.”
The official synopsis for the next episode titled ‘Null and Annoyed’ can be read below:
“Barry (Grant Gustin) and Ralph (guest star Hartley Sawyer) take different approaches to finding the remaining bus metas before DeVoe gets to them. However, Ralph’s cavalier attitude frustrates Barry and the two clash over what it means to be a hero. Meanwhile, Breacher (guest star Danny Trejo) returns to ask Cisco (Carlos Valdes) for a favor. Kevin Smith directed the episode written by Lauren Certo & Kristen Kim”.
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