Graphic Novelty²

***There are spoilers for the end of Flash S1 ahead***

Oooh boy. Hold on to your hats, kids. This season of Flash was just wild.

The singularity that opened when Eobard Thawne, the Reverse Flash, was defeated, has been closed. It came at a terrible cost. Ronnie and Dr. Stien fused into Firestorm to help Barry close it, and Ronnie died in the attempt. Barry now works alone, in an effort to keep more of his friends from dying. Team Flash has scattered: Cisco now works with Joe in the metahuman task force at the police department, and Caitlin is at Mercury Labs.

But then a brand new metahuman shows up, saying he was sent to kill the Flash by a person called Zoom. And another. And then another. Cisco and Caitlin, along with Joe and Iris, beg Barry to rethink his whole lone vigilante thing and let them back on the team. Barry eventually caves, and Team Flash is reunited.

Someone else shows up at STAR Labs, too. He introduces himself as Jay Garrick, the Flash from another earth – Earth-2. He says that the singularity Barry just closed led to his Earth, and he was sucked into it while fighting Zoom and has lost his powers. He warns them of Zoom’s terrible speed, and his awful hunger for more. He offers to help Barry get faster, to learn more about his powers, in order to defeat the monster.

More and more people from Team Flash’s life start to reappear. Francine, Joe’s ex-wife, wants to reconnect with her family. She bears some terrible secrets from being gone for so long. The Earth-2 doppelganger of Harrison Wells travels through the breach, scaring the hell out of everyone. He came in order to help Barry defeat the metas from his Earth that Zoom is sending to kill him. Some of those metas are doppelgangers of Team Flash’s friends, family, even themselves…

Meanwhile, Zoom is always one step ahead of Team Flash, taunting them, promising to steal Barry’s speed. He’s much faster than Barry, much faster than the Reverse Flash ever was. How can they hope to defeat him before he takes away everyone they love?

The big draw this season was the introduction of the multi-verse. Though we only dealt with one other Earth this season, at the end, it was heavily hinted that there will be more in future seasons, which is so exciting!!! I’m eager for season 3 to wrap up already and come out on DVD so my boyfriend and I can marathon it 8D

The writing, as ever, was superb. The “return” of Harrison Wells was met with the appropriate shock and outrage by everyone on the team, especially Barry. The incorporation of the multiverse was excellently explained. Everyone on Team Flash really went through the ringer this season with their own tragedies and heartaches, even the unsympathetic characters. Still, you can’t help but root for them.

My one bone to pick this season was the romance. They introduce Patty Spivot, a crime lab assistant in the comics, as Joe’s new partner and member of the metahuman task force. Barry inevitably starts dating her. My boyfriend and I spent every episode of their too-long romance rolling our eyes. I know they do it to draw people in and keep them watching, but anyone who’s been paying attention knows that Barry and Iris ultimately will end up together. When? Who knows??? But it’s been hinted at enough that they can’t put it off forever. So they may as well just cut out the middleman and make them a thing already. Spare us this unnecessary secondhand embarrassment.

I think Flash is by far my favorite DC TV show. It’s got humor. It’s got heart. It’s got kickass characters, plenty of action, and now, it’s got the multiverse. There was plenty to feast on this season and now we have some things to chew over for the next few.

– Kathleen