A decent superhero story in the vein of Burton's 'Batman'...
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When I think of powers that I´d like to have (or heroes I would like to emulate) I can´t say that super speed would be high on that list. Yeah, moving fast is cool, but when you could be invulnerable or fly or be super strong why simply run fast? As you can probably infer I´m not the world´s biggest fan of the Flash in any of his incarnations. I read Geoff Johns´ work with the character in the recent DC comics leading up to the Infinite Crisis but the titular character was less compelling than his gallery of rogues.
In truth I think my favorite Flash comes from the few episodes I´ve seen of "Justice League" on Cartoon Network. That version of the red speedster seemed a smidge annoyed that he had to live life at normal speed. It´s like waiting in a line when you know you could do things much more simply without other people or being caught behind people who idle along on a two-lane highway without any room to pass.
I´ve made a logical assumption that most readers are aware who the scarlet speedster is, but maybe I should backtrack briefly and make sure we are all on the same page. The Flash is a DC Comics (the company behind Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman) superhero who is blessed with super speed. He moves fast, he thinks fast, and lives life accordingly. There have been several men to wear the mantle over the years, but the most famous (arguably) is Barry Allen, the subject of "The Flash" television show from the early 1990s.
Building off the immense success of the Batman films by Tim Burton, DC and Warner Bros. scrambled to get another one of their available properties into production. Superman was tied up in complicated legal knots and fond memories of Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman were still prominent . That left the oft-overlooked little brother of the Justice League, the Flash. What results is a distinct influence of the modernist film noir feeling that Tim Burton injected into the revitalized Batman franchise. The sets are dark and moody, there is smoke everywhere and it is hard to peg when this series takes place, though the general answer would waver between "sometime in the not-too-distant future" and "the early 90s" (because of the use of neon and horrible clothes).
In this incarnation of the Flash legend, Barry (John Wesley Shipp) is a forensic detective who comes from a long line of police officers. His father (M. Emmet Walsh) is a stodgy old beat cop who took care of the city and taught his sons the importance of justice and keeping people safe. Unfortunately old dad doesn´t think much of his son´s chosen profession, believing that the real work would be done on the streets. (On a tangent, I do think it is hilarious that forensic science is so lightly treated in this show and now programs like CSI do nothing but focus on the minutia while others, such as Dragnet no longer exist.) Barry´s brother is a celebrated motorcycle cop (Tim Thomerson) who is murdered by an old colleague who turned crooked and started up a motorcycle gang that terrorizes Central City.
During all this madness, Barry is struck by lightning and slathered in chemicals that give him super speed. He teams up with Tina (Amanda Pays), a scientist at Star Labs and learns to tame his powers and use them for good. The two work together to fight crime and help restore honor and justice to a city that has fallen into dark times.
As a piece of dramatic fiction, "The Flash" isn´t all that impressive. The dialogue which might look decent in a comic book sounds silly coming out of these characters´ mouths. What are otherwise interesting scenarios turn into gothic jokes with large-headed monsters and love triangles. It is as if, in the early episodes, this program didn´t know what it wanted to be.
Fortunately, later in the season, the balance of cartoonish and melodramatic balances out to form an interesting story. Mark Hamill guest stars as a villain called The Trickster which seems rather prototypical for his later (iconic) voicing of the Joker in the Batman cartoons. Most of Flash´s villains in this show are more human than super, which is an element of the program I definitely appreciated. While I like reading about heroes duking it out with super villains, I prefer seeing them impact the lives of real people by stopping injustices that can hit any one of us. I may be in the minority with that sentiment, however.
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[release]18106[/release]