What The Flash’s Ring From The Trailer Does
The Flash's ring, seen for the first time in the trailer for the upcoming film, lets Barry Allen quickly get into his iconic costume.
Superman may need phone booths, but some heroes have easier ways to change into their work outfits. If you saw the long awaited trailer for The Flash then you may be wondering exactly what the hero’s cool ring does. One of the earliest tools Barry Allen uses to fight crime and save lives, his ring contains a shrunken version of his red-and-gold costume, and opening the ring allows it to instantly grow to normal size and disguise the hero.
The Flash ring is no new addition to the scarlet speedster’s arsenal, either. As remembered by CBR, it was introduced in Barry Allen’s very first comic book appearance — 1956’s Showcase #4. The different “scientific” explanations for how the ring works tend to change from one media to another, including from the comic book to The CW‘s version of the character — played by Grant Gustin — who also has his own version of the impressive jewelry.
In the source material, The Flash has gone back and forth between using the ring to get into costume and utilizing other methods. For example, in 1997’s The Flash #131, Allen’s replacement Wally West was able to forego the need for any kind of physical costume by learning how to use the Speed Force to create one. We’re sure that did a lot of good for the speedster’s laundry expenses.
Along with The Flash’s new ring, in the just-released trailer, the speedster appears to have a new suit and it has a cool new visual effect. As you can see in the image above — the first frontal shot of Ezra Miller in the trailer — the Flash’s suit has what appears to be a network of vein-link structures which glow when he uses his powers. He’s just used his speed right before this shot, and the veins just begin to dim before the trailer cuts away.
The question is exactly what this energy is that’s causing the Flash’s suit to glow. One possibility is heat: we learn in Justice League that Allen’s earlier suit is designed with the same materials that space agencies like NASA use to make sure their space vessels don’t burn up during re-entry. Though it seems more likely that what we’re seeing is the energy of the Speed Force itself.
The image above is from a brief shot in The Flash trailer of the titular hero racing up the side of a building. We see what appears to be gold lightning — the same color as the energy glowing on his suit — crackling around him. This is almost certainly the energy of the Speed Force, which makes us wonder how The Flash can fit such an amazing costume in something as small as a ring.
This also raises the question of why the lightning we’ve seen in previous films has been blue, and in fact the Barry Allen variant in The Flash trailer seems to have blue lightning. One possibility is that the change in color represents a boost in power — a boost the older Barry Allen has gotten through experience.
