The Flash Villain Revealed, See The First Look At This Bizarre Enemy
A reveal of upcoming Funko Pops reveals The Dark Flash will be one of the villains in the upcoming film.
It’s an open secret that superhero movies are designed to sell toys and merchandise to as many consumers as humanly possible (and now, toy manufacturers like Mattel are focusing on making movies out of toys). Because of that, keeping a close eye on various toy announcements can help give us a glimpse into what we can expect to see from upcoming blockbuster films such as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. For example, now that the Warner Bros. Discovery movie The Flash is finally coming out this summer, these Funko Pop figures are giving us a great glimpse of the Dark Flash, who will presumably be a major villain in the film.
If you’re a more casual fan of superheroes in general or The Flash in particular, you might think this particular villain looks like the writers were phoning it in. After all, superhero movies are chock full of heroes having to fight their evil reflections: Iron Man vs. Iron Monger, Spider-Man vs. Venom, Hulk vs. Abomination, and so on. However, veteran fans of DC Comics and of The Flash understand that this villain is very significant to our favorite characters and their storylines.
In the original comics, The Flash tangled with a villain named Dark Flash (the same character sometimes goes by the name Black Flash). Most of the time, this character functions as the embodiment of the Grim Reaper for speedsters like Barry Allen who might otherwise be able to outrun death itself. Over on the CW The Flash television show, we have seen the character Hunter Zolomon become the Black Flash, which has many fans speculating that we’ll see a familiar face transform into this frightening villain in the upcoming DCU film.
Right now, the easy money bet is that The Flash becomes this dark villain, but that still leaves the big question: which Barry Allen will it be? One of the most shocking things about the recent Super Bowl trailer for the upcoming movie is that we see two different Barry Allens who are working together toward a shared goal. Previously, many fans speculated that we would see one version of Barry sacrifice himself to reset the entire universe (conveniently setting up the new DCU as envisioned by James Gunn), but now it looks like one version of Barry may go rogue and turn into a much bigger threat to the heroes than returning villain General Zod.
Of course, it’s possible that both of these things end up happening. We may see one version of The Flash turn into a villain and another version of the character sacrifice himself to save the universe and stop the villain. Many have been assuming that this cinematic adaptation of the Flashpoint storyline from the comics will explain various characters getting recast, and such a resolution would let the DCU cleanly replace problematic Flash star Ezra Miller with someone else who doesn’t generate quite so much controversy.
Ultimately, we won’t know how The Flash portrays this villain or how he will be stopped until the film premieres on June 16. The Dark Flash could be a Barry we have already met, a traveler from another universe, or something else altogether. But whether that movie is a box office success may depend on whether or not superhero actor Ezra Miller can remember to stop acting like a supervillain whenever the cameras aren’t rolling.
