Needless to say that SPOILERS for The Flash are ahead!
Nearly a decade after it was officially announced as part of the DC Extended Universe slate, The Flash finally arrived in theaters earlier this year. While this marked the first opportunity for Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen to be spotlighted as a main protagonist following his appearances in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad and Justice League (both versions), it nonetheless saw various superheroes popping into in the Scarlet Speedster’s movie. Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton’s versions of Batman, as well as Sasha Calle’s Supergirl, were the most prominent of the bunch, but then came the climax, where familiar faces from DC’s past were brought back to the forefront.
With The Flash now being available for Max subscribers to stream, this is a good time to go all the superheroes who appear in the movie’s momentous Speed Force sequence and ending, and how they fit into the DC multiverse (unfortunately, Grant Gustin’s Flash was not among them). Before going further though, it’s important to mention that this list will not go over characters who were established in the DCEU prior to The Flash, i.e. Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman and Jason Momoa’s Aquaman. While there were a lot of fans pleased to see them back (and the Aquaman cameo in particular could be especially important), we’ve been spending plenty of time with them in recent years.
George Reeves’ Superman
In 1951, 13 years after Superman debuted in the pages of Action Comics #1, George Reeve starred as the Man of Steel in Superman and the Mole Men, the first feature-length movie based on a DC Comics character. The following year, Reeve was brought back to lead Adventures of Superman, the popular TV series that lasted for six seasons, though the actor sadly died a year after it ended. However, his Superman brought back in The Flash to witness the multiverse slowly come apart thanks to Dark Flash’s actions, with the classic line “It’s a bird… it’s a plane… it’s Superman!” Playing as the camera zoomed in on him.
Amusingly, while only the first two seasons of Adventures of Superman were broadcast in black and white, this Superman’s world is depicted in the same monochromatic way. This cameo is especially notable because while Clark Kent/Kal-El was the only powered hero shown in the TV show, The Flash shows that this Earth is also home to a version of Jay Garrick, the first Flash from the comics. The character’s likeness was modeled after editor Jason Ballantine, and I’d like to think that Jay and Clark frequently team up and have perhaps even formed that Earth’s Justice Society of America.
Christopher Reeve’s Superman And Helen Slater’s Supergirl
George Reeves may have been the first actor to be widely recognized for playing Superman on screen, but for a generation of moviegoers, the definitive Man of Steel was Christopher Reeve, who passed away in 2004. Debuting in 1978’s Superman: The Movie, Reeve earned critical acclaim for his performance as the Kryptonian superhero, and reprised him in three more sequels. In 1984, between the release of Superman III and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, Supergirl was released, with Helen Slater playing Kara Zor-El, but never sharing screen time with her Kryptonian cousin.
That finally changed in The Flash, with Supergirl flying over to join Superman in seeing the multiverse come undone and being powerless to stop it. Weirdly, this Superman and Supergirl are depicted as living on separate Earths than the one Michael Keaton’s Batman hails from, despite the fact that last year’s Dark Crisis: The Big Bang stated that they live on the same Earth, Earth-789. However, I don’t fault the filmmakers for not sticking to this piece of continuity, and one could also argue that the Batman Michael Keaton is playing in The Flash isn’t the exact same version he previously played in Batman and Batman Returns since he’s living in an altered version of the DCEU timeline rather than a completely separate reality.
Adam West’s Batman
The Silver Age of Comics was a goofy time for superhero comics, and Batman’s appearances was no exception. So it’s no surprise that the Batman TV series that ran from 1966 to 1968, plus one theatrical movie, depicted Adam West’s title character in a campy light, earning him the nickname “The Bright Knight.” This Batman and Burt Ward’s Robin fought all kinds of wacky villains, and nearly five decades after the show’s conclusion, the two lead actors vocally reprised their roles alongside Julie Newmar as Catwoman for the animated movies Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders and Batman vs. Two-Face, the latter of which was released just a few months after West’s death in June 2017.
Unlike the previously mentioned characters, Adam West’s Batman isn’t shown in The Flash witnessing the multiverse’s destruction, but merely frozen in time. Presumably we’re safe to classify this as Earth-66, the same Earth from the Arrowverse’s “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover where Burt Ward’s Dick Grayson was shown exclaiming “Holy crimson skies of death!”We’re also treated to audio from Eartha Kitt’s version of Catwoman and Cesar Romero’s Joker as the camera passes by Batman.
Nicolas Cage’s Superman
However you may feel about the characters discussed on this list so far, as least they all had the opportunity to shine on screen before The Flash’s release. That wasn’t the case with Nicolas Cage’s Superman; had things gone according to plan, Cage and director Tim Burton would have teamed up in the ‘90s for Superman Lives, which was originally written by Kevin Smith. There are even pictures of Cage trying on an early version of the Superman suit, but by 1998, following Burton leaving to helm Sleepy Hollow, the project was put on hold and ultimately abandoned. The 2015 documentary The Death of "Superman Lives": What Happened? explored the events surrounding its development and cancellation.
Although Cage later voiced Superman in Teen Titans Go! to the Movies, The Flash brought the actor in to cameo onscreen as the Man of Steel, shooting his scene through volumetric capture and de-aging him with CGI. This Superman was shown fighting a giant spider (a threat producer Jon Peters wanted him to face in Superman Lives), before seeing what was happening to the multiverse. It was a fun callback to what could have been, and maybe there will come a time when Cage’s Superman can be revisited in either an animated movie or a comic book series adapting the Lives script.
George Clooney’s Batman
By the end of The Flash, the DCEU timeline reverted back to its original state… with one major exception. Although the movie’s main Barry Allen accepted his mother Nora had to die, he still tweaked the past by moving the soup cans at the grocery store that were obscuring his father Henry’s face on the day Nora was murdered. As a result, Henry was exonerated and finally released from prison. But even rearranging some soup cans had consequences, because when Barry met up with Bruce after his father’s hearing, he was shocked to see his Justice League teammate looked different yet again, with George Clooney reprising his version of Bruce Wayne more than two and a half decades after Batman & Robin.
Considering how poorly Batman & Robin was received and how many times Clooney has apologized for his performance, it’s somewhat surprising that he agreed to cameo in The Flash. To be clear, while Clooney’s Batman in this DC movie isn’t necessarily the same one who fought Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy and Bane in the mid ‘90s, he has taken over as the DCEU’s resident Caped Crusader, with Ben Affleck’s iteration of the character being wiped away. But don’t think this means we’ll be seeing a lot more of Clooney’s Batman going forward, as it’s already been clarified that a different actor will be hired to put on the cape and cowl for the upcoming DC Universe continuity, with that Batman already primed to lead The Brave and the Bold, directed by The Flash’s own Andy Muschietti.
Given the retirement of the DCEU and the DC Universe’s Chapter One slate launching in the next few years, it’s unclear whether we’ll see more of Ezra Miller’s Flash going forward or if another actor will be tapped to play the Scarlet Speedster. However, given how integral the multiverse is to DC Comics lore, it’s doubtful this movie will be the last time it’s explored in a live-action cinematic setting. Regardless, if you’re in the market for news on upcoming DC movies and upcoming DC TV shows, CinemaBlend will continue to keep you apprised on that front. Those of you wanting to stick around The Flash’s streaming home would also be wise to look over the best movies on Max.
