Over the last three years, Barry Allen and Team Flash have met some pretty outlandish characters. Regardless of if they're virtuous or evil, the folks who stroll through Central City tend to be the most colorful characters in the entire Arrow-verse, and we're sure Season 4 of the Scarlet Speedster's solo series will bring us plenty more. Having said that, when we look at the greater DC lore, it becomes pretty clear that there are more than a few personalities who have no place appearing on The Flash.
That's the subject of today's discussion, as we will dive into the pages of DC Comics and figure which characters The Flash should leave on the illustrated page. Check out our list of heroes and villains, and let us know who you don't want to see waltz into Central City anytime soon. We have quite a few "colorful" personalities to get to, so let's get started with Barry Allen's own scarlet flesh and blood.
Bart Allen
The Flash Family is almost as big as The Bat Family, and one of its youngest members (depending on the timeline) is Bart Allen. Sometimes known as Kid Flash and sometimes known as Impulse -- what's up, my Young Justice fans? -- Bart is a fan-favorite character, sure, but his introduction would only crowd Team Flash -- which has already become incredibly dense in recent months. Bart would make a great addition to the DCEU, but we've got enough speedsters around already, and we don't want to see the kind of time-travel shenanigans that would have Barry's grandson making it to the present day.
Steve Palmer
Steve Palmer is about as deep as deep cuts can get. An actor hired to play The Flash in a movie version of The Scarlet Speedster's life (because Barry Allen cannot act), Steve eventually tries to kill the real speedster and take his place, so that he can live off of the advertising money generated by Flash's fame. It's kind of an interesting idea in theory, but it completely falls apart once one considers a live-action adaptation of Barry Allen's story, within a live-action version of Barry Allen's story, would need to rationalize a lot more elements than the comics.
Colonel Computron
The Flash has already faced off against tech-driven bad guys, so someone like Colonel Computron would seem like a step backward. Little more than a disgruntled toy factory worker, this old Flash villain uses advanced technology to trap Barry in an old Atari-style video game. It's a combination of last season's Mirror Master episode and Tron, and the story only really worked within the era in which it was first told. (As fun as it might be to see Barry thrown into a PS4 game.) Besides, like so many other characters on this list, he's simply not a big enough threat for THIS version of Barry.
Godspeed
Unlike many of the other characters present on this list, August "Godspeed" Heart stands out from the pack because he is actually a phenomenal villain in many ways. The problem is that the evil speedster, who was Barry Allen's CCPD partner, is too similar to other Flash villains that have already appeared on the show, and elements of his personality and origins have already popped up in other characters. The Flash needs to move away from speedster baddies, and that means someone as cool as Godspeed necessarily needs to be sacrificed for the good of the show.
Danny the Street
Even though The Flash has managed to rationalize some seriously insane characters over the course of the last three seasons, I am not sure if the show could ever convey Danny the Street in a way that audiences could take him seriously. Quite literally a sentient street, the largely heroic Danny infiltrates cities to bring happiness to those around him. He would push the (already tenuous) logic of The Flash to its breaking point, not to mention causing Cisco to use all manner of road puns, so we think it is better if the streets of Central City remain little more than pure asphalt.
The Fiddler
The Fiddler (not to be confused with iconic Batman villain The Riddler) is a longtime foe of The Flash who can channel vibrations and sonic energy into both offensive and defensive weapons. Does that sound familiar? It should because that is pretty much the version of Pied Piper that we have already seen on The CW series. If you ask me, one villain with that particular set of skills is enough, and The Fiddler is probably someone who would be better left back within the pages of DC Comics. The only exception: if Charlie Daniels was cast, and Joe West was roped into a cover version of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia."
Booster Gold
This one hurts to say, because we absolutely want to see the long-rumored live-action Booster Gold project come to life at some point. That said, The Flash has pretty much milked the concept of time travel to death -- particularly Nora Allen's death, several times -- and introducing another superhero whose entire shtick revolves around the sci-fi trope seems like a step in the wrong direction. We would be okay with Booster making an appearance or twelve on Legends of Tomorrow at some point (where, somehow, time travel remains straightforward), but The Flash needs to keep things grounded in the present for a while.
Katmos
So far, we have primarily talked about villains who hail from our world (or at least some version of our world), but what about bad guys who come from the stars? There are plenty of real alien villains to choose from (The Dominators, for example), but Katmos is a case of a bad guy that The Flash should steer clear of for the foreseeable future because he's...pretty boring. A being made of living metal, Katmos strikes out on a quest for world domination using advanced technology and ruthless tactics. Real imaginative, right? He's not a particularly interesting villain regarding methods or mentality, so he's not worth the introduction.
Rag Doll
Admittedly, Rag Doll has a terrifying set of skills that could prove interesting against a different hero on a darker and weirder show. That said, when we consider how powerful Barry Allen has become since first attaining his abilities as a speedster, it's hard to think of a situation in which a triple-jointed contortionist could pose a believable threat. Barry has certainly faced off against average humans like Captain Cold, but they tend to have technology on their side. But Rag Doll only bends, so Barry would have no trouble folding him up and putting him in Iron Heights.
Any Other Alternate Barry Allen
Unlike Harrison Wells (a perfect example of the multiverse done right), we can only take so many alternate versions of Barry Allen before it all becomes tiresome. The timid Earth-2 Barry introduced in Season 2 was fun enough, but The Flash started wearing Grant Gustin a bit thin with the different incarnations of the character in Season 3. The recent conclusion of the Savitar story arc seems the like the perfect place to cap off the "alternate Barry" idea by sticking with one Flash for the foreseeable future. Although if the show wanted to introduce Gustin's Glee character Sebastian Smythe for the next musical episode, we're down.
The Flash will return to The CW for Season 4 on Tuesday, October 10 at 8 p.m. ET. However, we still have more than a few great TV shows left to before and after the Arrow-verse returns, so make sure to take a look at our summer premiere guide and our fall TV guide and get your TV-viewing schedule filled out!
