Spoilers ahead for the Season 4 midseason premiere of The Flash.
The Flash kicked off the second half of Season 4 with an episode that sent Barry to prison for life after being wrongfully convicted of murdering Clifford DeVoe. The episode ended with Barry locked up in his dad's old cell, and Team Flash is now Team Flash-less. Luckily for Central City, a new metahuman joined the team in Season 4, and he'll evidently step up in a big way moving forward. Elongated Man -- a.k.a. Ralph Dibny -- will be in the thick of the action in a brand new suit, and he looks distinctly more awesome than he did before:
Whether you love him, hate him, or haven't made up your mind about him yet, you have to admit that Elongated Man looks a lot more heroic in his new suit than he did in his previous suit. His old threads looked more like onesie pajamas and a homemade mask than a superhero suit, and he wasn't exactly striking fear into the hearts of the bad guys of Central City. This is a step in the right direction for Elongated Man, and one that Team Flash will undoubtedly need with Barry out of commission.
Admittedly, Team Flash does normally have some handy metas on hand thanks to Cisco and Caitlin, but another image indicates that they won't be able to help, almost certainly due to the presence of a brand new villainess known as Prank. Check her out:
Prank -- a.k.a. Zoey Clark -- has apparently teamed up with a new Trickster (not played by Mark Hamill) to capture Cisco and Caitlin. Interestingly, Prank is not a villain pulled from the pages of DC Comics. Instead, she was created for the Flash series that debuted in 1990 and starred John Wesley Shipp as Barry Allen. In the 1990 series, Prank was a fan of the Trickster, but he was only interested in using her. We'll have to wait and see if the current The Flash goes in a different direction with Prank and the Trickster. What we can say for sure is that Prank and the Trickster are going to cause a lot of trouble for the innocent of Central City, Elongated Man, and the rest of Team Flash.
Some of the episode will take place with Barry Allen in prison, and Barry will encounter Warden Gregory Wolfe. In the comics, Wolfe is a man who passionately hates the inmates at Iron Heights. He's dedicated to preventing inmates from escaping, and he's willing to cross lines if it means keeping them under control. Wolfe from the comics is especially ruthless against metahumans, which Barry obviously won't be happy about, even if he hasn't been outed as a meta.
We'll have to wait and see how these new characters fit into The Flash in the next episode. Elongated Man should keep us plenty entertained in his new duds. You can catch new episodes of The Flash on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on The CW. For your other superhero viewing options now and in the coming days, check out our midseason TV premiere guide and our 2018 Netflix premiere schedule.
