Superspeed has always been the name of the game on The Flash. Barry’s philosophy of “run really fast and save the day!” has been mostly working for him, and both of his big bads have been similarly quick on their feet. Season 2 has also seen early versions of DC comic speedsters in Wally West and Jesse Quick, but don't go hoping for them to suit up and stick around, because according to executive producer Andrew Kreisberg, Barry will be the only speedster hero on The Flash for now.
Right now the show is called The Flash. Barry Allen is the only Flash. Obviously there’s expectations for those characters and whether or not they’re realized is part of the fun and joy of watching the show. It will never be Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends. It will always be The Flash.
Andrew Kreisberg’s reveal to Zap2It that The Flash will remain Barry’s show is awfully reassuring. “Run really fast and save the day!” isn’t a method of fighting crime that would work with a team as well as it has with just Barry and his non-zippy S.T.A.R. Labs team. The Flash has toyed with multiple hero speedsters back when Jay Garrick seemed like an ally and whenever Barry time travels so that there are two Flashes, but a status quo of one Flash at this point is for the best.
Besides, Barry is still very early in his journey from cheerful assistant CSI to a hero destined for the status of legend. He deserves a few more seasons as the only speedster in the spotlight. The Flash has mostly been a happy superpowered version of its predecessor Arrow, but the spinoff would be wise to avoid with Barry what Arrow has done with Oliver by turning his show into an ensemble before he was even fully developed.
The Flash might also want to take it easy on the bad guy speedsters as well as the good ones. Barry’s finale arcs in both seasons so far have revolved around him needing to get faster; Flash would do well to introduce a big bad who could throw Barry for a loop instead of just force him to find new ways to increase his speed. Luckily, The Flash has already been renewed for a Season 3, so there will be plenty more time for the show to find a way to balance speedsters – friendly and unfriendly alike – with a new breed of supervillain.
Of course, now that Barry has lost his speed, the show will actually be short a heroic speedster. Still, we can probably count on our hero finding a way to run really fast and save the day sooner rather than later. Zoom isn’t going to defeat himself.
To see what’s next for Barry and how he copes without superpowers for the time being, tune in to The Flash on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on The CW. For a look at when your favorite shows will be returning to the airwaves in the not-so-distant future, check out our summer TV premiere schedule.
