FLASH versus KID FLASH
Meet Kid Flash (DC)
Where: The Flash TV Special #1 When: 1991 Why: Mark Waid How: David Williams & Darick Robertson
The Story So Far...
When a freak lightning bolt struck police forensic scientist Barry Allen and threw him into a shelf of laboratory chemicals - his life was changed forever!
With the help of STAR Labs scientist Tina McGee; Barry discovered his body chemistry and metabolism was radically altered, granting him the gift of moving at super-human speeds!
Wearing a high-tech, heat-resistant suit designed by STAR Labs, Barry uses his powers to fight crime in Central City as The Flash! Tina continues to aide him in his mission, but when she attempts to understand his transformation further by recreating his origins in the lab -- a criminal on the run accidentally receives the same powers! Now The Flash must race to stop a super-fast crime-spree!
Tale of the Tape...
Strength: The Flash 3 (Athlete)
Intelligence: The Flash 5 (Professor)
Speed: The Flash 7 (Light Speed)
Stamina: The Flash 6 (Generator)
Agility: The Flash 2 (Average)
Fighting: The Flash 3 (Street Wise)
Energy: The Flash 1 (None)
Total: The Flash 27 (Metahuman)
When the nineties dawned on DC Comics - Barry Allen had already sacrificed himself to save all existence in Crisis on Infinite Earths #8. Five years had made him the stuff of legend -- that is, until television brought the Silver Age Scarlet Speedster back to life for a twenty-two episode, live-action series on CBS!
The Flash on television was a pretty respectable adaptation, enjoying the same basic origin of a lightning bolt striking the police scientist onto shelves of chemicals. There were a few key differences our Tape stats (based on an iconic definition of the character) don't reflect, though.
His speed, though impressive, was not quite what you'd find in the comics. He vibrated his molecules through solid matter once or twice, but usually relied on fast-paced antics, such as tying people up, or throwing things. The reality of it was made-for-TV special effects, but you can also put some of this down to this being pretty early in the character's superhero career.
This Flash was also susceptible to bouts of fatigue and weakness, essentially suffering from acute hypoglycemia due to his altered metabolism. He managed his blood sugar through eating, and it became less of a concern as the series progressed.
Kid Flash did not appear during the lone season. As we're about to learn, Vince Everett is a notorious juvenile delinquent skirting justice because of his young age. He's about to be charged as an adult when he runs afoul an experiment to recreate The Flash's origins at STAR Labs. The result is a second speedster!
The Flash is no stranger to going up against equals in the comics. We've seen Barry Allen race against Savitar [Flash: Rebirth #1], Lady Flash [Flash: Rebirth #2], Superman [Flash: Rebirth #3], and Professor Zoom [Flash: Rebirth #4]! On the show, he met his own genetically-engineered duplicate, Pollux, in Episode 18: the Lenny Van Dohlen starring Twin Streaks.
You'd expect inexperience to trip up any new would-be speedsters in the TV universe. Even with youthful exuberance, Everett should eventually succumb to the same metabolic weaknesses experienced in Barry Allen's early adventures.
The Tape: The Flash Ranking: The Flash (#17)
What Went Down...
Speeding criminal, Vince Everett, blazes by a patrol car with his newfound super-human swiftness. The cops manage to call ahead for a roadblock...
... but nearby road repairs provide a pile of gravel -- deadly high-speed shrapnel in the hands of a super-humanly fast pitcher! Cops dive for cover as the tearing fragments ignite gasoline tanks and cause their cars to explode!
The Flash arrives on the scene to stop Everett before he kills somebody, but finds it hard to lay hands on the junior speedster. Everett keeps on step ahead of his fast-running foe, carelessly tearing through a kid's lemonade stand!
Where: The Flash TV Special #1 When: 1991 Why: Mark Waid How: David Williams & Darick Robertson
The Story So Far...
When a freak lightning bolt struck police forensic scientist Barry Allen and threw him into a shelf of laboratory chemicals - his life was changed forever!
With the help of STAR Labs scientist Tina McGee; Barry discovered his body chemistry and metabolism was radically altered, granting him the gift of moving at super-human speeds!
Wearing a high-tech, heat-resistant suit designed by STAR Labs, Barry uses his powers to fight crime in Central City as The Flash! Tina continues to aide him in his mission, but when she attempts to understand his transformation further by recreating his origins in the lab -- a criminal on the run accidentally receives the same powers! Now The Flash must race to stop a super-fast crime-spree!
Tale of the Tape...
Strength: The Flash 3 (Athlete)Intelligence: The Flash 5 (Professor)
Speed: The Flash 7 (Light Speed)
Stamina: The Flash 6 (Generator)
Agility: The Flash 2 (Average)
Fighting: The Flash 3 (Street Wise)
Energy: The Flash 1 (None)
Total: The Flash 27 (Metahuman)
When the nineties dawned on DC Comics - Barry Allen had already sacrificed himself to save all existence in Crisis on Infinite Earths #8. Five years had made him the stuff of legend -- that is, until television brought the Silver Age Scarlet Speedster back to life for a twenty-two episode, live-action series on CBS!
The Flash on television was a pretty respectable adaptation, enjoying the same basic origin of a lightning bolt striking the police scientist onto shelves of chemicals. There were a few key differences our Tape stats (based on an iconic definition of the character) don't reflect, though.
His speed, though impressive, was not quite what you'd find in the comics. He vibrated his molecules through solid matter once or twice, but usually relied on fast-paced antics, such as tying people up, or throwing things. The reality of it was made-for-TV special effects, but you can also put some of this down to this being pretty early in the character's superhero career.
This Flash was also susceptible to bouts of fatigue and weakness, essentially suffering from acute hypoglycemia due to his altered metabolism. He managed his blood sugar through eating, and it became less of a concern as the series progressed.
Kid Flash did not appear during the lone season. As we're about to learn, Vince Everett is a notorious juvenile delinquent skirting justice because of his young age. He's about to be charged as an adult when he runs afoul an experiment to recreate The Flash's origins at STAR Labs. The result is a second speedster!
The Flash is no stranger to going up against equals in the comics. We've seen Barry Allen race against Savitar [Flash: Rebirth #1], Lady Flash [Flash: Rebirth #2], Superman [Flash: Rebirth #3], and Professor Zoom [Flash: Rebirth #4]! On the show, he met his own genetically-engineered duplicate, Pollux, in Episode 18: the Lenny Van Dohlen starring Twin Streaks.
You'd expect inexperience to trip up any new would-be speedsters in the TV universe. Even with youthful exuberance, Everett should eventually succumb to the same metabolic weaknesses experienced in Barry Allen's early adventures.
The Tape: The Flash Ranking: The Flash (#17)
What Went Down...
Speeding criminal, Vince Everett, blazes by a patrol car with his newfound super-human swiftness. The cops manage to call ahead for a roadblock...
... but nearby road repairs provide a pile of gravel -- deadly high-speed shrapnel in the hands of a super-humanly fast pitcher! Cops dive for cover as the tearing fragments ignite gasoline tanks and cause their cars to explode!
The Flash arrives on the scene to stop Everett before he kills somebody, but finds it hard to lay hands on the junior speedster. Everett keeps on step ahead of his fast-running foe, carelessly tearing through a kid's lemonade stand!
Flash stops to catch the airborne kids and rescue their produce all in the blink of an eye! It provides the self-proclaimed "Kid Flash" the distraction he needs to come up with a name and snatch the emblem from The Flash's chest!
Exhausted by his heroics, The Flash can only watch as Central City's newest runner makes a high-speed getaway!
The Hammer...
Not exactly a triumphant foray into The Flash's television past, but I'm a little short for time this week, and I'm hoping we'll get a chance to talk more about the show in the future. Round 1 goes to Kid Flash, but Round 2 waits!
Like a lot of fans, I was pretty excited to see John Wesley Shipp back in the red suit for CW's Elseworlds crossover. We talked about that a couple of months ago in Hero of the Week. Today, I'm going all in on nostalgia!
As a big fan of the show - I actually picked up The Flash TV Special, on the cheap, a few years ago. I don't remember it on shelves in '91, so I was curious to see if it picked up the slack with a more comic-style story the TV show couldn't pull off. Kid Flash gets close, but still feels very in-keeping with the show's stripped back style of superhero action. Which is to say, what worked on the screen reads a little passé on the page.
I'm not sure I can adequately convey how excited I was when commercials started airing for The Flash. I'm not sure I'm even capable of those levels of excitement any more! I was already a Flash fan from comics, and the mostly faithful red & gold costume had me off the chain from the start!
Local airings and bed time got in the way of total immersion. I saw most of the much-hyped debut, but anything after that gets a little hazy. For memory, the series was soon bumped to a later broadcast time, and I'm not entirely certain they ran every episode. That kinda thing used to happen, but it also might just be that it was out of sight, out of mind. Fortunately, a local video store, and three pseudo-movies compiled from edited episodes filled the intervening years!
A lot of us have fond memories of renting a videotape over and over again. Since these never seemed to be widely available in retail release (where I was) - The Flash was one of mine!
As I still remember it, the movie-length pilot was always a pretty dry and laborious watch, but I was especially fond of the pulp-infused final video release: The Flash III: Deadly Nightshade.
It was tucked away with the others on a shelf near the Guyver movies, a "movie" made from two of the more superhero-centric episodes: "Ghost in the Machine" and "The Deadly Nightshade". They both featured a retired 1950s masked vigilante, Nightshade, who becomes a mentor to the TV Barry Allen.
Nightshade was a little bit like The Sandman, which probably explains some of why I always liked him, but never had any literal comic book equivalent. There's perhaps a touch of Watchmen in the way he's outed in his second appearance, cementing his retirement from costumed heroics.
The Flash's world is otherwise devoid of super-heroes. Superman and Batman only seem to exist as a double-feature at the local movie theatre -- literally.
I imagine the show might've introduced lesser DC heroes if it'd continued for a few seasons, but Nightshade was the sole heroic balance to a handful of mostly toned down super-villains: Captain Cold, Mirror Master, The Trickster, and a cavalcade of technologically powered one-offs created for the show. The existence of other heroes, past or present, is left pretty much unaddressed.
Kid Flash probably would've made sense as the first expansion to the mythology of the show. A chance for Barry Allen to play mentor to a recurring guest old enough to not quite tie the sometimes-swinging bachelor down.
The Mark Waid TV Special story almost reads like a dry run for Kid Flash, but also recalls one of the episodes that revolves around another, more redeemable juvenile delinquent. That one, featuring Jonathan Brandis (Never Ending Story II, SeaQuest DSV) always seemed like it could've led to a junior speedster further down the line. Something to think about next time we reconvene!
The Flash is available in its entirety streaming on the new DC Universe platform, but if you're like me, and want to watch & own your media unedited whenever you like, you should definitely think about tracking down the DVD set released in 2006. It's been a regular in my player the past decade and well worth it! If you do it via the convenient purchase link provided - you'll ensure Amazon support the site at no extra cost!
You can find more of The Flash and friends by diving into the Secret Archive of featured fights, or by exploring links throughout this article, and others! You can also get daily links to fights by following Secret Wars on Infinite Earths on Twitter and Facebook! A follow, like, share, or retweet is another great way to help support our combative corner of the web! Happy holidays!
Winner: Kid Flash
#318 (new) Kid Flash (Vince Everett)
#17 (--) The Flash (Barry Allen)
Like a lot of fans, I was pretty excited to see John Wesley Shipp back in the red suit for CW's Elseworlds crossover. We talked about that a couple of months ago in Hero of the Week. Today, I'm going all in on nostalgia!
As a big fan of the show - I actually picked up The Flash TV Special, on the cheap, a few years ago. I don't remember it on shelves in '91, so I was curious to see if it picked up the slack with a more comic-style story the TV show couldn't pull off. Kid Flash gets close, but still feels very in-keeping with the show's stripped back style of superhero action. Which is to say, what worked on the screen reads a little passé on the page.
I'm not sure I can adequately convey how excited I was when commercials started airing for The Flash. I'm not sure I'm even capable of those levels of excitement any more! I was already a Flash fan from comics, and the mostly faithful red & gold costume had me off the chain from the start!
Local airings and bed time got in the way of total immersion. I saw most of the much-hyped debut, but anything after that gets a little hazy. For memory, the series was soon bumped to a later broadcast time, and I'm not entirely certain they ran every episode. That kinda thing used to happen, but it also might just be that it was out of sight, out of mind. Fortunately, a local video store, and three pseudo-movies compiled from edited episodes filled the intervening years!
A lot of us have fond memories of renting a videotape over and over again. Since these never seemed to be widely available in retail release (where I was) - The Flash was one of mine!
As I still remember it, the movie-length pilot was always a pretty dry and laborious watch, but I was especially fond of the pulp-infused final video release: The Flash III: Deadly Nightshade.
It was tucked away with the others on a shelf near the Guyver movies, a "movie" made from two of the more superhero-centric episodes: "Ghost in the Machine" and "The Deadly Nightshade". They both featured a retired 1950s masked vigilante, Nightshade, who becomes a mentor to the TV Barry Allen.
Nightshade was a little bit like The Sandman, which probably explains some of why I always liked him, but never had any literal comic book equivalent. There's perhaps a touch of Watchmen in the way he's outed in his second appearance, cementing his retirement from costumed heroics.
The Flash's world is otherwise devoid of super-heroes. Superman and Batman only seem to exist as a double-feature at the local movie theatre -- literally.
I imagine the show might've introduced lesser DC heroes if it'd continued for a few seasons, but Nightshade was the sole heroic balance to a handful of mostly toned down super-villains: Captain Cold, Mirror Master, The Trickster, and a cavalcade of technologically powered one-offs created for the show. The existence of other heroes, past or present, is left pretty much unaddressed.
Kid Flash probably would've made sense as the first expansion to the mythology of the show. A chance for Barry Allen to play mentor to a recurring guest old enough to not quite tie the sometimes-swinging bachelor down.
The Mark Waid TV Special story almost reads like a dry run for Kid Flash, but also recalls one of the episodes that revolves around another, more redeemable juvenile delinquent. That one, featuring Jonathan Brandis (Never Ending Story II, SeaQuest DSV) always seemed like it could've led to a junior speedster further down the line. Something to think about next time we reconvene!
The Flash is available in its entirety streaming on the new DC Universe platform, but if you're like me, and want to watch & own your media unedited whenever you like, you should definitely think about tracking down the DVD set released in 2006. It's been a regular in my player the past decade and well worth it! If you do it via the convenient purchase link provided - you'll ensure Amazon support the site at no extra cost!
You can find more of The Flash and friends by diving into the Secret Archive of featured fights, or by exploring links throughout this article, and others! You can also get daily links to fights by following Secret Wars on Infinite Earths on Twitter and Facebook! A follow, like, share, or retweet is another great way to help support our combative corner of the web! Happy holidays!
Winner: Kid Flash
#318 (new) Kid Flash (Vince Everett)
#17 (--) The Flash (Barry Allen)
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