THE FLASH Review: “Flash of Two Worlds” Proves Multiverses are Complicated But Fun

By Justin Carter

Comic books are really weird.

This is a medium where no one seems to visibly age after a certain point, people get superpowers at the drop of the hat, and something as monumental as a gorilla with telepathy attacking a major city is the least stressful occurance of the week. But nothing in comics is as weird as the multiverse.

The multiverse is a pretty big thing in comic books, especially when it comes to DC and Marvel. DC has 52 universes (they’re super obsessed with that number), but their most prominent two are Earth-1 and Earth-2. Generally these two worlds are pretty similar, with the exception that in Earth-2 some heroes are villains, or are still heroes, just with different identities. Thomas Wayne is Batman instead of his son, a guy named Alan Scott is the Green Lantern instead of Hal Jordan, etc. The Flash explains all of this in a very basic way, but all you need to know is that there are multiple worlds that all live in the multiverse. And that Joe has no clue what the hell any of that means.

Earth-2’s version of the Flash is Jay Garrick, the guy who made his first appearance last week. Jay was going up against this season’s big bad, Zoom, when the wormhole in Central City sucked them both in, leaving Jay without his powers for six months while he spied on Team Flash and waited for the right moment to come to help. With Atom Smasher showing up  and a new metahuman by the name of Sand Demon holding the promise of returning home once Flash is dead, Jay figures that time is now.

Sand Demon is okay as far as villains go; the misdirection of whether a villain is from Earth-1 or Eearth-2 has a lot of fun potential, but could also end up wearing thin if the villain isn’t given further fleshing out. Sand Demon doesn’t seem to have any motivation beyond “killing Flash” and it’d be nice if the show explored exactly why these villains are so desperate to leave this world where they’re getting their asses kicked by a speedster to go to another world where they’re getting their asses kicked by a speedster. The multiverse serves a subtle purpose of explaining the vision of Caitlin/Killer Frost that Barry had in the finale, so that’s something, at least.

Given Team Flash’s last experience with a guy who claimed to be a speedster didn’t exactly end well for all involved, everyone is on edge, and the episode does a decent job of making Barry’s issues with Jay mostly stick. Wells was a guy who was feeding the same lines and advice to Barry (he teaches Barry to throw lightning), but Jay makes it clear that he’s not Wells by flat out stating that he isn’t Wells. Teddy Sears does a good job of playing the older Flash, even if “older” by CW standards is stretched a bit thin. He’s got the authority and the chops to look wiser and experienced around Barry, and there’s no denying the appeal in watching him and Grant Gustin recreate the classic “Flash of Two Worlds” comic cover near the end.

Whether you’re an avid comic reader or not, seeing two Flashes fight side by side is pretty awesome.

“Flash of Two Worlds” would be worth it for that scene alone, but the events leading up to it make for a fun hour of TV nonetheless.

Additional Notes

• Cisco’s visions are getting stronger, and I imagine it won’t be long before he starts putting his “vibes” to good use.
• Also introduced in this episode is Patty Spivot, a cop who wants to be part of Joe’s task force. She’s endearing and dorky, though I’m not sure if the show should try so hard to get us to ship her and Barry.
• Oh hey, Joe’s ex showed up!
• Next week: the return of Captain Cold and more ice-based puns!