The Flash: Easter Eggs and DC Comics References In "Gorilla Warfare"

GORILLA WARFARE

"Gorilla Warfare" wasn't just a clever pun because Grodd is a gorilla.

It was actually the name of a storyline from the '90s in which Green Lantern and The Flash faced off against Grodd and Hector Hammond in Gorilla City.

As you can imagine with a Green Lantern ring AND a psychic gorilla around, it was a pretty wacky story.

A quick biographical note on yours truly: Since I was fairly young and relatively new to comics, probably the first storyline I ever read that crossed over between two distinct families of books. While I had read Superman and the other three titles starring him before, the only time I'd ever seen, say, Green Lantern's book have an official installment in a story that wasn't all his own was during the Reign of the Supermen!. Even that was just the one issue, though, in an otherwise Superman story. "Gorilla Warfare" was probably the first such story that I bought on its own terms and realized that writers could coordinate inter-title crossovers even if they didn't have the same editor.

THE WHEELCHAIR

In the first part of the episode, Barry Allen rides around in the wheelchair previously seen in the hands of Harrison Wells of Earth-1/Eobard Thawne.

We're assuming that there's no special parts left (they used those to make their robot friends -- err, the Time Sphere -- last season), so it's just a wheelchair, but it certainly LOOKS like the same one Thawne used.

THE PRINCESS BRIDE

This wasn't all that well-hidden and isn't really much of a reference...but it's worth mentioning that they go see The Princess Bride...or try to, before Cisco's spider-senses inadvertently ruins his date with Kendra.

They catch the movie later on, though, so all you big Billy Crystal fans out there don't have to worry.

DC inside joke: Oswald Cobblepot's mother on Gotham is played by Carol Kane, who appeared in The Princess Bride.

HAWKGIRL

We've seen Kendra Saunders a few times, now, and we know who she's eventually going to be on DC's Legends of Tomorrow -- but this is the first time we've seen her go full-on Hawkgirl in an actual episode of The Flash.

It's still stylized photography that doesn't give us a full sense of how the wings work in motion, but seeing her onscreen, in costume and wearing the wings was pretty cool.

The way the scene was lit even made her costume look a little less brown and more colorful than the promotional photos!

GRAPE APE

Cisco is always one for the pop culture references. We get a number of them this episode, but the one that made the trailer was calling Grodd "Grape Ape."

The Great Grape Ape Show is a 30-minute Saturday morning animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and broadcast on ABC from September 6, 1975 to September 3, 1978.

SAY ANYTHING

When Cisco arrives holding the picnic basket above his head to the tune of "In Your Eyes" by Peter Gabriel, it's pure '80s movie bliss.

It's a wink and a nod to an iconic scene from the film Say Anything..., with John Cusack and Ione Skye, right down to the same song playing.

And of course, fans of the comics will know that Vibe himself is no stranger to the wonder of the boombox.

GORILLA CITY

In addition to the first look at Hawkgirl with her wings out, tonight's episode of The Flash gave fans a look at one of the oddest locales in the DC Universe: Gorilla City.

Set in the African rainforest, Gorilla City is inhabited by intelligent gorillas. In the comics, the city was originally located on the planet Calor but was brought to Earth by Green Lantern. It became home to both Grodd and Solovar, kind of his "good" equivalent.

CORTEXIN

One of the drugs Grodd stole was called Cortexin.

As noted by our regular commenter Monitor-Earthprime, "Cortexin was used in Kamandi as the drug that gave the animals their human level intelligence."

As you can see above, it was pretty effective.

VAUGHN PHARMACEUTICALS

Two different explanations for this one.

Monitor-Earthprime says, "Vaughn Pharmacuticals is named after Easy Co. member Vaughn who served as Heavy Machine Gunner."

That's possible, although Eric Ratcliffe of the Why I Love Comics podcast says he heard one of the employees referred to as Brian, raising the possibility that it's a nod to comic book and TV writer Brian K. Vaughan.