The Flash: Easter Eggs and DC Comics References in "The Reverse-Flash Returns"

DID HE SAY HESTER?

Watching the show live, I coudln't tell if the first street address -- where the fuel truck was -- was Hester Street or Chester Street.

Phil Hester is a comics creator who has worked on Green Arrow and other DC titles in his long career.

It probably wasn't a name-drop, but it could have been. So we're counting it, because Phil Hester's work is almost uniformly excellent.

CHRISTINA MCGEE

During Zero Hour: A Crisis in Time, Jay Garrick was rapidly aged by an attack of chronal energy, and many of his comrades in the Justice Society of America were aged either to or near death.

When the DC Universe was wiped out completely during that event, the heroes managed to turn back toe clock, recreate the Big Bang, and fix almost everything that happened. Lives were restored, timelines repaired. The only people who stayed dead were those who were killed outside of the flow of the timestream.

They didn't call these things timeline remnants, but the concept remained the same: things that happen outside of time's flow are not subject to the self-correcting forces of the timeline.

It's also why in the comics, Rip Hunter and Booster Gold operate from Vanishing Point, a place outside of time and space -- and why Rip has the Temporal Zone -- a kind of time-limbo he used in Legends of Tomorrow to hide out between missions.

VIBE'S SHADES

We've already had a "Vibe's sunglasses" Easter egg at one point, but clearly tonight is the night that those goggles become an intrinsic part of who Cisco is when he's using his powers.

Modified by Wells, tonight we saw Cisco able to vibe more or less at will when he put on his glasses and focused properly.

Of course, fans of the comics will know that basically ever iteration of Vibe has had some kind of goggles or shades.

9:52 PM

Yep -- that time they needed to beat to save Tina McGee? Another "52," just like we see all the time on Arrow, The Flash and Supergirl.

52 was a weekly comic book series that ran for a year and reshaped DC Comics' multiverse. It was co-written by Geoff Johns, who would go on to be an executive producer on The Flash and the Chief Creative Officer at DC.

Since then, they've planted little "52" Easter eggs in comics and TV every chance they get.

VIBRATING THROUGH THE WALL

I'm told he's done this before, but this is the first distinct memory I have of actually seeing Barry use this power.

Technically that's not an Easter egg, but whenever he uses a new power from the comics, people come to the comments to tell me it should be here. So, for the sake of argument, here it is!

As you can see above, this ISN'T the first time...but I'll still leave it here becuase it felt new to me. And because there weren't much in the way of Easter eggs this week.

BIG BELLY BURGER

Like Tina McGee, this is one we've seen a number of times...but it's been a while, and I think in earlier episodes during Season Two I didn't call this one becuase we'd used it so often during Season One.

Big Belly Burger, originally a takeoff on Bob's Big Boy, except with former DC Comics editor Andy Helfer in the "big boy" mascot role, first appeared in the Superman titles of the '80s post-Crisis on Infinite Earths reboot.

It appears periodically in the comics, but has become a fixture on Arrow, The Flash and in DC Universe Online.

HUNTER ZOLOMON

Tonight, we learned that the Earth-1 version of Jay Garrick calls himself Hunter Zolomon.

That's quite a revelation to drop on longtime comic book readers.

You see, there's more than one character who's called himself the Reverse-Flash or Professor Zoom. The first, Eobard Thawne, is a time-traveling supervillain who drew his powers from the speed force like Barry Allen did, who had comparable speed and powers but who used them for evil.

We're pretty familiar with him at this point, obviously.

The second, Hunter Zolomon, was somebody who fancied himself a friend and aide to The Flash.

"My name is Hunter Zolomon. Despite what the public believes, I am the fastest man alive. I am Zoom. But I am not a Rogue. Far from it. I have taken the name and colors from Eobard Thawne -- the time traveler know as Professor Zoom -- in order to terrorize my friend. Wally West. The Flash. I suffered through tragedy. I lost my family to it. I understand the depths it will drag one down to. And only by surviving it does one become stronger. I will recreate myself to help my friend and in turn -- the world. I will do anything to make the Flash a better hero."

He wasn't technically faster than The Flash, though; his powers worked a little differently and involved manipulation of time, allowing him to basically move between seconds, appearing fast but in fact moving at normal speed, just in a way that made him nearly impossible to hit.

His backstory: He was severely injured following an attack by Gorilla Grodd and left paralyzed. He wanted then-Flash Wally West to travel back in time (The Flash can do that, especially using the Cosmic Treadmill) to stop the injury from happening, but Wally refused, not wanting to mess with the timestream. When Zolomon tried to use the treadmill himself to do it, the resulting explosion is what gave him his powers. He determined that in order to be a better hero and understand personal loss, Wally had to experience some of his own, and targeted Barry's loved ones, even causing a miscarriage in his wife.

Like the Reverse Flash on television, he incorporated some black into the outfit, he worked to make Barry "better" and he had the crazy red eyes.

Of course, it seems like a really odd coincidence to have Zolomon's first appearance on TV happen in an episode titled "The Reverse-Flash Returns...!"