'The Flash': A Complete List of Season 4's Bus Metas
The Flash's fourth season continues in a week as the season-long fight against Clifford DeVoe/The [...]
Kilg%re
Kilg%re was the first "Bus Meta" to be introduced this season, appearing in the second episode, "Mixed Signals".
In the comics, Kilg%re was essentially a extraterrestrial artificial intelligence, before coming to earth and dueling with Flash and Cyborg.
On The Flash, Kilg%re reimagined as Ramsey Deacon (Dominic Burgess), a scorned Silicon Valley executive whose bus meta abilities gave him the ability to hack technology.
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The second bus meta was arguably one of the biggest fan-favorites -- Becky Sharpe/Hazard (Sugar Lyn Beard).
Rebecca Sharpe debuted in the pages of Infinity Inc in the late 1980s, and essentially hopped around through several different teams of villains. Like her TV counterpart, Becky had the ability to bestow bad luck on her enemies, making anything bad happen to them -- except for death.
Becky was a former casino worker with a borderline-comedic streak of bad luck, before she was struck by the Dark Matter. Her new powers gave her the ability to essentially manipulate probability on a quantum level, leading to Team Flash having some pretty unlucky moments. And ultimately, Becky ended up having back luck herself, as she became the second "Bus Meta" host for DeVoe's consciousness.
prevnextElongated Man
Next on the list is the character who's had the biggest role in The Flash thus far: Ralph Dibny (Hartley Sawyer).
In the comics, Ralph was a scientist who got his elongation powers through the extract of a rare fruit. As his tenure went on, Ralph became a member of the Justice League, teaming up with The Flash and other heroes in plenty of different contexts.
On The Flash, Ralph was established as a private investigator with a rocky history with Barry Allen, who has gradually grown to become an ally of Team Flash. And judging by the recent synopsises for upcoming episodes, it sounds like Ralph could take both of his roles -- as a "Bus Meta" and a member of Team Flash -- in some potentially major ways.
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Shortly after Ralph's introduction, fans met Weeper, a metahuman who had a relatively small role.
In the comics, Weeper is known as Mortimer Gloom, a villain who made a total for three appearances across comics in the 1940s.
On the show, Weeper (Matt Afonso) was introduced in "Girls Night Out" as a meta whose tears essentially had the properties of an addictive drug. Weeper was kidnapped as part of Amunet Black's metahuman trade before quickly being sold off to -- and presumably being destroyed by -- DeVoe.
prevnextBlack Bison
Next on the list of "Bus Metas" was a genderbent version of the Black Bison.
In the comics, Black Bison was a Native American man who was given magical powers thanks to ancient artifacts. Bison's powers put him in the crosshairs of Firestorm before sporadically appearing in other events.
On The Flash, Black Bison was reimagined as Mina Chayton (Chelsea Kurtz), a former anthropology professor who wanted to rescue Native American artifacts. Thanks to her "Bus Meta" powers, Mina was given the ability to telekinetically bring inanimate objects to life.
prevnextBrainstorm
In the midseason finale, audiences were introduced to Dominic Lanse (Kendrick Sampson), also known as the villain Brainstorm.
Lanse was actually the second iteration of Brainstorm in the DC Comics lore, who was given the ability to control and essentially copy other people's minds.
Within the show, Brainstorm had a somewhat quick and tragic turnaround. A TSA agent with the ability to unintentionally read anyone's minds, Lanse was kidnapped by Amunet only to be injured shortly after. This led to Caitlin Snow helping repair Lanse, only for his body to be sold off to DeVoe, leading to an unexpected body swap -- and the start of "The Trial of The Flash".
prevnextFallout
When the show returned from its winter hiatus, it briefly brought about another bus meta: Neil Borman/Fallout (Ryan Alexander McDonald).
Neil Borman originally appeared in the Flash: Iron Heights series as a nuclear plant worker who was unintentionally made radioactive. Fallout unintentionally ended up killing those close to him before turning himself in to Iron Heights. While there, Gregory Wolfe began treating him inhumanely by using his abilities to power the entire prison. The Flash essentially found out about this, and helped get Fallout better care.
In the TV world, Fallout had a similarly tragic origin, as he was completely oblivious to his powers and the effect it had on others. Eventually, Team Flash was able to square away his excess radiation before sending him away for treatment.
prevnextDwarfstar
A few episodes later, Sylbert Rundine/Dwarfstar (Derek Mears) was brought into the show, and he made a pretty unique impression.
The comic iteration of Dwarfstar was created by Gail Simone in All New Atom #2 as a rather shady adversary of Ryan Choi. This version of Dwarfstar was a rapist and serial killer who was given shrinking powers by stealing a version of Atom's Bio-Belt.
The Flash's version of Dwarfstar took quite a few liberties, making Rundine a criminal and model collector who got away with murder several years back. With his "Bus Meta" powers, Rundine was able to shrink objects to any size of his liking -- including Cisco and Ralph. Ultimately, Team Flash neutralized Rundine, sending him off to prison.
prevnextThe Fiddler
Another "Bus Meta" who ended up having a surprisingly major effect was Izzy Bowin (Miranda McDougall), who was eventually nicknamed The Fiddler.
The DC Comics version of Fiddler was known as Isaac Bowin, a thief given the ability to hypnotize people through a musical fiddle. The Fiddler proved to be a thorn in Jay Garrick's side for quite some time, before joining several ensembles of villains.
The TV version of Izzy was somewhat of a loose adaptation, reimagining the character as a charming country star with the ability to produce significant sound waves. After Team Flash spent all of "Subject 9" trying to protect Izzy, she was ultimately captured and taken over by DeVoe's consciousness, and remains his current host.
prevnextMelting Point
And the most recent "Bus Meta" that Flash fans have seen was Matthew Kim/Melting Point (Leonardo Nam), who debuted in "Run Iris, Run".
Weirdly, Matthew does not seem to have a clear DC Comics counterpart, seeming to essentially be a character created for the show. But that hasn't stop Matthew from having some significant powers, with the ability to swap one person's superpowers to another. Considering how significant of a thing that could be for DeVoe, it will be interesting to see how Team Flash deals with him in the future.
prevnextNull
And in the final moments of "Run Iris, Run", Harry discovered the names of the two remaining "Bus Metas", who we can expect to meet in the coming episodes.
First will be Janey Petty, a gender-bent version of the villain Null who will arrive in next week's Kevin Smith-directed "Null and Annoyed". Null has been described as "an accomplished jewel thief" who is given the ability to manipulate gravity.
The male version of Null has only appeared four times in DC Comics, mainly in the Hawkworld series. This comic iteration essentially had no real backstory -- or really even a full name -- and was mainly defined by his ability to make those around him weightless.
prevnextFolded Man
And finally, the twelfth "Bus Meta" will be another surprising DC Comics villain: Edwin Gauss/Folded Man.
In the comics, Edwin is a young genius who builds a suit that allows him to travel into the second and fourth dimensions. According to a previously-leaked casting description for Folded Man, he is expected to be a "hippie-type", whose entire life is upended when he "develops a power that makes him very hard to track." This seems to indicate that he will have a subtle sort of set of powers, even if his overall origin might not be exactly the same.
There's no telling exactly when Folded Man could debut on The Flash, seeing as the casting has yet to be made official, but he could be a major asset for Team Flash once he does. In a recent episode, it was revealed that DeVoe's secret lab is hiding inside a pocket dimension, meaning that Edwin's ability to warp dimensions could come into play for either side.
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