'Human Target' Star Mark Valley Comes to 'The Flash'

01/04/2018 12:08 am EST

Mark Valley, who played the title character in Human Target, will take the stand against Barry Allen during "The Trial of The Flash," according to TVLine.

Valley will take on the role of Anton Slater, the district attorney who put Barry on trial in the comics, in a batch of newly-released images from the midseason premiere, which will air on January 16.

"The Trial of the Flash" is a storyline penned by Cary Bates with art by Carmine Infantino. The storyline unofficially began in The Flash #275 when the Reverse-Flash murdered Iris, who was Barry's wife at the time in the comics.

Nearly fifty issues later, the story officially kicked off in The Flash #323. We see Barry seemingly over the death of his wife and he has a new fiance, Fiona Webb. Naturally, Reverse Flash wants Barry to live in a world of pain so he attempts to kill Fiona but is stopped short as Barry snaps his neck, killing him before he could attack.

In the issues that followed, we follow The Flash as he's charged with murder and nearly kicked out of the Justice League. "The Trial of the Flash" storyline ended in #350, with the Flash acquitted of all charges, thanks in part to the villain Abra Kadabra's brainwashing of the jury and Barry travels to the 30th century, where he finds the soul and the two are finally reunited.

(Comics are weird.)

A Human Target TV series starring Valley ran for two seasons in 2010 and 2011 on FOX. The series was a fan favorite but was based only very loosely on the DC Comics character, with the disguise element almost completely omitted. The series also featured Jackie Earle Haley, who had played Rorschach in Watchmen, appearing in his second DC Entertainment property. Later, actor Will Traval brought the role to Arrow.

The Flash airs on Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.

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