The Flash Just Introduced a Surprising Green Lantern Villain

06/07/2022 11:51 pm EDT

DC Comics has been exploring the world of The CW's Arrowverse of DC television shows through the Earth-Prime tie-in comics and this week's Earth-Prime: The Flash is no exception. The issue largely takes the story into the 2040s with an adventure focused on Bart Allen/Impulse (Jordan Fisher) and Nora Allen/XS (Jessica Parker Kennedy), but a backup story offers a glimpse at another corner of the Arrowverse in the present — and introduces a surprising Green Lantern to the mix.

Warning: Spoilers for Earth-Prime: The Flash from Jess Carson, Emily Palizzi, David LaFuente, Pablo M. Collar, Miguel Muerto, John Kalisz, Andworld Design, and Tom Napolitano below.

In the story "Training Day", a new guard starts their first day working at A.R.G.U.S. and is given a tour of the place and generally shown the ropes. That means they're told the basics of the oddities and bad guys that are there within the deepest and most secure parts of the facility, specifically in Sublevel Eight. As the seasoned guard and the new guy walk and talk, the new guy reads off the names of some of the villains detained there — including Dr. Polaris, aka Neal Emerson.

In comics, Dr. Polaris first appeared in Green Lantern Vol. 2 #21 in 1963. A physician who created miracle cures using magnetism, exposure to the forces gave him a split personality and he ended up creating a costume and weapons that generated magnetic energy and became the villain Dr. Polaris. Along the way, he also altered himself to become a metahuman, thus making it so his own body would generate magnetic power. Generally, a Green Lantern foe, he's also been an issue for other heroes as well. In DC Rebirth, it's revealed that he was part of Amanda Waller's original Suicide Squad.

The inclusion of Dr. Polaris in this Arrowverse tie-in comic may be a little interesting to fans off The CW DC shows, in no small part because the shows have been somewhat teasing Green Lanterns for years. Specifically, Arrow's John Diggle (David Ramsey) did find that mysterious green glowing box at the very end of that series, though Diggle has not exactly become a Green Lantern in his various appearances in the Arrowverse since.

"I think there was a certain expectation: 'Oh, you're in a timeship! Last time we saw John Diggle, he encountered a green box,'" Ramsey told CBR last year. "'Maybe that's what we're going to talk about on Legends! I think, in pure Legends fashion, it turns it on his heel: 'Nope, it's not what you expect! It's actually something totally different!'"

The Flash airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.

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