'Justice League' Homages a Story From the Comics 'Supergirl' Already Beat Them To

Warning: Major spoilers ahead for Justice League, in theaters now.

In the final moments of the film, Justice League has a little bit of fun playing with a story from the comics -- and recreates an image from the DC Universe that will likely look very familiar to fans of The CW's Supergirl.

The iconic image of The Flash and Superman lining up for a race, most famously depicted on the cover to Superman #199, a story so famous that ComicBook.com would name it one of our ten essential Barry Allen stories.

There have been numerous reimaginings of the Flash/Superman race over the years, both in the standard DC Comics continuity and in other places, such as the Justice League cartoon and DC Animated Universe tie-in comics. The most memorable in recent years is probably in the promotional art for Supergirl's first full-on crossover with The Flash during Supergirl's first season, which reimagined Superman #199 to include Supergirl supporting characters instead of those who populated the world of Superman's Silver Age comics.

One interesting twist on the image is the fact that, in the movie, Superman was depicted on the right-hand side of The Flash during their race.

That is a change to the norm -- since Superman #199, The Flash has always been the character on the right, with very few exceptions, and most of those images don't look anything like the head-on shot used in the movie.

That could suggest that the movie itself was using The Flash #53 for a visual cue. The issue was drawn by longtime Superman veteran Dan Jurgens, whose work has influenced the DC Extendeed Universe quite a bit and who ise periodically name-dropped by franchise star Henry Cavill.

The cover to The Flash #53, above, features Superman not just on the right, but flying, in an image that is probably the closest (except for its setting) to the freeze-frame that was the final shot of the good guys in Justice League.

Justice League is in theaters today.