The Flash Season 4 Premiere Reveals First Look At The Thinker

Tonight’s season premiere of The Flash offered fans their first look at The Thinker, the season’s big bad.

Last season, producers revealed that The Flash‘s season 4 big bad won’t be a speedster, but gave very little in the way of possibilities as to who it might be — but the seasonfinale may have provided an important clue when Savitar mentioned a “cerebral inhibitor” that was going to play a big role in defeating a foe they hadn’t met yet.

When Abra Kadabra was talking to The Flash about his most dangerous foes, he rattled off a number of familiar names, including Zoom and Eobard Thawne…and one less-familiar one (at least to the TV audience): “DeVoe.”

Longtime comic book readers would recognize that name: Clifford DeVoe is a longtime Flash and Titans villain better known as The Thinker.

Created in 1943, The Thinker is one of The Flash’s earliest villains. Originally a foe to Jay Garrick, DeVoe battled three generations of Flashes before his death in The Flash #134 in 1998. After his death, though, his brain patterns were used to create an AI that went on to become an antihero.

The Thinker was a tech-enhanced villain, utilizing a number of high-tech gadgets along with a group of cronies. The most significant of his toys was his “Thinking Cap,” a metal hat that could project mental force. A replica of the Cap was key in bringing his virtual self back from the grave.

Over the years, he eventually joined the Suicide Squad — something we’re of course unlikely to see on TV right away. Both before that — and then again after, when he fell off the “reformed supervillain” wagon and went fully bad again — he was a member of the Injustice Society, often serving alongside The Shade, a character who has been seen on The Flash already.

When Damien Darhk, currently a major player on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, was first introduced at the end of Arrow‘s third season, it was in a similarly-subtle name-drop, followed by a more significant tease in the season finale, so keep your eyes open for the latter.

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