Tonight’s season five premiere of The Flash was full of little references to the comics, but there was one specific moment that went beyond subtle nod. It was quite literally a page come to life — and this is how the screen version compared to the comics.
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Spoilers for tonight’s season five premiere of The Flash, “Nora”, below.
Tonight, Team Flash is trying to catch a metahuman villain named Gridlock. Barry Allen/The Flash (Grant Gustin) nearly had him early in the episode, except Nora West-Allen/XS (Jessica Parker Kennedy) interfered, leading to the villain getting away. Gridlock is eventually located, but it’s not in a location where The Flash’s powers would seem all that useful: on a plane flying over Central City that Gridlock intends to crash. As The Flash can phase things, Cisco (Carlos Valdes) vibes him, Kid Flash (Keiynan Lonsdale), and XS onto the plane where the trio must work together — with The Flash coaching XS on how to phase — to bring the plane safely down on the water, passing through buildings and a bridge in the process.
In comics, a highly similar scene took place in 2011’s The Flash #3, part of The New 52. In the story “Lights Out” by Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato, an EMP blast has blacked out all of Central City and created chaos with transportation — including airplanes. In order to stop a plane from falling from the sky and killing not just those on the plane but those on the ground as well, Barry uses his powers –some of which are amped up in a way that is very new to him in this issue — to phase into the crashing plane and, then, phase the plane and its passengers through a bridge, bringing it safely to the ground and preventing a much larger tragedy.
While the circumstances are a little different, the general concept is identical as is the imagery of the plane passing through the bridge. The Flash recreates the breathtaking comic book moment in a perfect, live-action copy, bringing that moment from comics to life. It’s a scene that Gustin told ComicBook.com earlier this year is one he has wanted to see happen on the show for five years.
“In the first episode… I don’t want to tell you too much, but in the first episode, two things happen that I’ve wanted to happen for five years.” Gustin explained in our interview, which you can check out above. “One of them is a huge action sequence that is out of the comics, and I remember thinking when I read that ‘We’ll never be able to do that. Which sucks, because that’s so cool.’ And we’re doing it, yeah. We’re doing it in the first episode. And I’m really excited about it, because I know our visual effects guys are going to kill it, and what we shot was awesome.”
What did you think of the scene? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on The CW.
