‘The Flash’ References the Justice League in “The Death of Vibe”

For almost half a decade, The Flash has built its own unique take on the DC Comics mythos, and it just got a pretty major name-drop.

Spoilers for tonight’s episode of The Flash, “The Death of Vibe”, below!

The episode saw Team Flash creating a sort of game plan against Cicada (Chris Klein), a serial killer who targets metahumans. Nora Allen/XS (Jessica Parker Kennedy) was able to provide a bit of context as to what Cicada does in the future — and how hard it is for the Arrowverse’s heroes to stop him. As Nora explains, “Supergirl, the Legends, even the League tried” all tried to take down Cicada at one point and time, to no evail.

For DC Comics fans, this surely came as a bit of a surprise, as it serves as the Arrowverse’s strongest reference yet to the Justice League. Granted, the iconic team has been teased periodically throughout the years, both through a series of names on Earth-2 Barry Allen’s (Grant Gustin) speed dial, and through passing references to Themyscira, Green Lantern, and plenty of things tied to Batman.

“I love a good Easter egg, and I love doing the occasional name drop,” Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow consulting producer Marc Guggenheim told ComicBook.com last year. “You know, we name dropped Hal Jordan at the beginning of Season 3, but it’s really just fun for us. I think in the Arrowverse we have our own Justice League and the Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Batman … these are all characters that are either spoken for on the movie side and/or other shows. There’s a Bruce Wayne on Gotham.”

“Over here on the CW, we’re sort of a mischievous lot, and we enjoy the occasional Easter egg,” Guggenheim continued. “And our partners at DC are very tolerant of our mischief. But that’s really all it is. Just good nature, good fanboy mischief.”

But even then, the ways the Arrowverse has evolved in recent months certainly could hint at a version of the Justice League eventually being formed — albeit with a different roster. Back in Season 1, a passing reference seemed to indicate that Barry would form some sort of “Justice” group, which at the time seemed to be a reference to the Justice Society of America.

The Arrowverse’s upcoming crossover, titled “Elseworlds”, will see The Flash, Green Arrow, and Supergirl on some sort of universe-hopping adventure, with quite a lot of characters entering the fray. Most notably, these will include Kate Kane/Batwoman (Ruby Rose), and Supergirl‘s Clark Kent/Superman (Tyler Hoechlin), which certainly could bring the Arrowverse the closest to a Justice League-style roster that they’ve been in in years.

“To see Flash and Superman together and to be one of the guys in the suits is something I’m definitely pretty excited about,” Gustin said about “Elseworlds” in an interview back in August. “It did feel like something they would always save for the features, to be honest. But I feel like the Arrowverse has kind of been changing that stigma with the whole TV is the lesser medium. I think it kind of doesn’t matter these days with the streaming and content’s kind of everywhere. So, it is cool to see us kind of rise to even another level and bring all of us together for these crossovers. It’s pretty epic.”

Do you want to see the Arrowverse form its own version of the Justice League? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.

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