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The Flash: Why The Scarlet Speedster needs to be the next DC film

Reasons for why The Flash needs to be the next DC superhero to get a film in the potential cinematic universe.

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By Nick Salinski - 2/21/2013
While no, I'm not a DC fan in particular. I do like Batman and The Flash. DC has found themselves failing every time they do a film that isn't Batman or Superman. Green Lantern was a big step backwards. So, Why The Flash? In a biased reason, Barry Allen/The Flash is my favorite DC superhero. In an unbiased sense, because they could attempt at something not really done in film before with the super speed and because I think a serious (not dark and gritty) take on Barry Allen could draw in an audience. That and with the right villain and story. So, why does he need to be the next superhero from the DC roster to make a silver screen debut? Well, I have to main reasons.

1) DC Cinematic Universe



Chances are, Man of Steel will be a financial success. That being said, if it does start a Cinematic Universe. You need a hero we haven't explored before. Green Lantern failed to be a hit with the audience and Superman and Batman have been done to death. Which leaves: Wonder Woman, The Flash and Aquaman. Yes, I'm saying it should follow the line up of the original Justice League. Aquaman would be too tricky, Wonder Woman would be tricky and the fact that we've seen enough god heroes for now. Something new. The Flash is something new. Barry Allen becomes a forensic scientist after his mother's death when he was a young boy. New? Check. He gains the powers of super speed and the speed force when lightening strikes him and mixes with the chemicals he was working on. New? Check. He dons the costume after his comic book hero, Jay Garrick with the help of Ira West whom creates a ring to store his suit in. Check, check.

2) Opportunities with CGI



As I stated before, the powers of The Flash could really help CGI. Super speed, the speed force, vibrate through solid objects, ect. While not really a breakthrough or something people never done before. I think the amount though required cause of this character could actually benefit the CGI. That's just my train of thought anyways.

So, with The Scarlet Speedster being in development hell for so long. What could make a good film for, The Flash? Well for starters I think this guy I'm about to show you should still direct it.



Yes, Shawn Levy. Not the greatest director but, after finally watching Real Steel. Yes after one movie, I believe this guy could make a good Flash movie. No, Night at the Museum and it's sequel weren't all that great. But, I say give this guy a chance. Real Steel shows that even with a silly or a bit cartoony premise, he can make a good action movie and have good character moments. So, there is a good starting point. I also say, stick with Barry Allen. But, what about the story what could that be? Well, it's from a fan cast but, here's my premise for a debut Flash film.

Synopsis: Barry Allen is a young forensic scientist who works at Central City Police Department. The problem with Barry is that he is always late, after being struck by lightening during a late stay at work, he gets super speed and can control the Speed Force. He must help Central City against robbers and must rise to the challenge to face Captain Cold. A villain who has good intentions, to save his dying sister. Barry must make a decision, stop Captain Cold from saving his sister and pay for his crimes or let him go.

Yes, the villain would be Captain Cold. Nothing about the rogues but, the New 52 version of Captain Cold is my favorite Flash villain and poses a physical threat for The Flash. The reason I choice him and that particular story for a debut Flash film is because it's interesting, you could get the action and you have character moments. Not to mention a villain who isn't pure evil. He has a reason for doing what he does. I would try to blend the New 52 take on the Flash with the classic take on the Barry Allen character and his supporting cast. But, that's just me.

So, why The Flash? Cause he is an instantly likable character who is a great hero with a colorful rogues gallery. Not to mention the possibilities with the CGI and you could get great character moments. Not entirely one that at first thought would attract an audience. But, right actors, crew, director, screenwriter and story. As with anything else, you could get a very good film. As I stated before, I would never have chosen Shawn Levy in a million years for a Flash movie, had I not seen Real Steel. I would also go with, Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, Shooter, Brooklyn's Finest). Antoine Fuqa is another director proven he can do action as well as make an overall good film.

Not very long but, what do you think? Be respectful and civil when commenting below.
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23 Comments
DrDoom - 2/21/2013, 11:14 AM
Wonder Woman please.

Flash sucks, his mythology sucks, his villains suck.

I'd rather have Aquaman (obvs based on New 52 version).

Still, I'd say this editorial, just in your construction of it, is an improvement on your previous work. Just a few spelling errors.
Tainted87 - 2/21/2013, 12:13 PM
Still want Flash to be a woman. Keep EVERYTHING about the character in there, just change the gender. Why? Because it'd be sexy.
DrDoom - 2/21/2013, 12:24 PM
@yossarian

wtf is unicron doing in the DC universe
Gusto - 2/21/2013, 12:35 PM

ToTheManInTheColdSweat - 2/21/2013, 1:01 PM
wonderwoman tricky, aquaman tricky, but flash not tricky? dafuq????

he is a guy that runs really really fast, omg how [frick]ing awesome is that... yay!!! how cheesy is that shit:
- man gets struck by lighning (lmbo)
- man starts to run real fast (o rly)
- insert new villian hillariously named captain cold
- new villian can invent ice guns and shit but needs to rob bank(?) to save sister(???) lmbo, just sell the damn guns, thats were you lose the audience, it's like batman and robin all over again.

as supporting character, flash is [frick]ing awesome. as lead? not so much. 2 hours of flash would be: "oh look, he ran real fast", "there he goes again running real fast" "he ran real fast and saved that girl" "look at him run real fast and vibrating through that wall" "omg, he ran real fast and ended up in china" "[frick], did you see how fast he ran"... in summary, [frick]ing boring.
Crossbones - 2/21/2013, 1:17 PM
ToTheManInTheColdSweat: I did my research on all three characters. Wonder Woman confuses (Which is why I feel she would be tricky, personally) and I find Aquaman to be trash. Also, the new 52 Captain Cold has ice powers. Doesn't use guns. Plus, my idea for The Flash is a lot better than Batman & Robin and Green Lantern combined. Just my respectful opinion.
Facade - 2/21/2013, 2:02 PM
GL, WW and Flash are supporting characters and do not need solo films. I won't even acknowledge a solo Aquaman movie because it'll never ever happen. Just sayin'.
Crossbones - 2/21/2013, 2:24 PM
@Levi: After reading it a few different times. You're right. I'm of the believer though that once I sumbit it, the readers are able to read it and I shouldn't edit or rewrite. Dumb, I know. But, that's how I am. Also, I'll admit that up until late last summer, I hated DC except for Batman. I did some research and I still don't care for DC but out of all the heroes, I found The Flash to be the most interesting. Always found Wonder Woman boring and confusing (although, I understand why she was created and what she stands for) and I've always found Aquaman to be garbage.
SotoJuiceMan - 2/21/2013, 2:26 PM
WB should of done The Flash instead of Green Lantern first. Even though the effects are possible, I feel Flash has an even deeper impact in DC Comics than Green Lantern does. I mean....he got The New 52 to happen. He can time-travel which honestly we've never seen a real good superhero movie time travel, Flash could of been that.

Point is he had a lot going for him as a superhero more than Green Lantern did. He should of been the first hero. They wanted a superhero to connect with audiences? Don't get a superhero who mostly spends his time out of the galaxy than at Earth, don't get a hero who spends most of his life debating on whether or not he is afraid. Whatever happened to the nobody who turns out to be the great hero at the end?

Not Aquaman or Wonder Woman since they both seem similar to Thor being set in two different worlds like Green Lantern. I wanna see them two, but if you wanna build the heroes from the start? The Flash would be a better choice.
aresww3 - 2/21/2013, 2:31 PM
Wonder Woman First, but I agree. They need to tweek how he got his powers though.
Tainted87 - 2/21/2013, 4:10 PM
I think most people misunderstand Barry's powers. Yes, he's super fast, but there are so many applications to his superspeed. He can vibrate fast enough to become intangible AND invisible, he can duplicate the function of a microwave (vibrating molecules at a faster rate) to superheat objects, then snap freeze them by trying a different direction. Would he do this often? No, but it could be pretty freaking cool to see.

I say Barry does this because while Wally is quite competent, he is not half the scientist his uncle is.

Lizard1,
I can understand how it's hard to jump into the DC universe, especially when the New 52 is resetting EVERYTHING, and not in a similar manner. The Crisis books are not only hard to follow for the uninitiated, but made pointless by their continuous publications. In the 80s, there's a Crisis reboot where Barry is "killed", as well as Supergirl. The next Crisis would take place in the mid 90s in the wake of Hal Jordan's mental breakdown, as he tries to recreate the universe by destroying it. Ironically the solution the heroes face is to have the Spectre do just that. Crisis number 3 would feature a massive amount of character death in the wake of the OMAC project, and it really was just senseless violence for the sake of violence. Final Crisis (less than five years later) would feature the "death" of Batman, Darkseid, and the dumbest boss-battle ever (Superman beats Darkseid by singing).

But you just have to take it one step at a time. Character by character. Geoff Johns' GL reboot back in 2004 is the best Green Lantern series yet. Of that volume, "Secret Origin" is one of the better trades you could pick up, and demonstrates how the movie SHOULD have been with practically the exact same cast.
Cosmic Odyssey (loosely adapted in the JL episode "Twilight") was an awesome gem from Jim Starlin and Mike Mignola - probably the best crossover of the 80s. I'm trying to point you away from Batman and Superman, as they're obviously the most well known of the DC characters.
Identity Crisis (not to be confused with the other "Crisis" books, it has no relation to them) is widely considered one of the best modern standalone stories. It had a huge impact on DC's publications afterwards, as everyone tried to cash in on it's success. You can enter the story not knowing a damn thing about anyone, and although you won't come out an expert, you'll definitely take a great interest in the lot of them.
Tainted87 - 2/21/2013, 4:15 PM
Oh, and Absolute Justice. Completely standalone, art by Alex Ross - covers the majority of the DC universe, get's inventive with the characters.
DrDoom - 2/21/2013, 5:08 PM
@Facade

Wonder Woman and Green Lantern are not 'supporting' characters. I'm a Marvel nut and even I know that they have their own franchises that could translate to film.
Flash, as I've said, can be left on the bench.
marvel72 - 2/21/2013, 7:31 PM
i would love to see a flash movie but i can tell you why he won't be the next dc movie? because he isn't batman.

warner bros took a chance with green lantern probably dc comics third most popular character after batman & superman,it was a box office failure.do you think they're gonna take a chance with the flash.

i don't think so.
Superguy15 - 2/21/2013, 9:51 PM
Aquaman and MOS trilogies please!
xcrementus - 2/22/2013, 5:28 AM
Movie scenario #1: villain attacks.
Then, Flash fights him really fast. and wins.
Flash wins.
Repeat for 90 minutes.
THE END.

The entire time people watch this movie, people will be thinking how fricking easy it is for Flash to deal with problems when he's that fast.

Call it "Flash wins". It'll go well with "Superman Wins" which is i believe the working title of Justice League.
BatsFan - 2/22/2013, 7:52 AM
Team him up with GL, don't show his origin, make him tell it to Hal and Hal make fun of it saying that there a dude who was stroke 7 time by ling thing and he doesn't run fast.
SpikerStriker - 2/22/2013, 10:05 AM
Wonder Woman is cooler than Flash. She should have the next movie.

Heck even Cyborg is cooler than Flash.
BattlinMurdock - 2/22/2013, 10:26 AM
People are looking at this the wrong way. Of all the characters in the DC main roster, Barry Allen is the strongest alter-ego of his heroic persona. Why?

Because Barry Allen is neutral. Barry Allen is the most Marvel-y character DC has, which means you can do a ton with his character and give him lots of arcs. People seem to be commenting most on his powers, which is pretty senseless.

The Dark Knight series focuses on a hero with no powers and incredibly brief showcases of superior intellect. So, what's the driving force behind why Bruce Wayne worked as a character? The fact he was rich and had to be on constant alert for his secret identity.

Flash has superpowers and works as a forensic scientist. Don't keep him boxed up to where he's only defined as a guy who "runs fast" (despite the fact he can do much more than that). It's arguable that Flash is the strongest member of the JL for the pure fact that he can deconstruct the atoms of any material object and make them unstable...causing them to explode. In theory, couldn't he vibrate his hand through Supes' head and cause the guy to explode on an atomic level?

Flash works because there's so much potential. Some of the best Flash stories are murder mysteries. Why not have a film follow suit?
BattlinMurdock - 2/22/2013, 10:35 AM
It's always difficult to do editorials on this site about characters and movie ideas, because people don't like focusing on the journey of the character. They think of the movie like they would one issue of a comic book. They talk about the climaxes of the film and how they wouldn't work, completely overlooking everything that would happen up to that point.

They aren't going to construct a movie where Flash beating characters too fast would be an issue, the same way they don't do it with the comics. A Flash movie would not be a good film if it was just a montage of Flash beating people up superfast. Obviously they have to incorporate elements of...you know, story, conflict, character...

People thinking Flash wouldn't work are thinking about moments in the film that would be difficult to translate, not about the film itself.
Tainted87 - 2/22/2013, 6:46 PM
@Battlin
I always thought it was cool that George Eads of the original CSI voiced Barry in Young Justice.
SotoJuiceMan - 2/23/2013, 7:10 AM
....I just gotta say....Michael C. Hall for Barry Allen, Ryan Gosling for Wally!
BlackIceJoe - 2/23/2013, 9:55 AM
I would enjoy seeing a Flash movie. I know Sam Raimi did Spider-Man but I think if he was to do another comic book movie he could do a great Flash movie. I think most people would want to see Gorilla Grodd but I would save him for a sequel. When they do decide to add him in the film I would do motion capture like in Rise of Planet of the Apes.

So I pick for the villain the Shade. He could bring in some dark stuff to counter the humor you would get with the Flash. I would use the version were he does not need his cane to use his powers. So this way his powers he him self can control. Seeing as he can't age or die. This would make it interesting to see how Flash would have to take him down.

I think John Krasinski could make a great Barry Allen. I would also show Wally in the film so in the sequel Kid Flash can be added.

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