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The FlashLegion contributor Shaun Rosado will be recapping and reviewing The Flash this season! Follow him on Twitter @pneumaz!

“This is the part where I am supposed to do the whole ‘intro thingie’. Barry Allen: Fastest Man Alive, but you know all that already. Alright, let’s get to the good stuff…”

This is how the Flash starts of it’s second episode, “Fastest Man Alive”, with a wink and a nod to the downright silly nature of the heroes inner monologue. So why not have some fun? In two episodes the voice of this show is loud and clear: this is about superheroes and super powers, but the Flash is not a dark character. All things considered, he is one of the more hopeful characters written in comics today. As such his point of view can be playful, if not downright funny as he fights the good fight.

We jump right into the action as Barry is trying to settle into being a hero, rescuing people from burning buildings, fighting crime, and using his powers in cool ways. This episode was crammed with fun little moments that allowed us a glimpse inside of his life while trying to juggle a dual identity. In an early scene, we are even treated to a moment where Barry, who is called into a crime scene, sprints over as fast as possible and forgets to bring his change of clothes. The resulting scene was, even though he arrived on time, he ultimately was late to his day job because he had to get new clothes on the spot. This is a great nod to a perennial theme in the Flash comic: the fastest man alive, is always late.

Multiplex 1

The show deserves additional praise for handling the special effects of a superhero story on a TV budget so well. While creating a man moving at super speeds may not be as challenging as a someone who can control willpower via emerald light or has the ability to destroy entire city blocks, it can still be difficult to deliver a final product that compliments the narrative instead of hamstringing the show with campiness.

As the show progresses on, it will be interesting to see how it handles some of the more eccentric Rogues in the Flash’s lineup such as Gorilla Grodd or Captain Cold when it comes to depicting them and their powers on screen. This week though, we were introduced to Danton Black, aka: Multiplex. His super power allows him to create multiples of himself that he can control. This lead to one of the more memorable moments in the episode where Barry is fighting dozens of Black’s clones which smacked of the Matrix Reloaded’s “burly fight” without the cheesy special effects which lasted too long.

Flash vs Multiplex 2

Unfortunately, while the fight was interesting I felt that Multiplex had the same kind of issue that the Weather Wizard had last week: not enough development. My only real complaint about this episode was the premature ending of Multiplex. While it appears the writers may have killed off the character this episode, I hope we find out this was simply a fake out later on. The Rogue’s Gallery is meant to be large, diverse and (most important) recurring. Killing of your villains every week is going to thin the heard too quickly and make quality long term threats much harder to come by.

It really holds true that a hero is only as interesting as his villains, but this early on in the game I am willing to forgive throw away villains of the week as the crux of the writing is aimed at developing Barry and his cast of allies. From Cisco all the way down to Harrison Wells, every supporting character of the Flash was given great moments to show why they will be important to the show. Considering these will be the people we’ll care about week in and week out, I can totally understand making them the focus that early on in the game.

Beyond that though is the humor; woven into the very DNA of the show – the one liners and hilarious snark built into this show makes it a joy to watch. For instance, when Barry discovers he has to eat the equivalent of 720 tacos a day in order to keep up his current activity level, Cisco admits he did not factor in guacamole or sour cream – and we ALL know you always factor in guacamole and sour cream; that’s just science.

Multiplex 2

But the crux of this week’s episode really fell on Barry himself as he struggled with the idea of trying to be the Flash. Early in the episode we are introduced to Barry’s main limitation: his metabolism and how he has to eat ungodly amounts of food to run at hyper speed. This gives way to some moments of Barry being unable to help people in time and eventually cast doubt on himself because his adoptive father, Detective Joe West, chastises Barry for risking his life in such a foolhardy way. The result is a character with phenomenal super human powers who can’t do what’s needed to in order to help people.

While the Flash is not a dark character this moment needs to happen in order to show that even though people dream of being superheroes as children, the reality can be very different. The catharsis was very satisfying, instead of milking the friction between father and son for weeks on end with endlessly annoying phrases like “You’re not my Dad!” we went right to the moment of understanding. Joe sees that Barry really is uniquely gifted to help people and cannot hold onto to doubt. He has to believe the impossible because Barry IS impossible and as such reaches out to his adoptive son to give him words of wisdom and encouragement to fight an overwhelming situation.

The Flash has found it’s footing, and it’s solid. Sure, the drama can be a little saccharine at times but is balanced by genuine moments of pathos, great nods to the comic (Cosmic Treadmill, I’m looking at you), the development of Central City and her cast of characters and capturing the lighthearted nature of the core character. It’s everything we want in an hour long show about super powers. Now, lets go get some tacos.

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Shaun Rosado

Shaun Rosado is creator and host of a weekly geek podcast called "Shauncastic!," where he and a rotating cast discuss everything geeky, nerdy and pop culture-y as well as the creator of "Meet At The Tavern," a blog dedicated to RPGs. He is also a frequent Twittering fool (@Pneumaz). He is married, has a dog, is a massive fan of The Flash and owns a spaceship. One of these is not true.