Who is Dark Flash in The Flash? A comic book hero is only as good as the bad guy stood across from them, which perhaps explains why so many baddies are essentially mirror images of the protagonist they desperately want to best.
The DC Universe of the comic books has delivered some of the best movie villains over the years, with the roster of Batman villains in particular proving to be an impressive bunch of scumbags. But with The Flash release date, we have both General Zod and the terrifying Dark Flash to terrorize Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen.
Let’s take a look at one of the strangest new movies of the year – check out our The Flash review for more – and the comic book source material to find out more about Dark Flash and what makes one of the best DC villains tick. Beware, as there are spoilers for the movie ahead.
Dark Flash in the DC Comics explained
In the DC Comics, Dark Flash aka Black Flash is essentially the embodiment of the Grim Reaper for speedsters.
He is a being of the Speed Force and appears to chase down the DC Universe’s speedsters at the end of their lives. This is a Grim Reaper with a heck of a gas pedal, though, as he has the ability to catch up with the various Flash incarnations.
Dark Flash has also been depicted as a creature that intervenes to prevent speedsters from making catastrophic changes to the fabric of time itself. We’ve watched enough Doctor Who to know that’s the kind of thing you need sometimes. Miguel O’Hara would be proud too.
Dark Flash in The Flash explained
In The Flash, Dark Flash is revealed to be the younger version of Barry Allen after he tries over and over again to fix things with time travel.
Dark Flash appears early in the events of The Flash, pushing Barry Allen into an earlier part of his timeline after he has traveled back to save his mom’s life. During The Flash ending, the younger version of Barry becomes obsessed with saving people through time travel and we learn that his obsession will turn him into Dark Flash.
The younger Barry doesn’t want this to happen, though, and sacrifices himself to save his older counterpart. By allowing himself to be killed before he became Dark Flash, the younger Barry causes the villain to dissolve into dust.
Dark Flash powers and abilities explained
Dark Flash has the powers of The Flash, as well as immortality due to his connection to the Speed Force. In movie form, he doesn’t prove immortal though.
In the comics, Black Flash is an immortal being of the Speed Force and appears to speedsters in order to guide them back into the Speed Force at the time of their deaths. He has all of the abilities of The Flash to help him achieve those ends, as well as the capacity for dimensional travel.
In fact, the only way to defeat him in the comics seems to be to run to the very end of time itself. You see, death has no meaning there, and so it becomes a jurisdictional issue, we suppose. Either way, that causes Dark Flash to distintegrate.
So that’s Dark Flash, and he’s a terrifying guy for sure. To find out more about the new movie, learn about The Flash cast and find out how fast The Flash actually is. Or look ahead to the future with our guide to whether there will be The Flash 2 release date.
As for what we do know, check out everything we know about new DC boss James Gunn’s Chapter 1 Gods and Monsters plan and the way The Flash introduces James Gunn to the DCU. Also, find out why even Michael Shannon was surprised by his Zod return.
Meanwhile, you can see why we think Michael Keaton is the best Batman (we’re right, sorry) and find out our picks for the best movies of all time.