The Flash: Season 1, Episode 1, Pilot/City of Heroes Review

By Chris Murray

Warning this article contains Spoilers for this episode.

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The Flash - Season 01.Episode 01 "City Of Heroes".Grant Gustin as Barry Allen..© Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc.
Barry Allen, fastest man alive speeds from the comic pages onto your television this week and sprints off to a very promising start with an excellent pilot episode.

Obviously at this point I probably don't need to remind you that this article will contain some episode plot points and potential spoilers. So if you haven't watched it yet, then SHOO! Come back after you've checked it out!

If you’re all caught up with Arrow, Sky’s other awesome super hero show based on DC’s Green Arrow comics, then you will have most likely seen the episodes that introduces Barry Allen to the world. In one particular episode late in Arrow’s second season, Barry is struck by the freak lightening bolt that ultimately turns him into The Flash.

The pilot episode shows this again but adds greater depth to the incident and to various characters that makes it feel fresh and exciting. Like Arrow, flashback scene’s happen throughout each episode. The pilot does the same thing and probably will throughout the series, showing Barry’s younger self and the incident in which Barry is witness to the death of his mother. This leads to his father to be wrongly accused and arrested for the murder. These scenes happen across the episode showing more each time and gives back story to some of the other characters in the show like Detective Joe West and his partner. Interestingly, these scenes show something that could very much lead to quite a major plot point throughout the first season. If that doesn’t, then the ending of the episode surly will!

Along with a new series comes a host of new characters that need to be introduced. But as they appeared throughout the episode I couldn't help but notice how similar some of characters were to that of Arrow’s.


Iris West, Allen’s best friend and potential love interest at some point in the first season, much like Laurel Lance is to Oliver Queen. Her father, Detective Joe West, Allen’s boss and perhaps the “Officer/Detective Lance” of the show. Right down to Allen’s associates and S.T.A.R Labs employees, Caitlin Snow and Cisco Ramon, (essentially the male version of Felicity Smoak). But only having seen the first episode it’s hard to tell at this point for some of them at least.

Throughout Arrow’s two seasons and third due to start very soon. Arrow has run-ins with a large amount of villains from the DC universe. The Flash seems like it might pit Allen up against various other DC villains too. Some which will appear more than once throughout season one. Flash’s first battle is against Mark Mardon: Weather Wizard in which he can control weather conditions to his advantage instantly. Although, he's not actually referred to as this in this first episode anyway.

During the freak lightning storm caused by a large scientific device featured in Arrow’s second season that transforms Allen into The Flash, it soon becomes clear he wasn't the only one to receive special powers. This ultimately makes it easy for the show to explain how the other “Meta-Humans” as they are known in the pilot are gifted with such powers.
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The Flash - Season 01.Episode 01 "City Of Heroes".Grant Gustin as Barry Allen; Candice Patton as Iris West..© Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc.
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The Flash - Season 01.Episode 01 "City Of Heroes".Tom Cavanagh as Harrison Wells; Danielle Panabaker as Caitlin Snow..© Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc.
The Flash seems like it will be a more light hearted show than its much darker predecessor Arrow, adding less violence (so far anyway) more aspects of comedy, and a little cheesiness in there for good measure too. The close up of Allen trying out his new power comes to mind. I chuckled at a good few points throughout the forty minutes or so the show runs for. The brief meeting with Arrow himself is particularly great.

Overall The Flash’s pilot episode is a very good first episode for the series, hosting a number of action sequences and comedic banter between characters that will keep you wanting more. Not to mention the amazing final scene that occurs. I’ve not read any of the Flash books (yet) but I know enough to know a major Villain or Hero when I see one… I think.
All Images © Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc.