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Oct 06, 2014 By Zach Hollwedel Issue #51 - September/October 2014 - alt-J

As an 11-year-old boy, Barry Allen witnesses his mother’s murder in an inexplicable home invasion, for which his father was convicted. Years later, Allen (Grant Gustin) has grown into a nerdy CSI technician with the Central City Police Department and remains convinced that something superhuman was responsible for his mother’s death. When a particle accelerator experiment at Central City-based S.T.A.R. labs goes horribly wrong, detonating and spewing cosmic energy into the city, Allen is struck by a bolt of lightning, which grants him incredible speed and the means to finally figure out what actually killed his mother.

The CW’s treatment of DC Comics superheroes has steadily improved since Smallville, a show that itself got drastically better over its run. Arrow, the CW’s subsequent primetime treatment of a Justice League member, embraced the maturity and darkness Smallville had learned to adopt, successfully appealing to adult fans due to its grittiness. The Flash, developed by Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg (both behind Arrow), and veteran DC writer and creative head Geoff Johns, continues the CW’s streak with the perfect mix of humor and gravity intrinsic to The Flash comics. Fans will doubtless be more than pleased, not just with the tone, but with look of The Flash and the concise handling of Allen’s origin story. It makes sense that a show about the fastest man alive gets to the action quickly, and Berlanti’s team delivers wonderfully. The DC Universe is coming together piecemeal on the small screen, and The CW scores a sonic boom of a win with The Flash. (www.cwtv.com/shows/the-flash)

Author rating: 8/10