Could 'The Red Death' Be The Flash's Next Big Villain?

Most fans of The Flash probably don't even realize the amount of DC Comics Easter eggs in each season, but it doesn't take a superfan to realize that the recent name drop of the Red Death was a big one.

While journeying through Nora's (Jessica Parker Kennedy) memories using Sherloque's (Tom Cavanagh) memory machine, Barry (Grant Gustin) and Iris (Candace Parker) found themselves watching Nora's childhood visit to the Flash Museum of the future. While there, Nora watched a newscast about Cicada (Chris Klein) in which Captain Singh (Patrick Sabongui) revealed that he kept murdering metas long after Barry mysteriously vanished. In the broadcast, Singh offhandedly mentions that Cicada had more victims than Zoom or even the Red Death.

If you're not familiar with comic book lore, the Red Death was actually a villainous version of Batman from Earth 52 who managed to harness some corrupted Speed Force powers. As an evil speedster, he used his abilities to murder rogues and cause general mayhem in Central City. The question of the hour is, will the Red Death be the Flash's next big villain after Cicada?

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Given that the Arrowverse has recently been able to tap into much more Batman mythology than in previous years thanks to the introduction of Batwoman (Ruby Rose), it's possible that The Flash could incorporate this storyline into future seasons. We've enjoyed a nice break from speedster villains these last two years, but it's probably time for Barry to go up against another speedster soon. Unfortunately, it's very hard to imagine The Flash would be allowed to not only bring Batman on as a character but to incorporate him as a psychotic villain. There are pies in the sky and then there's just pure nonsense.

If anything, this is probably just a fun Easter egg The Flash writers decided to throw in for diehard fans. That being said, The Flash has reworked backstories and identities of villains from the comics before -- Cicada's story was vastly different in the source material, for instance -- so there's no reason the show couldn't introduce the Red Death and leave Batman out of it entirely. Either way, this little nugget did force us to realize that throwing another evil speedster in the mix wouldn't be the worst thing in the world after this post-Savitar hiatus.

The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on The CW.

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