The Flash - 'Flash is Born'

"What? No; Colossus is Marvel."

Things are getting personal for Barry Allen, as a new metahuman hits the streets. Physically powerful and able to transform his body into living steel, he is also the government issued bully from Barry's childhoood school (attending no doubt the same summer training programme as Bruce Wayne's school bully.) As if that weren't enough baggage, he has an interest in Iris, not just as a former classmate but as 'the Streak's' unofficial biographer.

A critical success in this episode of The Flash is that it has finally made me give a crap about Iris and her relationship with Barry, mostly by not focusing on the romance aspect. It's Eddie Thawne who picks up on the tension between the two and encourages Barry to mend bridges, stating that good friends are hard to find. It's as a friend that her peril in the final scenes works, and it doesn't hurt that she gets to be at least partly self-rescuing.

This image is titled in Portugese 'Soco Sonico'.

In the metaplot we learn a little more about Wells, and the lightning man makes another appearance, disrupting Joe's investigation into the murder of Barry's mother and threatening dire consequences if it continues. Coincidence, or conspiracy? Time will tell, I guess, although if Wells were the Reverse Flash then I can't help but think that he'd have killed General Eiler himself. Still, there are more hints of time travel, so anything is possible.

'Flash is Born' also sees the first in-universe use of 'the Flash', which puts Barry well ahead of Oliver Queen in establishing his lasting hero identity.

As a note, however, locking metahuman villains in a supercollider forever is even creepier when it's your old bully. It makes it feel vindictive, however much of a tool they are.