The Flash Problem

by Siena East

Living in a period of film oversaturated with superhero movies has allowed for a ripe analysis of what the purpose of these stories are. It is derivative now to say that these films are comparable to the stories of gods and heroes in Greek myths, but not unmentionable. However, that is only the first piece of the conversation with superhero movies. The stories of Athena, Hercules, and Kronos reflected cultural norms, expectations, and questions of the time. If one wishes to compare the past twenty years of superhero movies to Greek myth, then it must be asked what these stories are reflecting about our society today. With different creators, publishers, and producers these hero movies do not boil down to a singular ideology, but two of the major comic book worlds, Marvel and DC, have created their own tone, world, and mythos. In this essay, I will be focusing on Marvel (the MCU) and DC (DCEU) who have set the norm for superhero narratives rather than the superhero narratives that actively seek to subvert and discuss the archetypes and tropes Marvel and DC have established. In comparing Marvel to DC it has become abundantly clear financially, critically and socially that DC has become the loser of the two (I began this essay long before James Gunn was given the DC helm and I am excited to see his work). The MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) has grossed 29.1 billion dollars as of 2023 whereas the DCEU (DC Extended Cinematic Universe) has grossed 6.5 billion dollars. While starting late in the super hero arms race, the DCEU struggled to find its footing, notably grow its audience, or put out any film to critical acclaim. Much of the blame for this is placed securely on the shoulders of Zack Snyder, whose “darker” tone was meant to differentiate the DCEU movies from the MCU movies. While the DCEU does have its own dedicated fans, the narratives have struggled to convert many people into dedicated DCEU movie goers. Was it the tone that kept people away? Was it bad casting? Was it the dedication to comic book fans? Was it the rapid pacing to catch up to Marvel? It wasn’t until Zack Snyder’s Justice League did I begin to see the core problem with the DCEU: The Flash. 

Before Flash was introduced into the DCEU, four films preceded it: Man of Steel (2013), Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), Suicide Squad (2016), and Wonder Woman (2017). This essay is going to firmly ignore that Flash is technically introduced in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice when we discover that Lex Luthor has been keeping track of super people and also for some reason making logos for them because it is a tease that he will exist and does nothing to establish him as a character or his place in the DCEU. Flash (as a character, not a logo) was introduced in Justice League and this is where a clear statement is made on his character and his purpose in the Justice League. While canonically there is only one introduction of Flash, in reality there are two introductions to Flash. In 2016 Zach Snyder, director of Justice League and lead visionary for the DCEU, wrapped filming Justice League. Snyder’s cut of the movie was 90% complete when Warner Bros execs viewed the movie and called the cut “unwatchable.” Fearing the critical panning that Batman V Superman Dawn of Justice received, Warner Bros hired MCU veteran, Joss Whedon, who eventually rewrote, reshot, and recut the film. The hope was to create a lighter, shorter, more fun version of the film. At the time it was largely assumed that the failure of movies within the DCEU was their lack of levity and abominably long lengths. It is claimed that Whedon’s cut added 80 pages to the script and only used 10% of the footage that Snyder had shot. Whedon’s Justice League cut (apparently nicknamed “Josstice League, but I don’t remember seeing that until I started writing this so I’m not going to call it that) came out to mixed reviews. There was a general consensus that the film itself was a mixed bag coming from two different creators with two different visions and ideologies. Avid fans and morbid curiosity led to an online movement demanded that Warner Bros release the “#Snydercut.” On May 20th, 2020 Snyder announced that Warner Bros would release the #Snydercut as he envisioned via their new streaming service HBOMAX. On March 18th, 2021 the Snydercut of the Justice League was released. Of course, my friend and I watched it the moment it came out and even watched the countdown to it.

There are many differences between the films. The Snydercut proudly used none of the footage Whedon had shot. The Snydercut is two hours and two minutes longer than Whedon’s Justice League (making it 4 hours and 2 minutes long). Unlike Whedon’s Justice League, the Snydercut was shot in a 4:3 ratio which put black bars on the sides of people’s televisions since a 4:3 ratio is specifically for movie theaters and seemed pretty pretentious on televisions. The content of the films also differed. Both films follow the formation of the Justice League when the world is threatened by Steppenwolf and his search for the three mother boxes, but that’s about it. The Snydercut was largely more violent and bloody with more world building and different character arcs. Whedon’s Justice League lacked the big bad of the Snydercut: Darkseid, as well as Martian Manhunter, Zeus, and Joker. The Snydercut lacked a random Russian family transparently placed to humanize the stakes of 3 magic world ending boxes. However, even though the general plots of the movies were the same, their execution greatly differed. The defining split in the movies can be seen through their treatment of the Flash. 

The thesis of Joss Whedon’s Justice League is that being a hero is a choice, and that making the choice to be a hero creates hope. This is illustrated through Batman and Flash. Batman brings Flash into the Justice League and discovers in their first fight that unlike the other members, Flash has not yet made the choice to be a hero. He may have super powers, but the most he’s done is shove someone and run away. Flash is introduced as a kid– impressed by Batman’s wealth, power, wisdom, and general put together-ness. Full of quips, awkwardness, and youth, Flash is nothing like his aged, defeated, depressed, and godly teammates. As Flash becomes overwhelmed by their very first battle, Batman does not chide or mock him. Instead, he tells Flash “just save one person.” It’s small and sincere, but begins Whedon’s point clearly. Flash may be super, but what makes him a hero is his choice to actually be one. Each time Flash chooses to be a hero and save one person, he saves another and another because choosing to be a hero itself gives him hope to do it again. This action escalates through the movie as Flash comes into his own. For Batman, this is incredibly meaningful. In the previous film Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, Batman’s paranoid tirade against Superman led to Superman’s death. He enters Justice League feeling as if he has robbed the world of its heroes, but through his journey with Flash discovers that the thing that makes heroes is simply the choice to be one. In the final battle, Flash’s heroism leads him to save a whole nameless Russian family in an attempt to both physicalize his growth as well as humanize Steppenwolf’s world ending event. By the end of the film the Justice League is formed through the choice to be heroes.

If the thesis of Joss Whedon’s Justice league is that being a hero is a choice and making that choice creates hope, the thesis of Snyder’s Justice League is that being a hero is only meant for the best of us. This is illustrated through Cyborg and Flash. Both are on a quest to accept that they are special and therefore are heroes. Cyborg believes the godly technology powers he got after his father brought him back to life make him a monster. This journey is treated with great weight and empathy, as he comes to discover that his dad making him better than everyone else was actually very good and he just needs to accept that. On his own we see he knows he is a little bit good when we see him use his cyborg powers to put more money in a random lady’s bank account through a CGI internet he can access. When Cyborg is asked to join the Justice League, it is specifically Wonder Woman who takes on the task and not Batman. Wonder Woman seeks Cyborg out, hoping to relate to him all-powerful being to all-powerful being. She tells him the world needs help and he says “Fuck the world” (I am not paraphrasing. He says that).  Wonder Woman presses on, telling him he has gifts and responsibilities, but he does not see his powers as gifts, and the world has nothing for him. Here the two find their common ground– both trying to open up and find worth in a world where they’ve lost people. Why save the world if the people you love are gone? This commonality causes Cyborg to fly away to look at his and his mother’s grave. Finally, his estranged father is stolen by the bad guys and Cyborg accepts his destiny of being a hero and loving his dad who made him one against his will. It is a longer journey for Flash to accept his destiny as a hero. 

In the Snydercut Justice League, Flash makes no mention of not having saved people before so there is no implication that this is a conflict for him. Instead his conflict exists in his relationship to the Justice League. Flash feels he does not fit in with the other heroes, continually underselling himself and his powers and seeking out relatability over all else. Flash’s desire to be relatable is treated by the other members of the Justice League with disdain and annoyance. He doesn’t see himself as above others, and is happy to help and save people. When Flash saves someone, he does it without any recognition, instead choosing to make himself look like a fool who didn’t even know there was a problem in the first place. His romantic interest, who he has basically zero screen time with and is unnamed unless you are really following the comics and casting, almost gets into a terrible bus accident, but Flash saves her during a job interview he has at a pet shop. When she is miraculously saved, Flash is goofily sitting with the pet store’s puppies. Just a regular guy. This is not the norm within the team. Aquaman saves someone's life in his introduction at the beginning of the film. A man’s fishing boat is destroyed in a storm, and he is saved by Aquaman who complains about saving him, and then forces the man to buy him a drink after losing his livelihood (the fishing boat). The Justice League sees themselves as above others due to their super qualities. Over and over again the movie suggests that Flash is kind of right that he doesn’t fit in– that something is affecting his ability to be a true member of the Justice League. When Batman finally finds Flash, he asks Flash what his abilities are, but Flash refuses to disclose his specialness to Batman. Instead he lists silly and relatable skills: viola, web design, fluent in sign language (he corrects and devalues himself: gorilla sign language), and the funny/feminine competitive ice dancing. The only reason Flash accepts Batman’s offer to be in the Justice League is because…. he needs a friend (this is true in both movies, but in the Snydercut is treated as the real reason he joins.)

Flash struggles because he refuses to see himself as special or better than others. Like Cyborg, Flash’s relationship to his father is pivotal in understanding his “flaws”. In a scene with his dad, he is chastised for working at a job that does not value him in order to help his father with his legal fees (Flash’s dad is in jail for murdering Flash’s mother, which Flash knows his father did not actually do). His father’s disappointment in Flash and his commitment to helping his father at the cost of his own greatness is Flash’s major sin in the movie. His dad tells Flash he is “holding himself back with dead end jobs.” The movie is frustrated that Flash does not know he is extraordinary to the point where Flash has incredible powers he refuses to use. Flash is aware that he can turn back time, but he refuses to do it. He has rules for himself. Rules he will not break because he knows the irreparable harm he could do to others by breaking them. Rules he keeps because he does not see himself as above anyone or any rule. However, this is what Flash must overcome– his own mortal and moral code. By the end of the movie, he has to choose to break his speed rule to change time and save everyone. In order to do this, Flash must change how he sees himself. What Flash says right before he rewinds time implies this choice is not about the fate of the world, but instead about his father. Literally before rewinding time to save the day, Flash whispers to himself “I want you to know dad, your son was one of the best of the best.” His dialogue cements that this moment embodies Flash deciding he can break these rules because he is better than everyone else and only by acknowledging that some people, including himself, are better than others, can he save everyone. It’s further explored when Flash is finally able to effectively help his dad’s legal case by acknowledging he is one of the exceptional few…. which gifts him the financial and technical support of Batman. Flash’s problems are solved by overcoming his need to be relatable. The Snydercut is deeply interested in relationships with fathers without doing much to set them up, but when a character says something to a father, it is important. By that logic, the most important thing Flash does in the Snydercut is acknowledge that he is the best of the best. 

When we put these movies in conversation with each other, we get two statements on what it means to be a hero that could not be more different, both explained through Flash’s arc. The reason these arcs heavily rest on Flash is he is the child, the everyman, and the future of the Justice League. Wonder Woman, Superman, Aquaman, and Cyborg are literal gods among men. Batman is the only human of the Justice League, but is elevated in that he is also its father. He brings Flash into the Justice League, treating him as almost a son. These hero relationship dynamics are not exclusive to the DCEU. There are easily traceable parallels between the DCEU's Justice League and the MCU’s Avengers. Wonder Woman and Captain America are both heroes of another time for whom greatness was thrust upon them. Cyborg and Vision are both heroes who exist somewhere between man and machine birthing an entirely new existence and perspective onto the team. Iron Man and Batman are both billionaires broken by their parents’ deaths who are constantly on the quest for redemption. Aquaman and Thor are both gods and children of kings who must mature in order to assume the great mantle that is destined for them. A lesser parallel can be made between Superman and Hulk, both invincible beings who chose to be mild mannered knowing the power they have. Finally, Flash is easily comparable to Spiderman. Young and naive, super, but not godly, eager to please as well as quippy, clever, and a little bit awkward. In order to fully understand the failure of Flash, one must also understand the function, successes, and failures of Spiderman. 

This discussion around Spiderman in this essay will focus solely on his purpose within the MCU and will not attempt to create a definitive take on what makes a hero. The MCU loves Spiderman. As the youngest and most everyday member of the Avengers, he represents both youth as fun and youth as the future. Unlike the gods, war heroes, and billionaires who make up the Avengers, Peter Parker is just a kid in Queens who loves science, working hard at school, and doing some light hero work on the side. In the MCU, Spiderman is introduced to us as a child and son (not unlike Flash). Iron Man, father of the Avengers, seeks out Peter Parker who he knows is secretly doing good as Spiderman. Underneath Iron Man’s eye, Spiderman is guided into a life of heroism. For the beginning of Spiderman’s story in the MCU we heavily see him through the lens of Iron Man (even in his own movie). To Iron Man, Spiderman represents the future of heroes as he is smart, capable, and super powered. In Spiderman’s first film, Spiderman: Homecoming, Spiderman struggles to define himself as his own hero as both the wanted and unwanted expectations of Iron Man weigh on him. Iron Man himself even appears in the film to set the rules and expectations of being a hero for Spiderman. It ends with the same outcome of most parent child arcs: Iron Man was being too harsh on Spiderman and not letting him grow, but Iron Man’s high expectations helped Spiderman truly find himself and achieve success on his own. Iron Man and Spiderman’s relationship comes up again at the end of the Thanos arc: Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. The lowest moment in the film is when Thanos’ does a snap with the Infinity stones and makes half of everyone disappear. It’s a big idea and we see it happen in a few different places, but the most collectively heartbreaking for the audience is the loss of Spiderman. Spiderman sickly stumbles into Iron Man’s arms and Iron Man watches in despair as Spiderman turns to dust in his arms. This was how the movie made this cataclysmic loss understandable: by having Iron Man watch Spiderman disappear. In Endgame while the loss of everyone in the universe basically causes unimaginable pain, Iron Man is the only character truly not on board with undoing the snap. Not only does he think it’s impossible, he has too much to lose: a family and a daughter. What causes Iron Man to change his mind is the idea that he could save Spiderman. Endgame ends with the death of Iron Man and the resurrection of Spiderman. Spiderman’s second film, Far from Home, sees Spiderman on his own, but still very much in the shadow of Iron Man. It is not until No Way Home does Spiderman stand on his own and show his purpose within the larger MCU. 

No Way Home stands on the shoulders of not only the MCU but on the shoulders of two different Spiderman franchises led by Tobey Maguire’s Spiderman (2002-2007) and Andrew Garfield’s The Amazing Spiderman (2012-2014). By using both the previous Spiderman narratives and the Avengers narrative, No Way Home is able to illustrate the purpose of Spiderman in the larger Marvel Lore. No Way Home starts with Peter Parker having lost his anonymity after Mysterio revealed his secret identity in the previous movie. The revelation of his secret identity ruins his normal life and his chance at college and a life with his girlfriend, MJ. Peter goes to Dr. Strange in order to cast a spell to make people forget he is Spiderman, but when he starts to want more specificity, he messes up the spell. Now instead of making the world forget he is Spiderman, he accidentally summons people who know Peter Parker is Spiderman from other universes, namely, his enemies: Green Goblin, Doc Ock, the Sandman, Electro, and The Lizard. Dr. Strange plans to return them all to their own universes where each villain figures out that they are doomed to die. Dr. Strange believes this is just the way it has to be, but Peter disagrees, wondering if he can rehabilitate his villains so that they don’t have to die when they return to their worlds. When Dr. Strange ignores Peter, Peter fights Dr. Strange, leaving him in another dimension while Peter tries to help his villains. That is the purpose of Spiderman. As the everyman, youth, and future of the Avengers, Spiderman exists to imagine a different future. He is meant to challenge authority, ask questions, and be the optimist who doesn’t fight to keep the status quo: he challenges it. Peter imagines a future where his villains don’t have to die and fights for it. As the movie goes on we discover that Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s Spidermen have also been summoned to this universe both with their own baggage. Our young Peter has just lost his aunt May, and the older Peters share their pain with him and inspire young Peter to keep fighting for his own universe. However, the Spidermen are unaware that young Peter will help them challenge their own histories and imagine a better future for themselves through his initial act of optimism. Andrew Garfield’s Spiderman is able to save MJ when he was unable to save Gwen (his own love interest) in an almost identical situation. Tobey Maguire’s Spiderman is able to cure his dear family friend, Green Goblin (Norman Osborne), instead of killing him: something that weighed heavily on Tobey’s Spiderman. It becomes clear in this movie that this is what Spiderman is about: his heroism is not his Spidey sense or cool gadgets or his intelligence. Spiderman’s heroism is the ability to ask for a better future even when the world around him seems dark and hopeless. His function in the Avengers isn’t to “look up to” or “aspire” to be them… it’s to help them dream (While we will continue to focus on the MCU vs the DCEU, I feel the need to mention that this is also the function of Sony’s MILES MORALES Spiderman, who within a world of many Spidermen asks if they have to accept the future they are told is inescapable due to certain “canon” events and fights them to save his father from dying as one of said “canon” events.)

This brings us to The Flash (2023). Like No Way Home, The Flash is also a movie that comes after major events in the DCEU and deals with the Multiverse. Many people blame the movie's financial failure on the controversy around its star Ezra Miller, who kept kidnapping people and punching them in the throat and just running around being pretty evil, but outside of that the movie’s production had other problems. There were delays from the COVID-19 pandemic, changes in studio leadership, and changes in directors. Originally the movie was possibly going to be written and directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, but when they left to work on Solo the studio chose to keep their treatment and brought in Seth Grahame-Smith to direct with Zack and Deborah Snyder producing. When Grahame-Smith left over “creative differences” the movie’s release date was pushed to 2018. In 2016 they kept Grahame-Smith’s script, but brought in Rick Famuyiwa to direct. However, Rick Famuyiwa also left the film over creative differences with the studio. In 2017, Joby Harold was hired to write a page 1 rewrite of the script. Ezra Miller was frustrated with the “light hearted” direction and they wrote a draft of the script with Grant Morrison that the studio rejected, choosing instead to have John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein write and direct, but they too left the film over creative differences. In the end Andy Muschietti and Christina Hodson were the final director and writer for The Flash. Regardless of the drama behind the scenes, the issue with the Flash movie is the DCEU’s biggest issue.

The Flash movie is based on the Flashpoint arc which debuted in 2011 to reboot DC creating the “New 52” universe. It’s argued that Flashpoint and other multiverse based Flash arcs in the comic series exist not to further his character but instead to reset the DC universe when it has become overburdened by it’s own lore, but this essay will focus on the function of Flash solely within the cinematic universe. Popular for its soap opera-esque conflict, this arc has also been adapted into the Flash TV show and has become a fan favorite arc. Like Spiderman: No Way Home, the film is a venture into the multi-verse using famous actors from other superhero franchises.

The Flash begins with Flash clearly on a time crunch (funny! Because he is fast! I will only be a bitch in the essay a little bit because there are a few scenes that are very very funny, and when my dad watches the Siena-cut (the version where I fast forward to the good parts) he really enjoys it). His day is thrown off by many things the wrong barista making his sandwich too slow, Alfred calling to ask for help for Batman who is stopping a robbery, and random idiot women screaming that they love him while in costume. Flash’s first heroic sequence in the film is him cleaning up Batman’s mess— leaving Flash to save everyone in a hospital that is actively crumbling. Flash whines that he is not appreciated enough after saving a panicked nurse who runs away without saying anything to him. Annoyed by her terror, Flash sarcastically responds to her action by saying to himself “Thanks for saving me from the sink hole, Flash”. Further setting up Flash’s conflict, Batman does a cool and chaotic car chase while Flash complains about being the janitor of the Justice League as he does the unglamorous work of saving a bunch of babies falling out of the top floor of the hospital who are all about to be impaled by glass. It’s hilarious, but it exists for more than humor: it exists to show us NO ONE appreciates Flash’s powers, self control, or meticulous work.

The conflict of the film is introduced after this sequence: Flash is still dealing with saving his Father from jail who was falsely accused of murdering Flash’s mother. We see that even with Batman’s aforementioned help on the case, Flash is unable to clear his father’s name because in the security camera footage that would have proved his innocence, his father never looks up and therefore the footage does not clearly confirm his identity. We see Flash remember the day his mother was murdered with some heavy foreshadowing: child Flash struggles to solve a math problem, and his mom comforts him by telling him “Not ever problem has a solution. Sometimes you just have to let go.” This is when his dad arrives home and is sent right back out to get pasta sauce for dinner. The perfect day cuts to later with kid Flash seeing his dad arrive home WHILE hearing his mother cry out. He comes downstairs to find his mother stabbed in the chest, and his father telling him to call 911. It’s in the memory we learn the Flash does unequivocally know his father did not murder his mother, and the root of his core trauma. Super upset after remembering all this, adult Flash runs really fast— so fast he unknowingly turns back time. When he returns from his little time travel stint (not going further back than earlier today), Flash sees this as an opportunity to be able to fix the past, but Batman warns Flash about the butterfly effect. Flash presses bringing up the idea that he could use time travel to save Batman’s parents but Batman rebuttals with “Barry, these scars we have make us who we are. We’re not meant to go back and fix them. And there’s nothing broken with you that needs to be fixed.” Batman continues to say conflicting things in his weird speech, to which Flash says “What if it’s [your tragedy] supposed to define you. Tragedy made you a hero.” Batman does not disagree with this but adds on that it also made him alone. Flash finally decides to go back in time save his mom from being murdered when his crush points out the Flash got into criminal forensics to fix our flawed justice system. 

So Act Two begins and Flash goes back in time and saves his mom, but before he can make it to his present, a weird scary purple figure comes and knocks him into an earlier time. It’s here Flash gets the time with his parents he longed for before it is rudely interrupted by college, Flash. Flash and college Flash (who from this point on we will just call Barry because he lacks powers) discuss the conflict in private. We quickly discover Barry… is an idiot because his mother was never murdered. While Barry is impressed that Flash is a super hero, Flash warns Barry against it because “it’s scary” and “he gets bug splatter in his teeth”. Flash refuses to tell Barry why he’s back in time and realizes that this is the day he got his powers. Barry, because his mom was never murdered, never gets a forensics internship and therefore never gets his powers. This is the first evidence supporting how Flash’s trauma made him a hero. 

Fearing what would happen if he never gets his powers, Flash takes Barry to go get hit by lightning on purpose to get his speedster powers, but in a mix up Barry gets powers and Flash loses his. Then there are other consequences to saving his mom. General Zod lands on Earth looking for Superman and we revisit an altered version of the DCEU’s Man of Steel. Knowing he alone can not face Zod, Flash goes to find the Justice League in order to get them to save the world from Zod. However, Superman is missing, Victor Stone is not Cyborg yet, Wonder Woman is unfindable and Aquaman was never born for some reason. Their only hope is Batman who they discover is a very different Batman— MICHAEL KEATON’S BATMAN. After a nonsense spaghetti time travel explanation from Batman, Flash uses DCEU’s version of “canon events” to state that some things happen in every universe no matter what— but Flash calls them “fate”. Batman helps them find Superman, only to discover that the super person locked away in Siberia is not Superman, but instead find Superman’s cousin Kara. When she is unwilling to help them fight Zod, they do some crazy science to get Flash his powers back that Kara helps with even though she has no idea what they’re doing because she just fucked off to see that Zod is being evil. The bigger change, and further link of Flash’s trauma to his ability to be a hero is when Barry overhears the reason Flash came back in time: to save their mother from being murdered. After hearing about this trauma, Barry begins to act less like an idiot and more like a hero. The team heads off to fight Zod, but it’s hopeless. No matter how many times Flash rewinds time to try again, Batman and Kara are killed and Zod destroys the planet over and over again. In Act 3, Flash discovers the truth. There is no way to save his mom without having everyone on Earth die, and also everyone in all the multiverse maybe. As the worlds all collide, Flash is forced to kill the paradox version of himself, accepting that he must condemn his mother to death in order to save everyone and everything. In an emotional scene he goes back in time and takes the tomato sauce out of her shopping cart, knowing that this action will result in her death. But what does that say about Flash’s trauma and in turn our own?

People who defend this story often find comfort in a narrative that says a traumatic past is necessary for the future and world one has now, but I find that to be an incredibly simplistic take on personal trauma. In The Flash trauma does make you who you are, and while there is something interesting in Flash choosing to get his powers again, it is complicated by the fact that even this choice is eternally tied to his mother’s murder. The horrifying result of the narrative is it is not a characters’ choices that make them who they are, but rather what has been done unto them makes them who they are. What does this say about what makes a hero and what makes a villain? What does that say about us and our own trauma? Even the language of “fate” used implies an inescapability as opposed to the canon events of Spiderverse, the word canon itself suggesting that this is how a story is supposed to go which is a commentary on narrative itself instead of a commentary on destiny and life. If there is any sort of choice being presented, it’s that heroes accept the world as it is while villains try to change it. In this world, heroes represent stasis. The reason the Snyderverse DCEU does not resonate with larger audiences is because it’s youthful character is broken. In the DCEU, Flash is not allowed to ask for change, to dream, fight for, or even fathom a different world— a better world. The comfort Flash offers for people who in real life have had various tragedies is that “Everything could suck even more for everyone” and… what’s the fucking point of that? Tragedy made you a hero. That’s the fucking lesson? 

What is the point of The Flash and his narrative within the world of the DCEU? There are a lot of clear reasons this movie exists— to wipe the slate clean of DCEU lore and bad choices to reinvigorate audiences with the promise and good faith of nostalgia, but what does this say about the DCEU’s perspective on the world? It would not have been hard to make this a worthwhile story to tell. It could have said that our trauma’s don’t make us, our choices do— freeing Flash from weaving his identity into this horrible moment in this life. It could have been about the ways we need to forgive ourselves for those we can not save. It could have just been a different story. Instead this final movie lands the sinking blow for the DCEU— we exist in a world of pain where imagining change is an exercise practiced by immature children, and the maturity is accepting the world as it is, not striving for what it could be. Seems pretty impossible to imagine a future for a cinematic universe that can’t imagine a future for the world, us, or even it’s characters.