The Flash Review (S2E5): "The Darkness and the Light"

★★★★☆ (4/5)

Until 'Legends of Tomorrow' are officially on the air and running, 'The Flash' and 'Arrow' will be assembling the origin stories of the team. It's a delicate balance of introducing guest stars for the sake of establishing their backstory for another show and servicing the main narrative of the season. It can get awkward like 'The Fury of Firestorm' but in 'The Darkness and the Light' the introduction of Kendra Saunders (aka Hawkgirl) is a little more subtle while still adding Dr. Light and addressing Cisco's secret powers. With so many storylines going on it could easily have gone sideways but the episode smoothly juggles them with precision.

"You know, our Dr. Wells may’ve been evil, but you’re just a dick," Cisco with a keen observation about Earth-2's Harrison Wells, called Harry for clarity now. It's such a treat having Tom Cavanagh back on the show playing a possibly evil scientist again but with a way more abrasive personality. Arrogant and ill-tempered, Harry is no patient mentor to Team Flash. Especially with Cisco trying to tap into his "vibe" powers. Oh, yeah that secret's out of the bag now. Harry, like Earth-1's Wells/Eobard Thawne, is invested in making Barry a better Flash. His approach is much more urgent and direct. The fact that Zoom is holding Harry's daughter, Jesse Wells (Violet Beane), hostage I'm sure is an important factor.

However, as you can imagine the devasting legacy Wells/Thawne left behind everyone has immense trepidation trusting Harry. Jay Garrick knows first hand about Harry from their conflicts back at the sepia-toned art deco world of Earth-2. Where Harry is quick to build Barry up he's just as fast at tearing Jay down, calling him a coward and ridiculing him for not stopping Zoom before. It's uneasy alliance to say the least.

Dr. Light is the latest Earth-2 villain to make it through the breach on orders from Zoom to try and kill Barry. She's under the impression that she can shake Zoom's influence if she kills her Earth-1 doppelganger Linda Park (Malese Jow). Barry confronted her before, trying to reason with her, but was stunned twice; once seeing it was Park and then with her ray of light. The light temporarily blinded Barry which led to an amusing bit.

Having made a promise to Patty Spivot (Shantel VanSanten) to show up for their date, blind Barry enlisted Cisco to be his eyes via camera-enabled sunglasses. Watching the ongoing commentary from Cisco was hilarious and Barry and Patty were adorable exchanging quizzical glances until the jig was up. VanSanten has added a burst of infectious energy and joy as the highly motivated metahuman detective and her scenes with Grant Gustin are some of the most endearing.

Cisco, ever uneasy about his developing powers, gets outed by Harry out of necessity. Harry's metahuman radar watch proved his assumptions about Cisco and helped to find Dr. Light. By the end, Cisco got a cool nickname thanks to Barry. "Vibe" was born and the added confidence helped to successfully ask out the barista at Jitters after fumbling it earlier in the episode. It just so happened to be a new transplant to Central City, Saunders (Ciara Renée) who'll be making her eventual arrival to 'Legends of Tomorrow' mid-season.

Zoom's impending arrival is raising the stakes leading to Team Flash having to bring more help and find new ways for Flash to improve. They'll be using Earth-1 Park to pose as Dr. Light to lure Zoom and Harry's play call to have him run fast enough to create multiple impressions of Barry could prove useful. Heck, Garrick's friend from Atlantis might even make an appearance, whoever that is. 'The Flash' does a great job of balancing all these situations while holding on to what makes the show fun and charming.

Check out this preview for the next episode, 'Enter Zoom.'

After recent events, Barry (Grant Gustin) decides it’s time to confront Zoom and comes up with a dangerous plan. Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker) sides with Jay (guest star Teddy Sears) and deems it too dangerous for Barry to engage with the speed demon. However, Iris (Candice Patton) shows her support and brings forth a surprising ally. We see what Earth-2 Harrison Wells’ (Tom Cavanagh) life was like before coming through the breech. JJ Makaro directed the episode written by Gabrielle Stanton & Brooke Eikmeier (#206). Original airdate 11/10/2015.

DC Comics March Movie Poster Variant Covers are Fantastic

DC Comics may have outdone themselves with their running themed variant covers for the month of March 2015. After some fun and gorgeous variants in 2014 like Darwin Cooke (December), LEGO (November), and Bombshells (June) to name a few DC Comics is continuing to bring some creative covers in 2015. January will feature Flash throughout the company line in celebration of his 75th Anniversary, February will bring everyone’s favorite wild card, Harley Quinn, on DC covers, and perhaps the best mash-ups of comics and famous movie posters will arrive in March.

WONDER WOMAN OF THE DAY: Fitness Model Gia Macool Embodies the Amazon Princess

The closest we'll ever get, probably, to superheroes in real life is through the great work of cosplayers. You see them at every pop culture convention from the very basic to extremely elaborate costume design. However, you don't have to be a cosplayer to enjoy dressing up as your favorite superhero from time to time. Take fitness model and entrepreneur Gia Macool for example. An accomplished fitness competitor and model, Macool is also a big fan of DC Comics' Wonder Woman. She shows her love of the iconic Amazon Princess in her fitness wear, meal prep accessories and even a full blown photo shoot in a Wonder Woman costume.

For decades comics have featured very muscular superheroes, male and female, epitomizing the human form at its strongest. So when bodybuilders and fitness pros decide to suit up as these costumed heroes, they are the embodiment of those fictional characters in the flesh. Macool looks like she stepped out of the pages of a Wonder Woman comic with a suit …

New Sci-Fi Horror Series INFINITE DARK From Ryan Cady, Andrea Mutti, and K. Michael Russell Coming in October

Image/Top Cow announce an all-new, sinister ongoing science-fiction series—INFINITE DARK—by Ryan Cady and Andrea Mutti with colorist K. Michael Russell that will hit stores this October.

In INFINITE DARK, the universe has ended, but humanity has survived. For years, the passengers and crew of the vessel Orpheus found the endless void between realities to be a surprisingly peaceful home.

Then they found a body—bloodied, brutalized, and surrounded by inscrutable runes. As Security Director Deva Karrell investigates the Orpheus' first murder, she'll come face to face with a horror from beyond the confines of time itself…

INFINITE DARK #1 will launch from Top Cow/Image Comics this October 2018.

Fitness Women in Superhero Body Paint by J.M. Manion

J.M. Manion has long been a successful photographer covering the fitness and bodybuilding industry. He has photographed some of the strongest, well-defined physiques on the planet. He's also had a love of super-heroes and comic books. So much so that Manion began publishing his own comic book, Iron Siren Comics, featuring some of the fitness competitors he's covered as superheroes themselves. It's no wonder he sometimes incorporates superhero cosplay and body paint into photo shoots. Here are just some examples of his work:

REVIEW: 'Death or Glory' #2 by Rick Remender and Bengal

After a raucous debut, 'Death and Glory' takes a weird turn. Like a really weird turn. Imagine David Lynch and Quentin Tarantino had a baby and out came out issue two of this new series from Rick Remender and Bengal. The question is is that a good or bad thing?

DEATH OR GLORY #2
Writer: Rick Remender Artist: Bengal Publisher: Image Comics Release Date: June 6, 2018 Cover Price: $3.99
Score: ★★★★☆ (4/5)
With a botched heist job, a bullet in her side, and all her money gone, Glory wrestles with what to do next. The cargo her ex-husband was trafficking wasn't drugs but people and after putting them all safely on a bus to Arizona, she's broke and being attended to by one of the Brazilians that stayed behind. Her scheme was pretty straight-forward - rob the money that the dirty sheriff was going to transport and use it for her dad's surgery. Easy peasy. Then it all went to hell as the sheriff recognized her, she dropped the money, and now no one is happy, not the sheri…

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