The Flash: How DC Comics Poked Fun At The Arrowverse Show's Big Villain Problem

Of all the shows within The CW's Arrowverse, "The Flash" stands among the most celebrated, and for good reason. For a whopping nine seasons, the story of Barry "Flash" Allen (Grant Gustin) packs in action, drama, comedy, and plenty of nods to the comic book history of the Scarlet Speedster. At the same time, it's not without its flaws, with the overreliance on Reverse-Flash (Tom Cavanagh, Matt Letscher) as a main antagonist for much of the series being one of the biggest sticking points — one that DC Comics wasn't afraid to poke fun at in print.

In the "Imperiled" story from "Batman/Superman: World's Finest" Annual #1, readers are presented with the Just-Us League: a faction of fifth-dimensional beings led by Bat-Mite and Mr. Mxyptlk. It doesn't take long for this faux Justice League to fall victim to infighting, with fake Flash asserting that his hero had the best television show of the bunch. In a witty retort, one of his co-members resembling a cross between Green Arrow and Green Lantern remarks, "He fought the same villain for five seasons!" This is a pretty clear and funny jab at "The Flash" and its overuse of Eobard Thawne, who intermittently features on Barry's series from start to finish.

To top it all off, "The Flash" isn't even the only CW superhero show Reverse-Flash appears on.

Reverse-Flash first appears in "The Flash" in the Season 1 premiere episode, but that's not known until a later Season 1 episode, "The Man in the Yellow Suit." The installment reveals that Barry Allen's friend, Dr. Harrison Wells, is actually Eobard Thawne and that he's been the villain in the yellow Flash suit tormenting him all along. Reverse-Flash makes his presence felt in every season of the show, appearing or being mentioned in several episodes in each of the nine seasons. His last "Flash" appearance occurs in Season 9's "A New World, Part Four," concluding his Arrowverse tenure in the process.

Before "A New World, Part Four," though, Reverse-Flash wreaks havoc on other Arrowverse shows while giving the Flash a run for his money. After being mentioned multiple times, he finally appears on the Arrowverse-launching "Arrow" during Season 6's "Crisis on Earth-X, Part Two," then pops up as a hallucination in Season 7's "Elseworlds, Part Two." He also causes trouble on "DC's Legends of Tomorrow," debuting in "Out of Time" from Season 2 and bidding the program farewell via Season 7's "Rage Against the Machines," with multiple appearances in between. Reverse-Flash even stops by "Supergirl" in "Crisis on Earth-X, Part One" from Season 3.

Evidently, Reverse-Flash clocks in quite a bit of screentime on "The Flash" and multiple other Arrowverse titles. To say that DC Comics' joke about his all too frequent small-screen battles with the Flash is accurate would be a major understatement.