The-FlashThe pilot episode of The Flash has leaked online, well before its intended release date of October 7th this year. Because of this, well I’m not the type to jump on a full review over such, I’d like to point out some of the hopeful bits that might entice you a bit towards checking out this new series when it premieres on CW this Fall. And if CW is smart, they’ll put the full pilot on their website in advance of the show, to prevent promotion of pirating. Of course that’s just my thought on the matter, but here are a few others:

First off, the series got character identities and names right, which really excites me. This likely comes from the helping hand of Flash fan and DC Entertainment’s CCO, Geoff Johns, who also once wrote The Flash comics for a significant period of time. His influence also seems to have made its way into the over arcing plot of presumably at least the first season, which deals with the mystery of Barry Allen’s murdered mother. Fans who read John’s Flash: Rebirth will likely know and appreciate where things are going there. In the first pilot we get to see several classic Flash villains, including a villain who’s identity might be hidden deep in Flash lore. In the case of the pilot’s villain, you might want to check your Flash history before you rage on the internet, as they did that one rather splendidly in my eyes. As mentioned in the trailer, it is Clyde Mardon. If you know your Rogues Gallery, you’re probably already familiar with the mans brother, Mark Mardon, and that should say a lot. There are a lot of great fan feeding moments in the episode like that and seeing things like a broken cage with the tag Grodd on it.

Grant Gustin does a good job as the Flash, but reminds me a lot of Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man. He has that youthful goofiness to him, but still has more confidence than I generally attribute with such a character. Of course, I suppose it’s just odd to me, envisioning a young Barry Allen. Meanwhile we have the, no longer redheaded, Iris West actress, Candice Patton. Patton does a great job, as does her on screen father, Jesse Martin, but it’s unique to a long time Flash fan seeing the characters not portrayed as white. Could this mean we’ll have a black Kid Flash showing up in later seasons? It’s hard to say, but I have hope. That all said, it is still a jarring difference from the comic form of Iris West or the previous onscreen adaption of the character via Paula Marshall. Speaking of earlier onscreen adaptions of The Flash, if you ever watched the 1990′s version you likely knew that John Wesley Shipp was Barry Allen. Well, Shipp is once more an Allen on the 2014 version of The Flash, making a few appearances in the pilot, but he’s not the Allen you’d think. TheFlashscreenShipp plays Barry’s father, who finds himself living in a rather iconic location of Flash lore. All in all I’m rather impressed with the show’s casting. The odder parts of that end however are rather odd. While the show seems to play rather heavily to a pre-New 52 Flash, Barry does get sidekicks in the new show. These side kicks remind me more of the New 52 sidekicks Green Arrow had, in their youth and usefulness to our hero, but they’re all per-existing characters. Carlos Valdes plays Cisco Ramon, a slightly stylized version of a Geoff Johns favorite, Vibe (who’s recent comic series came and went at DC, but could revive with The Flash TV show). On the other end of Barry’s support team is actually a character who might later find herself hurting our hero. Danielle Panabaker playes the STAR Labs scientist, Dr. Caitlin Snow. Those who read last September’s Justice League of America offering for villains month (issue #7.2) might know just who we’re dealing with here. But it is the wily Dr. Harrison Wells, played by Tom Cavanagh, that was acted out the best and surprised me the most. Why is that? Well, I’m sure none of you know Harrison Wells from the comic, and I believe there is a good reason why. Why do I think it is? Well that would be spoiling the very last 2 minutes of the pilot episode of The Flash, but let’s say that The Flash was never a comic that always fit into one time period.

The effects for Flash are enjoyable, with some techniques being used far better than others. A lot of the speed moments are however reminiscent of 1999′s The Matrix or the recent Amazing Spider-Man 2. Apparently 2014 will be the year of Stop Motion superheroes. Otherwise much of the cinematography reminds me of the show The Flash spun out of, Arrow.

On that note, if you’re an Arrow fan, you’ll likely enjoy The Flash. While the pilot episode has a moment of crossover you’ve all likely seen in trailers, you don’t have to have ever watched The Arrow to enjoy this pilot. It seems like crossovers will be possible, but carefully timed. In fact, The Flash seems to be much more ‘super’, in that events in the pilot episode set up a whole new universe of super powered “metahumans”. Yes, DC’s great term for enhanced beings does get used in this series, and it actually has me quite excited. As someone not often impressed by comic stories breaking into other mediums, such as film and TV, I must admit The Flash pilot had me rather giddy. It had some cheesy, very Silver Age moments, including concepts like The Flash being the speed force and calling down the lightning bolt we saw hit him in Arrow (which I know, was not actually Silver Age, but something I’ve always personally considered a bit cheesy), but that really only added to the fun.

The only thing I can say I didn’t care for in episode 1 of The Flash is how the metahumans of Central City came to be. It was very scientific, without having any real sense of science to it. Consider it like the old idea of gaining super powers by falling in radioactive waste. Still, if it gets certain classic enemies of The Flash on television and past corporate executive naysayers? I’ll accept what I have to accept and look forward to episode 2 of The Flash when it hits CW on Tuesday, October 14th!