The Brave And The Bold In Significantly Fewer Episodes, Season 1: Born To Run

I'm a Marvel fan. I came to comics through the X-Men. And while I did enjoy the Tim Burton Batman movies, it wasn't until the X-Men movies that I loved comic movies, and it wasn't until the Marvel Cinematic Universe that I Loved comic movies. Yea, I liked the first two Nolan Batmans, but that's pretty much it. The DC Cinematic Universe isnot for me. And that's ok. I have loved several seasons of their cartoon properties. Teen Titans was amazing. Batman The Animated Series was wildly inconsistent, but the good epiodes were years beyond other comics-based cartoons. Batman: The Brave & The Bold was a blast. Both incarnations of The Justice League, and the Young Justice cartoons are about as perfect as you can get. But the live action shows?

Obviously the 1966 Batman show was iconic and necessary, even if it's complete cheese. The original run of The Flash was ... fine. Birds Of Prey was watchable. And then came a new wave of DC shows. For the most part, pretty good. But not all good.

This particular reimagining is how I would string together a series of related shows to form a fun, watchable universe. Usually, I do ten episode seasons of condensed storytelling, but I'm going to go for twent to thirty episode seasons because that's how long these stories seem to need in a season. This is mostly a Flash reimagining. It has some Shirtless Arrow, even though that show isn't my favorite, because that's where The Flash spun out of. It has some Brave And The Bold episodes because those characters spun out of The Flash, and some of them are ridiculous and joyous. Supergirl started too campy for me, but then it got into a groove that I enjoyed. Black Lightning has been solid since the first episode, and I'm thrilled it crosses into this continuity. As of this writing, I haven't seen Batwoman yet, but Im'm hoping it's fun. There will be no Gotham. I hate that show. If you like it, awesome. I may have seen all the Batman shows I need to see at this point, and that one had some fun moments, but, overall, I just didn't care. It's hopefully the last time I'll mention it.

​Season One is all about Barry Allen, his friends, and family, coming together to create The Streak, which isn't the best name Cisco has come up with.

---

Season 1:
​Born To Run

---

Episode 1: The Vigilante And The Scientist
(Barry Allen, Oliver Queen, Felicity Smoak, John Diggle, Roy Harper, Slade Wilson, Sebastian Blood, Tommy Merlyn)

This is technically the eighth ("The Scientist") and ninth ("Three Ghosts") episodes of the second season of Arrow, which was a backdoor pilot for The Flash. Oliver Queen has been a vigilante for a while, he has mucho mucho baggage, and is in the midst of massive plot shenanigans with Slade Wilson and Sebastian Blood when a meek little scientist named Barry Allen shows up. One of the quirks of Arrow is that a good chunk of each episode is made up of flashbacks from Oliver Queen's life before he became Arrow. Personally, I edited most to all of them out because I found it excruciatingly dull. But the current storyline introducing Barry is fantastic, and a great way to start the series.


Episode 2: Particle Accelerator
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1, Oliver Queen, Henry Allen, Eddie Thawne, David Singh, Clyde Mardon) 

The actual pilot for The Flash gives us all the Barry Allen backstory we need to know. Oh sure,  we'll get it several more times over the series, but all the important stuff is here. Family trauma, new family, love life, superhero origin. All tightly packed in an episode where Arrow stops by to check in on Barry. Isn't that sweet?


Episode 3: The Fastest Man Alive
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1, Henry Allen, Eddie Thawne, David Singh)

Barry Allen is now The Streak, a superhero in Central City who runs really fast. I mentioned how annoying the flashback scenes were  in Arrow.  The Flash's most annoying quality is the narration at the beginning of each episode. It's a totally unnecessary throwback to when TV was more episodic and people didn't tune in to the same show each week, with the ability to binge old episodes. Ignoring that, this episode is even better than its predecessors, as we really get a feel for Barry the forensic cop and how that balances with The Streak. 


Episode 4: Things You Can't Outrun
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1, Henry Allen, Eddie Thawne, David Singh)

What makes The Flash an interesting comic and TV show, despite the fact that the hero being able to run fast isn't exactly spellbinding, is his rogue's gallery. His villains are complex but ridiculous. In this one The Mist appear, seeking vengeance on Joe for arresting him. We also get some Caitlin backstory, as we continue watching pretty much every episode of the first season of The Flash.


Episode 5: Going Rogue
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1, Leonard Snart, Felicity Smoak, Eddie Thawne, David Singh)

See? Rogues! And this episode introduces a doozy! Captain Cold is pure fun. He's great in the modern comics, and he's wonderful here. He's just the kind of villain you wish had his own show. Oh well, we can dream.


Episode 6: Plastique
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1, Eddie Thawne, David Singh, Wade Elling)

Barry Allen was adopted by Joe West after Allen's mother was murdered. This makes Iris West sort of his sister. She's a journalist writing about The Streak (we're still calling him that? ok). Everyone wants her to stop. Meanwhile this episode's rogue of the week can blow shit up just by touching it. Of course the military wants a piece of her.


Episode 7: Flash Is Born
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1,  Eddie Thawne, David Singh, Tony Woodward)

Finally. Am I right? Streak no more. Barry Allen is The Flash. The rogue of the week is Girder, who is as silly as his name sounds. But there are some cool developments with Eddie, Joe, and Barry in this episode.


Episode 8: Power Outage
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1, Oliver Queen, Henry Allen, Eddie Thawne, David Singh, Tony Woodward)
  
This week's rogue is electric. Boogie oogie oogie. But the theme of this episode is how do The Flash's friends and family potect themselves when Barry is depowered?


Episode 9: The Brave
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1, Oliver Queen, Felicity Smoak, John Diggle, Roy Harper, Eddie Thawne, Digger Harkness, Amanda Waller)

Team Arrow needs Team Flash's help to deal with (let me check my notes here, ah yes) Captain Boomerang. A classic Flash rogue. But another rogue with a very silly name shows up and turns The Flash into Public Enemy #1. (This episode is actually titled "The Flash Vs Arrow")


Episode 10: The Bold
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1, Oliver Queen, Felicity Smoak, John Diggle, Roy Harper, Eddie Thawne, Digger Harkness, Amanda Waller)

Evil Flash is a problem, so Team Arrow is going to have to go to Central City to help Team ummm...Flash, I guess?  It's fun seeing the different characters invade the tone of the other show. (This is actually a season three episode of Arrow called "The Brave & The Bold".)


Episode 11: The Man In The Yellow Suit
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1, Eddie Thawne, Henry Allen, Ronnie Raymond)

One of my least favorite parts of The Flash, across TV or comics, is that a good chunk of his rogues are Other People Who Run Fast But In Slightly Different Colored Suits. This episode introduces the first of them, Reverse Flash. If he were the only one, I'd be more forgiving, but this is the beginning of an unfortunate trend. We do get to see the debut of Firestorm, though, and he'll be around for a bit. Sort of.


Episode 12: Revenge Of The Rogues
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1, Leonard Snart, Mick Rory, Eddie Thawne, David Singh)

Get our your popcorn. The Reverse Flash story continues to be interesting, but Captain Cold's return, and his first teamup with Heatwave is the beginning of one of the most pure, beautiful villain friendships in television history.  Oh yea, and Barry has more weird love feelings blah blah blah.


Episode 13: The Nuclear Man
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1, Martin Stein, Ronnie Raymond, Eddie Thawne, Wade Elling, Linda Park)

Firestorm is back, and he's ... a ... bad .... guy ? Nah. Heroes get confused for villains all the time. Surely Caitlin's ex wouldn't kill some innocent scientist. Right? And while researching who killed Barry Allen's mom, in order to exonerate Harry Allen, new evidence apears that implicates Barry Allen?


Episode 14: Fallout
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1, Martin Stein, Ronnie Raymond, Wade Elling)

​Nobody went quite as boom as was expected in the previous episode, but things are still tense. Also, that milliatary guy is still hanging around, and that can't be good for anyone. He's not even cool enough to be a rogue.


Episode 15: Out Of Time
​(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1, Eddie Thawne, Mark Mardon, Linda Park, Clyde Mardon)

Time travel! Reprecusions from the pilot! Relationship growth! Identity reveals! Someone is badly injured! This almost feels like a season finale.


Episode 16: Birds Of Prey
(Oliver Queen, Felicity Smoak, Sara Lance, John Diggle, Roy Harper, Laurel Lance)

We move over to Arrow for an episode to meet Canary and Huntress who are definitely not having a team up. Oh, yea, and Arrow and his crew are also doing things.


Episode 17: Tricksters
​(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1,  Henry Allen, Eddie Thawne, David Singh, Eobard Thawne )

What if most of what we knew about The Reverse Flash was wrong? What if that wasn't even the most interesting part of this episode where the Joker-wannabe villain The Trickster is able to contact the Joker-wannabe villain The Trickster from the old 1990s Flash show, y'know, the guy who voiced The Joker on Batman The Animated Series aka Luke sisterkissing Skywalker. This episode is So Much Fun.


Episode 18: Who Is Harrison Wells?
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1, Eddie Thawne, Laurel Lance, David Singh, Quentin Lance)
 
Team Flash goes to Arrowtown, and they don't even bother to see how Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak are doing? Bad. Form. At least Canary can be useful. We also have a rogue of the week who can turn into anyone he touches. I bet that creates complicated social interactions.


Episode 19: The Trap
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1, Eddie Thawne, David Singh)

Everything starts to come together as the gang seeks to out the identity of Reverse Flash to help get Henry Allen cleared of his wife's murder.


Episode 20: Rogue Air
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1, Leonard Snart, Oliver Queen, Ronnie Raymond, Mark Mardon, Eddie Thawne)

The Particle Acclerator is going to go boom again, so the heroes need to relocate all those supervillains they've been imprisoning in that vicinity. Not only does this mean another Arrow team-up, it also means thinking outside of the box, which means More Captain Cold!


Episode 21: Fast Enough
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1, Leonard Snart, Martin Stein, Oliver Queen, Ronnie Raymond, Henry Allen, Eddie Thawne, David Singh)

The season finale has The Flash getting into proper timeline hijinks. Our seasonlong arc about clearing Henry Allen's name gets ... closure ? complications ? wibbly-wobbly timey -wimey ? It's a thoroughly satisfying place to end the season, and would have even worked as a series finale if the show had been cancelled.