The Flash is Not Too Bright

Took a break from my daily job search/agent and casting research scrambling to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York for the Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy special exhibit. Comic books? Costumes? You know I'm there. I paid the suggested $10 student fee despite my current "ohgodohgodIhavenomoneyIneedallthemoneyIamgoingtodie" mode of existence, which makes me feel entitled to go back before Monday to catch the Framing a Century: Master Photographers, 1840–1940 exhibit as well.

Anyway, there was a ton of cool stuff including many costumes actually worn in the recent (and not-so-recent) slew of comic book adapted movies, like Spiderman, Iron Man, and oh-man-I-am-standing-so-close Dark Knight. There was a really interesting section on Wonder Woman that displayed the costume worn by Lynda Carter in the old movie, where the red has pretty much stayed red but the blue has all faded to purple. There was even (gasp!) the Catwoman costume from Batman Returns, which was my favorite movie when I was 8. I even dressed up as Catwoman for Halloween that year. It was so interesting to see that what looked like rubber, latex, or plastic, or a combination of all three, and possibly some spandex, could read so much like leather onscreen. All the lousy information placard said was "synthetic." Duh. I need to revisit that movie (really just that costume in that movie) in a bad way.

The end of the exhibit featured a display of several very old, very valuable vintage comic books. Batman's first appearance in Detective Comics, Iron Man's first appearance, Catwoman's; the first issue of the original X-Men, and, finally, The Flash:



Now, as his name probably suggests, The Flash's power is speed. He's fast. That's pretty much it. There's even a section of the exhibit that refers to the fact that unlike Superman, who has multiple powers like superspeed, superstrength, "superleaping," as the text called it, heat vision, etc., The Flash only has the one. And it's not skin of steel.

So what the hell is he doing catching a bullet with his bare hand?

I mean, that's really cool and all, that you're faster than a speeding bullet too, but if you have the ability to outrace a bullet, are you really going to use it to stick your hand in its path? Was this just an old Superman cover where they painted on a different costume? It's very noble of The Flash to try and save the woman from being shot, but...couldn't you just use your speed to grab the woman out of the way and let the bullet take its course? Or push her out of the way, whatever. Or are you so fast that you have the time to get shot in the hand, go to the hospital, and get all healed up in time to catch the robbers or gangsters or ne'er do wells or whatever they are. Maybe that's the logic, he does everything quickly, including heal.

But really. That super speed of yours doesn't really extend to your thinking processes, does it?