The Flash: Why Nora West-Allen's Lightning Powers Changed Post-Crisis - Screen Rant

WARNING: This article features SPOILERS from The Flash season 7, episode 16, titled "P.O.W."

While XS has finally made her proper return to The Flash, Crisis on Infinite Earths has changed Nora West-Allen's lightning powers. Even though Nora got erased from the timeline in The Flash season 5, it was never a permanent goodbye. The XS that "died" in front of Iris West-Allen and Barry Allen would still be born at some point in the future, but with some alterations. Despite the time travel aspect, the entire Arrowverse's past, present, and future ended up getting retooled anyway because of Crisis on Infinite Earths. Even though XS was not physically present in The Flash season 6 at all, Wally West did allude to Nora being alive in the future, only mentioning that she was running.

Continue scrolling to keep reading Click the button below to start this article in quick view.

After waiting for almost two seasons, Jessica Parker Kennedy is back as XS, with The Flash season 7, episode 16, "P.O.W.," being her biggest one yet. "P.O.W." concluded with Nora showing up in the flesh, assuring Barry that everything is going to be fine. While XS is still sporting the same costume from The Flash season 5, her powers have clearly changed post-Crisis. When XS ran into the room, Nora's body was only generating purple lightning energy. Whenever pre-Crisis Nora would be running, she was producing both yellow and purple lightning. That was a representation of Nora having inherited Iris and Barry's respective lightning colors.

However, due to Crisis on Infinite Earths, The Flash has seemingly dropped that concept for Nora's powers. While speedster physiology has been explained to a certain degree, there is still a lot they have not gone into during The Flash's run. The main reason why Nora only has purple lightning in this timeline is because of her brother Bart West-Allen, a.k.a. Impulse. After Nora reunited with Barry, Bart rushed in and was seen having yellow lightning. Since Bart is meant to be Nora's younger brother, it is possible that speedster/metahuman biology works differently post-Crisis.

If they were twins, it would be easier for The Flash to explain Nora having Iris's purple energy while Bart inherited Barry's yellow lightning. Since they were born at different points in the post-Crisis timeline, something has obviously made it so that they only have one lightning color. It can also be related to VFX reasons since it would likely be very expensive to have two speedsters generating two colors, respectively. From a comics perspective, it is more common for speedsters to have only one color anyway.

Since Bart and Nora will have more prominent roles in The Flash's 150th episode, they may discuss how this works in their post-Crisis future. Either way, it is still exciting that Nora is alive again since her ending in The Flash season 5 was incredibly tragic. With only two episodes left of The Flash season 7, it will be interesting to see how XS and Impulse help Team Flash in stopping Godspeed once and for all.

NEXT: The Flash: Everything We Know About Godspeed

Vin diesel Dom Paul Walker Brian Oconnor Fast and furious 11

Fast & Furious 11 Will Struggle To End The Saga Without A Paul Walker Return

Related Topics

About The Author

Andy Behbakht (822 Articles Published)

Andy has covered the world of entertainment journalism since 2010, mostly superheroes and comic book media. In addition to his work as a reporter, Andy co-hosts The Flash Podcast, Titans Podcast while running the entire DC TV Podcasts network. He is also the founder/editor-in-chief of The Marvel Report since Fall 2015.