The Flash: Armageddon Can Finally Fix The Comics Villain Mistake - Screen Rant

The Flash’s “Armageddon” crossover can finally fix the comic story’s villain reveal, which was easily its biggest problem. Much still hasn’t been revealed about the five-part crossover taking place on The Flash at the beginning of season 8, but it has been announced that Barry’s team – who will be joined by a mixed bag of Arrowverse heroes – will be up against an alien threat.

So far, the only new Arrowverse character expected to appear in “Armageddon” is Despero, an all-powerful alien warlord and an old enemy of the Justice League in DC Comics. Reportedly played by Tony Curran, the character is expected to be the event’s main antagonist. But depending on how close of an adaptation “Armageddon” is of “Armageddon 2001” from the early 1990s, the villain’s true identity could become an overarching mystery for Team Flash to investigate over the course of the event’s five-episode story. Plus, figuring out who he really is could be the key to beating him, just as it was in the comics.

In “Armageddon 2001”, the Justice League’s foe was Monarch, an evil dictator who rules the world in the future. They found out early on that Monarch was actually a former superhero who turned his back on everything he believed in to become a villain; they just didn’t know which hero he was supposed to be. After a number of twists and turns, Monarch stood revealed as Hawk of the Teen Titans. This move was sharply criticized by some, especially since many felt this reveal came out of nowhere and thus sabotaged the impact of such a hyped plot twist. Apparently, the only reason Hawk was chosen as Monarch’s alter ego was due to a leak of the story’s ending, which would have seen the post-Crisis Captain Atom turn out to be the big bad. In response to this, DC made some last-minute changes, but at the cost of abandoning all its setup and teases for Captain Atom being Monarch, and in his stead placing a character who blindsided audiences that had been paying attention to the prior trail of clues.

Arrowverse doing its own take on “Armageddon” in The Flash season 8 means it can pull off a similar villain reveal, but this version stands a chance at being a major improvement over the original. By carefully building toward it, the moment where an Arrowverse hero is exposed as the evil mastermind can feel organic and earned, as opposed to DC Comics picking Hawk to be Monarch just to keep its villain surprise intact.

Of course, the Arrowverse going in this direction is likely to have long-lasting consequences for whichever hero it chooses for this role, which is why it’s so important that this story is handled perfectly. After “Armageddon 2001”, it took more than a decade for DC to do a course-correction by restoring Hawk to his heroic roots and properly transforming Captain Atom into Monarch in 2006. But if The Flash gets things right the first time, a later retcon won’t be necessary. However, it’ll most certainly change their place in the Arrowverse forever.

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About The Author

Nicholas Raymond (2749 Articles Published)

Nicholas Raymond is a staff movies & TV features writer for Screen Rant. He has a degree in journalism from the University of Montevallo, and is the author of the psychological thriller and time travel novel, "A Man Against the World." Nicholas' love for telling stories is inspired by his love for film noir, westerns, superhero movies, classic films, and ancient history. His favorite actors are Tyrone Power and Eleanor Parker. He can be reached by email at cnrmail@bellsouth.net and on Twitter at @cnraymond91.

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The Flash: Armageddon Can Finally Fix The Comics Villain Mistake - Screen Rant

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