The Reverse-Flash as Fascist Hero: An Examination of The CW’s The Flash

Tonight we’re going to examine season 1 of The CW television series The Flash and the story arc of its main villain, the Reverse-Flash, through the lens of fascism. Buckle up.

SPOILER WARNING: This piece spoils basically all of the major plot points of Season 1 of The Flash. If you’re not down with that, stop reading here.

DISCLAIMER: I want to make something clear before we start. This piece is not an endorsement of fascism. Fascism is a monstrous ideology responsible for untold amounts of trauma and pain to the human race. This is merely an intellectual/scholarly exercise examining a piece of popular dramatic media through the lens of a particular radical political ideology.

The story arc of the Flash’s (Barry Allen) struggle against Eobard Thawne, the Reverse-Flash, in season 1 of The CW television series The Flash captivated viewers across the world. Here was a struggle for the ages, with romance and epic drama. A beleaguered and wounded hero, having suffered the tragic loss of his mother at a young age, given a chance not just for revenge, but for justice, against the murderer of his mother. Further, the necessity of coming into conflict with that villain, for the sake of saving the lives of those he loved and cared about. And not just that, but betrayal, as his closest adviser and mentor, Dr. Harrison Wells of STAR Labs, is revealed to in fact be this villain, the Reverse-Flash, in disguise, and had been all along for the entire time depicted in the series.

But what if that arc could be looked at from a different perspective? Could the Reverse-Flash be anything other than a villain? Could he, in fact, be the hero of that arc? It seems impossible, and it very much is — from the standards, ideals and values of Western liberal democratic society. But there are other ideological perspectives through which this can be examined, of course. The perspective in which the Reverse-Flash is a heroic figure is, of course, possible through the ideological lens of fascism and the concept of the Nietzschean Superman — the Ubermensch, the ‘Over-Man’.

Let’s get into this.

The Reverse-Flash’s Arc through Season 1 of ‘The Flash’

First, we must explain the Reverse-Flash and his arc. You can skip this if you’ve already seen and paid attention to all of season 1 of The Flash. The Reverse-Flash is the villainous identity of Eobard Thawne, a brilliant scientist from the 22nd century, who — at one point being one of the biggest fans and devoted admirers of the Flash ever, in his own time — was destined to become, and in fact did become, the Flash’s mortal enemy. He traveled back in time, did battle with the Flash a number of times, until finally he acquired one vital, crucial piece of information. He discovered the Flash’s name. His secret identity — Barry Allen, forensic scientist for the Central City Police Department. What did the Reverse-Flash do with this information? Did he use it to destroy his life piece by piece, or to kill off Barry’s loved ones one at a time? No, far from it. His approach and plan was far more straight-forward. He utilized his scientific brilliance to travel back in time, where he aimed to murder Barry Allen as a child, a ten year old, in fact, in order to seal his final victory over his arch-foe. But things didn’t go according to plan. See, the Barry contemporary to him, from the 2020s, followed him back in time, and they did battle in the childhood home of Barry, with this battle at one point being witnessed by child Barry. This Barry - Future Barry - managed to prevent the Reverse-Flash from killing young Barry by spiriting said child away from his home at superspeed. Now, this made the Reverse-Flash furious. Furious. So, what did he do? In his rage, he picked up a butcher knife, and stabbed Nora Allen, young Barry’s mother, through the heart with it. He then left the home and attempted to return to the future, only to find that he could no longer access the Speed Force, and therefore could no longer travel through time. Basically, he was stuck.

Quick detour here, because it’s important for both Barry and the Reverse-Flash’s (who we’ll call Eobard from now on) arc. As Eobard was gone, and Henry Allen (Barry’s father) was found next to his wife’s dead body, he was arrested as the main suspect in his wife’s murder. He was then convicted and given what I believe was a life sentence at Iron Heights Prison. Young Barry was taken in by Joe West, a neighbour and police detective, and raised by him alongside Joe’s daughter, Iris West. But Barry never forgot what he saw. He never lost sight of the fact that his father didn’t murder his mother, that someone — some thing — in yellow and bathed in lightning had done the deed, and it drove him for the rest of his life — up to and including his time as the Flash as the show’s first season began and got running.

Now, back to Eobard. Eobard was stuck in this time period. Nothing to do, nowhere to go. So, he made a plan, and he began to follow it through. He tracked down brilliant scientist Harrison Wells and Wells’ fiancee, and on an isolated mountain road one evening, caused a car accident which killed Wells’ fiancee. Eobard then proceeded to murder Wells and, utilizing a strange device, assumed Wells’ physical form. He then, after hiding the real Wells’ body before the police arrived, proceeded to assume Wells’ identity. The purpose of this was to trigger the explosion of the STAR Labs Particle Accelerator some years ahead of schedule — in 2014, rather than in 2020, as occurred in the original timeline. This was to cause Barry Allen to become the Flash sooner, so Eobard could then utilize Barry’s use of the Speed Force to get him to the point where he could get him (Eobard) back home to the future, by way of opening up a wormhole by…well, running really really fast.

So Eobard is Wells. Fast forward to 2014. The STAR Labs Particle Accelerator in Central City goes online, and — as planned by Eobard — it explodes, spreading darkmatter throughout Central City and turning a wide variety of human beings into superpowered ‘metahumans’. This includes Barry Allen, rendered comatose by a lightning strike caused by the explosion, in which state Eobard acquires custody of under the guise of providing superior care to.

So Barry wakes up some months later, and over the next few months, he acts as the superhero the Flash, saving people’s lives and saving the day and that whole thing. Eobard, under the guise of Harrison Wells, continually trains up Barry and helps him to achieve his true potential more and more. Until finally, through a series of events, Barry and his friends, Team Flash, catch onto Eobard. They eventually unveil his identity, and capture him, but are manipulated into helping him by way of Eobard promising Barry the opportunity to travel back in time and save his mother’s life. So, Eobard gets the STAR Labs people to build him his Time-Pod, the wormhole opens, Barry goes back in time, but in the end thinks better of changing the timeline, and returns to the present and destroys the Time-Pod and Eobard’s chance of returning home to his own time. Eobard then promises to kill Barry and everyone close to him, until Detective Eddie Thawne — Eobard’s ancestor, native to the early 21st century — kills himself, thereby erasing Eobard from the timeline.

And thus we have the arc of Eobard Thawne, aka the Reverse-Flash, throughout season 1 of The Flash.

Fascism and the Reverse-Flash: The Examination

Now we must define Fascism for the purposes of this essay. According to Robert Paxton, fascism as a political ideology can be defined as “a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion.”. However, this piece is not focused on political science or even political theory. We are focused on ideals and values, and how these lend themselves to the mythic foundations of fascism as an ideology. As such, we will analyze Eobard/the Reverse-Flash’s arc through the lens of the fascist ideal. Specifically, these aspects of the fascist ideal: conflict as integral to nature and humanity, the triumph and domination of the strong over the weak as integral to nature and the natural and desired state of humanity, and fascism’s emphasis on its own particular brand of heroism. In addition to this, critical to this examination, will be the Nietzschean concept of the Superman — the Ubermensch, the ‘Over-man’. Let’s begin!

How does the Reverse-Flash relate to fascism? How is he to be viewed through the fascist lens? Through that lens, he is a hero — the truest example of the Ubermensch, the superior human being, an example to be admired and strived after. This is not despite his practice of murderously using everyone around him for his own ends, but precisely because of it. It is this that we shall examine throughout this piece.

First: the Reverse-Flash exemplifies the example of the Nietzschean Superman. Here is a summary of the relevant aspects of the Nietzschean ‘Over-Man’: “The “over-man” is not subject to the morality of the lower-type of meek and common people who speak of good and evil in terms of equality. Since the noble type of man is of the higher-type, he is not subject to the morality of the herd. Morality favors mediocrity; standing beyond good and evil is rising above the herd.”

The relevance to the Reverse-Flash’s character is clear. He is above morality. Accordingly, he does not concern himself with it. He uses others as much as is necessary, even to the point of murdering others. In fact, when he is being held prisoner by Team Flash later in season 1, and Cisco Ramon (a STAR Labs employee and Team Flash member) confronts him over how he, in the guise of Harrison Wells, murdered him in an alternate timeline, the exchange proceeds like this:

Eobard: Cisco, I’m sorry.
Cisco: Yeah, it sucked.
Eobard: Yeah, not for killing you, I’m sure I had a good reason.

No regret. No anxieties. No crisis of conscience. Further, whenever the Reverse-Flash is accused or condemned for killing others, his response has been “they’ve been dead for centuries.” This is a reference to the reality that, in his native time period in the 22nd century, they have been dead for centuries. Again — no regrets, no anxieties.

That is one aspect of the Nietzschean Superman. Let’s look at another one. Quoted from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: “Whatever else may be said about the Übermensch, Nietzsche clearly had in mind an exemplary figure and an exception among humans, one “whose inexhaustible fertility and power keep up the faith in man.”” Further, “Modernity, in Nietzsche’s view, is in such a state of decadence that it would be fortunate, indeed, to see the emergence of even one such type, given that modern sociopolitical arrangements are more conducive to creating the egalitarian “last man” who “blinks” at expectations for rank, self-overcoming, and striving for greatness. The last men are “ the most harmful to the species because they preserve their existence as much at the expense of the truth as at the expense of the future.””

We see what is plainly and clearly laid out. The Nietzschean Superman is a superior human being, one set above and beyond the dull, ordinary, brutish masses. Where the masses of humanity primarily follow and obey and never achieve greatness, not truly, it is the Ubermensch — the Superman — that breaks the bonds and limitations of ordinary humanity and truly steps, runs, leaps forth into greatness.

Now, how does the Reverse-Flash play into this? He is clearly a superior human being by way of his skill, his brilliance, his achievements. A genius scientist even in his own time, it was he who duplicated the accident that gave the Flash his powers, and then proceeded to utilize the Speed Force to travel back in time. It was he who matched the Flash time, and time, and time again in engagement after engagement and battle after battle, constantly holding his own and dealing out substantive challenge after challenge to the Flash. It was he who, though he failed in his mission to wipe the Flash from the timeline by murdering him as a child, improvised and executed almost perfectly a long-game plan to get back to his own time, using everyone around him as pawns, playing pieces on a vast chess board of his own design. Not only this, it took all of Team Flash, at their maximum level of strength and effort, along with the necessary aid of Oliver Queen (the Arrow) and Firestorm (Ronnie Raymond and Martin Stein), to subdue him and capture him. Keep in mind, all of this is against a single person, and even then they almost didn’t pull it off. Truly, the Reverse-Flash is a superior human, a clearcut apex of humanity, and an altogether worthy villain for Team Flash. He is, indeed, a clear example of Nietzsche’s Ubermensch/Superman.

So how does this play into the broader theme of this examination? To ask further and more directly, how does this play into how the Reverse-Flash exists within a fascist worldview? To delve into this, we must establish a core principle of fascism — the contempt for the weak. To quote Umberto Eco in a seminal essay on the nature of fascism: “Elitism is a typical aspect of any reactionary ideology, insofar as it is fundamentally aristocratic, and aristocratic and militaristic elitism cruelly implies contempt for the weak. Ur-Fascism can only advocate a popular elitism. Every citizen belongs to the best people of the world, the members of the party are the best among the citizens, every citizen can (or ought to) become a member of the party. But there cannot be patricians without plebeians. In fact, the Leader, knowing that his power was not delegated to him democratically but was conquered by force, also knows that his force is based upon the weakness of the masses; they are so weak as to need and deserve a ruler. Since the group is hierarchically organized (according to a military model), every subordinate leader despises his own underlings, and each of them despises his inferiors.”

We see here two aspects of fascism — contempt for the weak, and conflict as the natural state of humanity. For the first aspect, which is what we will deal with here and now, the root kernel of Eco’s quote is that in a fascist worldview, the weak are despised simply for being weak. It is natural both that they are in submission to their superiors, and also that they are heaped with scorn and contempt for being weak. While Eco focuses more on the practical societal effects of this worldview, the fascist ideal is at the root of such societal effects — namely, that the weak are to be despised and dominated simply by virtue of them being weak. Their status serves as justification for abuses committed against them.

Now we tie this back to the Reverse-Flash. We have established that the Reverse-Flash is superior to Team Flash. Team Flash is weak in nearly every way compared to the Reverse-Flash, needing to resort to subterfuge and treachery and a united effort to even present a viable challenge to him. So we therefore see the state of conflict between the Reverse-Flash and Team Flash occupy the space of a very familiar setting within the fascist worldview: that of the conflict between the strong and the weak.

Now we move into another, vital, aspect of fascism for the purposes of this piece. To quote Benito Mussolini in the seminal text, “The Doctrine of Fascism”: “Fascism believes now and always in sanctity and heroism, that is to say in acts in which no economic motive — remote or immediate — is at work.” Further, to quote Eco on ‘Ur-Fascism’ (‘Eternal Fascism’, said by Eco to be a collection of ideological aspects, a mere single one of which would constitute enough material to allow fascism to begin to constitute itself around it): “In every mythology the hero is an exceptional being, but in Ur-Fascist ideology heroism is the norm.”

We see then that heroism is vital to the fascist experience. Heroism — actions without economic motive, and — drawing from societal definitions of heroism — that of a heroic figure, of a man set apart from the rest of the world and destined for great things, and accomplishing those great things in due course. Now how does the Reverse-Flash play into this? He exemplifies the fascist heroic ideal. He is a superior man, a man set apart, and a man who continually triumphs over the weak (not every time, but enough times). He is vastly accomplished, and throughout the course of the first season, if you look at things from his perspective, accomplishes great and astounding things. He is, in effect, a hero, where the fascist ideal is concerned.

Now we move on to the aspect of conflict as the natural state of humanity, and not only this, but the desired state of humanity. To quote Mussolini, “Fascism does not, generally speaking, believe in the possibility or utility of perpetual peace. It therefore discards pacifism as a cloak for cowardly supine renunciation in contradistinction to self-sacrifice. War alone keys up all human energies to their maximum tension and sets the seal of nobility on those peoples who have the courage to face it.” Further, the Eco quote above regarding Ur-Fascism and contempt for the weak has underlying it the theme of conflict — that of the strong versus the weak, with each leader despising his own underlings.

Now, the Mussolini quote focuses on the national state-to-state interaction aspect of conflict, but underlying that, at its root is the ideal of conflict as not only natural to humanity, but invigorating to humanity.

So, how does this tie into the arc of the Reverse-Flash? In this, we tie everything together. It follows, that as the Reverse-Flash is the Ubermensch — the Superior Man, the Superman, the Over-Man — and Team Flash is his weaker opponent, and that conflict is the natural state of humanity, and that the strong are destined — rightly, in the fascist worldview — to triumph over and dominate the weak, the Reverse-Flash’s actions throughout the first season of The Flash are not only morally acceptable, but morally praiseworthy. Further, not only are they morally praiseworthy, but they are a moral imperative. It was not only good that the Reverse-Flash murderously used everyone around him for his own ends, but it was morally necessary and obligatory in order for him to remain an ideal human being, where the fascist worldview is concerned. This is because, within fascism and its worldview, the strong must triumph over the weak — the fascist worldview, as we have established, holds that the universe is in disarray and out of joint when the weak are not dominated by the strong. We see aspects of this in Nazistic Fascism, where the physical destruction of ‘lesser races’ was seen not only as morally positive, but morally necessary.

With this established, it is clear that — within the fascist worldview — there can not be and should not be any sympathy for Team Flash and the losses they have suffered. Not for Barry, who lost his mother. Not for Cisco, who was murdered in an alternate timeline. And not for the original Harrison Wells, who was cruelly murdered by Eobard Thawne. If they did not wish to be preyed upon by Thawne, they should have not been weak enough to attract his predatory attention.

That’s about it. I hope this has been an interesting thought experiment looking at one of the seminal arcs of superhero television through a fascist lens. As stated above, this is not meant as an endorsement of fascism — fascism is despicable, and it is right and just that it possesses no credibility in the modern era. This was merely a thought experiment meant to critically examine a character and his story arc through the lens of fascism. I hope you enjoyed it.