The CW’s The Flash series will always be the better adaptation of the scarlet speedster story and the film version just underlined that in bold red.
When a film is about time travel, feeling all kinds of bamboozled and looking for explanations to make it make sense is a given. So, of course, Ezra Miller’s The Flash comes with all these lingering after-effects. But what can not be forgiven is how it also leaves way too many of its easily explained plot points hangings — the prominent being the identity of Nora Allen’s mystery killer.
The whole catalyst behind Barry embarking on his poorly-jigged plan to travel back in time was to stop his mother from being killed, and his father from getting wrongly accused of her death. But it ends up being an “inevitable intersection” that, if changed, would destroy the very fabric of time. So, though Barry fixes his mistakes by allowing his mother to die, he changes just enough to ensure that in the present, his father has a solid alibi to prove his innocence.
Well, that’s great — Henry Allen walks free, Barry gets a “dinner-date” with Iris West, the world is almost back to its original state, etc, etc… but what about Nora?
Yes, he couldn’t save her, but surely he could have done another mini-jog back to the exact point she is killed to see who murdered his mother. I mean, he had all the time for that heartbreaking but long meet-up with his mother as a final farewell and shuffle a dozen tomato cans, but he couldn’t linger around to find the identity of her killer in order to avenge her in the present?
So, it is on us now to solve this particular mystery:
Who is Barry’s mom’s killer in the DC cinematic universe?
Just to clarify, Barry’s dad Henry is actually innocent — he didn’t kill her. In The Flash, we simply see her bleeding to death after being stabbed in the chest by a mysterious attacker whose identity isn’t disclosed, or even discussed, for that matter.
In the comics as well as the TV series starring Grant Gustin as the superhero, Nora is killed by the supervillain Reverse Flash, aka Eobard Thawne. The Flash #47 reveals that Thawne killed Nora to subject Barry, his nemesis, to the same fate he lived — the death of his mother — so he and the Flash could have an “equal start,” allowing the villain to show that he has always been better than the superhero. In the CW series, Thawne goes back in time to kill young Barry to end his biggest enemy before he gains his powers. But his plan is thwarted when future Barry saves his younger self, leaving Thawne to kill Nora in retaliation.
It remains to be seen what course of action the DCU will be taking for Nora’s past if James Gunn is planning to keep the Flash in his vision for the long-cursed cinematic universe. But seeing that The Flash barely devoted a second to ruminating who killed Nora, even if Flash is a part of the future DCU, it is very much possible this particular mystery will borrow from the animated film Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox where Thawne is not Barry’s mom’s killer, and her death remains an unsolved case.
The Flash is in theaters.