The Flash’s 1990s Show References Create An Arrowverse Plot Hole

CW’s The Flash references the 1990s The Flash series a lot, and the homages have created an Arrowverse plot hole. The previous Flash series ran from 1990-1991 and is kind of the grandfather of the Arrowverse. Since the first season, CW’s The Flash series began bringing back John Wesley Shipp as Henry Allen, the new Barry Allen’s father. As the show went on, the references became more in-depth. As a result, it is now unclear to viewers if the events of the previous series are canon in the Arrowverse, and if they are, what Earth they occurred on.

John Wesley Shipp also played other prominent roles in The Flash. After Hunter Zolomon was exposed as a fraud, he was revealed to be the real Jay Garrick from Earth-3. In the Elseworlds crossover, he appeared as the 1990s Flash, confirming that show as part of the multiverse. That crossover included the destruction of Earth-90, though that Barry Allen survived long enough to sacrifice himself in Crisis on Infinite Earths as part of creating the new multiverse.

Having Shipp’s version of Barry Allen from the 1990s series creates some contradictions in the history of the Arrowverse, though. The events of The Flash (1990) happening on Earth-90 is straightforward enough, but those events happened elsewhere, too. Yet, season 1 of The Flash (2014) made a number of specific references to events from the 1990 series, meaning that a lot of things somehow happened on both Earths. This raises the question of whether or not they happened in the new multiverse.

How The Flash Season 1 Referenced 1990s Flash

Having Shipp play Henry Allen was a fun reference for fans of the original show. Over the course of the season, The Flash brought back more actors from the earlier series to reprise their roles as the same characters from the 1990s show, but set, appropriately, decades in their futures. Amanda Pays’ Tina McGee is a scientist at Mercury Labs now, and Vito D’Ambrosio’s Tony Bellows has become the mayor of Central City, not a police officer. The writers even got Mark Hammill to come back as the Trickster, with the same backstory — except for being caught by the police rather than The Flash. All of this implies that the history of Earth-1 Central City is very similar to the 1990s Flash series in broad strokes, just without a Barry Allen in 1990.

How Elseworlds Made 1990s Flash Arrowverse Canon

The Elseworlds crossover changed things. The crossover brought John Wesley Shipp’s Barry Allen into continuity as Earth-90. All of the events of the 1990 Flash series happened on Earth-90 exactly as they did on that show, down to reusing footage from the show as a flashback in Crisis on Infinite Earths. It’s a part of continuity, and also suggests that Earth-1 and Earth-90 are very closely related to each other, having very similar events in their history.

How Crisis Created an Arrowverse Plot Hole

While the multiverse was initially a solution to the continuity contradictions, post-Crisis there is a plot hole. Now that the Earths have all collapsed into Earth-Prime, what happened in the past of Earth-Prime? Earth-1’s history seems to be what Earth-Prime’s history is most likely based on, so maybe that version of events is what’s now canonical. There aren’t alternate Earths and doppelgängers anymore, so one has to be the correct history.

Confusing this even further is the recent tease that Jay Garrick is returning post-Crisis. This seems to put Jay Garrick on Earth-Prime, meaning he’s the John Wesley Shipp character who exists on that Earth. If there are no doppelgängers on Earth-Prime and Jay Garrick is there, then who was Henry Allen? Does this mean that there were speedsters before Barry Allen? It raises a lot of questions without a clear answer, poking holes in our understanding of the Arrowverse post-Crisis. The Flash has made many references to the 1990s Flash series, but by making the 1990s Flash part of the multiverse, The Flash has created continuity confusion. Post-Crisis, the Arrowverse only gets even more confusing, leaving it unclear which parts of the story are still history, and who exists in the new Earth-Prime.