Reconciling 1990's The Flash with the Modern Arrow-Multiverse

Update after "Crisis on Earth-X" (12/9/2017):

Well, now that we know there is a finite number of universes in the multiverse (53, to be exact), this topic becomes a little more relevant, huh? Oh, who am I kidding: this is still a ridiculously pointless topic for me to have written about. In any case, what with the rate that The Flash is introducing new Wellses, we could be running up on that 53 limit one of these days. Then again, none of the Earths those Wellses are from are necessarily exclusive from the Flash '90 Earth, so again, there really is no point to this at all, is there?

Update on 11/13/2018 (lead-up to "Elseworlds"):

Well, well, now that John Wesley Shipp's Barry Allen is apparently on the table for Elseworlds, this topic becomes a lot little more relevant, huh? I'll be honest: I never thought it would actually happen. And I'm still not sure that it should. And, for that matter, I'm still not convinced that it even will. Between Doctor Destiny, Psycho-Pirate, and the Monitor, literally anything can happen in this crossover. He could end up being nothing but a hallucination or a Speed Force ghost or a million other crazy things. Yup, Elseworlds is gonna be bat-shit crazy. And I approve of that.

Update after "Elseworlds" (12/13/2018):

Whoa, Elseworlds was awesome! Definitely the best crossover, in my opinion. And now we have a whole year to look forward to Crisis on Infinite Earths! I'll have plenty more to say about that, for sure, but that's not what this article is about. I think we can now say quite definitively that The Flash '90 took place on Earth-90 of the modern Arrow multiverse. Elseworlds gave us a few more insights into that universe, and there's also a couple connections I didn't catch from before, so I'm adding them all now: Joe Kline, Carter Hall, John Diggle, and everyone from the Earth-90 teaser. Enjoy!

Opening Remarks

Ever since a scene from CBS' 1990 Flash TV series flitted by as one of Barry's speed force visions in "Welcome to Earth-2," it has been kind of semi-canon that that show takes place on one of the alternate Earths of the Arrow-Multiverse. To some extent at least, this makes sense with what we know about the multiverse: several actors from that show have appeared on the new show playing eponymous characters. We could call them doppelgangers (I'm not putting the umlauts over the a's, okay. That seems like a lot of work.). I think I'll use "Earth-90" as my placeholder name for the Earth in question; that numbering seems in line with the decision to number Supergirl's Earth as 38, so I guess it's as good as any other arbitrary name for the time being.

Update after "Elseworlds" (12/13/2018):

Okay, did I nail it with this "Earth-90" thing, or what?

Of course, this connection between the new and old Flash shows is nothing more than a small novelty. I certainly never expect it to have any storyline significance or for Barry to ever visit Earth-90. Still, in the name of continuity, I think it'd be fun to catalog the characters of Earth-90 and examine how they may reconcile with the modern multiverse. Incidentally, shouldn't Flash 1990 be rolled into the Arrowverse Wiki? It certainly has as much justification to be there as Constantine, which I still see no reason to assume takes place on Earth-1...oh, whatever.

My first realization when creating this list has been that we really don't know much about how the multiverse...well, works. Most fundamentally, why and how do the Earths deviate from each other? Obviously, there is some force at play that causes them to maintain major similarities, even though each contains radically different causal chains. For an easy example, Barry Allen of Earth-1 and Jay Garrick of Earth-3 both became speedsters and chose the name "the Flash" completely independently of each other. I will label these phenomena "coincidences," even though they are obviously the result of more than mere randomness.

I will make a couple of very conservative assumptions for the sake of this write-up. (1) Identical people (played by the same actors) on alternate Earths are doppelgangers of each other. (2) Doppelgangers' parents (in fact, all ancestors) are also doppelgangers. My logic is that a person's identity is dependent on their having the same exact two parents. That seems in line with everything we've seen of the alternate Earths on the Flash.

With those assumptions in mind, I am organizing this document into two sections: doppelgangers and coincidences. Doppelgangers are people who are known to have versions on Earth-90 and on another known Earth. Based on my assumptions above, all the ancestors of known doppelgangers are also doppelgangers, so I'm omitting characters who haven't been specifically seen on multiple Earths, for the sake of keeping the list short. The coincidences I've found are people who are not doppelgangers, but who happen to share the same name (or nickname/codename/super-person-name). Okay! Enough talk. Let's get to it!

Doppelgangers

Henry Allen - 1 / Jay Garrick - 3 / Barry Allen - 90

The most prominent case. On Earth-90, the doppelganger of Earth-1's Henry Allen is named Barry Allen and he--rather than his son--becomes the Flash. Simple enough. Earth-3's version of the character also becomes a speedster, but he takes his mother's maiden name of "Garrick," presumably because his father doesn't raise him. His given name of "Jay" is also significant to Earth-90, but I'll elaborate on that in the Coincidences section down below.

Christina McGee - 1 / Christina McGee - 90

This one's fun, isn't it? On Earth-90, Christina McGee is a scientist who works at S.T.A.R. Labs, whereas her Earth-1 counterpart is the head of rival company Mercury Labs. She was the female lead of the 1990 show, filling both the Cisco/Caitlin role as Barry's scientifically adept ally and the Iris role of Barry's primary romantic interest. That relationship was alluded to in the modern Flash season 2 finale when Tina and Henry got to meet and started (very gently) flirting. Of course, a few minutes later Zoom drove his hand through Henry's heart. Tina hasn't appeared on the show since. Oh, well.

James Jesse - 1 & 3 / James Jesse - 90

You gotta love Mark Hamill. The Trickster of (at least) 3 Earths, James Jesse has been wreaking havoc for the Flash and having a hell of a time doing it since way back in 1990. Archive photos of Hamill in costume from the old show were even used for props in the new show as records of Jesse's earlier psychopathic rampages. Hopefully we'll be seeing Hamill's Trickster again in season 4 and beyond.

Zoey Clark - 1 / Zoey Clark - 90

Well, this happened. We haven't gotten Mark Hamill's Trickster back on The Flash in a while, so they gave us his old sidekick Prank instead. Rather a poor substitute, in my opinion, but I guess you take what you can get. In any case, she is definitely a doppelganger: same actress, same character name.

Julio Mendez - 1 / Julio Mendez - 90

Julio Mendez was a principal character on the 1990 show as Barry's close friend and colleague in the CCPD. He took a little longer than his costars to appear on the new Flash, but he eventually did in season 3 in a memorable 2-episode role. First, in 3x01, he supplanted Singh as police chief in the Flashpoint timeline. Then, several episodes later in "Untouchable," he was targeted by Clive Yorkin among other cops that contributed to Yorkin's arrest in the erased timeline. In the post-Flashpoint world, Mendez was not a cop but a lounge singer. Of course, that didn't stop Yorkin, who used his powers to rapidly age Mendez into a decomposing corpse. I guess we shouldn't expect any more appearances from this doppelganger, at least...

Anthony Bellows - 1 / Anthony Bellows - 90

Earth-90 Tony Bellows was just a cop, but his Earth-1 counterpart seems to have become a little more distinguished. Anthony Bellows appeared in a few episodes of The Flash as the mayor of Central City, then was revealed to be corrupt, arrested, and imprisoned over the course of season 4. F4x04 also confirmed that Earth-1's Bellows used to be a cop, like his Earth-90 doppelganger. Who knows, maybe back on Earth-90, ol' Tony picked up some political ambitions and nowadays he's heading up city hall there... or, you know, also in prison.

Jessica Danforth - 1 / Felicia Kane - 90

This one is my absolute favorite. Back in 1991 Jeri Ryan played a small part on an episode of the Flash as Felicia Kane, a wealthy heiress who gets kidnapped and is rescued by the Flash. Fast-forward to 2015, and she appears on episode 4x02 of Arrow as Jessica Danforth, a wealthy citizen of Star City and old friend of Moira Queen who decides to run for mayor. Damien Darkh has Lonnie Machin kidnap and torture Danforth's daughter, successfully scaring her far away from city hall. The whole ordeal is what inspires Oliver to try becoming mayor himself. His rationale is that he and all of his friends and family are total badasses (or dead), so he's probably the only person who could survive the all-out warzone that passes for a political theater in the freaking hostile place that is Star City. Ollie's political career has already involved throwing down with Damien Darkh, Tobias Church, Vigilante, and Russian mobsters, so I guess he was right!

Anyways, back to the point, it is plainly obvious that Jeri Ryan's connection to the 1990 Flash was completely unintentional and unnoticed. Both characters she's played are very minor. Nonetheless, I choose to believe that they are indeed doppelgangers. Both seem to come from wealthy families. We know of course that doppelgangers sometimes have different given names. Perhaps Jessica Danforth's maiden name was Kane. Sure. Why not?

John Diggle - 1 / John - 90

Among the many (many!) hugely entertaining Easter eggs in Elseworlds was the first in-universe reference to the popular fan theory that John Diggle is a version of Green Lantern John Stewart. The Flash of Earth-90 immediately recognized Diggle as "John," and asked him where his ring was. That's enough to conclude at least that Diggle has a doppelganger named John on Earth-90. Too bad we'll probably never actually see him, since the Monitor destroyed that universe at the start of the crossover. But fear not. Whether it's an possible future or an alternate Earth, I will be shocked if we don't eventually see a Green Lantern John Diggle in some form.

Coincidences

Henry Allen - 1 / Henry Allen - 90

A little weird, huh. On Earth-90, Barry Allen's father (that would be Earth-1 Barry Allen's paternal grandfather) was named Henry. On Earth-1, Barry Allen's father was named Henry. Everything's a generation off (for obvious reason; the first show was made a generation ago). Maybe Earth-1 Henry Allen is really Henry Allen, Jr., then? Maybe not. There's not much point speculating, but you can bet my ears will perk up if the names of Barry's grandparents ever gets mentioned in passing in an episode of the Flash one of these days.

Nora Allen - 1 / Nora Allen - 90

This one's even stranger, since there is no relation between these two Nora's. On Earth-90, a Nora (quite likely née Garrick) married Henry Allen, then on Earth-1 a different Nora coincidentally married his doppelganger's son (who was also named Henry). Again, no point speculating, but I'll be paying attention on the day when we learn Earth-1 Barry's grandparents' names.

Barry Allen - 1 & 2 / Barry Allen - 90

Again, weird, for all the same reasons. As I mentioned in the opening remarks, there is quite clearly some force that impels the alternate Earths of the multiverse to converge at points of similarity, despite the apparent statistical impossibility of such coincidences. The existence of the Flash is obviously one of the most important such points of convergence. A man named Barry Allen, with father Henry and mother Nora, gains super-speed and becomes the superhero the Flash. That's just how its gotta be.

Jay Garrick - 3 / Jay Allen - 90

Out of all these coincidences, this one actually makes some sense! On the Flash 1990 show, Barry Allen had an older brother named Jay Allen in an obvious reference to Jay Garrick of the comics. Meanwhile on Earth-3, we have Jay Garrick, who is a doppelganger of Earth-90 Jay's younger brother Barry. Apparently on both Earth -3 and -90, Jay was the preferred name for the firstborn son of the Allens. Since there was no counterpart for Earth-90 Jay Allen on Earth-3, that name went to Jay Garrick (the doppelganger of Earth-90's second Allen son) instead. Seems conceivable.

Yes, I know I'm putting way too much thought into this.

Sam Scudder - 1 / Sam Scudder - 90

So it turns out that the Mirror Master Sam Scudder actually appeared on the 1990 show, played by none other than David Cassidy. David Cassidy may be of note to Arrowverse fans as the father of Katie Cassidy, who plays Laurel Lance. Of course he's also just generally quite famous from the Partridge Family and whatnot. His father Jack Cassidy (Katie's grandfather) was also a very talented and famous actor; among plenty of other roles, fans of Columbo will recognize him from playing the murderers in about 50% of the episodes (that's a vast exaggeration). How did I get to talking about Columbo? Let's get back on track.

As we know, Earth-1 also has its own version of the Mirror Master Sam Scudder (who is incidentally one of my least favorite villains in all of the Arrowverse). For what it's worth, H.R. tells us that Earth-19 has a Mirror Master, too, but that one is named Evan McCulloch. Earths -1 and -90's Scudders are obviously not doppelgangers, but maybe they're related? Perhaps Cassidy's Scudder is the new Scudder's father? A quick hop over to Wikipedia tells me that David Cassidy suffers from dementia and has retired from performing (that's sad, he's fairly young), so don't hold your breath for an appearance from Mirror Master, Sr.

Leonard Snart - 1 / Leonard Wynters - 90

Yup, Leonard Wynters. Wynters. It's easy to cringe at that, but don't forget that the modern Flash show unabashedly brings us such names as Roy G. Bivolo and Kyle Nimbus. Oh, and this version of Captain Cold is albino, so take away from that whatever you will. Come to think of it, Captain Cold is more or less albino in Young Justice, too. I wonder if there was some inspiration there?

Anyways, just another case of multiversal coincidence. Both Earth-1 and -90's Flashes have Captain Colds to contend with. IMDB indicates that the guy who played Cold hasn't acted in anything since before I was born, so again, don't hold your breath for a guest appearance on the new Flash.

Iris West - 1 & 2 / Iris West - 90

Apparently, Iris West was cast to be a main character and Barry's primary love interest in the pilot for  the 1990 Flash. I guess someone didn't like her because she was written off of the show when it was picked up for a full season. In any case, another coincidence of people with the same name who are definitely not doppelgangers.

Linda Park - 1 & 2 / Linda Park - 90

Lastly, Linda Park. She was a minor character on 1990's the Flash, who is certainly not the doppelganger of the Linda Park we know. Then again, there are already two Linda Parks who are both journalists on Earth-1 (the TV reporter who used to show up on Arrow and the more prominent character who appeared later on Flash), so this character has no shortage of coincidences.

Kline - 1 / Joe Kline - 90

The Flash '90 introduced a TV pundit named Joe Kline. The new Flash show reused that character in a very minor role in "The Once and Future Flash" as a news anchor in the year 2024. The two Klines are clearly not doppelgangers, so we'll count this as just another coincidence.

Carla Tannhauser - 1 / Carl Tanner - 90

Now this one's cool! It's hard for me to say too much about Carl Tanner, since I've never actually watched any of the 1990 Flash (I'm relying heavily on Wikipedia here), but apparently he was the villain in the second episode of that series. He was portrayed as a scientist and an old friend of Tina McGee who comes to Central City and creates a super-serum which mutates him into some kind of monster. Apparently the modern Flash writers thought of him when it came to naming Caitlin Snow's estranged mother.

It's not uncommon for immigrants to Anglicize their names when coming to the US. Perhaps on Earth-90 some immigrant Tannhauser shortened their name to Tanner. Seeing as how they share a given name and a scientific aptitude, it also seems a fair inference than Carla Tannhauser is some kind of gender-flipped near-doppelganger of Carl Tanner. In other words, Caitlin Snow's mother was actually on the Flash back in 1990! You just didn't recognize her because she happened be a man!

Carter Hall - 1 / Carter Hall - 90

Hawkman never actually appeared on The Flash '90, but the name "Dr. Carter Hall" was referenced in a single throwaway Easter egg. Of course, we know that Carter exists on Earth-1, though he's certainly too young for his doppelganger to have been a doctor in the year 1990. On the other hand, I'm not even sure how doppelgangers would work with the whole reincarnation thing. In any case, I don't want to make any strained assumptions, so this will just count as another coincidence.

By the way, Carter's costume was among the Easter eggs in the Earth-90 Elseworlds teaser, so... yeah. Not much to say about that, but it seemed worth noting. See below.

Elseworlds Teaser Easter Eggs

So there were a whole lot of Easter eggs in that short Earth-90 Elseworlds teaser. I'm talking about the one that first aired at the end of the shows the week before the crossover. No faces though, so we can't call any of them doppelgangers--just a bunch of fun "coincidences." Here we go:

• Stargirl, wearing her Earth-1 costume.
• A woman who looks a lot like Huntress from Earth-1. No crossbow, though, that I can make out, so its hard to be too sure.
• Firestorm, wearing Jax's Earth-1 costume.
• Nightshade from The Flash '90, I think?? He's got a dark brown trenchcoat and a grey balaclava. I don't know who else that would be.
• Hawkman's helmet, same as Earth-1.
• Someone with light-colored hair and a striped costume. I can't place it.
• Jesse Quick... I think? Actually I'm not convinced that the costume matches, but I also have no idea who else this could be.
• The Ray's helmet, sames as Earths-1 and -X.
• The rest of Hawkman, wearing his Earth-1 costume.
• A black, white, and red sleeve that may belong to Mr. Terrific.
• Captain or Citizen Cold, wearing his Earth-X jacket.
• Hawkgirl's helmet, same as Earth-1.
• A version of Green Arrow, wearing his Smallville (!) costume.

Closing Remarks

Voila! That's all I've got. Now bear in mind that I've never actually seen a single minute of the 1990 Flash show, so I've been depending heavily on good old-fashioned Wikipedia. Also, IMDB is very comprehensive on the cast of the show, and I'm pretty confident that I caught every actor who could qualify as a doppelganger. In the coincidences section, though, my knowledge is very likely incomplete. It seems very probable that the 1990 show had some Easter Egg references to comic book names that have now popped up in the Arrowverse. Also, if the modern Flash writers have been looking to the old show to borrow names ala Carl Tanner, then most of those would have flown under my radar as well.

Now that I've written this, I must admit that it seems kinda pointless in hindsight. What was I hoping to gain here again? Well, in any case, it's done now, so I hope you got something out of it.

Hope you enjoyed!
Phillip