The Flash: Iris West Dons Her Superhero Costume in New Photos

A new series of photos show Iris West taking up the role of The Flash, after she accidentally acquires Barry Allen’s super-speed. This, in turn, forces Barry to take up Iris’ role as the team coordinator, monitoring the metahuman battles around Central City from STAR Labs.

Though this is sure to be temporary, it is an interesting nod to the comics where Iris West briefly developed a connection to the Speed Force and joined The Flash in fighting crime. It also makes Iris’ father Joe West the only member of Team Flash not to develop super powers, even temporarily, over the course of the series. While Barry was the only metahuman on the team in the series’ first season, later seasons have seen Cisco Ramon and Caitlin Snow take up the mantles of Vibe and Killer Frost, respectively. Firestorm, Doctor Alchemy and Elongated Man have also assisted the STAR Labs team.

EW posted the first pictures of Iris in her super-suit, along with several other photos from the upcoming episode, “Run, Iris, Run.” The power exchange is said to be brought about by Melting Pot – a metahuman who has the power to swap people’s DNA.

The CW has released the following synopsis for “Run, Iris, Run.”

Team Flash confronts a new bus meta, Matthew AKA Melting Pot (guest star Leonardo Nam), with the ability to swap people’s DNA. During a battle with Team Flash, Harold transfers Barry’s (Grant Gustin) super speed to Iris (Candice Patton). Now, with a new threat unleashed on Central City, Barry must act as the team leader while Iris takes on the mantle of superhero speedster in order to defeat their new foe.

As nicely tailored as the costume may be, there is little here to spark enthusiasm about “Run, Iris, Run.” This sort of Freaky Friday exchange of roles has already been done to death in the Arrowverse. The “Helen Hunt” episode of Legends of Tomorrow from earlier this year already played with the idea of two characters swapping bodies (in this case, Professor Martin Stein and mechanic Jefferson Jackson) and it seems unlikely this episode will do anything new or original with the concept.

It’s also unapparent how a metahuman whose power is giving other people superpowers can be much of a threat compared to the power that Team Flash has on their side, even with Barry Allen sidelined – a fact that was already proven this season when Barry spent several episodes in prison and the team had to learn to work without him! Iris West may keep telling Barry that “We are The Flash” but this will be the episode to make or break that point.

The Flash “Run, Iris, Run” will air on March 13, 2018 on The CW.

Source: EW