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The CW's The Flash ran for nine seasons (2014–2023). The thing was packed to the brim with sneaky little Easter eggs, not just from the actual Flash comics, but from all over DC’s history. The Flash as a character is as old as dirt in comic book years, as he first zoomed onto the page back in the 1940s, thanks to Gardner Fox and Harry Lampert. And there’s a whole parade of speedsters over the years: Jay Garrick, Barry Allen, Wally West, Bart Allen.
When Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg, and Geoff Johns brought Barry Allen to The CW, they kept it simple on the surface: Barry Allen, forensic nerd, gets zapped by a science accident, suddenly he’s the fastest dude alive in a bright red suit. But right from the jump, even in the pilot, you could feel they were playing the long game—tons of sly references, background gags, little moments that only hardcore comic geeks would catch.
And the show didn’t just stop with comic book winks. The Flash was the heart of the Arrowverse, crossing over with Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl, and Batwoman. They’d bring in side characters, inside jokes, and sometimes even poke fun at DC’s real-world history. If you were the kind of fan who knew all the side characters and obscure storylines, this show was basically your playground.
So, let’s dive in. Here are some of the best Easter eggs from The Flash.
Easter eggs in The Flash
Ferris Air and the Green Lantern connection
One of the earliest winks to longtime DC fans occurs at an old Ferris Air airstrip where Barry is testing his speed around in Season 1. That’s the writers waving a giant Green Lantern flag in your face. Ferris Air’s whole deal in the comics is being Hal Jordan’s canonical employer.
The reference gets explicit when they straight-up mention a Ferris test pilot who vanished into thin air. That’s Hal’s whole origin story crammed into one throwaway line.
It doesn’t stop there. Ferris Air pops up in the background more times than you’d expect, and Coast City gets name-dropped here and there, too. It’s like the Arrowverse is teasing us, hinting that there’s way more happening off-screen; maybe even some Lantern adventures we’ll never see.
Ferris Air and Coast City keep popping up in the show, like they’re trying to convince you Hal’s gonna stroll in any second. These little nods are sprinkled all over the place. Even though he never actually shows up, the hints are everywhere, teasing a way bigger DC universe hiding just off-screen.
Scientific Showcase magazine: Barry’s comics origin
When Barry pops up in Arrow season 2 and again in The Flash pilot, he’s holding this magazine called Scientific Showcase. Well, it is a deliberate nod to Showcase #4 from way back in 1956—the comic that introduced Barry Allen and is widely considered the beginning of DC’s Silver Age.
And that headline on the cover is literally questioning if the S.T.A.R. Labs Particle Accelerator is “safe,” which is hilarious (or maybe just cruel) considering what’s about to go down. It’s like the writers are winking at comic geeks everywhere, layering in a little easter egg that hits both the story and Barry’s publishing roots.
The rubber duck: An ultra-obscure inside joke
Blink and you’ll miss it, but there’s this little rubber duck that keeps popping up in pretty much every police department scene on The Flash. Nobody talks about it much unless you’re deep-diving into cast interviews or behind-the-scenes, but Grant Gustin spilled the beans: the crew’s been on a mission to stash that goofy duck somewhere in the background since Season 1.
Sometimes it’s chilling in an evidence bag, sometimes just hanging out on a desk. It’s got that whole Hitchcock cameo energy, except way more ridiculous and for the die-hard fans combing through every frame.
Grodd’s cage: Seeds for a supervillain
During the pilot episode of The Flash, you probably missed “Grodd” scribble on an old cage at S.T.A.R. Labs. As in, the giant psychic gorilla who regularly gives Barry Allen a run for his money in the comics. Most folks just shrugged and kept munching popcorn, but hardcore DC fans clocked that Easter egg instantly.
It was like the showrunners whispered that they were bringing out the big, hairy guns. And, true to their word, Grodd eventually smashed his way into the storyline.
Weather wizard: Double trouble
Episode one totally name-drops both Mark and Clyde Mardon, which is a straight-up wink to the OG comics. Mark’s usually the big-shot Weather Wizard, but tossing Clyde in there was classic DC, where half the villains have family drama fueling their evil gadgets.
The showrunners clearly did their homework, as this is a little Easter egg for the nerds who remember The Flash #110 from way back in 1959.
Big Belly Burger & Palmer Technologies: Arrowverse DC world building
So, The Flash just loved to drop in mentions of Big Belly Burger and Palmer Technologies. Big Belly Burger actually started out in Superman comics before it popped up all over the Arrowverse. It’s like the writers’ sneaky way of saying that all the superheroes share the same universe.
Palmer Technologies is a nod to Ray Palmer (a.k.a. The Atom), so when it comes up, you know they’re connecting Arrow, The Flash, and even Legends of Tomorrow. These Easter eggs have roots deep in DC’s whole shared universe.
The future newspaper article: Crisis on Infinite Earths
In the first episode of The Flash, they sneak in a newspaper from the future (“FLASH MISSING, VANISHES IN CRISIS,” shoutout to April 25, 2024). If you’re a comic nerd, you instantly clocked it: they’re tipping their hat to Crisis on Infinite Earths, where Barry Allen runs himself out of existence to save, well, everything.
The thing is, the show doesn’t just hang its hat on that headline. It’s more like a sneaky little Easter egg, just lurking in the background. It pops up here and there. The headline keeps evolving as the show’s timelines get more and more bonkers.
Fast forward to Season 5, and we get Nora West-Allen dropping in from the future, confirming that Barry’s “vanishing” is still on the menu. But timeline tampering accelerates the date of the Crisis to December 2019, so it lines up with that big Arrowverse crossover everyone was buzzing about.
And when the “vanishing” finally goes down, it isn’t even Grant Gustin’s Barry. They pull a fast one and have Earth-90 Barry Allen (John Wesley Shipp, from the OG ’90s Flash show) take the hit instead.
Legends, Reverse-Flash, and The Flash Museum
You can’t swing a lightning bolt in the Flash’s world without tripping over some hardcore DC nerd lore. You’ve got Eobard Thawne (a.k.a. Reverse-Flash) with his borderline-creepy obsession with Barry Allen, the Flash Museum popping up, and those endless timelines getting scrambled every other episode. It’s classic comic book chaos, just repackaged for the Arrowverse, where drama and time travel go together.
Linda Park and Channel 52
Linda Park, aka Wally West’s on-again, off‑again love interest in the comics, is introduced early in the Arrowverse as a journalist. In the comics, she rolled onto the scene in The Flash #28 back in 1989, eventually tying the knot with Wally and having twins—Jai and Iris West II. On TV, though, she gets a couple of different intros.
First, you spot her in Arrow Season 2, Episode 9—Olivia Cheng plays her as a TV reporter, and that footage gets recycled straight into The Flash pilot. Later, Malese Jow steps in as print reporter Linda Park in The Flash Season 1, Episode 12 ("Crazy for You"), where she and Barry Allen have a fling.
Now, about Channel 52. It’s not just a fake TV channel. The “52” thing is a deep-cut reference to DC’s weekly comic series 52, which dropped right after Infinite Crisis and ran for 52 weeks. That series filled in a year-long gap in the storyline, and, more importantly, Infinite Crisis dropped the bomb, revealing that there were exactly 52 parallel universes in the DC Multiverse. That number’s kind of a big deal in DC-land.
DC got super obsessed with it, too. The 2011 New 52 reboot relaunched 52 new comic titles. Since then, you’ll see “52” popping up everywhere—especially in shows like Arrow and The Flash, usually as Channel 52 or some news ticker, just to give a little wink to the nerds in the know.
Mark Hamill’s trickster and the 1990 series
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Mark Hamill came back as the Trickster, the one from the '90s Flash show, wild hair and all. They totally leaned into it, too: he rocks the old-school suit, and there are cheeky nods to his past shenanigans from back in the day.
And John Wesley Shipp, the OG Flash himself, pops up as Barry’s dad, Henry Allen. Later, they have him suit up as Jay Garrick. The casting here is just a big wink to fans, stacking up layers of nostalgia and geeky in-jokes.
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