The Flash Season 3: Who is The Rival?

As you've seen from the trailers, The Flash season 3 premiere episode, "Flashpoint" introduces a new speedster to the equation. And while we don't learn very much about him (yet), other than the fact that he's Kid Flash's enemy in the Flashpoint timeline, there's a comic book version that he bears very little resemblance to. It's appropriate that he's the enemy of a Flash other than Barry Allen, though...

The Rival of the comics was Professor Edward Clariss, who taught at the same university Jay Garrick was a student at when he gained super speed. Clariss found his way to the same formula that granted Jay his powers, and decided to make life difficult for Jay Garrick. He only appeared once during the Golden Age, in what was the final issue of Flash Comics (#104 in 1949). Interestingly enough, Flash Comics #104 was the final issue of Jay Garrick's title, and the last time he would appear as a solo character until he teamed up with Barry Allen in "Flash of Two Worlds" in 1961's The Flash #123.

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As you can see from these comic book images, Rival looked nothing at all like his TV counterpart:

(Rival collage courtesy of Dave's Comic Heroes)

To date, Rival has only made a handful of other appearances in comics. The most notable one came during the great JSA comic revival of the early 2000s (written by current DC Films co-chair Geoff Johns and noted superhero movie scribe David Goyer), in a story called "Injustice Be Done" which dealt with a number of classic villains reappearing on the scene to take on a revitalized Justice Society. The issues that dealt with Jay and Rival's rematch remain the most "screen time" Rival has ever had.

As far as I can tell, we haven't seen Rival in almost 15 years in the comics. Maybe when DC gets around to a Rebirthtreatment for the JSA, Rival will get another turn in the spotlight.

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What's amusing is that during season two, I briefly considered Edward Clariss as a potential identity for Zoom. In the comics, Rival had a way to steal Flash's speed (much like Zoom did in season two), and in the handful of modern appearances that Clariss made, his "speed energy" was the same blue that we saw Zoom exhibit. Of course Zoom's origin story ended up being way more convoluted than any of this, but it made some sense at the time.

I'll update this article if we learn anything else about the TV version of The Rival, and if any of it lines up with anything from his very few comic book appearances. My review of The Flash season 3 premiere can be found here.

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