The Flash introduced multiple DC villains into the Arrowverse over its six seasons, with several of them being gender-swapped for The CW series. Whether they were smaller or significant characters from the mythology, The Flash doesn’t shy away from letting certain villains be reimagined. While some had better runs than others, seeing the Arrowverse drama put their own spin on some of the characters allowed Team Flash to go up against varied threats. The villain-of-the-week concept has been with the series since the very beginning, which allows Barry Allen to tackle different metahuman threats. Even though the format has changed in the recent seasons, The Flash continues to explore different DC Comics characters that sometimes are gender-swapped.
When it comes to the smaller villains, most of them have usually only had a handful of appearances while others have returned more frequently. Even if some of the gender-swapped villains have only played small roles, The Flash has done some of them a favor by reimagining them from their comic counterparts. Someone like Eva McCulloch ended up being seen in a different light. By letting Evan, the second Mirror Master from the comics, be gender-swapped on The Flash, Eva ended up as one of its strongest foes in recent seasons.
As the show keeps going, The Flash will likely introduce more DC villains that will have the chance to get gender-swapped. While the other DC shows have reimagined several of their villains too, The Flash is the Arrowverse drama to have done the most amount of gender-bending. The following are all the DC characters that The Flash has gender-swapped for the Arrowverse in chronological order from the first season onward.
Bug-Eyed-Bandit
When The Atom was doing a guest spot in season 1, it became the perfect opportunity to introduce one of his comic book villains. Known as Bertram Larvan in the comics, the Arrowverse version of Bug-Eyed-Bandit became a woman named Brie Larvan who has appeared a few times over the series. In her debut episode “All Star Team Up,” Brie is introduced as a former mechanical engineer of Mercury Labs who used her robotic bees to go after Tina McGee. Thanks to Team Flash and the assistance of Felicity Smoak, Brie was stopped. This is also what set up her beef with Felicity as she showed up on Arrow for as a villain of the week.
Top
When The Flash introduced the Top, Roscoe Dillon became Rosa Dillon in the season 3 episode “The New Rogues.” This incarnation had the ability to induce vertigo into people’s systems which became a problem for Barry and Jesse Quick when they first went up against her and Sam Scudder, the first Mirror Master. Her final appearance was in the episode “The Once and Future Flash” in which Barry went to an alternative 2024 where she and Sam were ruling Central City’s underworld.
Heatmonger
While most gender-swapped DC villains that The Flash has introduced have become women, there have been instances when some female villains were turned into men. A minor criminal that was introduced in the season 3 episode “Cause and Effect” was Heatmonger, who originally was a woman in the comics. In this incarnation, Lucious Coolidge took over Heatwave’s title as the most notorious arsonist in Central City. In “Cause and Effect,” he had previously been defeated by Team Flash and was up for trial — but when Barry temporarily lost his memory as they were trying to get the upper hand on Savitar, his testimony was a disaster that caused the judge to release Coolidge. Once Barry got his memories back, he quickly stopped Heatmonger once again.
Black Bison
In The Flash season 4, viewers got to see the introduction of a lot of new metahumans from the comics as they were part of the Thinker’s grand scheme. One of them was Black Bison, a name that has been used by multiple characters. While all of them were males, the TV version was reimagined as Mina Chaytan, who had the power to bring inanimate objects to life. After Mina’s first episode, Black Bison’s next appearance ended with her death as she was one of the bus-metas to get their powers stolen by the Thinker before being killed.
The Hotness
During the show’s fourth year, Iris West-Allen got to experience what it was like to be a speedster when she got Barry’s powers temporarily. In that same episode “Run, Iris, Run,” her personal villain-of-the-week was Jaco Birch a.k.a. The Hotness. In the comics, The Hotness, whose real name is unknown, was a member of the Secret Society of Super-Villains, and was someone that clashed with Killer Frost. On The Flash, Jaco accidentally got fire-powers by having his DNA swapped with Eric Frye, thanks to Matthew Kim a.k.a. Melting Point’s abilities. This caused Jaco to lose control as he started using his powers for evil until Iris stopped him.
The Fiddler
While Stargirl has introduced the DC baddie The Fiddler, the Courtney Whitmore-led series isn’t the only show to pass the title to a woman. Another bus-meta that was introduced was Izzy Bowin, a female version of Isaac Bowin (who can currently be seen as a teenager on Stargirl) that has the power of sound manipulation. Portrayed as a country musician, rather than a villain like in the comics, Izzy’s powers were something that could affect the Thinker, giving Team Flash an advantage. As they managed to convince her to let them train her, Izzy ended up falling victim to Clifford as he took over her body, which resulted in her death.
Null
One of Hawkman’s villains who made their way onto The Flash sas Null — another case of gender-swapping in the fourth season. While his male counterpart in the comics hasn’t had his name revealed, The Flash reimagined Null in the episode “Null and Annoyed” as Janet Petty, who had been a criminal since she was a teenager. Just like the comic version of Null, Janet had the ability to manipulate gravity which became a challenge for Team Flash when she managed to make Barry weightless and float uncontrollably. Eventually, they got the upper hand at stopping Null, but she was later on killed by Clifford when he invaded STAR Labs and took her powers.
Spin
The Flash season 5 had a number of gender-swaps, beginning with Spencer Young a.k.a. Spin. In the comics, Spin was a male villain named Auerbach. The Arrowverse incarnation of Spin was portrayed as a hungry social-media influencer who was competing with Iris in the world of journalism. Spencer, however, was cheating to get to the top by using her dark-mattered infused phone that allowed her to create and control the news through hypnotism. This was the introduction of meta-tech after the events of the season 4 finale. While she was originally going to be a recurring character in the season, Spencer never returned after debuting in "News Flash."
Weather Witch
While Weather Wizard's role in the series has decreased over the years, The Flash has passed the role over to his offspring. This became the next gender-bending character, as Mark Mardon's son Josh Jackam became Josyln Jackam, better known as the Weather Witch. When she first was introduced in "O Come, All Ye Thankful," she was trying to kill her father with her Weather Staff which was also another piece of meta-tech. When Team Flash first stopped her, Josyln swore to use her staff to destroy Central City unless they gave up her father. Weather Witch has returned a few more times since then, with her last appearance being in the final hour of Crisis on Infinite Earths when she was causing chaos in National City, revealing that Supergirl and Black Lightning's Earths had been merged with the heroes of Earth-1.
Silver Ghost
While Raphael Van Zandt a.k.a. Silver Ghost was a villain on Earth-X in the comics, The Flash's version was heavily recreated in addition to being gender-bent. In the episode "The Flash & The Furious," Raya Van Zandt is introduced as the Arrowverse version of Silver Ghost who has the ability to control any vehicle. She ended up recruiting Weather Witch, who initially was reluctant to join her. It didn't take long before Silver Ghost was stopped, and this would be the last time she appeared in the series.
Mirror Mistress
While most of the gender-swapped characters that The Flash has brought in have mostly been guest villains, season 6 saw the biggest case with the introduction of the second Mirror Master. Serving as the main baddie for the second half of the season, Evan McCulloch was turned into Eva McCulloch who became one of the most complex characters that the team has ever gone up against. When she was first introduced, Eva had been trapped inside the Mirroverse for over 6 years since the night the STAR Labs particle accelerator exploded. When Eva's husband stole her company and didn't make any efforts in trying to save his wife, she wanted revenge. Through kidnapping several Flash allies, including Iris, and creating Mirror-clones of them, Eva eventually managed to escape the Mirrorverse while also maintaining several mirror-based abilities. In the end, Eva killed her husband and took back her company by making herself look like the victim to the public. Given that The Flash season 6 never got to produce its remaining 3 episodes, it remains to be seen how the team will stop her and save Iris and Kamilla from the Mirrorverse.
Turtle II
In the second season, viewers met The Flash villain Turtle, who had the power of kinetic energy absorption that, basically, made it possible for him to slow down everything and everyone that he unleashed the pulse at. While he was killed by Harry Wells, a second version was introduced 4 seasons later, which became a gender-swapping of the second Turtle from the comics. However, unlike Russell Glosson, Frida Novikov has chronokinesis, which allows her to manipulate time. Not only can she slow down specific targets, but Frida can also use her powers to make someone rapidly age. Cisco had heard stories about her when he was traveling around the world to discover what Crisis had done to Earth-Prime. Joe West referenced her as being an old criminal that CCPD had sent back to Russia in the past. Despite being a very dangerous metahuman, Barry managed to stop Turtle II with the help of Kid Flash. That is the final DC villain to be gender-bent by The Flash in season 6, but with season 7 coming next year, there will likely be more gender-swapped characters in the Arrowverse's future stories.