As the fifth season of The Flash wraps up on The CW, it's hard not to look towards what's still to come for the Arrowverse, especially after it was revealed the finale of The Flash would tease the upcoming crossover event, Crisis on Infinite Earths. However, instead of looking forward, we're going to take a look back at this last season of The Flash and examine one of the series biggest additions to the Arrowverse, the Meta-Humans.
Every new season sees the introduction of a new batch of metas powered up by various means. But how do season five's new meta powers stack up against each other? We'll take a closer look at that today, focusing only on metas introduced in the fifth season, even though characters like Flash, Vibe, and Elongated Man appear with their own power sets.
HYPNOTIZING META-TECH
The character of Spencer Young technically isn't a meta-human, however her cell phone does become enhanced by dark matter during the Enlightenment from the previous season. Meta-tech was a relatively new addition to the Arrowverse, though it would feature a few times in the season, and this would be the first time Team Flash became aware of the new threat.
Spencer Young first appeared in the fourth episode of the fifth season played by Kiana Madeira and is a gender-bended version of the Spin character in the comics who could control people through televised reports. Young's powers came from her cell phone and allowed her to hypnotize people, making her created news stories happen in reality for her own benefit.
HAND METAMORPHOSIS
The CW found a deep pull with Raelene Sharp/Razorsharp, whose first comic appearance came during the quickly forgotten Bloodlines event that introduced a number of new characters powered up through alien intervention. Sharp was played by Cassandra Ebner in the sixth episode of season five, which was also her last appearance on the series.
While it's unclear how the CW version of Razorsharp gained her meta abilities, she was also able to transform her hands into bladed weapons, which she was quite skilled with. Razorsharp managed to survive an attack from one of the main threats of the fifth season, but she, unfortunately, did not survive the second one.
BODY CONTORTION
Peter Merkel/Rag Doll first appeared in the fifth episode "All Doll'd Up" before returning with the other Young Rogues in the 20th episode "Gone Rogue." Merkel was played by Troy James (voiced by Phil LaMarr when in costume) and featured one of the more disturbing power sets seen in the Arrowverse.
Merkel is an extreme contortionist whose body was "broken" by the dark matter satellite that crashed to Earth during the Enlightenment. His ability to squeeze himself into almost any impossible space may seem only creepy at first, but it also provides him with enhanced strength and extreme endurance.
ACID GENERATION
While the character of Philip Master/Acid Master was initially an enemy of Superman, he made his live-action debut in the sixteenth episode "Failure is an Orphan," played by John Gillich. Acid Master is able to generate a highly corrosive form of acid from his hands.
These abilities extend to his own immunity to other acids, as he is seen drinking acid at one point, presumably to replenish his own supply. Philip Master is one of the few new metas of season five to survive the meta serial killer, though he did end up locked away in the Pipeline.
FORCE FIELD
With the large number of metas introduced across the various seasons and series within the Arrowverse, there have been a number of powers and variations on those powers seen on the small screen. We've seen characters with force fields appear before, but the power set was given a new twist in the second episode of the fifth season, "Blocked."
Vanessa Jansen, played by Erin Cummings, used her meta abilities to create force fields, or more specifically, super dense boxes of air that she could use as traps, or even offensively when Jansen used her boxes to attempt to crush both Flash and XS. Team Flash managed to dampen her powers, though that only made her an easy target for the meta killer.
KINETIC ENERGY ABSORPTION
Another short-lived meta was William Lang/Gridlock, who appeared in the first episode of the season, "Nora," played by Daniel Cudmore. Gridlock was the first costumed meta of the season, and he wore a solid black mask that would appear in a few other episodes after his death at the hands of the meta killer.
Gridlock's powers were based on his comic counterpart's ability to render people immobile after stealing their kinetic energy but were altered for his live-action adaptation. Lang's ability to absorb kinetic energy remained, but he was then able to rechannel the energy in various ways, though his abilities didn't help him make it past the first episode.
FRAGOKINESIS
The 17th episode of the fifth season was titled "Time Bomb" for a number of reasons. Not only was Team Flash dealing with some serious issues regarding Nora and her secret relationship with Eobard Thawne, but they were soon introduced to Vickie Bolen, who was hiding an explosive secret from her own family.
Bolen was able to hyper-accelerate the energy within an object, creating a chain reaction that would lead to an explosion. This can also be known as fragokinesis, and has been seen from other characters like Plastique, though Bolen's story ended much better than others with the same "exploding touch."
CRYOGENESIS
We've seen Cryogenesis before from Caitlin Snow's Killer Frost, though it was further explored when Team Flash was forced to deal with Caitlin's father, Thomas Snow/Icicle, played by Kyle Secor. icicle gained his abilities after using cryogenics to experiment on himself after being diagnosed with ALS.
His powers are similar to Catlin as they share a similar origin, though Icicle's mastery of his own particular brand of cryogenesis resulted in a few differences between their abilities. While Killer Frost has created ice slides, Icicle is able to simulate flight by directing his ice downwards. Despite the slight differences, Icicle's powers remain incredibly powerful and dangerous.
DARK MATTER DAGGER
We've vaguely discussed the meta killer before, but it's now time to get into Orlin Dwyer/Cicada, who gained his meta abilities after a piece of the dark-matter infused satellite punctured his lung, establishing a connection between Dwyer and the lightning bolt-shaped dagger that granted him his powers.
Those powers included the ability to mentally control the dagger, which could also shut down the abilities of other metas in his vicinity. The dagger could also generate red electricity, create a force field, and gave Orlin superhuman strength, endurance, and the ability to fly. Dwyer's niece Grace Gibbons would go on to become the second Cicada, with similar albeit more refined powers.
SUPER-SPEED
While we've seen all kinds of super speed over five seasons of the Flash, including a number of versions in this season with Flash, XS, Kid Flash, and Reverse-Flash, there was yet another new speedster introduced in the 18th episode, "Godspeed."
August Heart/Godspeed was able to use tachyons to establish a connection to the Speed Force, which grants him many of the same abilities of the Flash, though he seems to have enhanced control of his electrokinesis, or lightning manipulation. While Godspeed first appeared in Nora's future world of 2049, it's likely Godspeed will be seen again in the next season of The Flash.