Here’s Your First Look at The Flash’s Godspeed, and His Uncomfortable God-Crotch

Up close, with some nice lighting? The CW’s take on Godspeed doesn’t look all that bad. But when you see it in full, you can’t unsee the speedster’s bulge as anything but a case for maybe strictly adhering to the source material not always being the best idea.

Ahead of this week’s episode—titled “Godspeed”; it’s also the directorial debut of Caitlin Snow herself, Danielle Panabaker—the CW has released the first official images of The Flash’s take on DC Rebirth comics speedster Godspeed.

Created by Joshua Williamson and Carmine Di Giandomenico for The Flash’s relaunch as part of the Rebirth initiative in 2016, Godspeed—a.k.a. August Heart, a former colleague of Barry’s from Central City PD who went rogue after gaining speedforce powers—has the ability to sever other speedsters from their connection to the speedforce (often to fatal effect). He also has a costume that, on the page, is goddamn rad:

And, for the most part, the CW’s version is a pretty faithful version of it. But when we get to see it in the other picture the network released…well:

Doesn’t look so great in that flat lighting and a stance that, in all honestly, looks a lot less like a position of power and more like someone who’s about to speed their way to the nearest loo. But it’s also a reminder that sometimes, comic book suit designs don’t always have the practical needs of live-action adaptation in mind when they’re being considered. In comics, lighting is controlled by the colorist and inker, who can always perfectly accentuate a design—they don’t have to think about a scenario with sterile, flat lighting like the one happening above.

They also don’t have to think of the verypractical question of, err, the fact that an actor has to suit up in this very tight onesie get-up and deal with the fact that they are, outside of some occasionally mildly controversial moments, not as Ken-Doll-esque as comic book superheroes can afford to be. Everything shows up more in white, apparently.

Everything. Godspeed and his uncomfortable bulge will make their debut tomorrow night, April 16.