The Flash Season 4 Will Feature A SAMUROID

Viewers may have been prepared for a changed — and, it turns out, bearded — Barry Allen when The Flash returns next month for its fourth season, but they probably weren’t expecting him to be confronted by a relatively obscure threat from the Scarlet Speedster’s comic book past: the Samuroid.

Teased in July in the Comic-Con International sizzle reel, the villain at last stepped out of the shadows in the new television promo for Season 4, leaving fans to wonder, Wait, what the hell is a Samuroid?

As the name suggests, it’s a robot samurai, part of an army of mechanical warriors constructed by the Japanese criminal Baron Katana to wage war against the country’s foreign “benefactors” and usher in a new “Age of the Samurai.” Introduced, along with their creator, in 1968 in The Flash #180, the Samuroids are described as “virtually indestructible,” although of course they can be (and ultimately are) destroyed. Still, they are formidable opponents, equipped with jetpacks, nearly impenetrable armor, electrified swords and, in some instances, flaming arrows.

In the two-part story, by writer Frank Robbins and artists Ross Andru and Mike Esposito, Barry Allen and Iris West arrive on vacation in Japan, where Barry is tasked with passing along a warning to the local Interpol office about Katana. He immediately becomes involved in the “autopsy” of a robot samurai discovered by fisherman, which naturally places The Flash on a collision course with Katana and his army. With help from Iris and his friends from Interpol, The Flash ultimately defeats the Samuroids, and Katana apparently leaps to his death rather than suffer the disgrace of capture.

In The Brave and the Bold #13, by writer Mark Waid and artist Jerry Ordway, The Penguin acquires “dusty old Samuroids” developed years earlier by T.O. Morrow and forgotten about in a warehouse. “I designed them years ago for a low-paying warlord named Black Talon,” Morrow says when called upon to appraise the contents of the building, given to The Penguin by The Riddler as payment for a debt. “In retrospect, they seem as crude and overreaching as he was.” Although the two stories take place in different continuities (long before and long after Crisis on Infinite Earths), the mention of Black Talon is likely no coincidence, as Baron Katana’s ancestral home was called the Black Heron.

SOURCE: CBR