'The Flash's Deathstorm Shows A New Side Of Ronnie

When Ronnie Raymond seemingly died at the beginning of The Flash Season 2, it appeared to be the end of Firestorm. But Martin Stein found a new superhero partner and the two have since moved on to saving the world on Legends of Tomorrow. However, this week Robbie Amell is making his return to the series in a new role as an Earth-2 villain. But, who is Deathstorm on The Flash ? Basically, (and I mean very basically), in DC Comics, Deathstorm is an evil version of Firestorm.

In a storyline separate to the one in which Ronnie fuses with Professor Martin Stein, he instead joins with a man named Jason Rusch (more on him later) to become the hero known as Firestorm. However, Ronnie and Jason have a horrible history, since Ronnie killed Jason's girlfriend while he was overtaken by an evil entity. But, when they fuse together, they hear a third voice, and both men think it's the other trying to taunt him, though the third entity is actually trying to drive a wedge further between the two. The third voice eventually separates from Ronnie and Jason and reveals himself to be Deathstorm — essentially, death personified. However, The Flash will likely have a different introduction of Firestorm.

Unfortunately, we don't know much about how Deathstorm will appear. From the synopsis for Tuesday's "Welcome to Earth-2," we know that the Barry Allen of Earth-1 will cross paths with both Deathstorm and his partner in crime Killer Frost (the Earth-2 version of Caitlin Snow).

Barry (Grant Gustin), Wells (Tom Cavanagh) and Cisco (Carlos Valdes) journey to Earth-2 to rescue Wells’ daughter, Jesse (guest star) from Zoom. Barry is stunned when he runs into Earth-2 Iris (Candice Patton) and Joe (Jesse L. Martin), but nothing prepares him for meeting Killer Frost (Danielle Panabaker) and Deathstorm (guest star Robbie Amell). Meanwhile, back on Earth-1, Jay (guest star Teddy Sears) has to take over the Flash’s responsibilities when a meta-human nicknamed Geomancer (guest star Adam Stafford) attacks Central City.

We still don't know whether this version of Ronnie fused with Professor Stein or Jason Rusch — and if you're trying to remember whether Jason has appeared on The Flash before, let me help you out: He has. Jason showed up in the Season 1 episode "Revenge of the Rogues" as a lead in Caitlin's investigation into what happened to Ronnie (before she learned about Firestorm). So, if he has been seen on Earth-1, he could feasibly be the other half of Earth-2 Ronnie's Deathstorm.

As for whether we'll see the death personified version of Deathstorm, it seems unlikely — that's a bit too fantastical for the sci-fi world of The Flash. But, that begs the question: why are Ronnie and Caitlin evil on Earth-2? Did they have different experiences during the Earth-2 particle accelerator explosion that turned them evil or is there another underlying cause? At least, we know one thing for sure: Ronnie is back! And even if he's evil, I'm still happy to see him return to The Flash.

Images: Diyah Pera/The CW; killerfroxt/Tumblr