What Do (Should) The Various DC Scientists Specialize In?

[Güicho]

Never got he was so laid back
More that he was always to busy, hence always late.
Great character irony being- getting Super-speed, only enhanced how much more he could do.
So the guy who gets super speed, is still condemned to always still be late.

[Tzigone]

Never got he was so laid back
More that he was always to busy, hence always late.
Getting Super-speed, only enhanced how much more he could do.
So the one guy who gets super speed, is stil condemned to always be late.

I just don't agree. He was a relaxed guy to me. And he was late in college and in childhood, from what I recall. Slow-moving is an old gag for him. Just not one for time management.

Probably part of my impression comes from his reading a comic book in the lab (even though, of course, it's not like he can speed chemical reactions and not have "waiting time.")

Always busy, frenetically doing stuff, just don't see it. He seems to have plenty of time to relax before herodom, which is good. I like work-life balance. I don't get a sense of him as busy every moment, even with adulthood, even in hobbies.

Certainly, he has as much attention to detail as needed to solve crimes and find villains (as does every hero). But not to any sort obsessive or minute way any moreso than any other hero.

Movie Barry is entirely different kettle of fish. I haven't read enough of modern Barry (I like a storyline, but then it end and the next one I don't like so stop reading and don't pick up again until three storylines later), nor do I know the tv show version well enough to comment. Of course "laid back" is relative. But he's I guess, "normal" in terms of energy level, etc. outside of heroing. Not a Bart who needs constant stimulation (at least in early years) or one who speeds around for no reason (for the audience to find humorous) when interacting with other heroes and so forth. He's just not a tense or uptight or temperamental person or one who "can't turn off" to me.

Obviously into science well beyond his career. I remember when he thought Ira might have read some of the work he'd published and was excited by that. Turned out Ira just wanted to know his intentions towards Iris.

[OopsIdiditagain]

I just don't agree. He was a relaxed guy to me. And he was late in college and in childhood, from what I recall. Slow-moving is an old gag for him. Just not one for time management.

Probably part of my impression comes from his reading a comic book in the lab (even though, of course, it's not like he can speed chemical reactions and not have "waiting time.")

Always busy, frenetically doing stuff, just don't see it. He seems to have plenty of time to relax before herodom, which is good. I like work-life balance. I don't get a sense of him as busy every moment, even with adulthood, even in hobbies.

Certainly, he has as much attention to detail as needed to solve crimes and find villains (as does every hero). But not to any sort obsessive or minute way any moreso than any other hero.

Movie Barry is entirely different kettle of fish. I haven't read enough of modern Barry (I like a storyline, but then it end and the next one I don't like so stop reading and don't pick up again until three storylines later), nor do I know the tv show version well enough to comment. Of course "laid back" is relative. But he's I guess, "normal" in terms of energy level, etc. outside of heroing. Not a Bart who needs constant stimulation (at least in early years) or one who speeds around for no reason (for the audience to find humorous) when interacting with other heroes and so forth. He's just not a tense or uptight or temperamental person or one who "can't turn off" to me.

Obviously into science well beyond his career. I remember when he thought Ira might have read some of the work he'd published and was excited by that. Turned out Ira just wanted to know his intentions towards Iris.

He could always busy and laid back if he has really bad time management. I know he's a speedster but procrastination is universal.

[Güicho]

Probably part of my impression comes from his reading a comic book in the lab (even though, of course, it's not like he can speed chemical reactions and not have "waiting time.")
.

From his First appearance origin:
Always figures that was him multi-tasking, lunch in his office, reading, right back to work....
You get lazy? I get a guy who can't switch off.


later, the first anecdote about being late to meet Iris, is cause he's cataloging new chemicals.
It's like he never stops.

Once hit by the powers this kind observational mental and visual OCD (him aware of everything) is in in full gear.



Don't know that speed had ever been conveyed that way before.

I remember this scene from Barry's origin almost exactly re-purposed to convey Parker's Spider-Sense, with Barry his awareness is now enhanced by his speed...

[Güicho]

What's funny is if Barry did his own origin in his own movie, people would accuse him of copying.



That suspended in time vision didn't come from the Spider-Man comics, it came from Flash's
Further the next scene they just swap the hyper awareness of the spitball fly and fist, from Barry's seeing the bullet suspended in time.
ending with dodge and the fist hitting the locker/bullet hitting the window.



Really lends to a forensics guy whose constant busy brain, hyper active awareness nature is to see all the detail, missed by everyone.
With Speed it's even further enhanced.

Then going forward most scenes now having him while working, on top of it, he's also got the police radio always on. Launching him to his next missions.
Again, this guy is not so laid back. He's always looking for more to do.

There is is great frenetic non stop energy to his portrayal.
The next in story set-up anecdote about "always being late", is again, not about being laid back, he's always rushing, from work, never relaxing.
Then on his way, he still can't help but stop to help others, this is all about a guy who can't switch off, there is always more he can do.



The fantastic, fun energy and irony at the core of Barry Allen, is this is the one guy who never lays back and relaxes , you can give the "gift of super speed" too, yet despite the "gift" it only increases exponentially how much more he can do, so the great character irony is even with super-speed he will still always be late.

I like the laid back silver age Barry. Relaxed. Very capable, but not at all ambitious.

Not sure where that came form, it's the antithesis of Silver Age Barry.
It's like you missed the whole in-joke, took for truth the clearly meant to be ironic wrong interpretation of Iris, who doesn't know the truth of what he's really doing, mistakenly sees him for the opposite of everything he really is (your description), while the actual story always reveals to the reader the truth.
That he's a guy who is always busy, never switches off, and is super ambitious.

You've taken the author/creators in-joke of how others see him as truth, despite the truth they intentional show you of who he is. And missed the whole great irony of the character.

[Lightning Rider]

I see the above debate as a false dichotomy; I see Barry as a guy who is relaxed but also very focused and enthusiastic about things. So he can get lost in his work or a comic book for hours at a time before realizing he's late for dinner with Iris. Slow and deliberate on a macro scale, focused and interested on the micro.

Given his hyper-awareness, if he didn't have a kind of relaxed baseline personality, the super speed probably wouldn't suit him. But he's able to tune into what he wants and be content in that flow without being anxious.

[Lightning Rider]

Ray Palmer's specialty is physics, with some some microbiology on the side (probably out of necessity as the Atom).

Luthor and Kord specialize in robotics and mechanical engineering, with the formers and latters matching up as their strengths.

Mr. Terrific, by nature, has advanced degrees in all the major sciences. He gets to cheat that way.

By contrast, I like to think of Batman as a relatively ordinary mechanical engineer who leans on Lucius and already existing Waynetech to do what he needs. He should be much stronger in psychology and crimonology, and second only to Barry Allen in forensics.

Barry is a gifted, but not genius-level, forensic scientist with advanced knowledge of chemistry.

Ivo and T.O. Morrow specailize in robotics and A.I.

Scarecrow and Ivy were already covered well.

[OopsIdiditagain]

Harley Quinn: Forensic Psychology

Gorilla Grodd: Engineering and a fictional science branch related to telekinesis lol

[DrNewGod]

My Take: Barry would love to be laid back, but there was just too much to get done, even before superspeed came along.

[ducklord]

Some impressions:

Full-On Polymaths
Luthor - He is the smartest guy (or gal) in the room, always. For Lex, the question is more like "what fields DOESN'T he specialize in?" For my ten cents, he's never shown that much of an interest in botany or (oddly) computer science, although he's perfectly capable of running rings around everyone in those field when he puts his mind to it. He's also a bit Earth-bound in his focus, so he's less interested in astrophysics then one might imagine. Though, again, it's all a question of degrees with Lex.

Mr. Terrific - Again, he's a master of everything he touches, so picking a specialization is a touch task. He clearly has an interest in AI's, robotics, and psychology, but he's an out-and-out generalist. He may not even have some of Luthor's blind spots.

Batman - While he's definitely a "master of any field he applies himself to," he's definitely thrown himself into biology, chemistry, forensics, and all the sciences he doesn't have to farm out to WayneTech (e.g. mechanical engineering) than others. At times he seems to be dangerously into AI.

Niles Caulder - AI, biology, chaos theory, physics, robotics. He's unstable, though, and his interests could shift.

Sivana - Robotics, obviously. Chemistry. Acoustics. His interests also shift wildly depending on his mood.

Prof Haley & June Robbins- I'm always unsure if they should be portrayed as a polymaths or not. They certainly seem like those archetypal "we can do anything... with SCIENCE!" types. Haley has a specialized interest in all things aquatic, I think. June... I just don't know.

Other Folks
Will Magnus - Robotics, AI, Chemistry.

Ray Palmer - Physics (although he knows a LOT about other fields)

Barry Allen - Chemistry (he's picked up a lot about physics over the years)

Cave Carson - Minerology, robotics (recently), mechanical engineering

[Digifiend]

Luthor should also be interested in genetics, because of his involvement in the origins of Bizarro and Conner Kent.

[Robotman]

Will Magnus - Robotics
Ray Palmer - Physics
Mr. Terrific - General Relativity, Physics, Robotics
Lex Luthor - everything

Don't know, but I wish they would play it up more. both on TV and the comics.
Make it a kind of compulsive observational OCD to naturally be hyper aware, and notice every detail. Then even further enhanced by his speed.

Didn't the older comics used to drop allot of observational science "facts" coined as "Flash-Facts"

Also as per the TV series, wish it would translate to the comics:

Francisco "Cisco" Ramon / Vibe - Mechanical Engineering all around techy gadget guy.

In the pilot episode it really seemed like the forensic scientist aspect of Barry was going to play a big factor. They showed how he was working out the evidence of crime scene with visualizations. Unfortunately, they ditched that angle.

It would have been so great if DC would have capitalized on Vibe's characterization in the show. Such a huge wasted opportunity.