Who Is ‘The Flash’ Alchemy Guy? AKA Doctor Alchemy Thanks To Cisco, Here’s DC Comics Spoilers About ‘The Flash’s New Baddie For Season 3

By the end of the second episode of Season 3, most viewers were wondering just who The Flash Alchemy guy is. Usually, The Flash gives us other speedsters as the main villain – or villains. Reverse-Flash and Zoom were both awesome. But this time we get Doctor Alchemy – as Cisco renamed him by the end of the episode.

We don't know a whole lot yet about Doctor Alchemy on #TheFlash, but that doesn't mean we can't speculate! https://t.co/uTxLQaUalA

— FanSided (@FanSided) October 12, 2016

Doctor Alchemy is a mysterious figure mostly moving behind-the-scenes in this The Flash episode. But DC Comics provides the answer to the mystery of Doctor Alchemy – sort of.

It’s often the story with DC Comics that there are multiple versions of either superheroes or super villains over the decades. There have actually been two major versions of Doctor Alchemy.

Albert Desmond was created in the 1950s and was originally named Mister Element, but eventually Doctor Alchemy must have sounded catchier. Another Doctor Alchemy named Alexander Petrove was created by DC Comics’ own Geoff Johns and Alberto Dose.

Dr Alchemy has the power to give other people abilities using the Philosiphers Stone https://t.co/MFMDaVWlWD #MTSBWY #CodyFlashMob #TheFlash

— Speedforce Podcast (@speedforcepod) October 12, 2016

Of these two characters, the Albert Desmond version seems to be most like what The Flash Alchemy super villain will turn out to be. The producers of DCTV series like The Flash try to mix things up a bit with the characters they import from the comics, so it’s possible that The Flash Alchemy character could differ from the comics quite a bit.

In the comics, the character uses the legendary Philosopher’s Stone to control elements, changing one into another. This doesn’t seem like the power that Alchemy – or Doctor Alchemy – has on The Flash.

In fact, since the bad guy calls himself Alchemy, Cisco’s “Doctor Alchemy” designation may not last. But aside from a name change, the Flash Alchemy conflict may differ in other ways as well. For instance, instead of Albert Desmond, maybe the character’s name in The Flash series will be – drum roll – the new character of Julian Albert, as played by Harry Potter veteran Tom Felton.

As reported by CBS News, like the original Doctor Alchemy, Albert Desmond, the character of Julian Albert is also a forensic scientist working in the same lab with Barry Allen/Flash. And he also has a fascination with meta-human biology. And The Flash Alchemy essentially told Barry in the big denouement he wanted to give potential meta-humans their powers.

Also, the fact that the original character’s first name was Albert and this new forensic scientist is named Julian Albert can’t just be a coincidence. Of course, Berlanti and crew have a history of tossing out red herrings to throw viewers off the track.

#JayGarrick returns and #DoctorAlchemy hops aboard the latest #TheFlash — read our recap! https://t.co/J5gUUseV3g pic.twitter.com/ACdYTDmHIV

— Nerdist (@nerdist) October 12, 2016

An example of this would be – as WUSA notes – giving the name of Jay Garrick to someone who wasn’t actually Jay Garrick. A lot of theories went out the window with that one.

But part of the fun of The Flash is trying to guess where the show is actually going, rather than where it seems to be going. Yes, the character of Julian Albert is extremely annoying for poor Barry, but this doesn’t automatically make him Alchemy – Doctor or otherwise.

Another question is exactly how The Flash Alchemy character ties in with the rest of the show’s Flashpoint storyline. In this version of flashpoint, Doctor Alchemy seems to be trying to restore the alternate timeline that Barry reset when he let Reverse-Flash kill his mother. Or at least, Alchemy wants to restore some of the characters like the Rival.

Obviously, with the false leads, red herrings, and complexity of a standard DCTV season story arc, there has to be more to The Flash Alchemy villain than just this kind of mustache-twirling plot. It may be that at some point in Season 3 we will discover that all of Doctor Alchemy’s machinations tie into one of the many crossovers between The Flash, Supergirl, Arrow, and Legends of Tomorrow.

[Featured Image by The CW]