The beautiful thing about comics is that anything can be linked if you try hard enough.
Be it my personal theory that Powerless is set in the same universe as Ryan Reynolds’ Green Lantern in 2011 (I’ll explain one of these days), or something official that writers try to hint to–like Superman Returns being a sequel to the previously unseen version of Superman 2–it can be a real stretch when connections are made, but doesn’t mean it isn’t any less accurate.
And if there were any comic book show that would have sit-and-reach levels of stretching required to make connections, it would have to be The Flash.
And the stretch in question here is triggered by Alex Désert as Julio Mendez in The Flash… a role that he has now played three different times… in three different timelines.
Most recently seen as Julio Mendez, musician in Earth-1, the character faced his demise at the hand (literally) of Clive Yorkin, a carry over from the Flashpoint reality with the ability to kill with a touch. Yorkin’s goal is to kill the Earth-1 counterparts of the officers behind his arrest in the Flashpoint reality–a group that include Joe West.
In the Flashpoint reality, Julio Mendez is not a musician, but the captain of the CCPD (an interesting riff on how Joe had a musician counterpart as well, albeit in Earth-2). Thing is, this isn’t the first time Julio Mendez has been a police officer.
Meet Julio Mendez, Central City Police Department scientist and colleague/close friend to Barry Allen:
For those not familiar with the original Flash TV series back in 1990, Alex Désert played a character named Julio Mendez as well. And like the Julio of Flashpoint, he worked for the CCPD but as a scientist/partner to Barry Allen.
Now, thanks to the episode “Welcome to Earth-2” back in season two, we know for a fact that the original Flash series is still in existence somewhere in the multiverse–but the revelation of Julio Mendez still being a member of the CCPD is just the latest in a list of implications that not only is it a reality that may be closer to home than we think, but indicative of a larger crossover.
After all, Alex Désert isn’t the only actor to reprise the same character from a different iteration…