The Flash Deserves Better Than Ezra

 

I have been a fan of the Flash for a long time.  I have an extensive collection of his comics and I love the first four seasons of the TV show.

Barry Allen is such an intersting character.  In the comics, he often plays the yin to Hal Jordan's yang.  Whereas Hal is the reckless, devil-may-care adventurer, Barry is the conscientious, analytic hero.  He uses his scientific prowess and his "Flash Facts" to overcome any enemy.

But he may have one enemy he may not be able to overcome: Ezra Miller.

Zack Snyder cast Miller as the DCEU Flash.  It was an incredibly unusual choice.  But Snyder's outside-the-box thinking led to some inspired casting of Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman, Jason Momoa's Aquaman, and Ben Affleck's Batman (still my favorite cinematic Batman).  Miller and Snyder's take on Barry was a bit odd.  In the Whedon version of Justice League, Barry came off as simply the quirky comic relief.  In Snyder's version, we got a better performance and a more dramatic take.  Still, he seemed very different than the comic version.

Now, this argument could laid be against many of the characters in the Snyderverse, and fair enough.  But Warner Bros. decided to go forward with their own Flash movie with Miller at the helm.

However, Miller's behavior off screen could derail the whole project.

I want to say at the outset, that Miller is not uniquely problematic.  Many stars throughout Hollywood's history have had their sordid personal lives and scandalous behavior covered up.  This is not simply a matter of public vs. private vice.  But what is in the public eye is troubling.

Miller allegedly harassed and threatened a couple at a karaoke bar.  He was also allegedly belligerent to police during some traffic violation.  These in and of themselves can be dealt with fairly easily.  

The larger issues involve Miller allegedly being asked to leave a party where he threw a chair at a woman, striking her in the head.  

However what was more disturbing was the video of Miller where he appears to choke slam a woman to the ground.  According to witnesses, the woman jokingly challenged Miller to fight, but he went too far.

The public is very forgiving of people who debase themselves in public as long as they show proper contrition.  But we are very appalled by real-life violence.  Think about how many decades of good will that Will Smith squandered by one slap.  Miller is not Smith and choking a woman to ground is even more shocking than slapping a comedian on stage.

But that is not the worst accusation.

Miller has been accused of grooming a girl (now 18) that he met when she was 12.  According to the accusation of her parents, Miller allegedly would engage in sexually explicit conversations with the underage girl, attempted to sleep in the same bed with her when she was 14, snuck into clubs underage, and supplied her with drugs.  The young woman has dropped out of college and was apparently traveling with Miller.

Now, even after I have laid out all of these accusations, as an American I believe that everyone is innocent until proven guilty.  I may be forming a strong opinion on the data, but Miller deserves to right to clear his name.  The young woman mentioned above has denied all of the charges against her "comrade" (her words) Miller.  She claims her parents are lying.  If so, Miller is the victim of a smear campaign.

There are several ways to look at this situation, but I wanted to to examine it from Warner Bros. point-of-view.  They have just spend several hundred million dollars on a Flash movie.  But now their main star is embroiled in scandal.  What do they do?

When the scandal broke about Kevin Spacey, they went back and re-filmed all of the scenes of his last movie and replaced him with Christopher Plummer.  When Amber Heard alleged that Johnny Depp abused her, Depp was fired from two big budget franchises: Pirates of the Caribbean and Fantastic Beasts.  Should Warner Bros. do the same?  In the case of Spacey, he was recently charged in British court.  As for for Depp, his win against Heard has made people think that the studio was too hasty.

Warner Bros. knew about the choking incident before they started principle photography on their Flash movie.  It seems incredibly strange to me that a studio that was banking so much on its scandalous star would not have done everything in their power to make sure things did not get worse.  

And yet, here we are.  As of this writing, Miller apparently cannot be found.  As I said, Miller deserves the right to defend himself and against the most egregious charge, we should wait for all the facts to come out in a court of law rather than in the court of public opinion.  

But until all of this gets resolved, Miller has the potential of doing what almost no super villain has been able to do: 

Stop the Flash.