The Flash season 8 mid-season premiere introduced a new love-interest for Bart, an intern named Avery, who might become the show's next speedster.

Warning: SPOILERS for The Flash season 8, episode 6, "Impulsive Excessive Disorder."

Avery, an unassuming intern introduced into The Flash season 8, could become the next speedster to protect Central City. While the credits for her premiere episode do not give her a last name, Avery shares a first name with Avery Ho, who became the latest hero to adopt The Flash alias in the comics. Given that many other characters have been introduced into the Arrowverse as civilians only to be empowered and developed into their superhero counterparts from the comics later, it seems likely that this is to be the future fate of Avery.

The Flash legacy is one of the most extensive in comic book history. Beginning with the first Flash, Jay Garrick, who originally premiered during World War II, the mantle has run through multiple generations, with the power of the Speed Force passing down several familial lines into the distant future. This is one aspect of the comics that the Arrowverse's The Flash television series has done well in emulating, with Barry and Iris West-Allen's children from the future recently having come back in time to prevent their enemy, Godspeed, from altering their timelines.

Related: Superman & Lois Proves How The Flash Has Been Misusing Superspeed

The Flash season 8 episode "Impulsive Excessive Disorder" focused on Bart and Nora West-Allen as they traveled back to 2014 to further repair the damage dealt by their travels. This led to the introduction of Avery, a young scientist with an interest in time travel, who assisted the heroes of the future in averting a paradox. However, while Avery was established as a love interest for Bart, some theorize that Avery's The Flash adventures are just beginning and she is destined to become a speedster herself, based on the existence of a Flash named Avery in the comics.

First appearing in The Flash Vol. 5 #3 in September 2016, Avery Ho was a teenage girl who was one of the many Central City citizens affected by a Speed Force storm that gave random people the same powers as The Flash. Barry Allen helped train Avery to control her new powers, teaching her how to keep from vibrating out of control after she found herself unable to slow down to a normal pace. Later, Avery (who was something of a Flash fangirl) proved her worth to her mentor by helping him in the battle against a new Flash villain dubbed Godspeed, who was killing the new speedsters and stealing their speed to increase his own power.

Avery was quick to establish herself as a hero, being recruited into the Justice League of China as The Flash of China despite her status as a Chinese-American citizen. Thankfully, her powers made it easy for her to commute between China and Central City, where she frequently partnered up with the current Kid Flash, Wallace R. West. Despite spending more time with his allies in the Teen Titans, Wally considers Avery to be his best friend, though he is completely unaware of the crush she has on him.

More recently, Avery's journey as a hero took her into the DC Comics multiverse. She was recruited into Justice Incarnate, a Justice League made up of the heroes of multiple Earths, who protect reality itself from evils that could erase all existence. She led the search for the missing Barry Allen in the Justice League Incarnate miniseries and seems poised to play a major role in the upcoming Death of the Justice League event.

Related: Superman & Lois Is Already Proving How Wrong The Flash Got Season 6

A young woman named Avery (Piper Curda) was introduced into the Arrowverse in The Flash season 8 episode "Impulsive Excessive Disorder." Bart West-Allen (Jordan Fisher) literally ran into Avery while they were waiting in line for coffee, forcing her to drop her dissertation on temporal dynamics and quantum superposition. The two hit it off immediately as they began discussing Avery's theories on how time travel might progress from being purely theoretical into an actuality. The two were so enraptured that Nora West-Allen (Jessica Parker Kennedy) was forced to literally drag her younger brother away from the fast-talking intern, so they could return to the business of saving the timeline.

Later in the episode, Nora and Bart sought Avery out, as they needed the help of someone who was more knowledgeable about theoretical physics than they were to puzzle out how they could avert a casino heist executed by the Royal Flush Gang. Avery was reluctant to believe the siblings' story about being time travelers, until Nora attempted to show her some information about the future using her holographic gauntlet. Avery immediately recognized the integrated quantum circuitry as being far more advanced than even the most high-end technology of 2014 and realized the only logical explanation was that XS and Impulse had to be time travelers from the future. Avery helped plot out a way the speedsters could limit the casualties of the heist without risking further damage to the timeline and shared a kiss with Bart before he returned to his own time, promising that he would return to see her someday.

While there is nothing apart from the character's first name to suggest that The Flash season 8 might turn Avery into a speedster, it seems unlikely that the character's introduction into the Arrowverse isn't intended to set up a larger role as something besides Bart West-Allen's girlfriend. Many members of The Flash family from the comics were adapted into The Flash television series as powerless people with no link to the comics beyond a shared name. The Arrowverse's Jesse Quick is a prime example of this, having been introduced in The Flash season 2 as the daughter of Earth-2's Harrison "Harry" Wells, before acquiring a connection to the Speed Force and adopting the alias Jesse Quick.

The same is true of the Arrowverse version of Wally West, who was introduced in The Flash season 2 but did not become a speedster and adopt the Kid Flash name until The Flash season 4. Given that, it seems reasonable to presume that lighting could strike again and that Avery might also become a metahuman with a connection to the Speed Force. It will be interesting to see how The Flash develops her character and if she will retroactively be added into the past adventures of Team Flash after being empowered in 2014 or if she will jump to the future and become a hero there.

More: Who Dies In The Flash Season 8? Character Funeral Tease & Theories

The Flash releases new episodes Wednesdays on the CW.

Matt Morrison has been writing about comics since before the word "blogging" was coined. He got his start writing for the legendary DC Comics digital fanzine Fanzing, before receiving his own column, The Mount. Since then he has gone on to write for over a dozen websites, including 411 Mania, Comics Nexus and The Cult of Nobody. He holds both an MS in Information Science from the University of North Texas and a BFA from the University of Texas at Arlington. Known as a font of comic book history trivia, he has delivered lectures on the history of American Comic Books, Japanese Manga, Doctor Who, and Cosplay at over a dozen conventions and served as an Expert In-Residence for a course on Graphic Novels for Librarians at the University of North Texas. In addition to his work for Screen Rant, Matt is currently the Editor In Chief of Kabooooom.com and writes reviews for No Flying, No Tights – a graphic literature and anime review site aimed at teachers and librarians. He also maintains a personal blog – My Geeky Geeky Ways – which hosts his extensive episode guide for the television series making up The Arrowverse as well as his comedic Let’s Play videos. What little spare time he has is devoted towards acting, role-playing, movie-riffing and sarcasm. You can follow his adventures on Twitter, @GeekyGeekyWays.