THE FLASH Casts Kendrick Sampson as Brainstorm

Looks like The Flash just came up with a brainstorm.

Deadline reported that the CW series The Flash has cast Kendrick Sampson as Dominic Lanse, better known to DC Comics fans as the supervillain Brainstorm.  The character will be featured in a multi-episode arc, beginning with next week's episode, "Don't Run". 

According to the article, Brainstorm is described as "an affable TSA Agent who becomes the unwitting recipient of meta-human powers. Now Dominic bears the gift and curse of reading people’s thoughts, whether he wants to or not." 

Sampson, 29, is probably best known as Caleb Hapstall on the ABC series How to Get Away with Murder. His other television appearances include episodes of The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural, Gracepoint, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Greek, and Days of Our Lives.

Created in 2011 by Eric Wallace and Gianluca Gugliotta, the second Brainstorm first appeared in Mister Terrific #1 as Dominic Lanse, a villain who began mentally controlling people, including Mister Terrific, forcing them to commit murder. Getting the sudden urge to kill Senator Gonzalez, Mr. Terrific resisted the temptation to murder by performing a synaptic reboot with his T-Spheres. Considering the experiment a complete success, Brainstorm was able to feed off the minds of those he had under his thrall and with each person under his sway, he was one step closer to the “all-mind' which will supposedly make him an intellectual god who will bring about a new dawn of creation. 

Using his high-tech sunglasses to scan for irradiated airborne particles, Mr. Terrific followed the trail of particles to a mass of mall patrons who were going insane.  Mr. Terrific used his T-Spheres to create a dampening field in order to cancel out Brainstorm's sound wave.  Brainstorm introduced himself to Mister Terrific, then made the crowd believe Mister Terrific was a psychopath who needed to be stopped.  Making a hasty exit, Brainstorm announced that these mind games of his were just beginning.  Unleashing a mass of cables from his body which attach themselves to Mister Terrific's head, Brainstorm began to feed off his cerebrum.  Fortunately, Mr. Terrific's A.I. unit Nola ordered the T-Spheres to come back online and send a 200 db blast of white noise into Brainstorm's ears to knock out his concentration.

During the exchance, Mr. Terrific managed to pick up some disturbing info that Brainstorm was once Dominic Lanse, an elusive member of the Silicon Syndicate in Platinum Flats. Dominic was working in the field of artificial intelligence and transhumanistic interfaces. In short, Dominic was on the verge of developing a method that could download a person's intellect into a machine.  Dominic succeeded with this process but at the same time, Dominic could use the process to ingest intelligence from any human or machine so he could get closer to the "All-Mind".

Brainstorm exacted his revenge by using the extent of his mental capabilities to hold the entire city of Los Angeles hostage.  Deciding there was only one chance to stop Brainstorm, Mr. Terrific turned Brainstorm's mind-leeching on himself.  Brainstorm started to experience mental regression as his mind slipped from adulthood to infancy.  The influx of this reversal caused Brainstorm to spill out his innermost secrets, including Brainstorm's indirect responsibility for the death of Paula Holt, Mr. Terrific's wife.  Brainstorm's first mind-harvest attempt caused an electromagnetic pulse in the area where Paula was driving, and the malfunction in her car caused her to crash into oncoming traffic.  This revelation angered Mr. Terrific to the point that he began to beat Brainstorm within an inch of his life, placing him in a coma.

"Don't Run" airs Tuesday, December 5th at 8:00 p.m. EST.