The episode's title is a play on the F. Scott Fitzgerald short story, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," whose title character is born with the characteristics of a 70-year-old man and ages backwards until the story ends with him as an infant.
The villain, Peter Orloff is depicted as a mad scientist. In the comics, he is a Russian geneticist who created the Russian superhero team Red Trinity. He later became an ally of the Flash.
Steve Palmer is most likely a name drop from The Flash #118. In the comics, he is a random actor who was going to play Barry in a biopic and eventually kidnapped The Flash. He wanted to live as The Flash and enjoy the fame that Barry gets, apparently not realizing that the second people realize he doesn't have any powers, he'll be revealed as a fraud.