While The Flash is on hiatus, we’ll be running weekly content about the comic book backgrounds of characters like Firestorm, Gorilla Grodd, and Reverse Flash, to help give you your Flash fix on Tuesdays.
Future Beginnings
For as many people as have been the Flash -- including Barry Allen, Jay Garrick, Wally West, and Bart Allen -- there have been nearly as many evil-doers who took up the mantle of the Reverse Flash. While the most well-known Reverse Flash is “Eobard Thawne,” who we’ll touch on later, he was surprisingly not the first. That honor belongs to Professor Edward Clariss, who fought the original Flash (Jay Garrick) under the moniker, “The Rival.” While not sporting the traditional yellow and red suit, Clariss did match up with Garrick’s speed and gave himself a twisted appearance similar to that of the original World War 2 Flash. His powers, as is the case with most of the Reverse Flashes, are essentially the same as the Flash (like being able to travel at super speed) albeit with a more sinister motivation. He gained his abilities by creating a formula that was similar to the one that gave Jay Garrick his speed.
Back to the most famous Reverse Flash, Eobard Thawne. What sort of name is Eobard, you may ask? Well, its a name from the far future of the 30th century! Yes, Eobard grew up loving the Flash, and was so enraptured with the hero that he did everything in his power to be just like him. He received plastic surgery to look like Barry Allen, used a machine to give himself the powers of the Flash, and traveled back in time on numerous occasions in order to destroy, and take over for, Central City’s greatest hero. Though in his very first appearance, he used a suit in order to harness the powers of the Flash, which gave it its reverse appearance, it was later confirmed that he in fact had altered his DNA.
When Barry Allen died in the comics, his mantle went to his sidekick, Wally West, and for decades Wally was the Flash. During this time, he fought the original Zoom -- Thawne -- at one point when Eobard tried to trick everyone into thinking that Barry Allen had returned from the dead. Later on, however, Wally received his own “Reverse Flash” in the form of Hunter Zolomon. Far and away my favorite interpretation of the character, Zolomon was a cop who specialized in analyzing the personalities of the Flash’s villains. In an adventure with the Flash, Thawne was paralyzed from the waist down by Gorilla Grodd, and wanted to go back in time with Wally’s help to correct this mistake. Wally, realizing that time travel tends to cause more problems than it fixes, refused, so Hunter attempted to do it himself which resulted in the “cosmic treadmill” blowing up in his face. (The cosmic treadmill, for those who don’t know, is what the Flash has used in the past in order to run through time).
Waking up in a hospital bed, Zolomon found himself able to travel at super speed, and was so fast that most people couldn’t even understand what he was saying, as he sounded like a “broken record.” Wally eventually beat Hunter, but not before losing his unborn children in the fight, who themselves were eventually resurrected thanks to time travel! (Oof, this can be exhausting sometimes!) Aside from Hunter, the most recent Reverse Flash was Daniel West who just recently hit the scene, but is actually a current member of DC’s Suicide Squad, which will have their own feature film next year. Daniel West is in fact related to both Iris and Wally West, bringing more of a “personal” touch to the speedster rivalry.
The Once and Future Zoom
So what makes Zoom scary? Well, the scariest thing about Zoom is seeing just how dangerous and destructive someone with the Flash’s powers can be. The Reverse Flash, whoever may be behind the mask, is usually completely insane. Hunter Zolomon believed that all the tragedy he was bringing to Wally West’s doorstep was “making him a better hero” while Thawne merely wanted to be Barry Allen in both heart and mind. Now, imagine these guys have super speed backing them up, using their powers to click their fingers so fast that they create sonic booms or vibrating the molecules in their hands to rip out someone’s heart.
While Thawne’s powers came from a machine that allowed him to tap into the “Speed Force,” Zolomon’s powers were a bit more intricate and dealt more with time. Essentially, Hunter had become “dislodged” from time, allowing him to control his own timeline and move as fast as he wanted. This presented quite the pickle for Wally and company, as no matter how fast he seemed to run, he still seemed like he was going in slow motion in comparison to Hunter. It was only by absorbing the speedforce from all of his friends, like some sort of super fast Captain Planet, that Wally was able to bring Hunter down.
So Which One is Wells?
Therein lies the biggest question. With so many Reverse Flashes on the table, which one is the secret identity of Harrison Wells on the The Flash show? Certainly, most of the clues are leading to Wells being Eobard Thawne, who may be a very distant relative to Eddie Thawne on the show. They even bring up the fact that Wells needs to harness energy from the Flash to power his suit to give himself super speed, a tactic that was common with Thawne in his early appearances. However, since he’s in a wheelchair, much like Hunter Zolomon, may he in fact be a dislodged-from-the-timestream Zoom? Perhaps he’s a combination of all the Zooms churned into a new version of the character?
There has also been the far-out theory that Wells isn’t the Reverse Flash at all! Some believe that Wells is in fact a future Barry Allen, somehow having lost his powers and forced to wear the costume of his greatest enemy in order to retain his powers and lead Barry on the “right” path. Who’s to say, but there are certainly a number of clues for folks to follow. It should be fantastic to see what else the Reverse Flash has in store for the Flash in the coming weeks based on its current run -- pun intended.
