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| Like a shadow, always racing side by side. Like a broken mirror, perverting everything he stands for At least he's a better looking opposite than Bizarro Superman. |
When I began this little theme
week, I will admit that I was unaware that there were in fact two men that went
with the Zoom persona, one menacing Barry Allen and another who set his sights
on his successor Wally West. Since the main point of this is to build hype for
the new “The Flash” TV series, I’ll focus on Barry’s nemesis and cover Wally’s
some other time. I'll refer to this guy as Reverse-Flash and Wally's baddy as Zoom. Now that that little explanation is out of the way, on with
the show.
Eobard Thawne is from the 25th
century. Yeah, there’s a lot of time travel weirdness mixed in with this guy, I’ll
present the info according to Thawne’s timeline not how it may have been
presented in the comics. It’s easier on the noodle. Thawne for some reason was
deeply obsessed with the Flashes of the twentieth century, Barry Allen in
particular. Not too odd there, there are plenty of people in today’s era that
are obsessed with people of the past. Don’t believe me, go to a historical reenactment
or a Renaissance Fair. No, what makes Thawne a special kind of crazy is that he
recreated the Allen’s electro-chemical bath to get his own speed related
powers, and even got cosmetic surgery to make himself look like the long dead
hero. Messed up right? Using the speed powers he gained and the Cosmic
Treadmill, yes that’s a thing, he travelled back in time to meet his hero. Unfortunately
the Treadmill malfunctioned, dropping Thawne off a few years after his intended
target. He looked through a modern Flash Museum, taking in the sights as any
time traveler would, and made a horrifying discovery. That he was destined to
become the Flash’s nemesis the Reverse Flash, and ultimately die by his hand.
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| Scary looking face. |
A combination of A.) Realizing that
he is “destined” to hate his hero, B.) the disorientating effects of the
damaged Cosmic Treadmill, and C.) the fact he wasn’t 100% there to begin with,
caused Thawne’s sanity to snap. His first scheme, to be seen as a resurrected
but more brutal Flash, was thwarted by the Wally West. He was sent back to his
own era with his memories erased. They eventually came back, Thawne found an
old Flash costume in a time capsule, reversed the color scheme, and started a
live of villainy. He battled with Flash across time, both in his home era and
our own.
He attempted to replace the Flash
on several occasions, even going so far as to try to seduce Barry Allen’s wife,
Iris. She spurned is advances twice, before the insane speedster vibrated his
hand through her skull. Turned her brain to pudding in the process. Then, after
Allen found a new love interest, Thawne showed up again and threated Allen’s
new fiancé. Not wanting to lose someone he loved again, Flash and Reverse-Flash
had a heated battled, ending with Allen snapping Thawne’s neck. Like every
good bad guy, he wasn’t slain forever. He returned and remained Flash’s
constant psychotic former fan.
Like most villains that follow the “anti-their-hero-nemesis”
theme, Reverse-Flash has virtually identical powers to the Flash family. In a
Flash mini-series The Flash: Rebirth it
is explained that in duplicating the Flash’s accident, he also created his own
version of the Speed Force. This negative Speed Force coupled with his
knowledge of “past” make Reverse-Flash a terrifying opponent for the Flash, and
anyone else that got in his way.
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| I destroyed everything he loves, and loved every second of it. How'd you get in here? I'm the Reverse-Flash, I go where I want. |
Surprisingly, Reverse-Flash hasn’t
been in too much. You’d think one of Flash’s major antagonists would show up
where ever his heroic obsession went, but hey, the Flash hasn’t been in too
much either. He appeared as a villain in an episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold going up against not only Barry Allen
and Batman, but also Jay Garrick and Wally West.
Reverse-Flash’s truly sadistic side
was shown in Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, a film adaptation of the
Flashpoint crossover comic of DC. Thawne uses his knowledge of the dangers of
time travel and Barry’s lingering pain over his mother’s death to trick Flash
to going back in time to rewrite history. Barry’s actions unwittingly shattered
reality as he knew it, creating a terrible future where many of the Justice
League members at each other’s throats, Bruce Wayne is dead but his Father, Thomas,
is the current Batman, his wife is married to another man, and worst of all he
can’t travel back in time to fix things because of Reverse-Flash’s powers. He
actively sucked away enough of the Speed Force to keep Barry from reaching the
speeds necessary to travel back in time again. Sick monster.
I’m unsure how Eobard Thawne will
be presented in The Flash. Which is
kind of exciting. Will they stick with the original time traveling story, or
will they create a new background for the show. It’ll be interesting to see
where they go with it. At this point all I know is that he’s a character who’s “past
is a mystery and who harbors a dark secret.” From Wikipedia. He’s also seeing
Iris West, so really either idea is still up for grabs.
Reverse-Flash is interesting simply
because of his background. Was he always destined to be the Flash’s nemesis or
did he just make all the wrong choices? From what I’ve seen he’s as
bloodthirsty as Sabertooth and as off kilter as the Joker, a dangerous
combination. I hope The Flash’s
version lives up to the legacy. Next time, Why the Flash is arguably the most
important character of comics.
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| You're a sick man Thawne You're just getting that now? You're slower than Barry. Considerably slower, yes. |
http://azraeuz.deviantart.com/art/Flash-Reverse-Flash-Zoom-ARTGERM-269449119
http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/File:Reverse_Flash_058.jpg
http://screenrant.com/justice-league-flashpoint-paradox-comic-con-2013-images-clips/
http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/File:Reverse_Flash_061.jpg
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