He dons a red, mirrored lightning symbol, has red eyes, can run faster than you can blink, is a master of the time-space continuum and commits evil, heinous crimes. And he does it all while wearing yellow tights.
He truly does have what it takes to be a scary villain.
His real name is Eobard Thawne. But he also goes by Professor Zoom and/or the Reverse Flash.
Thawne is the true archenemy of Barry Allen, the second superhero to be called the Flash, and has one true purpose in his life: to kill Barry Allen and eliminate the memory that is the Flash from existence.
It wasn’t all hatred and evil schemes, at first. As a matter of fact, Thawne actually started out as a fan of the Flash that was around during the 25th Century and became so obsessed with the speedster that he became desperate to meet Barry Allen. So, he compiled idea after idea in order to meet his idol.
He replicated the electrochemical bath that had given Barry Allen his powers and was granted the powers of super-speed, but lost years of his life in the process. He even went as far as having plastic surgery to make himself look identical to Barry.
After undergoing all of those transformations, he used the Cosmic Treadmill to travel back into the past and meet his idol. But going back in time had consequences for Thawne that he did not foresee coming. He traveled back to a time where several years had passed after Barry’s unfortunate death and discovered from the Flash Museum that he was always meant to become the Reverse Flash and die at the hands of his hero, causing to become mentally unstable and go insane.
This results in Thawne going on a rampage across Central City. He attacks the city as “Barry Allen” as a form of revenge for “forgetting him.” He caused much destruction until he was ultimately defeated by the Flash family and was sent back to his own future, his memory being wiped of the scenario due to the trauma of time-traveling.
Later on in the comics, Thawne’s story had a different twist to it.
After the memory wiping, he later become known as “The Professor” and found a time capsule that contained the Flash suit worn by Barry Allen. Then, he created a Tachyon device (seen below) to amplify the suit’s speed energy, allowing Thawne to have the superpowers that the Flash has as long as he wore the device.
After obtaining the suit of the Flash, Thawne reversed the colors to separate himself from his heroic counterpart, changing the bright red base color of the suit to an evil yellow, the boots and lightning emblem from yellow to a dark red and the chest’s symbol’s circle from white to a brooding black.
Newly naming himself as Professor Zoom, Thawne began to use his new-found powers to commit crimes and to become the one sole villain who give the Flash a “run” for his money.
Get it? A “run?”
The Reverse Flash might be gone from history after the season finale of The Flash, but in his place comes a darker, more evil speedster. That speedster’s name is Zoom. And he shall become a force to be reckoned with.
Will Zoom make being a hero for the Flash a very difficult task? Or can the Flash overcome his new adversary and save the space-time continuum?
Professor Zoom debuts on the brand new and exciting second season of The Flash this October on SFL-TV, the CW!
