Reverse Flash is one of the adversaries The Flash has fought throughout his career that stands out the most from the rest. The Reverse Flash, who is portrayed as this superhero’s evil twin, has made a career out of crime and wickedness, and he abhors all that the Flash represents.
John Broome and Carmine Infantino created him, and his other names include “Professor Zoom” and “Eobard Thawne.” The Arrowverse and the Flash comics frequently feature Eobard, who shares the same superspeed as the Flash. Today, we will examine his narrative arc and fill you in on all of his details.
Reverse Flash in Arrowverse – explored
Reverse Flash, also known as “Eobard Thawne” in the metaverse, was a metahuman from the 22nd century. He was a distant relative of the late Eddie Thawne, a notorious felon who had a history of conflict with Barry Allen’s Flash. Eobard was inspired by the Flash of the twenty-first century as a child and was resolved to become just like him. Eobard even went so far as to replicate the incident that gave the real Flash his abilities.
He was successful in this experiment, and he now has similar speeding abilities as the Flash. Eobard made the decision to go back in time, where he discovered that he would eventually turn into the Flash’s archenemy. He adopted the persona of “Reverse Flash” and developed an obsession with enhancing his abilities in an effort to outdo the superhero. Eobard first looked up to the Flash, but as time went on, he began to despise him. He even got access to the Negative Speed Force.
Eobard was able to harness negative energy to sneak through time using this force, which was the exact opposite of the Speed Force that drove the Flash. Although the powers of both the Flash and the Reverse Flash emanated from opposing forces of energy, they were roughly equal in intensity and engaged in several battles without being able to win.
After discovering that Flash was really “Barry Allen,” Eobard came up with a scheme to go back in time and assassinate Barry when he was a child. The Flash from 2024 arrived in time to save the young Barry from being killed, hence this plot was unsuccessful.
This greatly incensed Eobard, who later killed Barry’s mother “Nora” in a fit of wrath. Eobard then deftly implicated Barry’s father “Henry” in this crime, but he soon discovered that his relationship with the Negative Speed Force had become erratic. He subsequently discovered that the Flash was his greatest option for traveling back in time after becoming stuck in the early 21st century.
Eobard then came up with an elaborate plan and killed ‘Harrison Wells,’ the director of S.T.A.R. Labs. He then took up Harrison’s identity and started promoting the creation of a particle accelerator at S.T.A.R. Labs. This particle accelerator would one day help Barry become Flash, and Eobard went as far as to mentor the Flash in his early stages of training.
In the disguise of Harrison Wells, Eobard worked closely with the Flash to ensure he had increased speed. Eobard planned to use the Flash’s speed force connection to return to his time, but his plan was exposed before he could successfully escape. Moreover, ‘Eddie Thawne’ sacrificed his life to wipe out Eobard’s existence and stop his plans, and Eobard then ceased to exist.
A year after this incident, the Flash traveled back in time to save his mother from being killed by Reverse Flash. In doing so, the Flash accidentally created the Flashpoint, which held Eobard captive for months. The Flash realized this, and he decided to release Eobard, who immediately ran back in time to murder Nora. Although Eobard did not exist in this timeline after Eddie’s death, he remained as a ‘time remnant’ after the Flash released him from the Flashpoint.
The Speed Force was responsible for turning Eobard into a time remnant, which meant that he would exist in a fixed point of time until time caught up to him. Essentially, Eobard was just a remnant from an aborted timeline, and he was often chased around by ‘Black Flash.’ In order to get rid of Black Flash, Eobard was determined to find the ‘Spear of Destiny’ that would help him return to his original state.
He did not have the resources to find the Spear himself and resorted to allying with villains who worked together to retrieve this mighty Spear. Though Eobard successfully got his hands on the Spear, the ‘Legends of Tomorrow’ team that protected the timelines located him and depowered the Spear. With nothing to protect him, Eobard was finally cornered by ‘Black Flash’ who vaporized Eobard and, in a way, killed him.
However, Eobard mysteriously resurfaced on Earth-X and joined forces with the New Reich. The New Reich was the ruling government on this Earth and was overseen by the ‘Fuhrer.’ Eobard worked for the Fuhrer and even tried to perform heart surgery on ‘Overgirl’ under his command.
Later, the Fuhrer and the New Reich were defeated by various teams of superheroes such as Team Flash, Team Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow, and Supergirl. These superheroes killed the Fuhrer and his followers, and Eobard abandoned the New Reich’s allyship to avoid the same deadly fate.
In the future timelines of 2034, Eobard was kept in the meta-human wing at the Iron Heights prison. He could not use his powers here as they were negated by the powers of a lightning dagger known as Cicada’s dagger. Later in 2049, Eobard was scheduled for execution, and he then started mentoring Barry Allen’s daughter ‘Nora West-Allen’ to help her travel to the past timelines.
His real motive was to use Nora’s connection to the speed force to destroy the dagger and thereby prevent his execution. Eobard’s plan worked, and he managed to free himself, but both Barry and Nora soon cornered him. However, Eobard used his connection to the Negative Speed Force and escaped this situation.
The Anti-Monitor Crisis was a major apocalyptic event that ended up in the creation of the new multiverse, and this event had quite an impact on Eobard’s spirit. His spirit fused with that of Harrison Wells from the old multiverse to form brainwaves of ‘Harrison Nash Wells.’ Eobard then possessed Nash’s body, which caused a surge of negative emotions in Nash and led him to develop extreme hatred for everyone. Nash then tried to kill ‘Cisco Ramon,’ even though he thought of Cisco as a son.
Moreover, Nash also had an urge to kill Barry and the entire Team Flash, and he shared these thoughts with Cisco. With some help from the Flash, Cisco eventually freed Nash’s body from Eobard’s spirit. A few months later, the Speed Force required Eobard’s help in defeating ‘August Heart,’ a criminal speedster. Eobard briefly worked alongside the Flash as the two came together and successfully beat August.
Eobard later created the ‘Negative Speed Force,’ which allowed him to manipulate time; and even kickstart Armageddon. This time, Reverse Flash was determined to defeat Barry Allen once and for all. He started manipulating time, eventually driving Barry to insanity as the superhero began questioning his actions. Eobard caused the death of Joe West, former Central City Police Department’s captain, and also framed Barry as a mole working for a crime syndicate called the ‘Black Hole.’
All the incidents drove Barry to madness, and he was even suspended from the C.C.P.D. Barry ended up in the year 2031, and he went rogue in this timeline and even caused the destruction of Earth. However, ‘Despero,’ a Kalanorian from the future, witnessed this Armageddon on Earth in 2031 and traveled to 2021 with the intention of preventing Barry from destroying the Earth.
Barry Allen from the year 2021 narrowly escaped Despero and decided to travel to 2031 himself to prevent his future self from destroying the Earth. Here, Barry discovered that Eobard had used the Negative Force to become a businessman and that the Reverse Flash was engaged to his supposed wife ‘Iris West-Allen.’ Barry sought the help of Damien Darhk and prevented this alternate timeline from ever happening.
Barry restored things to normal, which resulted in the erasure of Eobard’s existence from this timeline itself. Eobard sought Team Flash and Barry’s help to at least restore him and bring him back to life, and Barry was initially hesitant to help his nemesis. However, he finally saved Eobard’s life by cutting his connection to the Negative Speed Force and then sent him to A.R.G.U.S. prison.
Eobard was stripped of all his powers by the Time Wraiths and was made to work as a protector of a fixed point in the timeline. He was sent in the year 1914 to ensure that Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated, leading to the World War. Though Eobard believed that the World War must take place, he changed the circumstances under which Ferdinand was killed to help the Legends of Tomorrow gain the attention of the ‘Waverider.’
However, the Legend’s plan did not work out, and Eobard was caught in the midst of it. He was finally killed by a robotic clone of Sara Lance, who was also the captain of the Waverider. He was later brought back to life by the Time Wraiths, who gave him a second chance, since he did not abandon his post in 1914. After being resurrected, Eobard met ‘Meena Dhawan’ and fell for her. The two started dating, but this did not last long as the Negative Forces killed Eobard as a part of a resurrection plan.
Eobard later emerged again after being constantly killed and resurrected and vowed to get rid of the Flash once and for all. He returned to the Negative Speed Forces and absorbed all their powers before confronting the Flash. However, he was overpowered by the superhero, and his body was disintegrated by his own negative bodily energies.
He appeared in the animated series Batman: the Brave and the Bold
Reverse Flash made a brief appearance in the second season of the animated ‘Batman: The Brave and the Bold’ series in an episode titled ‘Requiem for a Scarlet Speedster!’ In this episode, Reverse Flash tried to trick The Flash into traveling to a different time. He then knocked The Flash unconscious and even coerced him to run on an advanced treadmill that transferred The Flash’s Speed Force into a bracelet.
Reverse Flash was wearing this bracelet, which helped him to enhance his speed and gave him the powers necessary to conquer the 25th century. Reverse Flash even distributed these powers among his followers and almost succeeded in taking over the 25th century. The situation was finally controlled with some help from Batman, Kid Flash and the first Flash ‘Jay Garrick’, who all donned similar power bracelets to defeat Reverse Flash.
The first comic book appearance explored
Reverse Flash was first introduced in the ‘Flash’ comics in 1963 in an issue titled ‘Menace of the Reverse-Flash.’ The comic begins with Flash traveling to the 25th century on an urgent mission, where he comes across Reverse Flash. Reverse Flash boasts about being the fastest man in the 25th century, and the Flash is quite intrigued by his futuristic counterpart.
Back in the present day, A TV reporter reports the news of a time satellite taking off for the future, and he says that this satellite is supposed to land in the 25th century. Some items were sent to the future in a time capsule, including one of the Flash’s costumes.
As the satellite launches successfully, a press conference is arranged for ‘Dr. Walter Drake’, the scientist who was behind the creation of this satellite. However, Dr. Drake seems very shaken up and leaves the press conference in a hurry. Barry Allen, aka the Flash, wonders why Dr. Drake is behaving in this manner, and decides to visit him. Barry transforms into the Flash and visits Dr. Drake’s office to ask him if he needs help.
The physicist tells the Flash that he is worried because one of the objects sent in the time capsule was an atomic clock. In the future, this clock would undergo a neuclonic change and become an atomic bomb that would cause irreversible damage. The Flash decides to travel to the future before the bomb sets off, and he gets on his cosmic-powered treadmill that helps him travel to future timelines.
In the meantime, the Reverse Flash comes across the time capsule in the future and gets his hands on the Flash’s uniform. Reverse Flash expresses that he hated the Flash very much but at the same time, he also envied Flash’s super speed. He had decided to become the total opposite of this superhero and even had been planning to travel back to Flash’s 20th century. Reverse Flash had an elaborate plan to go to the 20th century and use the 25th century’s advanced technology to steal the Flash’s super speed.
Unfortunately, his plan never worked out, but he lucked out when he came across the time capsule. Reverse Flash managed to derive the Flash’s superspeed from his costume, took on the name ‘Professor Zoom,’ and then decided to commit crimes and unleash evil in the 25th century. His first plan as the Reverse Flash was to steal precious ‘Cribi structures’ that would draw some attention to him. He used his newfound super speed to break into a museum and steal one of them.
Meanwhile, Flash shows up in the 25th century and starts looking for the atomic clock. He visits the site where the satellite crashed and finds his costume and the atomic clock to be missing. He then sets on a mission across the city to look for both these items, when he comes across a newspaper stand and sees reports of the new criminal known as ‘Reverse Flash’ aka Professor Zoom.
In a different part of the city, Reverse Flash continues to break into buildings and tries to steal a second Cribi sculpture. While he is escaping, the Flash spots him, but he fails to capture the villain. Reverse Flash’s costume was equipped with electro-rockets that helped him escape the scene. However, the Flash realizes that his evil counterpart also emits the same vibrations as him, and he traces Reverse Flash back to his house. The Flash breaks into the house and realizes that the homes in this century are a lot more futuristic.
He faces Reverse Flash, and the two spring into action as they start fighting each other. However, Reverse Flash seems to have more tricks up his sleeve, and Flash realizes that his only chance at defeating him is by getting closer to him. The Flash uses a burst of ultra-speed to catch the Reverse Flash off guard, but the villain moves faster than light and punches the Flash. Reverse Flash then says there is no use in fighting since they are matched in all their abilities and even boasts about having the upper hand due to a chemical coating on his suit.
This coating prevents any damage to his suit caused by the heat produced due to air friction. While Reverse Flash brags about this, the Flash finds his weakness and figures out a way to defeat him. An invisible aura protected the Flash’s suit, and he believed this was a more substantial means of protection than a chemical coating. The Flash then grabbed Reverse Flash and held him at a small distance so that his invisible aura did not protect the villain. He then ran around Reverse Flash speedily, thereby getting rid of the chemical coating and forcing his evil counterpart to surrender.
The Flash finally got his suit back and reported Professor Zoom to the authorities. He realized that he now needed to find the atomic clock before it caused a blast in this century and finally located a woman who had picked up the clock from the street. As she admired the clock, the Flash barged into her house with his super speed and stole it. He then realized that the bomb was due to set off in just a minute and managed to save the day by finding an appropriate explosion site. The Flash then returned to the present and destroyed the spare costume so that no one could misuse it again.
The difference between Reverse Flash and Zoom
Reverse Flash, also known as Professor Zoom in some instances, has some similarities with ‘Zoom,’ but they’re two entirely different beings. They are a little difficult to tell apart since they also share the same physique and similar costumes.
Reverse Flash got this name since he was the complete opposite of the Flash and stood for pure evil and chaos as opposed to the Flash, who was all about doing good. Reverse Flash’s character was also designed to complement the Flash, and the two had inverted color schemes in terms of costume and the lightning emitted by them.
Later on, Zoom was introduced as a fresh take on the older ‘Reverse Flash’. Zoom first appeared in the ‘Flash: Rebirth’ comics in 2001 and was known as the newer Eobard Thawne. Reverse Flash and Zoom differed a little in their costume design, and while Zoom’s costume covered his red pupils, Reverse Flash’s costume left his eyes visible. Moreover, Reverse Flash was primarily known for his key roles in ‘Flashpoint,’ while Zoom was not introduced until much later in ‘Flash #40.’
After the D.C. comics rebooted the universe after the ‘New 52’, almost all villains in the Flash comics were reconstructed, making it easier to differentiate between them. The New 52’s Reverse Flash was actually ‘Daniel West’ who donned a red and black costume, different from that of Zoom’s. Moreover, Daniel’s Reverse Flash was never referred to as ‘Professor Zoom,’ eliminating further confusion.
What makes him so powerful?
Reverse Flash’s power came from the Speed Force, an extra-dimensional source of dark matter that gave him his super speed. In due course of time, he gained access to the Negative Speed Force, which connected to his persona and significantly altered his body to perform beyond the scope of human abilities. Reverse Flash could then detect the presence of any other speedsters connected to this Speed Force while himself being undetectable to them. This dark matter helped the Reverse Flash easily handle extreme physical exertion, making him one of the most powerful beings in the entire multiverse.
The Speed Force also gave him regenerative healing properties, which helped him recover from any wounds or injuries at a fast speed. It also slowed down his aging process, which helped Eobard Thawne maintain the same physical appearance and bodily performance even after spending up to thirty years in the past. He also had superhuman durability and survived various deadly attacks without suffering any damage.
Reverse Flash’s mental processes also worked much faster than most humans, which helped him retain huge information and take decisions very quickly.
Eobard could also vibrate any parts of his body at various frequencies, which created a haze that ordinary people could not perceive. He can also phase his body parts through other beings by vibrating his body cells, thereby killing them without causing physical damage to their outer bodies. In one such instance, Reverse Flash killed ‘Cisco Ramon’ by phasing his hand through his body and crushing his heart with his fist.
Reverse Flash also had the ability to produce surges of red electricity from within his body, and this electricity surge is powerful enough to cause all electronic devices around him to malfunction. He can create lightning in the form of straight streams or even gigantic waves that could wipe out entire cities. His negative speed force allowed him to generate electricity underneath him, which enabled him to fly in the air.
Reverse Flash’s most important power was his superspeed, and he was even speedier than the Flash in various timelines. By using his speed, he could perform multiple tasks such as aerokinesis, interdimensional travel, and even time travel. However, this time traveling came with certain side effects, such as the ‘time remnant construct,’ which created various versions of himself. This construct actually helped the Reverse Flash to some extent, since they confused his enemies and overwhelmed them. While existing as a time remnant, Eobard had the ability of ‘retrocognition,’ which helped him retain memories from different times.
He had superhuman reflexes and superhuman momentum and was also very agile. Reverse Flash also had superhuman stamina and strength and could exert extreme amounts of force without his speed.
After feeling humiliated due to the Flash’s speed, Reverse Flash connected to the Negative Still Force in order to manipulate time in a more subtle manner. Moreover, this gave him additional powers, such as the ability to displace people and objects in time. He could send anything to different timelines, as well as summon objects from other times. He could also stop his opponents by freezing them in time by just snapping his fingers.
Besides his connection to the Negative Still Force, he also connected to the Negative ‘Sage’ Force which gave him various psionic powers. He could create illusions to confuse his opponents, teleport from one place to another and even detect his opponents’ next moves. He even had the ability to summon tendrils of energy made up of the Negative Sage Force and use them as a weapon in combat.
He also tapped into the Negative Strength Force to enhance his physical strength from time to time, and he briefly also had the power to possess humans.
Reverse Flash was also skilled in hand-to-hand combat and had even defeated Flash in various instances. He had a lot of training in the martial arts and could also wield a knife.
As Eobard Thawne, the Reverse Flash had genius-level intellect and was considered one of the best minds in the entire multiverse. Moreover, he was also the most intelligent being on Earth-1. He held knowledge in the fields of medicine, engineering, computer sciences, and astronavigation and could easily navigate futuristic technology. He was also multilingual, and could even decipher the time language.
He was pretty cunning and was a master manipulator who managed to deceive people into siding with him.
Conclusion
Reverse Flash was the complete opposite of the Flash in his demeanor and had an interesting presence across various story arcs. He is one of the most prominent villains of the Flash and has a widespread presence even in the Arrowverse. Even the Flash has a hard time dealing with this evil counterpart, and we definitely do not want to make an enemy out of the super-speedy Reverse Flash!