Eobard Thawne (New Earth)

Real Name: Eobard Thawne Nicknames: Reverse-Flash Former Aliases: Professor Adrian Zoom Other Current Aliases: No other known current aliases

Status
Occupation: professional criminal Legal Status: Legal status unknown Identity: Secret Marital Status: Marital status unknown Group Affiliation: No known group affiliation Base of Operations: 25th century Central Cityplex

Origin
One day in 2463, a time capsule materialized out of the air. Inside were many relics from the 20th century, including a genuine costume used by the Flash. Eobard Thawne amplified the super-speed wave patterns contained in the suit using a simple 25th century technique, giving him super-speed when he put in on. He dyed the costume the reverse in color of its original hues. Naming himself Professor Zoom, he decided to become the greatest criminal in human history.

Place of Birth: Place of birth unknown Place of Death: Central City Known Relatives: Malcolm Thawne (distant ancestor), President Thawne, Meloni Thawne, Bart Allen (distant descendents) First Appearance: Flash (1st series) #139 (September, 1963) Final Appearance: Flash (1st series) #324 (August, 1983)

History
Eobard Thawne was a wealthy young man living in the 2460s. He longed for the heroic age of the 20th century. Foremost among the super-heroes, in his mind, was Barry Allen, the second Flash. He worshipped him as a hero and as a friend. He knew everything about Barry, keeping a collection of memorabilia about his hero. At the center was Barry's biography, The Life Story of the Flash by Iris Allen. Barry's life became as real to Eobard as did his own. He underwent a Plastomorph operation to make himself look like Barry. One day, he came across Barry's cosmic treadmill in an antique store. He killed the cashier in order to acquire this Holy Grail of Flash collectibles. Now, Eobard had the means to meet his idol. All he had to do then was to somehow duplicate the reaction that gave Barry his superspeed. The ordeal cost him his fortune and shaved years off his life, but he know had the chance to become Barry's friend and partner. Grabbing the biography for an autograph, Eobard set off to the 20th century on the treadmill.

However, the treadmill's calibration had been affected by the centuries of not being used. It miscalculated his arrival, and Eobard appeared several years after Barry's death, when Wally West was the Flash. His journey had been pointless, or so he thought. Eobard visited the Flash Museum. There, he learned that he was destined to become the Flash's greatest villain: Professor Zoom.

This drove Eobard mad. He began to honestly believe he was Barry Allen. He showed up at Wally's door on Christmas Eve dressed as Barry. For several months, he patrolled the streets of Central/Keystone with Wally as the Flash. Everything went well and everyone was happy until he began to go mad again. During one battle with the Combine, a Combine agent started to brag that he had killed the Flash after blasting Wally with a cannon. Eobard began to beat him up, saying, "I'm the Flash!" This is when Wally realized that something was wrong, that he was not Barry.

After leaving Wally to die in a Combine trap, Thawne began to completely turn around, fighting Wally, Jay Garrick, Max Mercury, and Johnny Quick. Finally, after finding the biography that Eobard had brought with him in an alley, Wally deduced the villain's true identity. In a showdown at the Flash Museum, Thawne switched to the predominantly yellow costume of his future self, Professor Zoom. Finally, Wally managed to trick Zoom into returning to his own era on the cosmic treadmill. Thawne retained no memories of this journey.

Thawne began a career as a criminal in his home era. The police department and his fellow crooks knew him as the Professor due to his scientific leanings. The Flash remained one of his favorite characters of history, but now he hated him because the hero stood for law and justice and he stood for the reverse.

One day in 2463, a time capsule materialized out of the air. Inside were many relics from the 20th century, including a genuine costume used by the Flash. He amplified the super-speed wave patterns contained in the suit using a simple 25th century technique, giving him super-speed when he put in on. He dyed the costume the reverse in color of its original hues. Naming himself Professor Zoom, he decided to become the greatest criminal in human history. His first crime was to steal the famous Cribi sculptures. However, Barry Allen, on a rescue mission to destroy an atomic clock that was also in the time capsule and had become an atomic bomb during time travel, stopped Zoom.

The authorities of the future had placed Zoom in a prison enclosed by invincible radiation, even feeding him radiation, so that no one would ever need to go in his cell. However, he used the radiation of the cell to increase his mental capacity, to the point where he could actually follow through with his most recent twisted plan. Wanting to enjoy the double life of Barry Allen, he used his enhanced brain power to switch places with the Flash, sending him to the 20th century and Barry into his own cell in the future. Changing Barry's electric shaver into a matter distributor, Zoom changes his face to make it look like Barry's. Of all nights, this happened to be the night before Barry's wedding to Iris West. However, in the future, the real Barry escaped the radiation cell by using his costume ring's chemical formula to have a shrinking effect on the energy wall, and then vibrated through it. He travelled back to the 20th century, where he broke up his own wedding, which was in progress, and took Zoom outside, where they battled. After the Flash defeated Zoom, the authorities from the future whisked Zoom back to his own era for conviction.

Eventually, Zoom came back to the 20th century. Here, he fell in love with Barry's wife, Iris. His plan was to lead the life of a criminal, destroy the Flash, and claim Iris as his own wife. He successfully started his criminal career, establishing a heroin-smuggling ring. One day, he came to Iris, and asked her to either leave Barry for him or die. At a costume party the next day, Zoom asked Iris what she had decided. She slapped him, saying that even if she didn't love Barry so much, she would never let him lay a hand on her. Zoom had one of his henchman drug Barry with "angel-dust." Barry felt dazed and Iris went to get him a glass of water. She entered a room where the deranged convict, Clive Yorkin was hiding out. Here, Zoom vibrated to invisibility and slipped his vibrating hand through Iris' skull, fatally damaging the molecules in her brain. Obviously, all the evidence pointed to Yorkin. However, Barry, from the security video of the murder, determined that only a person with super-speed could commit a murder invisibly. He chased Zoom through the ocean to Zoom's cosmic-powered time-tripper. They went backwards through time, and Barry left Zoom to face doom alone.

Zoom eventually returned, however. He showed up at what was supposed to be Barry Allen's second wedding, to Fiona Webb. However, Barry Allen never showed up, but Zoom did, and Flash was forced to kill him in order to save Fiona's life.

Afterwards, five Rogues, Captain Boomerang, Captain Cold, Pied Piper, Weather Wizard, and Trickster, stole Zoom's corpse from the morgue and held a special ceremony atop an isolated column of rock thirty miles north of Central City. They destroyed his coffin in rage, cursing him for having been killed by their nemesis.

Characteristics
Height: 5'11" Weight: 179 lbs (81 kg) Eyes: blue Hair: blond Unusual Features: No unusual features

Powers
Known Powers: Superspeed. Known Abilities: No known abilities. Strength Level: Strength level unknown

Miscellaneous
Equipment: No known equipment. Transportation: No known transportation. Weapons: No known weapons.

Recommended Readings

 * Flash (1st series) #139 (September, 1963)
 * Flash #283-284 (March-April, 1980)
 * Flash #325 (September, 1983) well, at least his corpse
 * Flash #328 (December, 1983) flashback
 * Flash (2nd series) #72-79 (January-August, 1993)
 * Flash Annual #8 (1995) flashback
 * Flash Secret Files #1 (November, 1997)
 * The Life Story of the Flash