Hey youtubers it's Charlie and since earlier this week I had a double Marvel video day
I thought it would be fun to do the same thing for Arrow and the Flash. So this video is
going to be a breakdown of all the different versions of Professor Zoom or the Reverse
Flash, they all have different names. But it's always the same. They are the Flash's
ultimate enemy and there might be one or more of them on the Flash TV show.
Hello new peoples, if you're finding me for the first time I'm doing Arrow and Flash videos
every week. Be sure to subscribe to get everything. I'm even doing a Flash comic con giveaway
that I'll explain at the end of this video.
So the version of the Reverse Flash you met first depends on when you started reading
comics or watching the movies and tv shows. There are at least 5 different versions of
the character and another one if you consider the Black Flash part of the lot. I will for
the purposes of this video but technically they're physical embodiments of death and
not so much part of the Thawne Lineage.
So here's everybody from back to front, front being the new 52 universe. There's The Rival
from the Golden Age Jay Garrick days, the original Professor Zoom Eobard Thawne from
the late 60s, The Hunter Zolomon Zoom from the Geoff Johns Rebirth era, Inertia in the
late 90s and currently in the New 52 universe the Daniel West Zoom. The Black Flash was
created in the late 90s, but subsequent versions of the comic have used him as more of a counterbalance
to the Flashes, including all the Reverse Flashes. It's not necessarily a villain.
All of their powers are based on the Speed Force, technically Hunter Zolomon is a little
different, but it's all about moving through time and space super fast. So you can look
at all of them as a really dysfunctional brotherhood of speedsters. Like a really terrible fraternity
that hazes the crap out of you.
The new TV Show hasn't given a name to the Speed Force yet, and as of the first episode
Barry Allen has no idea that other Flashes existed before him, like Jay Garrick or will
exist in the future.
So let's start at the beginning, the first Reverse Flash was just called "The Rival".
His real name was Doctor Edward Clariss and he was a professor at the University Jay Garrick
went to. He recreated the chemical accident that gave Garrick his powers. The formula
was called Velocity 9.
He manufactured the formula and wore a darker version of Garrick's costume, becoming a criminal.
The conceit was that his Velocity 9 formula was only temporary, so after it wore off Garrick
captured him and threw him in jail.
In a subsequent incident, Clariss ran so fast he hit the speed of light and entered the
Speed Force. Geoff Johns, who's a writer on the TV Show, brought Clariss back when he
was writing the Justice Society Comic in the early 2000s. I always forget how notable Geoff
Johns is for bringing back classic characters. He was the one who brought Barry Allen back
in Flash Rebirth. So don't be surprised if a lot of classic
heroes and villains show up on The Flash and Arrow.
The Clariss character ended up turning into pure Speed Force energy and escaped.
Next we have the first Zoom character, Eobard Thawne known as Professor Zoom. He was the
enemy of the Barry Allen Flash. His character was the start of tying the Reverse Flashes
to the good Flashes in a blood relative way. Really taking the idea of the Flash family
to a much more literal place.
Eobard was from the 25th Century, so like 400 years from now. He was the start of this
causality time loop that would become a huge part of Flash stories. At first he was a crazy
fan of the Barry Allen Flash, who at that time had been long dead. He replicated the
accident that gave Barry his powers, had plastic surgery to make himself look more like him
and found the cosmic treadmill. He used that to go back in time to meet Barry when he was
still alive but he miscalculated and arrived a couple years after his death.
In the Flash Museum he learned that he was destined to become a criminal and as a result
of the stresses of time travel and learning his fate, went completely nuts.
He tried to pass himself off as the real Barry Allen until Wally West beat the crap out of
him and sent him back to the future.
Way way later in the comics he started using the name Professor Zoom and kept trying to
go back in time to change the past so that he could defeat the Flash. This is also when
he starts killing people in Barry's Family. So if you remember the trailer for The Flash
tv show, we see a version of the reverse flash was there while Barry's mother was being murdered.
Mild spoiler warnings, but I'm guessing a lot of you already know the plot of Flash
Rebirth. That was published five years ago, so when we're talking about old comics don't
worry about spoiler comments or anything.
Eobard Thawne traveled back so many times and hurt Barry's family in so many different
ways that finally Barry snapped his neck and retired in the 30th century. I know, playing
it fast and loose with time travel.
During Eobard Thawne's era we also learned that his family descended from Barry's family.
Eobard was the descendant of Cobalt Blue, Barry's twin brother. Confusing I know, this
happened back in the 90s. The doctor delivering Barry and his brother accidently killed the
child of another woman named Charlene Thawne and apparently no one thought to check.
The interesting part about this is that on the Flash TV Show, detective pretty boy is
named Edward Thawne. We don't know enough about him yet. But he might secretly be related
to Barry due to some time travel paradox stuff going on.
TV Shows tend to simplify complicated book plots. Hint Hint Game of Thrones. So we'll
have to wait and see how the Flash TV Show deals with Thawne's connection to Barry.
The Flash Rebirth comic brought the character back when Geoff Johns brought Barry Allen
back from the dead.
At the end of all this they sever Thawne's connection to the speed force and lock him
up in Iron Heights Prison. On the TV Show, that's the place where Barry's father is in
prison. So if they ever do any prison scenes be on the lookout for a cell marked Thawne.
Thus begins the Hunter Zolomon Zoom era.
Zolomon was a police officer at Wally West's precinct in Keystone City. Remember the Flash
has bounced back and forth between Keystone and Central City. I'll explain the difference
in a sec.
Zolomon's area of expertise was criminology and psychology. He spent all his time trying
to get inside villains heads. His father was a serial killer and had a lot of bad luck
that resulted in his wife leaving him and getting paralyzed from the waist down during
one of Gorilla Grodd's attacks on the city.
He was Wally West's friend and knew he was the Flash, but when Wally refused to use the
speed force to change the past and prevent his accident, Zolomon went a little nuts.
He had always been resentful for not getting enough credit solving cases or being as good
as Wally.
So Zolomon tried to use the cosmic treadmill himself but it blew up and severed his connection
to the time stream. As a result he was able to travel a super speeds just like the Flash,
but his powers weren't based on the speed force. Instead he was moving through time,
so whenever he talked his speech would change speeds causing him to talk in a really funky
way.
In his deranged state he came to the conclusion that Wally had refused to help him because
nothing terrible had ever happened to him. So Zolomon went back in time to kill Wally's
pregnant wife. The event caused a miscarriage although Wally was able to borrow speed from
the other Flashes to catch Zolomon and defeat him.
This is another important aspect of the Speed Force, the idea that it can be divided by
multiple Flashes. No idea how the tv show is going to deal with this. As Barry is the
only Flash we've seen so far.
The next version of The Reverse Flash to exist was Inertia, he was a clone of Bart Allen.
He was a huge part of the Infinite Crisis and Rogues Revenge storyline before the new
52 reboot.
He ends up stealing Zoom's powers and calling himself Kid Zoom for a while and even got
the Rogues to help him kill Bart Allen. Since evil ends up turning on itself eventually
he went mad then killed the Hunter Zolomon Zoom and then himself was killed by the Rogues
who were taking revenge for being tricked into killing Bart Allen.
And this is where we hit Flashpoint and The New 52 reboot. This is were we get our current
day Reverse Flash Daniel West brother of Iris West. He just calls himself Zoom like Hunter
Zolomon too.
He got his powers in a freak accident that granted the speed force to several people
during an attack from the Rogues. This is also the event that gives the Rogues their
real life powers.
On the TV Show we've only met Iris West and Detective West. So it's not clear if they're
going to do a Daniel West Zoom storyline. It seems like they're going to stick with
a modified Flash Rebirth storyline for inspiration. But expect to see aspects from all the different
versions of the characters.
For instance, the accident in the new 52 universe that gives all the rogues real life super
powers. That's probably going to be the particle accelerator explosion at STAR Labs.
And I wouldn't be surprised if they combined Edward Thawne on the show with Hunter Zolomon's
character.
But now it's your turn. Let me know which version of the Reverse Flash do you think
the show is going to do?
I'm kind of thinking we'll see multiple versions of Zoom and Professor Zoom, just not at the
same time. Like there's the one we've seen in the trailers. But that might not necessarily
be Edward Thawne the detective character at Barry's Precinct.
It can get very confusing when Time Travel is involved. But I'll get more into spoilers
next week. They're screening the Pilot episode at Comic Con, so I'm going to post a full
review then. Probably by Wednesday if not sooner. Be sure to subscribe to get that.
If you did watch the leak, please use spoiler tags in the comments. Most people still haven't
seen it yet.
Here's the deal with my Flash Comic Con giveaway. I'm going to be giving away a Flash Funko
Pop Figure. All you have to do to enter is be a subscriber and leave a comment on this
video. I'll leave it open till the week after comic con.
I will be recording the Arrow and Flash Comic Con panels, so I'll upload footage of that
next week. They're doing a DC Megapanel too that Stephen Amell is hosting. They'll probably
announce some of the big crossovers the tv shows are doing between Constantine and Gotham.
Along with some Justice League news.
I added a strawpoll link in the description so you can vote on which panels you want me
to upload the most. It will really help me figure out what to upload first so be sure
to vote.
Right now click here to learn all about Robbie Amell's Firestorm Character and click here
to learn about the first Episode of Arrow Season 3.
Thanks for watching, see you guys tomorrow. High Fives!