A super-hero and his archnemesis always have a very strong yin-yang thing going on, and
in the case of the Flash, it’s easy to jump to the conclusion that the Flash’s opposite
is… well..
BY NAME, the Reverse-Flash.
But this isn’t actually the case, because the Flash’s TRUE archnemesis is…
Captain COLD?
Captain Cold A.K.A.
Leonard Snart, HAILS from an abusive childhood.
Leonard and his sister Lisa took refuge with their grandfather who ran an ice cream truck,
because of course he did.
In these formative years, Leonard and Lisa took to petty crimes and bullying other children,
but at the age of eighteen, Leonard left home and truly started his life of crime.
He wasn’t Captain Cold quite yet, but after his first run-in with the Flash, he realized
that he was going to need a little power of his own if he wanted to STORM Central City.
Snart studied the Flash’s speed, looking for a weakness… and found an ICEBERG of
a solution.
Len designed his signature Cold Gun which contrary to popular belief, doesn’t shoot
ice!
Instead, it uses radiation to create “cold fields” of absolute-zero temperatures, slowing
EVERYTHING to a halt.
It still a freeze ray though.
I don’t care what Captain Cold says, it’s clearly a freeze ray.
Now that he’s packing some heat or in this case, cold, the Captain and some other Flash
villains formed a group simply known as “The Rogues”.
They often work together to commit crimes and bring The Flash down, but they also work
individually from time to time.
You know what?
We’ll do a more in depth video on them some other time, so back to Captain Cold.
For the most part, Captain Cold tried to commit crimes and kill the Flash.
You know, generic supervillain stuff, but it wasn’t until Barry Allen’s death that
Cold started getting some real character development.
Like how about in the Underworld Unleashed event where he sells his soul to to the demon
Neron and then dies when he’s double crossed?
Development, yay!
Don’t worry, he’s brought back to life pretty soon after because Wally West went
and got his soul back from Neron in Hell.
Because comics.
In all seriousness, with Barry gone, Cold rode the line of villain, vigilante, contract
assassin, and bounty hunter.
Heck, Captain Cold has even been known to work WITH Wally West on occasion, has squared
off against other super villains, and refused to help rule the world in Final Crisis.
But he did kind of help kill Bart Allen so I guess he’s not TOO much of a good guy?
Cold was pretty pissed off that he killed a kid, but when Barry returned from technically-not-death,
Cold recognized that the TRUE Flash had returned and snapped right on back into his old ways.
This is all of course until Captain Cold’s successor from the future, COMMANDER COLD,
comes back in time to prevent a murder, but that really doesn’t matter because Flashpoint
happened.
Comics sure are fun, aren’t they folks.
Rebooted into the New 52, we’re introduced to a Captain Cold with meta-human ice powers,
but it’s soon revealed that this Leonard Snart actually shares a similar origin and
early super-villain career as his Pre-52 predecessor.
The only difference is that THIS time, the Rogues managed to encode their weapons into
their DNA meaning that Snart no longer had to rely on his Cold Gun since he could shoot
ice from his hands.
Yet, this is a blessing and a curse because any beer he holds instantly freezes in his
hands.
Truly this is the the worst setback of all time FOR FREAKING SUPER POWERS!
Fun fact, the only alcoholic beverage that Captain Cold can drink is a fruity cocktail
that Barry Allen whipped up when he worked at a criminal hotspot to spy on his enemies.
Since the drink has an extremely low freezing point, it wouldn’t turn to ice when Cold
tries to drink it.
Not too long after, the Rogue’s took a backseat in the Flash comic so that it could focus
on other villains, but they did pop up in the big event, Forever Evil.
The event itself is a lot like Final Crisis.
Super powerful bad guys come to Earth, unite all the other bad guys, the Rogues don’t
want to join in, and the super bad dudes hunt ‘em down.
During this time, Deathstorm, an evil alternate universe version of Firestorm, untangles Cold’s
DNA, removing the Cold Gun and taking away his powers.
Despite this setback though, Snart still ends up helping save the day.
Because of his heroism in Forever Evil, Snart is hired by Lex Luthor as the head of security
for LexCorp.
Which apparently, he might be planning to rob some point down the road.
This sort of makes him a member of the Justice League since he frequently tags along with
Lex whenever he needs help.
As of right now, that’s the statue quo because he’s pretty much vanished while the Justice
League is off fighting in the Darkseid War.
Oh and in case you’re wondering “Why didn’t you talk about him in the Legends of Tomorrow
comic?”
As of this recording, that’s never actually been a comic and it’s totally original to
the Arrowverse.
I didn’t talk about it because it doesn’t exist.
Please don’t leave a stupid comment about it, but I know you’re going to anyway so
whatever...
If you want to read about Captain Cold for yourself, I’d recommend checking out The
Flash: The Rogue War, The New 52 Flash: Rogues Revolution, and the one-off issue, Absolute
Zero.
That’s #182.
So what member of the Rogues do you want me to talk about next?
Heat Wave or Weather Wizard?
Click or comment to cast your vote!
Also, if you want to know more about the Reverse Flash, Professor Zoom, just click on this
video right here!