Eobard Thawne, who has gone by the codenames "Professor Zoom" and "Reverse-Flash", is a
fictional character, a comic book supervillain in the DC Universe.
Thawne is the archenemy and a foil of the superhero Barry Allen, the second hero to
be called the Flash.
He is also the second of the Reverse-Flashes, as well as a maternal forefather of Bart Allen.
He first appeared in The Flash #139.
Created by John Broome and Carmine Infantino, Thawne first appeared in The Flash #139 in
1963, and remained one of Barry Allen's most formidable adversaries in comics over the
next quarter century.
In Flash #324, the character was apparently killed by the Flash in an effort to save his
fiancée, and spare her the death that Thawne gave to Flash's first wife, Iris.
Largely unseen over the next 25 years except in sporadic appearances, Thawne was resurrected
by writer Geoff Johns in 2009's The Flash: Rebirth, and reimagined as a major villain
in the DC Universe with his reintroduction.
Johns compares this to his similar treatment of Green Lantern villain Sinestro in an early
outline of the Rebirth series.
In 2009, Professor Zoom was ranked as IGN's 31st greatest comic book villain of all time.
Fictional character biography
The "Return of Barry Allen" storyline in The Flash #74-79 reveals that Thawne started out
as a fan of The Flash living in the 25th century and became desperate to meet him.
After gaining super-speed by replicating the electrochemical bath that gave Barry Allen
his powers, losing years of his life in the process - even undergoing surgery to make
himself look like Barry - he traveled backward in time using the Cosmic Treadmill to meet
his hero.
However, Thawne became mentally unstable upon arriving several years after Barry's death-
the Treadmill having broken down over the centuries- and discovering from the Flash
Museum that he is destined to become Reverse Flash and die at the hands of his idol, resulting
in his mind - already disoriented by the stress of time travel- seeking escape by convincing
himself that he is Barry Allen.
However, his true nature is eventually revealed due to his more violent nature, "Barry" attacking
Central City in revenge for "forgetting him," until he is ultimately defeated by the Flash
family and sent back to the future, his memory wiped of the incident due to the trauma of
the time-travel and the beating he had received at the hands of Wally West.
He later became a criminal known as "The Professor," who found a time capsule containing the Silver
Age Flash's costume.
He was able to use a machine to amplify the suit's speed energy, giving himself the abilities
of the Flash as long as he wore it.
In the process, Thawne reversed the colors of the costume, the suit becoming yellow,
the boots and lightning bolt highlights red, and the chest symbol's white circle becoming
black.
Taking the new name "Professor Zoom", Thawne used his speed powers to commit crimes, but
was stopped by the Flash, who had travelled forward in time to witness the time capsule
being opened because it also contained an atomic clock which threatened to explode like
an atomic bomb due to the process with which it had been sent into the Future.
The Flash, assuming his counterpart might know where the clock was, pursued Professor
Zoom.
After a destructive battle, the villain was finally defeated when he boasted how he used
a chemical coating to protect himself from air friction.
Betting that the invisible aura around his body would be superior protection, the Flash
seized Thawne and began to push him forward so fast that the intense air friction overwhelmed
the coating and the resulting burns forced him to surrender.
However, it all proved a waste of time, as Thawne knew nothing about the clock and the
Flash was just barely able to find and remove it to an isolated area before it exploded.
He also destroyed the costume to prevent such use again.
Blaming the Flash for his defeat, Thawne began travelling back in time to gain revenge, using
his knowledge of history to his advantage.
In his second appearance he hypnotized Doctor Alchemy, who was trying to go straight, into
helping him.
He also became obsessed with "replacing" Barry Allen, not only as the Flash, but as the husband
of Iris West.
After Iris finally made it clear that this would never happen, Thawne kills her at a
party, vibrating his hand into her head.
It took a long time for Allen to get his life back together after this.
Shortly after he had found love again, Zoom reappeared, threatening to kill his new fiancee
on Allen's second wedding day.
Terrified that history would repeat itself, Allen instinctively and inadvertently kills
his enemy, breaking Thawne's neck in a final struggle.
After he was found not guilty of murder in the subsequent trial, despite the fact that
Wally West testified that Barry could have stopped Thawne without killing him, Barry
went to the 30th century to retire and live with the resurrected Iris, as it was revealed
she was really an inhabitant of that era sent back for protection and that her mind had
been taken from the moment before death, only to later die during the Crisis on Infinite
Earths.
Feud It was revealed that the Thawnes and Allens
had a long-standing feud by the time of the 25th century.
Eobard was descended from Malcolm Thawne, a.k.a.
Cobalt Blue, Barry Allen's long lost twin brother.
The Thawne/Allen feud was apparently ended in the 30th century by Meloni Thawne's marriage
to Don Allen, and the birth of their son, Bart Allen.
However, Meloni's father created a "Reverse-Impulse"; a clone of Bart called Thaddeus Thawne, who
took the name Inertia.
Inertia made several attempts to replace Impulse before rejecting his role as an instrument
of vengeance.
Reverse Flash also returned to battle Wally West, working side-by-side with his own successor,
former police profiler Zoom, having been pulled out of time shortly before Barry broke his
neck.
Using the cosmic treadmill, the two Reverse-Flashes intended to force Wally to watch the aftermath
of his first battle with Zoom over and over again, but the intervention of Barry Allen,
from a time shortly before his death in Crisis on Infinite Earths, transferred Professor
Zoom back to his present- in the moments before Barry broke Thawne's neck-, allowing Wally
to not only defeat the new Zoom, but also to undo Linda's miscarriage.
During this return of Thawne, it was hinted that he retained some vague memories of his
time as Barry Allen, as he admitted to having a lost memory in the back of his mind about
Wally that drove him to want to see Wally hurt.
The Flash: Rebirth
Professor Zoom appears within the Speed Force in The Flash: Rebirth.
It is revealed that he would be resurrected in a near-future event, as his corpse is still
buried in the present.
He is apparently the one responsible for Barry's return and transformation into the Black Flash.
He apparently kills the Black Flash and attempts to transform Barry into its replacement.
When he appears again, he murders the revived Johnny Quick.
It is revealed that Thawne recreated the chemical bath that originally gave Barry his speed,
allowing Thawne to lure Barry out of the Speed Force during Final Crisis and, by using that,
to create a negative Speed Force, affecting Barry and temporarily turning him into a Black
Flash.
He then traps Barry and the revived Max Mercury inside the negative Speed Force, and goes
to attack Wally West's kids, Jai and Irey.
He attempts to kill them through their connection to the Speed Force before Linda Park-West,
only to be stopped by Jay Garrick and Bart Allen.
Professor Zoom hates Bart's existence even though his mother is a Thawne which made him
his descendant, since he is also a descendant of Barry, whose legacy Zoom is intent on destroying.
Bart, in turn, expresses no affection to his maternal forefather, fully aware of the psychopath
Thawne really is.
He defeats Jay and prepares to kill Bart before Max, Barry and Wally arrive, and take the
fight to him.
The fight is soon joined by Jesse Chambers and Irey, now with a full connection to the
Speed Force and taking up the mantles of Jesse Quick and Impulse.
Thawne pulls Barry away and reveals that everything horrible that happened to Barry, including
the death of his mother was caused because of Reverse Flash.
He then decides to destroy everything by killing Barry's wife, Iris, before they even met.
As Barry chases after Thawne, Wally joins him in the time barrier.
Doing so, they reach him, becoming the lightning bolt that turns Barry into the Flash as they
are able to stop him from killing Iris.
The Flashes push Thawne back through time, showing his past and future.
They return to the present, where the Justice League, the Justice Society, and the Outsiders
have built a device originally intended to disconnect Barry from the Speed Force, when
he was the Black Flash.
Barry tosses Thawne in and Jay activates the device, severing his connection to the negative
Speed Force.
As the Flashes tie him up to stop him from running, in the past, Iris discovers Thawne's
weapon and keeps it.
In the present, Zoom is imprisoned in the Iron Heights, Hunter Zolomon speaks to him,
saying they can help each other be better.
In Gorilla City, one of the apes warns that Professor Zoom has done something horrible
to their jungles, something even they don't know.
Blackest Night
Thawne's broken-necked corpse was reanimated as a member of the Black Lantern Corps.
The black power ring downloaded the corpse's memories, resulting in it not knowing about
Barry's death and resurrection.
Declaring itself the new Black Flash, the Black Lantern Zoom attacks Barry, who manages
to elude it for the moment.
When Black Lantern Rogues attack Iron Heights, they encounter the living Zoom, their rings
strangely malfunctioning, and displaying a strange symbol.
When the Black Lantern Zoom approaches his living counterpart, he stops moving, and is
then frozen by Captain Cold's "cold grenade".
In the final issue of the series, future Black Lantern Zoom is brought back to life by the
white light of creation, and manages to escape through the negative Speed Force.
It is assumed this Reanimated Professor Zoom went back in time to complete the events of
Flash: Rebirth, which causes this Reanimated Professor Zoom to become the present-day Professor
Zoom.
In the Brightest Day crossover, the present Professor Zoom is still imprisoned in Iron
Heights.
When Deadman activates the White Power Battery, the Entity speaks to the twelve heroes and
villains resurrected at the climax of the "Blackest Night" and tells each of them of
their mission that must be accomplished in order to restore 'life' to the universe and
prevent the Blackest Night from ever restarting.
Zoom becomes the first to inadvertently fulfill his mission, which occurred when he freed
Barry Allen from the Speed Force.
The Entity proclaims Professor Zoom has completed his task, and his life is restored to him,
later revealing that Zoom, having fulfilled his task, is now fully purged of all trace
remnants of his Black Lantern ties - both present and future.
Professor Zoom is released from Iron Heights by Captain Boomerang, who had hoped to better
understand his version of the Entity's message.
Zoom does not answer him directly, giving a cryptic response and eventually escaping
as Captain Boomerang is confronted by the rest of the Rogues.
Post-Infinite Crisis origin Professor Zoom's origin was written by Geoff
Johns.
Professor Zoom uses his power to completely rewrite his history.
In the story Professor Zoom uses his reverse Speed force powers to wipe his younger brother
and rival Professor Drake from history as well as killing his parents when they try
to interfere with his research.
Eobard then falls in love with a reporter who had been hired to interview him and his
future self at first kills and then wipes the reporter's fiance from existence.
However after finding out she did not return Eobard's affections, his future self traumatized
the reporter when she was a child, causing her to be mute and institutionalized for the
rest of her life so that he never met her.
Finally he had his younger self find the Flash uniform all to make himself the 25th century
Flash.
As the altered Eobard Thawne runs past him Professor Zoom sheds a tear saying "It won't
last long.
You will never find love.
You will never be the Flash.
Barry Allen destroyed my future.
It's time I destroyed his."
Flashpoint
Professor Zoom appears impersonating the young boy with the police mistakenly believing that
the child was a witness of mysterious murderers who killed the victims that had drastically
aged.
Later, Professor Zoom revealed to Patty Spivot, Barry Allen's assistant, that he was impersonating
the child and tells her that to change the new timeline.
He attempts to kill Patty, but is thwarted by the Flash, Kid Flash and Hot Pursuit; Professor
Zoom killed Hot Pursuit and escapes to continue impersonating anyone.
Elsewhere, Professor Zoom says, "It changes.
It all changes."
and a lightning bolt strikes from the skies, leading directly into the Flashpoint event,
that has begun.
Zoom later reveals he escaped from prison as his body was permanently connected to the
Speed Force, enabling him to create the negative version of it.
He plans to ruin Barry's life.
It is revealed he was unable to alter Barry becoming the Flash as that would erase him
from existence, which he discovers when he nearly phases from existence when attempting
to stop the chemicals spilling over Barry when he hopes to become the only Flash ever
by making this his origin.
Realizing that he is unable to erase Barry without erasing himself, with his actions
merely causing the lightning bolt to pass through him and strike the chemicals that
triggered the transformation, Zoom decides to ruin Barry's life during childhood, removing
his best friend from existence to make Barry more introverted, stalking Barry and doing
minor things to annoy him like making him miss ball-catches, and killing his mother.
After the Earth is changed into an alternate timeline, Zoom mocks Barry, who remembers
how reality should be but has lost his powers, by stalking his mother, and placing a Reverse-Flash
costume inside his ring, causing Barry to realize Zoom is watching him.
Later, Professor Zoom finally appears in front of Barry in the middle of the Amazon/Atlantean
war just after Billy Batson is killed.
He reveals to Barry that the Flashpoint timeline was created by Barry himself going back in
time to stop Professor Zoom from killing his mother.
He pulled the entire Speed Force into him to stop Zoom, transforming history, but his
amateur attempt to change history shattered it, destroying and twisting the lives of his
allies.
Zoom resets Barry's internal vibrations so he can remember this.
Barry's actions also transformed Zoom into a living paradox, no longer requiring Barry
to exist.
Zoom continues to taunt Barry with this knowledge and revel in the fact that he can now kill
him at his leisure, until he was stabbed in the back and killed by Batman using an Amazon's
discarded sword, Batman grimly informing Zoom that he should never stand still in a battlefield.
Barry later travels back in time to stop his younger self from altering time but instead,
under Pandora's manipulations, again fractures reality.
Professor Zoom's status in the new timeline is unknown.
Powers and abilities Professor Zoom is able to move and travel
at super-human speeds.
Professor Zoom can travel up to speeds of 671,000,000 m.p.h., deliver many different
types of blows a second, run on water, create cyclones, and vibrate his molecules to pass
through solid objects.
In The Flash: Rebirth, it is discovered that when Zoom duplicated the incident that granted
Barry Allen his powers, he created a negative Speed Force by corrupting the positive version
of it.
Through this Speed Force, he also has the ability to create multiple after-images like
Hunter Zolomon, the modern day Zoom, and can travel through and alter time.
He also can erase people from existence.
In the events leading up to Flashpoint, Professor Zoom has developed numerous powers including
the ability to absorb other people's memories and experiences, change his age, and drastically
alter time.
Other versions Batman Beyond
In the final issue of the Batman Beyond arc "Hush Beyond", an elderly Amanda Waller informs
a head CADMUS scientist Dr. Thawne that the world will always need a Batman, before unveiling
vats full of clones of the original Dark Knight and his allies.
He is later seen making a transaction with Inque, a recurring villain with unstable mutagen
powers, gaining a trigger that can adapt to any weapon and with limitless range in return
for helping Inque remain stable.
Impulse In an alternate timeline created when Impulse
killed an insect in the Devonian Age, most super-villains were government bureaucrats.
Professor Zoom was the National Science Advisor to President-for-Life Julian Tremain.
Although he claimed that his superspeed gave him superior intellect, his advice tended
be extremely obvious.
In subsequent changes to the timeline, Zoom defected to the rebellion against Tremain
led by Gorilla Grodd; turned into a gorilla fighting against an army of turtles led by
Grodd, now a turtle himself; and was a gorilla in a modern society identical to that of ancient
Egypt.
In other media Television
In the 1990's The Flash television show, Barry Allen pretended to be the scientist who "created"
the Flash in a discussion with Samuel Scudder and called himself "Professor Zoom".
Professor Zoom appears in the Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode "Requiem for a
Scarlet Speedster!"
voiced by John Wesley Shipp.
He became the evil ruler of the 25th Century after being chased there by Barry Allen.
By using a time traveling treadmill, the other two Flashes and Batman journey to the future
to stop him.
Rick Cosnett portrays Eddie Thawne in The CW's The Flash.
Thawne is a recent transfer to the Central City Police Department, whose past is a mystery
and who harbors a dark secret.
Film Professor Zoom appears as the main antagonist
in Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox voiced by C. Thomas Howell.
Video Games Professor Zoom as a Black Lantern is an alternate
skin for The Flash in the game Injustice: Gods Among Us.
Professor Zoom is one of the bosses in the Gorilla Grodd laboratory Duo in DC Universe
Online References
External links Professor Zoom at the DC Database
Professor Zoom at Those Who Ride the Lightning Professor Zoom at the DCU Guide