DC Comics is well known for creating some of the most iconic villains in all of fiction, from Lex Luthor to the Joker. The truth is, however, that none of them hold a candle to the Flash’s archenemy: the Reverse-Flash. They say that the best archenemies are the opposites of the hero. Eobard Thawne, aka the Reverse-Flash, takes this idea to the extreme. His powers, origin, and costume all make him stand out as the dark mirror image of Barry Allen’s Flash persona. And with every passing decade, Thawne becomes more of a dark reflection of the real world. No villain in all of DC Comics has gone to the lengths Thawne has to cement himself as his rival’s nemesis.
In his first appearance in 1963’s The Flash #139, Reverse-Flash was introduced just as an evil Flash doppelganger with inverted colors. The simplicity of this first Reverse-Flash evolved into something more complex as the Reverse-Flash’s backstory was further developed.
Born in the 25th century, Thawne was originally the Flash’s number one-fan. For his entire life, he did everything to be like the Flash. He even recreated the accident that gave Barry his powers, thus giving himself superspeed and the power to travel through time as well. However, in a climactic moment of his backstory, Thawne travels back in time to the 21st century hoping to meet and form a genuine friendship with his hero. But, upon his arrival, he is stunned to discover in a museum that the identity of the Reverse-Flash, Barry’s archenemy, is none other than himself: Eobard Thawne. The shock of finding out that he was destined to be the villain in his hero’s story drove Thawne mad. Feeling betrayed and abandoned, Thawne swears to destroy Barry’s life. Ironically, having done everything in his power to emulate his hero, Thawne ends up becoming the Flash’s greatest enemy.
While many people might see Thawne’s evil acts being focused solely on Barry Allen as a negative that limits the level and scope of his villainy, the truth is that his fixation on only hurting Barry Allen makes him a uniquely pathological and compelling character.
His Connection to Barry
When Thawne ultimately realizes that, despite his greatest hopes, he is destined to never be a friend or even a companion of the Flash, he forcefully inserts himself into his hero’s history by becoming the Flash’s obsessed nemesis who comes to dominate all different parts of his life. By inserting himself into the Flash’s timeline in this way, Thawne establishes a symbiotic connection with the Flash that no other hero/villain relationship has ever managed to achieve. Most villains are innately evil, or they become evil in response to the hero’s actions or an unfortunate event. In the case of Barry and Thawne, literally, neither would exist without the other.
Imagine if every horrible thing in your life could be traced back to the acts of one petty man; that is the reality of Barry’s existence. Using time travel to alter the past, Thawne is responsible for every bad thing in Barry’s life. He pushed Barry down the stairs, killed his dog, burned down his first home, and even wiped his childhood friend from existence so that Barry would grow up isolated and alone. And, in his most cruel and life-changing act, Thawne murders Barry’s mother. Thawne also framed Barry’s father for the murder and had him sent to prison. This horrendous act directly inspired Barry to become a forensic scientist, which ultimately led to the accident that transformed him into the Flash. Not even the Joker can take credit for killing Bruce’s parents and inspiring him to become Batman.
In the 21st century, Thawne continues to torment the Flash family. He killed Barry’s wife, Iris West, brainwashed his future children, and frame him for crimes he didn’t commit. To make matters worse, other Flash villains, such as Godspeed and Zoom, were created by Thawne. It’s safe to say that Thawne is every bad day Barry has ever had.
His Powers
Thanks to TV shows like The Boys, the idea of superspeed being dangerous isn’t anything new. The Reverse-Flash, however, was the pioneer in the lethal application of moving faster than the eye can see. With the Negative Speed Force, he can phase through people to damage vital organs, age them decades in seconds, and even atomize them by destabilizing the bonds holding their atoms together. And as a time traveler, Thawne could kill people before they were ever born. His sadistic creativity and evil use of his powers make Thawne the type of villain you love to read about, as you can never guess what awful thing he’ll do next.
With his mastery over time travel and lethal use of superspeed, Thawne could easily kill almost any hero and take over the world without breaking a sweat. His having such deadly power and instead choosing to use it to torture only one person makes him one of the most unique and sadistic villains DC has ever created.
His Growing Relevancy
Some of the best villains in comics reflect real-world issues, and the Reverse-Flash was perhaps ahead of its time as a commentary on the dangers of toxic fans or fan bases, which has been amplified by internet culture. Thawne began as a fanboy in the future, but his obsession with the Flash drove him to commit heinous crimes in the past against his idol when he learned he would be excluded from the Flash’s story. In a sense, the Reverse-Flash’s story is a psychologically riveting tale of what can happen when admiration mutates into a fatal obsession and hatred for the thing you once loved. Whether through cyber-bullying, stalking, or physical acts of violence, many content creators and celebrities have been the victims of people who take their passion too far. In Thawne’s case, own sick and twisted mind and his his cruel actions against Barry are the only way he can think of to be connected to his hero and achieve significance in his hero’s story.
The idea that DC Comics writers were potentially influenced by the backlash against them to create the character of Thawne doesn’t seem like too big of a stretch. Thawne is a cautionary tale of what obsession can drive someone to become – a malign fanatic lacking basic human decency or compassion
The Reverse-Flash is everything a villain should be and more. He is a cruel, calculating, and petty psychopath whose mindset can be viewed as reflection of real-world toxic and obsessive fanbases. Like a boogeyman, he will always be there in the shadows to torment Barry and everyone Barry loves. The tragedy of Thawne’s story is that, despite having started out the Flash’s biggest fan with the power to do good like his hero, he chose instead to corrupt the legacy of one of the purest-hearted heroes and turned it into something truly evil.
That’s why he is the greatest villain of the DC Universe.
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