The Arrowverse is home to its fair share of intimidating villains. Oliver Queen has to find a way to defeat psychopaths like Adrian Chase and Ricardo Diaz, while the Legends of Tomorrow face off against the Legion of Doom and a massive demon. However, Barry Allen has his allies beat because his villains never pull their punches in The Flash. It all starts with Reverse-Flash, who kills Barry’s mom and tricks him into believing he’s Harrison Wells in order to return to the future. The Flash also has to battle an evil version of himself, who becomes the evil speed god Savitar and tries to kill Iris.
Savitar and Reverse-Flash get under Barry’s skin, there’s no doubt about that. But the scariest villain The Flash has to take down is Zoom, the evil speedster who will kill anyone in his way to increase his speed and make him stronger. He sets his sights on Barry during Season 2 and steals a move from a Batman villain to really stick it to the Scarlet Speedster.
Zoom Doesn’t Let The Flash Walk Away Unscathed
Not long after Eddie Thawne sacrifices himself to erase his distant relative, Eobard Thawne, from the timeline, another speedster shows up in Central City. His motives aren’t clear initially, but Jay Garrick introduces himself to Team Flash shortly after Zoom’s arrival and explains that the speedster is looking to steal The Flash’s speed. With Jay’s help, the heroes build a trap to capture Zoom using Linda Park, who would pose as the villain’s ally from Earth-2, Dr. Light. The only problem is that Jay and Zoom are the same person, which means Team Flash is the one being tricked.
Zoom shows up and sees right through the ruse, dropping Linda off a building and forcing The Flash to rescue her. Angry, the hero chases Zoom around, but he’s not able to do any damage. Zoom is ready for everything The Flash throws at him, and after he gets tired of toying with him, he delivers a devastating blow. He breaks The Flash’s back, picks him up, and drags him to the police station and newspaper to gloat about his victory. Barry can’t do anything but watch as his foe threatens all of his loved ones. It’s not all that different from the situation Batman finds himself in when he goes up against Bane, who also has a thing for injuring spines.
Bane Shows Batman What Real Power Is During Their Fight
Despite not being from Gotham City, Bane sets up shop in the iconic DC location to learn more about Batman. One of his first moves in the Knightfall storyline is to release all of the villains that call Arkham Asylum home, forcing the Dark Knight to clean up his mess. After using all of his energy to defeat the villains, Batman heads home, but Bane is waiting for him. The villain gets the better of the exhausted hero and breaks his back by cracking him over his knee. Batman needs a lot of time to heal, which allows Bane to take over Gotham and set up a criminal empire.
The events play out similarly in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises. However, instead of letting someone else be Batman, the live-action version of Bruce Wayne rebuilds his strength in the prison where Bane grew up. With the help of his cellmate, Bruce escapes and returns to Gotham to confront Bane. He defeats the villain and saves the city from a nuclear disaster, which allows him to leave everything to John Blake and retire.
Barry probably thinks about booting his boots away after losing to Zoom in The Flash, but he perseveres and stops the villain from destroying the multiverse. Time Wraiths then show up to take Zoom away, turning him into an agent for the Speed Force called Black Flash. It’s a dark ending for Zoom, but it’s hard to feel bad for him after all the damage he does to Barry and his friends.
The Flash is streaming on Netflix.
Did you ever notice the similarities between Zoom and Bane’s methods? Who do you think did more damage to the hero they were fighting? Let us know in the comments below!
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