Deathstorm (Earth-Prime)

*For the meta-human whose identity he used, see Ronnie Raymond.*
*For other uses of "Deathstorm", see Deathstorm (disambiguation).*

## Deathstorm

True form

"*His death gave me life. Now, I'm something greater, something beyond death. I am Deathstorm.*"
—Deathstorm to Caitlin Snow[src]
**Deathstorm** (died 2022), also known as the **Black Flame**, was an evil cold fusion entity. After briefly assuming the identity of Ronnie Raymond to trick Team Flash, Deathstorm gained Ronnie's body. After committing several mass serial murders, Deathstorm was confronted by a newly upgraded Frost who now had the same powers as him. After the two fought throughout the city, Frost absorbed Deathstorm into herself, killing him in the process.

## Biography

### Early life

According to Deathstorm, he was born before the planet Maltus came into existence and witnessed sinkage and collapse of the first gas cloud, as well as the fall of the first beings. His home is much farther than hell. It's a lonely place, or at least it was until Ronnie Raymond died in the Singularity. His mind found him, his grief became his hunger, and his love became his guiding light. Ronnie's feelings showed Deathstorm how to end his suffering.

### Gaining a physical form

 File:Deathstorm in its black flame form.png
In order to gain a physical form, Deathstorm began feeding off of the grief of people close to Caitlin Snow. Thus, he killed both Stan Mullen and Donna Winters. He later killed Parker DeStefano, Caitlin's yoga instructor. He later disguised himself as Quincy P. Runk in order to manipulate his son, Chester P. Runk, into being killed. He also attacked Team Flash. Later, he appeared in Caitlin's apartment, posing as Ronnie who is asking for help.

 File:Quantum splicer (Earth-Prime).png
Joe West also revealed that the same black flame killed Colin Smith, Megan Landa, and Veronica Binning in the last six months. Deathstorm then proceeded to deceive her into using the quantum splicer and give him Ronnie's body. After gaining control over Ronnie's body, he revealed himself to Caitlin as Deathstorm.

### Attacking Central City

 File:The Flash follows Deathstorm.png
Deathstorm then ran away and fed on more grieving people, and disguised himself as Esperanza Garcia to psychologically torture Allegra. After evading the Flash, Deathstorm took Caitlin to Ripley's Wild World, where he killed several people to feed on the pain and revealed that he planned to make Caitlin his bride to end his loneliness. When Deathstorm began to use his powers on her, he fled upon realizing that Caitlin wasn't ready.

 File:Deathstorm vs Frost.png
Deathstorm appeared to Frost as Ronnie Raymond and told her story, also saying that she wasn't a real person. Later, Deathstorm had his ghosts terrorize the members of Team Flash and steal their grief and transfer it to Caitlin for her transformation to be complete, but, Deathstorm was confronted by Frost in her Hellfrost form, who gave her life to save Caitlin and consume Deathstorm.

## Personality

Deathstorm is a being of pure evil. He is very similar to a demon in many ways, as he takes on a demonic like appearance, is a master manipulator, and torments others just to get a laugh. While ultimately failing in his goal to take Caitlin from Team Flash and making her his bride, he did succeed in giving them grief, as his defeat also came with Frost's death.

Deathstorm wasn't a liar, however. Despite taunting Iris West-Allen using the form of her ex-fiance Eddie Thawne, he was able to sense and correctly deduce that her sacrifices were pointless, as would be later shown when Iris learned the truth about her time sickness and was unwillingly sacrificed by the Negative Forces.

## Powers and abilities

### Powers

* **Meta-human physiology:** After being born through Ronnie Raymond's death and then gaining his body, Deathstorm became a powerful and dangerous meta-human with a wide range of different powers. He is one of Team Flash's most dangerous foes yet, as his powers allow him to play mind games with his victims and is seemingly immune to the Flash's power set.
	+ **Electromagnetic interference:** File:Deathstorm appears to Caitlin.png   Deathstorm could also distort and put out the lights in the room he was in as well as cause all nearby electrical systems to go haywire.
	+ **Eye transformation:** Much like Zoom and Bloodwork, Deathstorm can turn his eyes pitch black.
	+ **Flight:** In his disembodied form, Deathstorm could fly at high speeds, though not quite as fast as the Flash can run. After gaining Ronnie's body, Deathstorm can now fly like Firestorm.
	+ **Shapeshifting:** Deathstorm can take on the appearance of people close to Team Flash in order to manipulate them. Before gaining a physical form, he also had the ability to shapeshift his own flames into a skull like appearance. Deathstorm can also transform between his human form and his true form at will.
	+ **Immunity:** Deathstorm was completely unaffected by Barry's wind tunnels as well as Frost's ice powers. And due to his biology, it is likely that he is immune to Flash's lightning powers as well.
	+ **Intangibility:** Deathstorm was able to enter and exit S.T.A.R. Labs through the walls and roof when in his disembodied form.
	+ **Portal creation:** File:Deathstorm's home space.png   Deathstorm can use his powers to open portals which lead to and from his home space.
	+ **Pyrokinesis:** Deathstorm's main power is his ability to summon and control fire. His very being is also made of the same fire that he controls.
	+ **Telepathy:** Deathstorm can get inside the minds of others and speak to them through long distances. An example is when he spoke to Cecile to trick her into thinking Ronnie was telling her he wanted to die. His telepathic abilities exceed Despero's, as he was effortlessly able to take control of Cecile without the slightest amount of resistance. However, those with enough training can avoid some of his detection, as Sue Dearbon was able to get to her panic button without him noticing until after.
		- **Empathy:** Deathstorm can feel the emotions of humans especially grief and sorrow. But he can also sense other emotions like when he felt that Sue Dearborn was happy.
		- **Emotion detection:** Deathstorm can sense the grief in people around him to know who to feed off of. The more grief he consumes the stronger he gets. He can also use this ability to track his targets and see what they’re doing.
		- **Possession:** Deathstorm was able to overwhelm Cecile and speak through her.
		- **Illusion projection:** Deathstorm was able to create and simultaneously use several projections to mess with Team Flash, while shapeshifting his own physical body into Eddie Thawne's form to confront Iris West-Allen.

### Abilities

* **Expert of deception/Manipulator:** Deathstorm is a master of the art of deception, having been able to trick the members of Team Flash many times.

### Weaknesses

* **Hunger:** Though not a real weakness, Deathstorm is compelled to consume grief when he kills. Being rebuked by Chester and his experience with the Cold Fusion Sphere weakened him a bit as the Black Flame, although he has become stronger than ever in his physical form.
* **Quantum splicer:** Deathstorm needed the quantum splicer to gain a physical form, indicating if he loses the splicer, he would lose his physical form.

#### Former weaknesses

* **Cold Fusion Sphere:** When in his disembodied form, Deathstorm could be trapped and killed by the Cold Fusion Sphere from the artificial Speed Force machine. However, now that Deathstorm has a physical body, he presumably cannot be trapped by the sphere anymore.

## Equipment

* **Quantum splicer:** Deathstorm requires this to maintain a corporeal form.

## Appearances

### *The Flash*

Season 8
* "The Fire Next Time"
* "Phantoms"
* "Reckless"
* "Resurrection"
* "Death Rises"
* "Death Falls"
* "Funeral for a Friend" (mentioned)
* "Into the Still Force" (mentioned)

## Gallery

Deathstorm as Quincy P. Runk.pngDeathstorm as Quincy P. Runk.Deathstorm possessing Cecile Horton.pngDeathstorm possessing Cecile Horton.
## Trivia

* Deathstorm's remark that he is something "beyond death" sets him up as a darker parallel to Ramsey Rosso/Bloodwork.
	+ Ramsey claims to have found the secret to eternal life and "defeated death".
	+ Both characters have a CGI-created form.
* Deathstorm's hunger for grief is a reference to his origin in the comics as a former Black Lantern. It's because of how Black Lanterns draw power from death, and grief is a pretty close second to it because it makes him stronger.
* Deathstorm's act as Eddie Thawne is a nod to Cobalt Blue, who wields similar fire powers.

## Behind the scenes

* In the DC Comics main continuity, Deathstorm is one of two alternate versions of the Firestorm persona:
	+ During the *Blackest Night* event in the pre-Flashpoint continuity, Deathstorm is Ronnie Raymond reanimated by the Black Lantern Corps. He attempts to assassinate Jason Rusch (the then-current Firestorm).
	+ In the *Forever Evil* event in the New 52 continuity, the Earth-3 Martin Stein becomes Deathstorm after having his body fused with that of a dead lab subject which give him nuclear powers similar to his Earth-Prime counterpart.
* Deathstorm served as the main antagonist of the "Death Revisited" arc of Season 8 of *The Flash*.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Death Falls"
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 "Resurrection"
3. ↑ "The Fire Next Time"
4. ↑ "Phantoms"
5. ↑ "Reckless"
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 "Death Rises"