Daniel West (DC)

**Daniel West** is a male comic supervillain who features in DC Comics.

## Biography

### Origin

Daniel West was the son of **William West** and was the younger brother of Iris West. During his birth, complications led to the death of his already ill mother and led to his father taking up drinking. In these years, his father was noted for being violent and abusive to his children where he regularly beat his son. Daniel came to believe that his father hated him and blamed him for the death of his mother. His sister Iris regularly attempted to console him and tried to shield him from their father. Despite that, he was regularly beaten up by his father and ran away from home. When he was 8 years old, his sister found him and once more consoled him stating she would always protect him where she asked him not to run away again. Daniel told her that she was the only good thing in her life whilst crickets were making their sounds in the woods. This event was said to be the last time he was happy and he came to like the sounds of crickets as he associated the event with how his sister had comforted him during this time. (Flash v4 #23.2)

When he was 12 years old, Daniel had lived an isolated life without any friends and his father did not provide him much care. As a result, he had to find other ways to manage in life where he decided to take crickets from the backyard as friends. Despite their noisy nature, their clicking sounds helped him fall asleep and were a comfort to him. During this time, his father poured burning hot coffee into the bowl containing the crickets thus killing them with this angering Daniel who attacked his father. His father pushed him aside at ease and headed to the stairs where Daniel in a fit of rage pushed him where he inadvertently caused him to fall down the stairs. Iris had arrived to see what happened and was horrified at what he brother had done with this event 11 years ago forever tearing apart the two siblings. In the aftermath, his father William was crippled and unable to walk again as a result of the fall. (Flash v4 #23.2)

Around five years ago, he joined an up-and-coming stick-up crew in order to perform a heist on the condition no one was hurt. He attempted to reconnect with his sister but she refused as she wanted him to lead a more honest life. During the heist, the crew were ready to escape when they were pursued by the Flash during one of his first acts as a superhero. Daniel was caught along with the others before they could get away leading to their arrest and as he was recently over 18 years old he was sent to a state penitentiary. (Flash v4 #23.2)

After being released from prison, his criminal past affected his job prospects making it difficult to get work which was when Central City was attacked by the intelligent apes from Gorilla City. During the gorilla invasion, Daniel West accompanied another of other civilians that were taken to safety by the Rogues to their lair in **Mirror World**. However, whilst there, the Rogues decided to form a protection fee where all the civilians had to donate money to remain. Daniel refused to take part and escaped where he crashed the car he was driving into a Speed Force battery that was being teleported out of Mirror World. The resultant explosion that brought him back to the real world had led to pieces of the train track where the Speed Force battery was located to meld into his body but Daniel survived. He had also been transformed from the incident into a speedster with a tie to the Speed Force. (Flash v4 #23.2)

### Reverse-Flash

As the Reverse-Flash, he looked to gather enough power to go back in time and needed to siphon this power from those touched by the Speed Force. Thus, he travelled into Iron Heights prison in order to steal the power from **Marissa Rennie** which killed her in the process. (Flash v4 #20) He then tracked down the fleeing Floyd Gomez and similarly murdered him to drain his body of the power. (Flash v4 #21) The Reverse-Flash then learnt that noted Central City scientist **Darwin Elias** had been collecting Speed Force energy in his laboratory with West targeting it. He then proceeded to drain the power with Elias attempting to stop him but the Reverse-Flash reversed time to escape being shot. Before he could snap Darwin's neck, the Flash intervened leading to the first encounter between the pair. (Flash v4 #22)

Whilst in Belle Reve, he came to be inducted into Amanda Waller's Suicide Squad where he was deployed on a mission in China. (New Suicide Squad v1 #5) Their mission was to shut down the facility that was creating manufactured Metahumans. During their mission, he came to excessively use his abilities that caused his kneecap to shatter as a result. He was recovered by Black Manta who was team leader and managed to take Reverse-Flash to the escape vehicle as the building was destroyed by explosives. (New Suicide Squad v1 #6) The group fled to an abandoned ghost town modelled on Metropolis in China where they were pursued by one of the engineered superhumans. Unable to walk, the Reverse-Flash was helped by Harley Quinn but she came to abandoned him as the group was attacked by the Chinese superhuman. (New Suicide Squad v1 #7) The Chinese military then arrived to reclaim their test subject but the superhuman grew tired of the countless deaths and looked to stop the conflict. After fighting his creators, he fled into the sky with the Suicide Squad having to fight the soldiers before managing to flee. They returned back to the U.S. where they were recovered and placed back in Belle Reve. During this time, the Reverse-Flash underwent surgery on his leg to restore it. (New Suicide Squad v1 #8)

Afterwards, the Teen Titans journeyed into Hell in order to find a way into Purgatory to free their comrade Djinn. During this time, the team got separated in the **Labyrinth of Regret** where they were attacked by their greatest fears. Wallace West came to see Daniel West who showed his son his fear of becoming the new Reverse-Flash. (Teen Titans v6 #40)

## Overview

### Personality and attributes

Upon gaining his powers, he came to be known as the Reverse-Flash and with the murders he committed leading to him being known as the mysterious **Speed Force Killer**. (Flash v4 #22)

He did not consider himself the villain but simply the person trying to set things right. Daniel hated his father William who he called a bastard and a true monster who he blamed for breaking his relationship with his sister Iris. He believed that he was a screw-up from a broken home with him blaming his dad for becoming the person he was as an adult. (Flash v4 #23.2)

To Daniel, his sister was the only good thing he had in the world and he loved her deeply. Daniel had long sought to reconnect with his sister after relations between them had become strained. (Flash v4 #23.2)

Prison life was said to had changed him a bit but not as much as the experiences from his childhood. (Flash v4 #23.2)

He was not above killing in order to get what he wanted in life. (Flash v4 #20)

### Powers and abilities

Following his accident, he gained the powers of a speedster allowing him to run at super-speeds. He could utilise the power to actually change from his normal form to that of the Reverse-Flash. It had also led to the monorail remains fusing with his own body as he was now bound to the energy from the battery bounding him to the Speed Force. The Speed Force was responsible for using the metal to him and had showed him glimpses of others linked to its power. Daniel had the unique ability to actually be able to go back in time though ability came at a cost. He was not strong enough to make big jumps but he could drain the power from other speedsters using the Speed Force and utilise them as fuel to go further back in time. (Flash v4 #23.2) The Reverse-Flash could use this power to go back to avoid an enemy's attacks and place himself in a better strategic position. (Flash v4 #22) He also stated that he could sense the use of the Speed Force by other speedsters and could feel it whenever they used their powers. (Flash v4 #23)

After his defeat, he came to lose his powers but these were returned to him. However, he stated he was not as fast as he used to be and excessive use of it put a strain on his body causing damage to it. (New Suicide Squad v1 #6)

## Notes

* The Daniel West Reverse-Flash was created by Brian Buccellato and Francis Manapul where he made his first appearance in Flash v4 #0 (November, 2012).

## Appearances

* *Flash v4*: (2012)
* *New Suicide Squad v1*:
* *Teen Titans v6*: (2020)