Professor Zoom

**Professor Zoom** is a male comic supervillain that features in DC Comics.

### Death

He later operated under an alias named "Mr. Zyx" where he vibrated his molecules at superspeed in order to appear invisible. In this state, he contacted Matthew Paulson who was a corrupt police chief at Central City where he convinced him to steal heroin that had been confiscated by the police. (Flash v1 #282) Professor Zoom's plan was to stabilize the drug and package it with powdered milk that was being manufactured at the factory he was using as a hideout. Thawne's ultimate goal was creating a vast number of addicts that would do his bidding. Zoom later fell in love with Irest West-Allen who was the wife of his arch-enemy the Flash. He approached her one day and asked her to leave Barry for him or die where he later met her at a costume party to ask her decision. Iris slapped him in response where she stated that even if she did not love Barry that she would not allow Zoom to lay a hand on her. Thawne then had one of his henchmen drug Barry with "angel-dust" who was left in a dazed state with Iris going to give him a glass of water. She arrived in a room that was being used as a hide-out of deranged convict Clive Yorkin. At that moment, Professor Zoom arrived vibrating into an invisible state where he pushed his vibrating hand into Iris's skull that fatally damaged the molecules of her brain. Due to being invisible, all evidence pointed to Yorkin being responsible for the attack. Professor Zoom finally revealed himself to Barry where he claimed to know the identity of Iris's killer and led him on a chase around the world. This was part of the villain's plan as he had fitted a pair of heavy matter boots on the Flash in order to leave him to sink to the planet's molten core. (Flash v1 #281) The Flash managed to escape and went to Thawne's home era to learn who killed his wife by using the historical records of the 25th century. Whilst away, Zoom began posing as the Flash and brought Paulson to the police in order to take full control of his heroin ring. During this time, he briefly fought Green Lantern and booby trapped the Cosmic Treadmill in the hopes of killing Barry Allen when he returned to the present. (Flash v1 #282) Barry managed to survive though his mission to uncover Iris's murder due to no apparent person present in the security video but managed to determine that Zoom was responsible for the act as he was the only person capable of using super-speed to appear invisible. He chased Zoom through the ocean to Zoom's cosmic powered time-tripper where they went backwards in time with Barry leaving Thawne to face his doom alone. (Flash v1 #283)

For years, he attempted to try various vibrational frequencies until he was finally able to free himself from his extra-dimensional prison. (Flash v1 #321) At this point, Barry Allen was supposed to marry Fiona Webb when Zoom left him a message at the Flash Museum telling him to meet him at the house where Barry and Iris used to live. (Flash v1 #323) Thawne during that moment was snatched from this timeline by his successor named Zoom who brought him into the future. Zoom requested Eobard Thawne to operate the Cosmic Treadmill as he himself was unable to do so as his powers were not connected to the Speed Force. This was in order for Zoom to force Wally West to witness the attack on his wife that resulted in the death of his unborn children again and again. Professor Zoom who had vague memories of his first encounter with Wally West was happy to oblige the second Zoom. (Flash v2 #224) However, Barry Allen arrived soon arrived and brought Thawne back to his own time. (Flash v2 #225) Afterwards, Barry became desperate to save the life of his betrothed Fiona and attack Professor Zoom at super-speed by putting a clothesline over him. When he stopped, the sudden movement snapped Thawne's neck and killed him instantly. (Flash v1 #325) After his demise, his body was at the morgue when five of the Rogues namely Captain Boomerang, Captain Cold, Pied Piper, Weather Wizard and Trickster stole the corpse. They later held a special ceremony at an isolated column of rock situated thirty miles north of Central City. The Rogues later destroyed the coffin of Professor Zoom in rage as they cursed him for being killed by their nemesis. (Flash v2 #225) Thawne was later buried by the Rogues at the hidden graveyard Avernus that was used by their group. (Blackest Night: Flash v1 #1)

### Rebirth

During the Blackest Night, Thawne's body was animated by a black Power Ring and made into a member of the Black Lantern Corps. This undead Professor Zoom began calling himself the Black Flash and sought out the Flash in order to torment on him to feed on his emotions. The arisen Thawne was simply a reanimated corpse and did not have the memories following his death and was not aware of an alternate version of Zoom that had reappeared or that the Flash had died and came back. Black Lantern Professor Zoom evoked emotions within Barry Allen by highlighting how he was murdered by the Flash and attempted to compromise his morals. However, the Flash managed to calm himself from this encounter and escaped from Thawne. (Blackest Night: Flash v1 #1) He pursued the Flash with Black Lantern versions of Kid Flash and Solovar which led to a confrontation with Barry Allen, Wally West and Saint Walker. (Blackest Night: Flash v1 #2) During the fight, the undead Thawne was encased in ice at the moment when a cold grenade of Captain Cold's had detonated in Iron Heights that held an incarcerated future version of Zoom. (Blackest Night: Flash v1 #3) In the final battle against Nekron, Zoom was resurrected by the white light of creation who immediately disappeared as he sought to go back to his home. (Blackest Night v1 #8)

### The New 52

Following the Flashpoint, a new timeline of events was created as a result of changes in history. Eobard Thawne travelled throughout the time stream in order to assemble his followers that were taken from various points of history with each affected by the Speed Force. In 1520, he found a Nahuatl woman named Magali that was being chased by Spanish Conquistadores. Through her, the elderly Thawne was restored to youth whereupon he killed her Spanish pursuers and took her with him. In 1883, by the Kimberley Mines in South Africa he found a Zulu man named Xolani that was also known as the Folded Man. At Melbourne Australia in 1957, he found a Maori woman that was nearly invulnerable known as the Human Block. In 1982 in Broken Arrow Oklahoma, he found a boy named Roscoe whose Speed Force power allowed him to manifest tornados around him. These four joined Selkirk as part of a group that Thawne intended to use to kill the Flash with the Professor claiming to them that Barry Allen was a villainous figure that abused his power for his own ends. Unknown to his acolytes, Zoom had actually secretly engineered the events that led to him recruiting them. (Flash Annual v4 #4) Professor Zoom was responsible for the death of Nora Allen and framing Henry Allen leading to him being detained in Iron Heights Prison. Allen was forced to hide the true person responsible for his wife's murder as the Professor threatened the life of Barry Allen. However, Professor Zoom was biding his time and intended to exact his revenge against his hated foe namely the Flash. (Flash v4 #40)

## Overview

### Powers and abilities

One ability was the capacity to direct his mental energy at others allowing him to project his memories into the minds of others, influence the minds of people to awaken criminal tendencies or stun a person temporarily. (Flash v1 #147)

At one point, he discovered a new element that he named Element Z which he named after himself. The vibrations of the element duplicating the wave-patterns of the Flash allowing him to attain super-speed. However, Element Z was unstable and its effects were only temporary where they dissipated in time. Through the efforts of Mr. Element, Element Z was stabilized by purifying it of alien atoms allowing Professor Zoom to wear the Z Metal as a locket whose uncanny vibrations provided him super-speed. If the locket was removed, than he was deprived of his powers and an ordinary criminal during this era. (Flash v1 #147)

## Notes

* Professor Zoom was created by John Broome and Carmine Infantino where he made his first appearance The Flash v1 #139 (September 1963).
* In 2009, IGN ranked the character as the 31st greatest comic villain of all time.

## In other media

### Television

* In Batman: The Brave and the Bold, the character appeared as a villain in the episode "Requiem for the Scarlet Speedster!" where he was voiced by John Wesley Shipp. He was mentioned as being a speedster from the 25th century who was the arch-enemy of Barry Allen who was the Flash. Professor Zoom hatched upon a plan to eliminate his rivals that included Jay Garrick and Kid Flash. He managed to draw the three into following him at high speeds around the world till the point that they went through lightspeed breaking them into time itself. Zoom disappeared leading to the heroes to believe he perished and to save his comrades Barry Allen knocked Garrick and Kid Flash out of the stream seemingly dying as well. In actuality, the Flash arrived in the 25th century where Professor Zoom was waiting for him and knocked him unconscious. He placed the Flash in a perpetual motion machine where his speed was used to empower the Speed Force into his followers through sophisticated bands allowing him to rule the 25th century as Lord Zoom from Fortress Zoom. Unknown to Zoom, the Flash create after-images of himself into the past in an attempt to enlist their aid with Batman bringing together Jay Garrick and Kid Flash to use the Cosmic Treadmill to follow the pathway into the 25th century. The heroes were captured by Professor Zoom's forces whereupon he put the speedsters into the perpetual motion machine. Batman managed to free himself and equipped himself with the Speed Force band giving him super-speed to battle his foe. This proved to be only a distraction until the speedsters managed to free the Flash who battled and defeated Professor Zoom.
* In The Flash 2014 series, the character appeared as the villain of the first season where he was played by Tom Cavanagh and Matt Letscher where he masquerades as S.T.A.R. Labs scientist Harrison Wells who operated as the Reverse-Flash. He was revealed as being Eobard Thawne who was a villain from the future who became an enemy of the Flash and hated Barry Allen. At some point, he stole Gideon from the Flash and travelled back in time after being enraged to the point that he wanted to kill his hated enemy when he was a child. This saw him going back in time to Barry's childhood with the Flash in pursuit where he attacked only to battle his foe. He failed to kill Barry but the incident did lead to the death of Nora Allen who was the Flash's mother with Thawne claiming that he had no intention of doing that. After escaping, it was shown that the Speed Force had fled his body and thus he was unable to go back to his timeline leading to him being trapped in the past. Among his first actions was ensuring that the future came about as he knew and he decided to accelerate the timeline. This saw him ambush Dr. Harrison Wells who was travelling with his wife on the road. The reason behind this was because Wells was responsible for the creation of S.T.A.R. Labs and a particle accelerator that in 2020 would bring about the emergence of Metahumans. Eobard desired to bring about this incident much faster and killed Harrison along with his wife whereupon he used his technology to morph his appearance to that of Dr. Wells. In this new guise, he brought about the creation of S.T.A.R. Labs and was involved in numerous experiments such as those sponsored by United States Military General Eiling. Eiling intended to create living weapons with one of his experiments being Grodd that involved the creation of telepathic abilities though Thawne as Dr. Wells put a stop to these painful procedures. As a result, Grodd deeply respected Wells and came to regard him as a father. Harrison Wells was also secretly responsible for sabotaging the particle accelerator experiment that led to the rise of Metahumans and the birth of the Flash. After the incident, he pretended to had lost the use of his legs and managed the company after it became a pariah for its failed experiment. In this time, he approached Detective Joe West and offered to help Barry Allen who was left in a coma-like state and aided in his recovery. Upon learning of his abilities, Allen used them to become the masked superhero known as the Flash with Dr. Wells coaching him on his powers and aiding him in his missions. Unknown to anyone, Dr. Wells was regularly involved in removing obstacles such as killing Simon Stagg and stealing the blood from Blackout as part of Thawne's own plan of getting revenge on the Flash. At S.T.A.R. Labs, he had a hidden room where he kept his suit and where Gideon was installed. Once the Flash emerged, Eobard once more donned his suit and was known as the Man in Yellow by those aware of his existence.

### Films

* In Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, Eobard Thawne as Professor Zoom appeared as the primary antagonist of the animated film where he was voiced by C. Thomas Howell. It was shown that he was Eobard Thawne who was an inhabitant of the 25th century that replicated the Flash's origin to give himself access to the Speed Force whereupon he came to the modern day and became Barry Allen's arch-nemesis. He was responsible for hiring the Rogues to ambush the Flash at the Flash Museum. After their defeat, he revealed himself as the mastermind of the plot and betrayed the Rogues by showing that he had placed bombs made from future technology on their belts earlier. These explosives were from 25th century technology and powerful enough to destroy large parts of Central City. It was only the arrival of the Justice League aiding Flash that they were able to disarm the bombs. Reverse Flash was thus thwarted and arrested where afterwards the Flash traveled back in time to prevent the murder of his mother. The result was all of reality being altered creating an alternate timeline whereby the planet's surface was ravaged by war between the Atlanteans and Amazons. Zoom was a hidden force in the background where he saved Lois Lane's life after she was confronted by a group of Amazonian warriors. When Flash tries to stop the conflict between Aquaman and Wonder Woman, Professor Zoom appeared where he confronted his arch-nemesis once more where he revealed that the changes in the timeline were not made by him but by the Flash. The pair battle again with Zoom revealing that he was leeching the Speed Force from the Flash preventing him from restoring the timeline. Just as Aquaman detonates Captain Atom, Professor Zoom was shot in the head by this world's Batman who was actually Thomas Wayne. This allowed Flash full access to the Speed Force where he goes back in time to stop himself from altering the past with reality restored and Professor Zoom being apprehended.

### Video games

* In DC Universe Online, Professor Zoom was an NPC character mentioned to be setting up races at the Hall of Doom with the character name being shown as Zoom.