List of Flash enemies
This is a list of fictional characters from DC Comics who are or have been enemies of the Flash.
Golden Age Flash enemies
The Golden Age Flash enemies were all villains of the first Flash, Jay Garrick, later portrayed as living on Earth-Two after the introduction of the Silver Age Flash.
In chronological order (with issue and date of first appearance):
| Villain | First appearance | Description |
|---|---|---|
| The Shade | Flash Comics #33 (September 1942) | A villain who makes use of a special cane that enables him to cast complete darkness at will. |
| Dmane | A criminal from the 70th century who is accidently sent to 1946 by a time travel experiment. The Flash is finally able to send him back just before his execution. | |
| Ragdoll | Flash Comics #36 (December 1942) | Peter Merkel was born "triple-jointed" which enabled him to flex farther than any other human being. He hid in a Rag Doll and robbed stores. Has recently died after a crime spree, possibly killed by Starman after he threatened his family, but has had two sons who are also Ragdolls, one is a villain and the other a member of the Secret Six. |
| The Eel | Comic Cavalcade #3 (Summer 1943) | “Eel” Madden was a criminal who had a grease gun which made it almost impossible for anyone to catch him. |
| Thinker | All-Flash #12 (Fall 1943) | Clifford Devoe, a former DA, was a villain who used a specially designed "thinking cap" as an aid in conjuring up and performing various crimes, and a founding member of the Injustice Society of the World, in which position he captured the Flash. He later became friends with the Flash before dying from cancer; however, his Thinking Cap technology has become a computer program that made itself into a villain that battled Wally West and the rest of the JSA. |
| Turtle | All-Flash #21 (January/February 1946) | A villain who used slowness related weapons against the Flash, was inactive for a long time, then reappeared and now has the power to take away speed from people. |
| Rose and Thorn | Flash Comics #89 (November 1947) | Rose Canton had a multiple personality disorder, the Thorn, who was a villain, and who used thorn-themed weapons. She married Alan Scott, the first Green Lantern, and later committed suicide. |
| The Fiddler | All Flash Comics #32 (January 1948) | Isaac Bowin was a villain who used a violin to perform crimes, usually by using the violin to hypnotize people or cause vibrations which could shatter objects after learning skills from a Fakir he was in prison with, before murdering him. He first tried to frame his brother, but was defeated and pretened to commit suicide. Later he resurfaced. Recently, he joined the Secret Six, but when he failed a mission, he was killed by Deadshot on the orders of their leader, Mockingbird. After his death, a woman found his violin and is now using it, calling herself Virtuoso. |
| Star Sapphire | All-Flash #32 (January 1948) | A queen of the 7th Dimension, she tried to take over the Earth twice but failed. She is now trapped in the Gem. |
| The Rival | Flash Comics #104 (February 1949) | Dr. Edward Clariss, a professor at the university attended by the Golden Age Flash, Jay Garrick, believed he had recreated the formula that gave Garrick his speed, which he called "Velocity 9." However, this formula was only temporary, and he was defeated despite trying to use different fumes to take away the Flash's speed. Later he escaped from jail but went into the Speed Force itself. He is now pure energy from the Speed Force. He joined Johnny Sorrow's Injustice Society and committed numerous murders which spelt out his name, but he was defeated by the Flash before he could murder Joan. |
Silver Age Flash enemies
The Silver Age Flash enemies all lived on Earth-One and started out as enemies of the second Flash, Barry Allen, as well as the third Flash, Wally West, and the fourth, Bart Allen, after the death of Barry Allen. The Silver Age is when some enemies started to use the name Rogues. Originally, the Rogues were just a few of the Flash's enemies teaming together, but since then they have formed a lasting team, and usually a Rogue will not commit a crime by himself. The original eight Rogues were Captain Cold, Mirror Master, Heat Wave, Weather Wizard, the Trickster, Pied Piper, the Top, and Captain Boomerang. The current incarnation of the Rogues includes Captain Cold, Weather Wizard, Heat Wave, the second Mirror Master, and the new Trickster.
In chronological order (with issue and date of first appearance):
| Villain | First appearance | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Brain | Showcase #5 | A trio of identical brothers who commit crimes while the city has been distracted by three giant boxes they have placed in each other after a fog has descended on the city, which the authorities try to open. Flash jails the first two as they attempt robberies with clever tricks, like a tightrope whih the first one cuts and spring-heeled shoes, and jails the last one when he attempts a bank robbery by draining his live wire suit with which he intended to break his brothers out with silver. It is then revealed the last box led into the bank vault. |
| Bretans | The Flash #119 (March 1961) | A fish-like undersea race that kidnaps humans to work as slaves. After the Elongated Man disappears while skin-diving on his honeymoon, Flash is called by his wife, and reveals other skin-divers have disappeared around here, but he is knocked out with a blast and captured himself. He finds himself in a tank, where skin-divers are fished out and become the slave of the fisherman that captures them. The weakened Flash is captured while trying to get food and forced to work building a house in the city of Breta, and finds the blow that captured the Elongated Man has made him lose his memory. He restores it by making him use his power, and together they defeat the Bretans, who agree to never again kidnap humans and return them. |
| Captain Cold | Showcase #8 (June 1957) | Len Snart was a criminal who wanted a chance to get rid of the Flash. Seeing an article about a weapon that might disrupt the Flash's Speed, Snart made a gun and exposed it to radiations. However due to the fact Snart was not experienced in the use of the device and activated it wrongly, instead of slowing the Flash down, the gun could freeze anything to absolute zero, which he discovered when he accidentally used it on a watchman. Calling himself Captain Cold, Snart started out on a criminal career. He is considered to be the arch-nemesis of both Barry Allen and Wally West, and the leader of the Rogues. Known for being a sympathetic villain, Cold has a sense of honor. Cold has strict rules on how the rogues should act, such as no drugs and to not kill unless they have to. He also has a sense of loyalty to his team and watches out for them. |
| Cloud Creatures | The Flash #111 | Sentinent, cloud like creatures which emerge from underground to take over the world and can project lightning. The Flash notices each has a dark spot on them, and realises striking it will destroy the cloud. He skims over normal clouds and is able to dissipitate the invaders, turning them to rain. |
| Doctor Alchemy | Showcase #14 (June 1958) | Albert Desmond suffered from a split personality, one a good person and the other evil. Originally calling himself Mr. Element and using element-themed devices before being captured by the Flash, he changed it to Dr. Alchemy when he found the philosopher's stone which could transmute elements after hearing of it from a cellmate, and was able to transmute elements, although the effects only lasted for about 20 minutes. Soon it was found out that there were two Desmonds, Albert, the good one and Alvin, the bad, and that they shared a mental link. Alvin was destroyed, but Albert became Dr. Alchemy again. |
| Dokris | The Flash vol 1 #125 | Dokris were a species of green-skinned aliens who briefly conquered Earth in the year 2287. Under the leadership of Mynher, they sent a hive to the distant past, 100,842,246 BC, which robbed Earth's minerals of all its radioactivity. This in turn caused the atomic weapons of humanity to deactivate. In the first use of the Cosmic treadmill, Kid Flash went to the past to destroy the hive, and Flash to the Future to battle the aliens. He is knocked out by a radiation gun and taken captive, and Kid Flash battles giant insects. Finally he destroys the hive, causing the weapons of the Future to work again, meaning the aliens are defeated. |
| Maugites | The Flash vol 1 #109 | Undersea superfast creatures that resseamble black fish with limbs and attack another race, the Saremites. The Flash finds out about the Saremites from an astronaut who was saved when his capsule fell into the sea by the Muagites, and defeats a horde of them. By the end the Saremites are making weapons, having been shown the Maugites can be defeated. |
| Mirror Master | The Flash #105 (March 1959) | While working in a prison workshop, Sam Scudder accidentally stumbled upon a mirror that could project holograms. When he escaped, he made more mirror gadgets, and became the Mirror Master. He has created many different mirrors that can do various things like travel into other dimensions. He was killed during Crisis on Infinite Earths, however there have been others. |
| Gorilla Grodd | The Flash #106 (May 1959) | Grodd was an inhabitant of Gorilla City, a peaceful society of super-intelligent Gorillas of which Grodd was the only evil one. A mastermind in his early years with vast mental powers, he has become more savage and stronger recently, to the point where he wants to "feast on the bones" of the Flash. |
| The Pied Piper | The Flash #106 (May 1959) | Hartley Rathaway was born deaf, but was cured after his rich parents sought a way to make him hear. Once he could hear, he became obsessed with music and sound, and made many sound based weapons. Originally a criminal, he reformed and came out as being gay the same time. He became a friend of Wally West, even when the Top revealed he had changed the personality of some of the rogues (Piper included) to make them reform; Piper was able to fight off the Top and stay good. |
| Weather Wizard | The Flash #110 (December 1959/January 1960) | Mark Mardon escaped from prison to his brother's house. His brother had just made a wand that could control the weather. Mark wanted the weapon and he and his brother got into a fight, and his brother was killed (although Mardon said he was dead when he got there, he has told the truth to Captain Cold). He had an infant son who was adopted by Iris West, but was later killed by Inertia. |
| The Trickster | The Flash #113 (June/July 1960) | James Jesse, a circus performer who came from a family of trapeze artists, invented shoes that used compressed air to "walk" on air, originally using them for tight-rope walking. Inspired by Jesse James, James made other weapons and became the Trickster, robbing planes until Flash tracked him down in the circus. He was once reformed, but it was revealed that was because the Top made it so, and he returned to the rogues, but contemplated whether to be a hero or a villain. He was killed in Countdown to Final Crisis. |
| Captain Boomerang | The Flash #117 (December 1960) | Digger Harkness was a master of boomerangs which he learned how to use in the Outback. When a mascot was needed for a boomerang company, Harkness was hired, but used the costume and boomerangs to commit crimes and he had many trick boomerangs. Originally he pretended someone else was using his identity to trick Flash, but finally the deception was revealed. He once impersonated the Mirror Boomerang. Harkness was killed during Identity Crisis, but also killed Jack Drake before he died. Harkness has a son, Owen, who became a hero after a brief stint with the rogues. |
| The Top | The Flash #122 (August 1961) | Roscoe Dillon used many top themed weapons to commit crimes, eventually learning how to spin himself at great speeds, increasing his intelligence and allowing him to deflect bullets. Although he died, Dillon's mind was so powerful that it took over the minds of many people to keep on living, including Henry Allen and a senator, whose body was reformed by Dillon to look like his original body. He was later killed again by Captain Cold when Dillon tried to take over the rogues during "Rogue War". During this time it was revealed that Dillon had made some of the rogues reform, and during the war, he made them criminals again. He was also a victim of the JLA mind wipes; he was made a good person and overpowered it and changed back. |
| Abra Kadabra | The Flash #128 (May 1962) | A magician from the 64th century who was exiled from his time peroid for crimes and used his technology to pose as a magician. Originally separate from the Rogues, he recently began joining forces with them occasionally. |
| Professor Zoom | The Flash #139 (September 1963) | Eobard Thawne is a speedster from the 25th century, who occasionally used the alias Adrian Zoom. He was a fan of the Flash, and gained his powers, but went insane on discovering he would become a villain. Once just a simple villain, he became more known when he killed Barry Allen's wife Iris Allen (although her consciousness was transported to the 30th century at the last possible instant). Later, when Barry was about to remarry, Zoom tried to kill his bride, but, in a fit of rage, Barry killed Zoom by breaking his neck, thus putting the Flash on trial for murder where he was found guilty. He was returned to life, and is behind Flashpoint (comics). |
| Heat Wave | The Flash #140 (November 1963) | Mick Rory is obsessed with heat, and at a young age, burned down his house, killing his family. He then made a heat gun and used fire to rob and kill. Rory was one of the rogues the Top made reform, and when that was taken away, Rory became a rogue again. Even during his redeemed life, his mind was already starting to turn to crime. |
| Mazdan | Showcase #4 (November 1963) | A criminal from the future, after the year 3000, who the authorities decide to exile to the 50th century when Earth is desolate. He is accidentally sent to the 20th century and tries to steal equipment needed to repair the Time capsule, such as gold to coat it, and get back to the future to get revenge, using advanced heat-based weapons. The Flash discovers this and aptures Mazdan, who escapes using contact lenses that focus heat, and that using the Time capsule will destroy the area at least Ten miles round, killing thousands. He uses his superspeed to break through the time barrier with Mazdan, who oddly enough does not die from the friction and get back to his own era. The authorities say they will make sure next time the Time capsule reaches the 50th century and the Flash returns to his own time. He later escapes and uses a mind-effecting weapon to cause trouble for Flash, but is beaten again. |
| Golden Glider | The Flash #250 (June 1977) | Lisa Snart, the sister of Len Snart (Captain Cold), did not want to be a villain, but when her lover, the Top died, she swore revenge on the Flash. Using sharp ice skates which made ice, she battled the Flash, and got the approval or her brother. She was killed by Chill Blaine, a villain whom she gave ice powers to. Captain Cold has since gotten revenge by killing Chill Blaine. |
| Clive Yorkin | The Flash #270 (February 1979) | Clive Yorkin, a criminal spending life in prison, agreed to take part in a prison experiment. The experiment went wrong, and it drove him mad and able to kill someone by touching them. It was thought he killed Iris West, but he was innocent, the real culprit being the Reverse Flash. |
| Steve Palmer | The Flash #118 | An actor who has been hired to play the Flash, but plans to eliminate him and impersonate him, hiring out his image to companies. He causes dangerous events on set, causing the Flash to take his place to find out who is behind it. The Flash evades a mine cave-in, but is knocked out from behind by Palmer and tied up. Palmer reveals his plan, and his henchmen are about to shoot the Flash, when Iris West rings the doorbell on the trailer, giving the Flash enough time to vibrate free of his bonds, and defeat the crooks. |
| Katmos | The Flash #105 (March 1959) | Katmos is the sole survivor and former ruler of an iron-based race that ruled the Earth 8 million years ago until nearly all of them were wiped out by a comet. When an archaeologist frees Katmos after he takes control of their mind, he uses his mind control gun on the archaeologist to further his power. Deciding to take over the world, Katmos begins stealing devices he needs in order to do so with his great strength, attracting the attention of the Flash.
Finding Katmos when he is testing his device, the fastest man alive battles the prehistoric humanoid, but is captured with the mind control gun and sealed in a tube that once under the direct light of the sun will make the Flash 1,000 times heavier than normal. Katmos meanwhile tells the Flash of his origins before leaving. The Flash manages to break out of the tube by bouncing out of the cavern into the sky and crashing onto the ground. The Flash then quickly knocks out Katmos and turns him over to the police. |
| Rainbow Raider | The Flash #286 (June 1980) | A color blind painter, Roy G. Bivolo had true talent in composition and detail, but lack of ability to see color made his work unpopular. His father made a pair of goggles for him that could project colors on a person; each color represented a different mood. Roy became a criminal who stole paintings and joined the Rogues. He was later killed by Blacksmith. |
Modern Age Flash enemies
In addition to the Silver Age Rogues, there have been many other Flash villains created in the past few years. The special issue Flash: Iron Heights was the first appearance of many of them. Some of the "new breed", as the old rogues call them, made a team called the New Rogues, led by Blacksmith. They tried to take away the allies of the Flash so he would fight them alone, but the Flash beat them anyway. These villains are not part of the current rogues, which are still the Silver Age villains. Also, new versions of Mirror Master, the Trickster, and Captain Boomerang were introduced and became part of the rogues.
| Villain | First appearance | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Magenta | The New Teen Titans #17 (March 1982) | Frankie Kane was a one time girlfriend of Wally West, who gained magnetic powers which killed her family. Not knowing her purpose in life, she became a villain and first joined the Cicada cult and the New Rogues before reforming. |
| Mirror Master | Animal Man #8 (February 1989) | Evan McCulloch grew up in an orphanage, and after killing a bully, he escaped and became a mercenary. On one hit, he unknowingly shot and killed his father, and later found out his mother died of grief. Then, he was hired by the Government to be the new Mirror Master, and he got the original Mirror Master's equipment. Instead of working for the government, McCulloch became a member of the rogues, taking the place of the old Mirror Master. He also has a drug problem, of which Captain Cold does not approve. |
| Manfred Mota | Flash 50th Anniversary Special (1990) | Mota is a villain who has fought all four Flashes, each time in a different form. He is also the father of Valerie Perez, girlfriend of Bart Allen. |
| Razer | Flash vol. 2, #84 (November 1993) | Razer is a villain who was a mercenary for hire who wears a suit coated completely with lubrilon, an experimental near-frictionless chemical polymer. He nearly destroyed a shopping mall, though the Flash got almost everyone out. Razer later escaped and began working for Data Highways, Inc. |
| Kid Zoom | Impulse #50 (July 1999) | Inertia was a clone of Bart Allen. He originally fought Allen when he was Impulse, and then when Bart aged five years after Infinite Crisis and became the Flash, Inertia fought him again. Inertia was responsible for the death of Allen, and when Wally West returned to he took revenge by stripping Inertia of all movement and putting him in the Flash Museum. During Final Crisis: Rogues' Revenge, he was used by Libra and Zoom to try to get the Rogues to join the new Secret Society. He stole Zoom's powers, called himself Kid Zoom, and was killed by the Rogues, who blame him for making them kill Bart Allen. |
| Folded Man | Flash vol. 2, #153 (October 1999) | Edwin Gauss is a criminal who uses a suit to shift from 3-D space to 2-D and 4-D space. He created Avernus, a graveyard in 4-D space for fallen Flash enemies. |
| Plunder | Flash vol. 2, #165 (October 2000) | Plunder is an assassin from a mirror universe, a copy of a police officer in the real world. |
| Brother Grimm | Flash vol. 2, #166 (November 2000) | The ruler of another realm, Grimm blames Wally West for driving him to kill his brother and assume the throne. He possesses powerful magical abilities and able to 'sense' the Speed Force, thus forcing Wally to limit himself to normal speed in any fight with Grimm. |
| Cicada | Flash vol. 2, #171 (April 2001) | During a thunderstorm sometime in the early twentieth century, David Hersch murdered his wife. Regretting what he had done, he sought to end his own life, only to be struck by lightning. He had a vision that he had been chosen to live forever, and he would bring his wife back as well. Starting a cult, his followers killed people who had been saved by the Flash, and Cicada used the energy of these people to live forever. |
| Tar Pit | Flash vol. 2, #174 (July 2001) | Joey Monteleone was the brother of a drug dealer, and while in prison discovered he could put his mind into inanimate objects. However, his mind got stuck inside tar, and now the tar has Monteleone's mind. |
| Murmur | Flash: Iron Heights (2001) | A surgeon who went insane, Michael Amar now seeks sadistic ways to kill the voices he hears. His distinctive criminal act is to remove a victim's tongue early during the torture he inflicts. He also has a virus that will turn a person’s lung to mud in 90 minutes. |
| Blacksmith | Flash: Iron Heights (2001) | Blacksmith is a Ferro-kinetic crime lord who was once married to Goldface. She founded her own rendition of the Rogues, and created "The Network", and underground hideaway for rouges that had been in operation for years with out anyone knowing. However, she and her Rogues were defeated by Wally West. |
| Fallout | Flash: Iron Heights (2001) | Sal Cendejas was a member of a team hired to do some additional work on a nuclear power plant they had helped construct. During a series of tests an explosion destroyed the floor that Cendejas and his workmates were working on, and they fell into the reactor's cooling system. His co-workers died, but Cendejas survived as his body’s molecular structure shifted transforming into a man composed of high-energy electrons. Unfortunately Cendejas had brought his wife and son to work to show them around the plant. Contact with his new body killed them, and in the same way he inadvertently killed several people. Genuinely remorseful, he was imprisoned in Iron Heights Penitentiary, where he was used to power the prison with his new abilities. The Flash found out about the inhumane treatment of Fallout and the disastrous state of Iron Heights, and while he was unable to change the living conditions within, he managed to have the prison's systems changed so Fallout would not have to suffer as the energy within his body was siphoned. |
| Girder | Flash: Iron Heights (2001) | Tony Woodward was shoved into a vat of molten steel from S.T.A.R. Labs after he assaulted a female coworker. He survived, but became composed of scrap metal. He joined the New Rogues, and took part in the Rogue War. |
| Double Down | Flash: Iron Heights (2001) | Jeremy Tell lost a card game and then killed the man who won. After this, the cards in the dead man's pocket flew out and covered Tell, becoming his skin. He can use the razor sharp corners of the cards as weapons by peeling them off of himself. |
| Zoom | (as Hunter Zolomon) Flash Secret Files #3 (November 2001) (as Zoom) Flash vol. 2, #197 (June 2003) |
Hunter Zolomon was once a friend of the Flash who worked at the police station. When visiting Iron Heights prison, he was caught in an escape attempt by Grodd, who broke Hunter's back. He survived and asked for the Flash to go back in time and stop it from happening. Flash told him he cannot change history, even for a friend. Hunter got very mad at Flash, and decided to try to do it himself. However the cosmic treadmill exploded during the process, and Hunter gained super speed not coming from the speed force, but from time itself, making him even faster than the Flash. Zolomon set out to make the Flash a better hero by letting him deal with loss, and killed his unborn twins. This event has since been rectified due to time travel. Zoom recently had his power drained from him by Inertia/Kid Zoom. He is now Hunter Zolomon as he was before the Treadmill blew up in his face. |
| Peek-a-Boo | Flash vol. 2, #180 (January 2002) | Lashawn Baez has the power to teleport, and used the power to try to steal a liver for her father who needed a new one. She was stopped by Flash and her father died. She is now a villain. |
| The Trickster | Flash vol. 2, #184 (April 2002) | After the original Trickster reformed, teenager Axel Walker found his equipment and stole it, becoming the new Trickster. He joined the rogues, and took the place of the first Trickster (even though most of the rogues thought of him as too young and impulsive). During Rogue War, James Jesse, the original Trickster, became a rogue again and took back what was his. After Jesse was killed by Deadshot in the Countdown series, Walker rejoined the Rogues as the Trickster in the Final Crisis: Rogues' Revenge miniseries. |
| Captain Boomerang | Identity Crisis #3 (October 2004) | Owen Mercer is the son of the original Captain Boomerang and Meloni Thawne (making him Bart Allen's maternal half-brother). He did not know his father until he was an adult. The two practiced together, and Owen found he had bursts of super speed. When his father died he joined the rogues, but One Year Later he reformed and is now a member of the Suicide Squad. |
"One Year Later" Flash enemies
| Villain | First appearance | Description |
|---|---|---|
| The Griffin | The Flash: Fastest Man Alive #1 (August 2006) | Griffin Grey was a friend of Bart Allen until he was caught in an explosion at work; he found out he had enhanced speed and strength, and he became a hero, but only for the glory of it. However, the powers made him age faster, and he looked like an old man in days. He tried to find the secret of what kept Jay Garrick young, but could not. He then became a villain, and during a fight with Bart, he was overpowered and died. |
| Spin | Flash vol. 2, #238 (May 2008) | Mysterious villain with the ability to magnify people’s fears and make them reality. Spin is actually Dantley Walker, a person in authority at KN News or its parent company. Spin’s secret headquarters, located below the television station’s office, conceals an emaciated captive telepath, plugged into machines and used to track public anxiety so that he can more reliably manipulate it. |
Enemies created for other media
The Flash villains "created" in other media, with no appearances in previous or subsequent comics. Those sharing the names of comic villains, but bearing no other similarities, are noted:
| Villain | Media | Actor/Actress |
|---|---|---|
| Prank | The Flash (TV series) | Joyce Hyser |
| Prank | The Flash (TV series) | Corinne Bohrer |
| Gideon | The Flash (TV series) | Christopher Neame |
| "Deadly" Nightshade | The Flash (TV series) | Richard Burgi |
| The Trachmann | The Flash (TV series) | Charley Haywood |
| The Ghost | The Flash (TV series) | Anthony Starke |
| Nicholas Pike | The Flash (TV series) | Michael Nader |
Villains from comics in other media
A number of villains from the comic books have made an appearance, or appearances, in other media featuring the Flash.
See also
- Rogues
- List of Superman enemies
- List of Batman enemies
- List of Wonder Woman enemies
- List of Green Lantern enemies
- List of Aquaman enemies
External links
- Alan Kistler's Profile On: The Flash - A detailed analysis of the history of the Flash by comic book historian Alan Kistler. Covers information all the way from Jay Garrick to Barry Allen to today, as well as discussions on the various villains and rogues who fought the Flash. Various art scans.[dead link]
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