He developed the ability to travel through time, only to learn the truth: his destiny was not to be the Flash, but his enemy. This caused Thawne to Go Mad from the Revelation, deciding if he was to be the Flash's enemy, he would be the greatest enemy he ever had. Eventually, he discovered Barry's real identity and travelled back to the year 2000 to murder him as a child. Barry got away, so Thawne murdered Nora Allen instead, framing her husband Henry for it. Unfortunately for him, in doing so, he caused a chain of events that stripped him of his powers and trapped him in the past. Murdering the founder of STAR Labs and assuming his identity, he built the Particle Accelerator that gave Barry his powers years ahead of schedule and supposedly lost the use of his legs in the explosion when it malfunctioned.
Publication Information
- Flash : Eobard Thawne
- Version : The Flash Series
- Universe : Earth One
- Known as :
- Professor Eobard Thawne
- Harrison Wells
- Martin Stein
- Jack Swigert
- Dark Flash
- The Reverse-Flash
- The Man in Yellow
- The Man in the Ball of Lightning
- The Fastest Maniac Alive
- Type :
- Relative :
- Affiliation :
- Gender : Male
- Origin : 21st century's
- Season : The Flash
- First Appeareance : Arrow Season 2 Episod 8 : The Scientist
- Last Appeareance :
- Number of Appeareance :
- Potrayer :
- Main View : Full Episod
After Barry got his powers, he and Joe reopened Nora's case, hoping to bring her killer to justice and free Henry. But unknown to Barry, he's still in Central City and keeping a close eye on Barry's loved ones, specifically as a scientist searching for metahumans who helps Barry understand his powers. Training Barry to get faster and use his powers, the Flash had no idea that the monster who killed his mother was hidden in plain sight.
Grandfather Paradox
Due to the nature of the Speed Force and Eobard's erasures from existence, the exact temporal mechanism and structure behind his time travel is unknown. The following are possible phenomenons:
- According to Eobard, the Flash he encountered before ending up stranded in 2000 was originally created by the particle accelerator in 2020. Therefore, his first encounter with the Flash had to happen some time between 2020 and 2024.
- Alternatively, it's possible that Eobard's first travel through time triggered all his future actions that occurred across history to take effect at one, which nullified the existence where the particle accelerator created the Flash in 2020.
- If this is the case then while Eobard's existence was preserved through the Speed Force as a time remnant however, sparing him from Eddie's suicide in 2015 which wiped out their family, the future of the current timeline Eobard would return to after his first encounter with the Flash should have been one where the Thawne dynasty never existed.
- It's possible that the events of the aforementioned timeline where Harrison and Tess created The Flash in 2020 never actually occurred, and The Flash was always created by Eobard in 2013 of the same timeline he would first encounter The Flash in 2016, indicating a time loop.
After learning he was to be the Flash's destined archenemy, Eobard began traveling back in time to find when the Flash was active and after several searches proved fruitless, he eventually traveled back to the year of Flash's origins, starting their war across time.
First encounter
The Reverse-Flash arrived in January 2016, Central City. After Gideon confirmed his whereabouts, he began searching for the Flash. Eobard rigged a truck to drive at high speeds and collide with a building to lure Flash out, and was successful. Pleased to have located the exact time era Flash was active, Eobard planned his return home to properly plan his next attack and broke into one of Mercury Labs' offsite facilities, and prepared equipment designed to act as a time machine to send him back to his own time.
War in the past
After his first encounter with the Flash, Eobard would subsequently go on to travel through time again and again to the early 21st century to fight his former idol. The two speedsters would then fight each other in various different times, with neither of them managing to defeat the other, though Eobard was confident that he was always one step ahead of his enemy, and described their fights as spanning over the course of centuries, implying that Flash may have also fought Reverse-Flash in his own time as well.
Crisis in 2024
At some point in his past, around midnight on Thursday, April 25 in the year 2024, the Reverse-Flash fought The Flash, Green Arrow, Atom and Hawkgirl in the streets of Central City causing the most destruction the city had ever seen. The fight also somehow caused the sky to turn a deep crimson color. Their fight caused several trucks to start leaking their contents onto the streets, and caused power outages spread over 20 blocks throughout the city.
Travelling to 2000
Having learned the Flash's real name at this point, Eobard decided the best way to defeat Flash was to murder Barry as a child and traveled back in time to the night of March 18, 2000, aiming to murder the 11 year old Barry and erase the Flash from existence, but was pursued by his arch-enemy. The two fought inside the Allen house around Nora Allen, each landing solid hits on each other but their skills were fairly equal.
Stranded in the past
The Reverse-Flash grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed Nora in the heart and fled the scene to return to his own time which he hoped would now be one without the Flash, but he was stopped by a sudden loss of connection to the Speed Force. After Gideon confirmed that his powers have been drained due to his latest time jump, Reverse-Flash realized that he was now stranded in the 21st century with no way back to his time, and screamed in frustration.
Becoming Harrison Wells
Later that night, Eobard rigged the road with a spike strip and caused Harrison's car to crash, killing Tess and injuring Harrison. He dragged Harrison out of the car, and identified himself to Harrison as well as the terrified scientist's supposed role in 2020. Eobard then took out his appearance-stealing device, and attached one end to Harrison and to the other to himself.
The particle accelerator's explosion
On December 23, 2013, Eobard held an event at which he planned to switch on S.T.A.R. Labs' particle accelerator, which he had created. He began speaking on stage, claiming that the particle accelerator would create a brighter future, bringing advancements in power and medicine, as well as physics as they knew it. One of the questioners was Marlize DeVoe, asking if he had indeed planned for every event and outcome after the accelerator activates.
Working with the Flash
After Barry woke from the coma, Eobard was called down to the lab to talk to Barry. He took Barry around S.T.A.R. Labs, explaining what had actually happened on the night of the particle accelerator explosion and how they'd moved Barry. Before they could run more tests, Barry left. After having realized Barry had the ability to run super fast, Eobard and the team went to an airfield where they sought to test Barry's speed. Eobard cautioned restraint, though Barry instead ran at full pelt, accidentally running in to barrels of water.
Ceasing to exist
Eobard was placed inside the pipeline. Sometime afterward, Barry visited him to get answers, addressing him by his real name, and asked why Eobard killed Nora. Eobard explained his feud with the Flash, the circumstances and reasoning for his murder of Nora, and that he needed Barry to be a speedster in order to generate enough Speed Force energy to create a wormhole though which he could return home, and in the process Barry could return to the night of Nora's murder thus undo Henry's imprisonment and Eobard's actions.
Video will
In the event of his demise and his plan to return to his own time were to fail, Eobard made a video confession to Nora's murder for Henry's freedom. Initially, Eobard stood his ground in saying that Barry will never truly be happy, but believed he himself was never really the enemy but the real enemy was in fact Barry himself. Eobard then confesses to Nora's murder, much to his former protégé's shock and delight.
Flashpoint timeline
When the Reverse-Flash grabbed a kitchen knife and attempted to stab Nora, he was attacked by another version of the Flash from 2016, viciously knocking him down. Refusing to let Reverse-Flash kill Nora, and refusing to let him ruin anyone's life ever again, Flash knocked Reverse-Flash out, radically altering the future and undoing many of Reverse-Flash's future crimes. His nemesis then took Reverse-Flash back to the new version of 2016, took his ring from him, and constructed a speed-dampening cell using carbine material to imprison him in an abandoned factory.
Being hunted by Black Flash and altering reality
Rather than restore the timeline, however, the Reverse-Flash's actions created another new timeline where most of the events before remained intact but a few events were altered. Being pulled from the timeline, Eobard's existence paradoxically remained intact and retained memories of his life as Wells. He also no longer sports his beard as the Flashpoint timeline had been erased. Returning Barry to 2016, Eobard claimed that everything was back to the way it was.
Searching for the Spear of Destiny
Realizing he couldn't run from the Black Flash forever, Eobard set out to locate the Spear of Destiny, a mystical weapon foretold to have the power to re-write reality itself to restore his own existence to the timeline. However, the Spear of Destiny was divided into several pieces and guarded by the JSA's members from 1956 scattered throughout time. To find this mystical object, Eobard required the Askaran Amulet, a compass detailing the locations of the various pieces and their respective guardians.
Aiding the Nazis
Eobard first traveled to 1942 and began secretly aiding high-ranking members of the Nazi party to obtain the Askaran Amulet's first half, providing them with future information and the means to win World War II in exchange for the device. During this time, he encountered the 1942 version of the JSA as well as the time travelling Legends. Reverse-Flash succeeded in killing all of the Legends, however, the time traveling heroes' sacrifices bought Rex Tyler/Hourman enough time to pilot the Waverider through time to 2016 to stop the Legends' arrival to 1942, thus preventing Reverse-Flash's murders.
Aberration timeline
Eobard's information provided with Damien aided in Hitler's plan to kidnap Albert Einstein and force Einstein to develop an atomic bomb, which would destroy New York City. The aftermath of this would also cause World War II to end October 8, 1947 instead, and would cause the death of an additional 12 million more people. This caused an aberration, resulting in a time quake that alerted the Legends as planned.
Fixed timeline
Damien succeeded in constructing the bomb by kidnapping Mileva Maric instead of Einstein, and forcing Maric to build the bomb. However, the Legends were forced to use the Waverider to intercept the bomb, and they were scattered throughout time. As a result, Eobard's plan succeeded as he had drastically altered the Legends' first encounter with Hourman. When a German officer tried to kill Damien after refusing to help build another bomb, Reverse-Flash slayed the U-boat's crew members before he and Damien greeted each other.
Legion of Doom
Eobard then traveled to 1987 to retrieve the Askaran Amulet's other half and aided Damien as his "old friend" was about to caught by DEA agents while trading drugs with dealers in exchange for a relic. Eobard offers Damien a partnership to aid him in his plans in exchange for rewriting Damien's own destiny. Damien initially refused, however, Eobard warned that he knew of Damien's plan and its outcome and promised that he could give Damien actual power, rather than symbols of power.
Chicago trap
Planning to cause an aberration to lure the Legends out and retrieve the Askaran Amulet, Eobard's team traveled to 1927 and offered their assistance to crime lord Al Capone. When the three approached Capone, the crime lord initially refused and tried to have them killed. When Eobard slaughtered Capone's men, Capone listened to their proposal. Eobard would ensure Capone would remain out of police custody and become mayor of Chicago. In exchange, Capone would aid them against the Legends, and the intrigued crime lord agreed
Hunt for the Spear of Destiny
Locating Rip in 1967, Eobard sent Malcolm and Damien to capture Hunter so they could acquire Rip's piece of the Spear of Destiny while Eobard went on the run from the Black Flash. After managing to outrun and escape, the Reverse-Flash returned as Malcolm and Damien fought the Legends, and swiftly knocked them all to their feet. As Eobard questioned who should die first, Rip revealed himself and pulled a gun on them, only for the so-called weapon to be a film prop which amused the Legion, unaware Rip's suffering amnesia.
Rewritten reality
In this rewritten reality, Eobard remains in 2017 but is now S.T.A.R. Labs' official C.E.O. with world-wide recognition for using his futuristic brilliance to solve many worldwide problems. He is also a close friend of the President of the United States. However, Eobard did not remove the Black Flash from the new reality. Regardless, Eobard built a dampening cell in S.T.A.R. Labs that he kept Black Flash imprisoned in, leaving the demonic speedster unable to escape, running around the inside of the cell in murderous rage, with Eobard commenting that he wants to somehow bend the monster to his will, to no avail. As per his agreement, Eobard also altered the fates of the Legion based on their own desires.
Ceasing to exist again
Shortly after, the Legends managed to restore Rip and the Waverider to size and traveled back to 1916 to stop the Legion from obtaining the Spear of Destiny in the first place by altering the events of their past selves, thus erasing their present day selves from existence, however, Eobard anticipated all of this. Eobard traveled back to 1916 and as Atom re-discovered the blood of Christ to which he stole and crushed. Remarking that the Legion was right about disposing of his enemies.
Life on Earth-X
- Main Article : Life on Earth-X
Legacy
Younger Age
- Main Article : Younger Age
As Harrison Wells
- Main Article : As Harrison Wells
As Reverse-Flash
Hunter also learned of Eobard's actions, killing Henry in the same place Eobard killed Nora to have Barry enraged. According to Abra Kadabra's timeline, the Reverse-Flash is regarded as one of the Flash's greatest enemies alongside Zoom and DeVoe. However, none were as bad as Savitar. Also, though Eobard's squadron of time-travelling villains that messed with the timeline, fought the Legends, and included Darhk may have been the first of its kind, it would not be the last, as Mallus made another one soon after the Legion of Doom's defeat.
Post-Flashpoint
- Main Article : Post-Flashpoint
As Reverse Flash
- Main Article : Reverse Flash Powers And Abilities
- Origin : 21st century's
- Version : The Flash Series
- Type : Future Speedster
- Host : Eobard Thawne
- Height :
- Weight :
- Maximum Power :
- Punching Power :
- Kicking Power :
- Maximum Jump Height :
- Maximum Running Speed :
- Appearances : The Flash Series
- Main Article : Reverse Flash Powers And Abilities
