Zoom (Arrowverse)

"Heroes die."

- Zoom to Barry Allen

Zoom is the primary antagonist of Season 2 in the CW TV Series, ''The Flash. ''He is a powerful inter-dimensional evil speedster entity from Earth-2 and the arch nemesis of super hero Jay Garrick, who seeks to become the fastest being in all the multi-verse.

While his portray-er is unknown, he is voiced by Tony Todd, who portrayed the Candyman and The Fallen.

Past
What little information exists about Zoom has been told by Jay Garrick and Harrison "Harry" Wells (Earth-2) in their experiences with him. Presumably gaining his powers through the use of the particle accelerator created by Harry, he became unstable and also extremely powerful. When he got his speed, he apparently rampaged around Central City (Earth-2) and killed hundreds of people. In "Potential Energy", Harry told Cisco the story of how he became so feared; one of his first acts of violence was staging a hostage situation, only to then kill 14 police officers, sparing the 15th so he could tell everyone about his power and how he is not to be trifled with. The next night, he killed the surviving officer, and thus he was given the moniker of "Zoom", able to make everyone around him feel weak and insignificant to him.

He eventually became an enemy of fellow speedster Jay Garrick/Flash, who proceeded to hunt him for 2 years with little to no success. Zoom was able to elude him for so long while also making sure to only show himself when he felt that he had to. This led to the two fighting multiple times, but other times Jay was intimidated into not facing his arch-nemesis, as he was extremely-terrifying and far more powerful than he. At some point prior to his battle with Jay in "Flash of Two Worlds", he attacked Central City College and kidnapped Jesse Wells, Harry's daughter, as a means of gaining leverage over him.

In the episode "Flash of Two Worlds", there was a flashback to May 19th, 2015, when Jay and Zoom had their "biggest battle ever", taking them atop a skyscraper where Zoom dug his claws into Jay's skin, absorbing his speed and becoming more powerful (however, this didn't actually happen, as he lost his speed due to usage of the Velocity drugs). Right as he was about to kill Jay, however, a singularity opened up in the sky, pulling in Jay and his father's hat. Zoom ran away from the singularity, not getting sucked into it somehow, and was left on Earth-2. At some point six months afterwards, he discovered that the singularity created breaches littered across the city; portals between Earth-2 and Earth-1, where Jay ended up after being pulled into the singularity. He eventually discovered the Flash of this world, Barry Allen, and sought to absorb his speed and become the fastest man in the multi-verse; however, he would have to "fatten up" the guy like how a farmer fattens up a pig or cow before killing and eating it.

Pre-Enter Zoom
After entering Earth-1 by unknown means, Zoom began to kidnap meta-humans from Earth-2 such as Atom-Smasher and Sand Demon in order to kill the two Flashes, but both Atom-Smasher and Sand Demon were defeated and killed.

Enter Zoom
"Goodbye, Flash! You too weren't fast enough..."

- Zoom before leaving Star Labs

After capturing one of Zoom's breachers, Dr. Light, Barry and his team use her knowledge to set a trap for Zoom. Posing Light's Earth-1 counterpart Linda Park as Dr. Light, they stage the Flash's death. Although Linda seemingly kills Barry and throws the emblem of the Flash's suit through a breach as proof for Zoom, Zoom does not take the bait and stays away. However, he later kidnaps Linda from her working place and brings her to the rooftop of S.T.A.R. Labs. Barry Allen confronts Zoom on top of the roof of S.T.A.R Labs in a feeble attempt to save Linda Park. Zoom awaits him, claiming that Barry is not the only one to fish with bait. He then drops Linda, forcing Barry to run to the ground and catch her. The two speedsters fight against each other in order to rid their existence from the multiverse once in for all. Zoom proves himself to be the superior speedster as he easily catches and throws back the lightning that Barry attempted to use against him and gives chase to Barry when he is running up the walls of buildings. Barry attempts to get both speedsters to fall at terminal velocity making their speed equal yet Zoom comes out on top, severely beats up Barry and ultimately breaks Barry's back. Earth-2 Harrison Wells attempts to use a speed dampening dart against Zoom while he is pummeling Barry yet Zoom easily catches the dart and uses it to stab Barry in the chest. Remembering Wells that he and not Barry is the fastest man alive, Zoom then sets off with Barry's beaten and unconscious body. At first arriving at the newspaper office Iris and Linda work at, Zoom presents the defeated Flash to the media. He then drags him to the CCPD, where he shows the police officers that their hero is beaten and sarcastically wonders what the police is going to do without him. The officers open fire but Zoom catches every bullet with ease. After the police ceases to fire, Zoom opens his hand and drops the caught bullets in front of the shocked officers' feet. He then returns to S.T.A.R. Labs with Barry, adressing Wells. Wells tries to apologize by claiming that he made a mistake and Zoom confirms this, calling Wells' mistake a costly one. After plunging his claw into Barry's stomach Zoom is shot in the back by Cisco with Well's dart gun. Though Zoom drops to the ground, he immediately regains his powers and leaves S.T.A.R. Labs, claiming that the Flash too wasn't fast enough to defeat him.

Eventually, Harrison Wells devices another plan. He intends to close all breaches except the one at S.T.A.R. Labs to create another trap for Zoom. However, he does not know how to do so.

Running to Stand Still
Zoom uses the breaches to confront Earth-2 Harrison Wells. He reveals that Wells is running out of time to make a decision for an unknown ultimatum. Zoom keeps reminding Wells about this ultimatum several times throughout the episode. It is revealed at the end of the episode that Zoom wants Barry to get faster and to be able to utilize more speed force. This is because the more speed force a speedster has the more Zoom can take. The decision Wells had to make is revealed to either continue to make Barry faster or let his daughter be killed. Wells picks the obvious choice and decides to keep trying to make Barry faster.

Potential Energy
At the start of the episode Barry has a nightmare involving Zoom killing Patty and being unable to help her. Although it is just a dream this reveals that Zoom has made an impact on Barry and that Zoom is perhaps Barry's biggest fear and source of self-doubt.

Meanwhile Cisco has come up with an idea to steal Zoom's speed. Cisco reveals that there is a metahuman who can slow down people's perception of time who he has dubbed the Turtle. Cisco's plan involves using the Turtle to slow down Zoom's perception which in turn will make Barry technically faster than him.

Fast Lane
Earth-2 Harrison Wells figures out how to steal a fraction of Barry's speed force as he runs. While The Flash is stopping the villain of the episode, Tar Pit, from killing a hitman, Earth-2 Harrison Wells harvests some of the speed force. Later in the episode Zoom confronts Harrison Wells and drinks the harvested speed force. Wells tries to negotiate but Zoom merely rebuts that he can torture Well's daughter instead of killing her.

Welcome to Earth-2
Barry, Wells and Cisco enter Earth-2 in an attempt to find Jessie and stop Zoom. However Barry gets emotionally attached to his earth-2 counterpart's family. In an attempt to stop Killer Frost and Death Storm, as well as Reverb, Barry is able to track them to a ware house. Although he get the upper hand on Killer Frost he soon finds himself overwhelmed by the combined efforts of the other two metahumans. Killer Frost pleads to them in fear of what Zoom will do to them for disobeying him. Zoom himself makes an appearance and kills Deathstorm. He then scolds Reverb for trying to kill The Flash when his orders were to leave him unharmed. He then shoves a hand through Reverb's heart mirroring how Eaobard Thawne killed Cisco on Earth-1. He then proceeds to strangle Killer Frost but leaves her alive stating "At least one of you knows your place". He then grabs Barry and leaves back to his hideout leaving a distraught Killer Frost and a defeated Cisco.

At the end of the episode, Barry wakes up in Zoom's hideout. He sees Jessie and promises to her that he will get her out and back to her dad. Zoom then rushes in front of Barry stating "It's not wise to make promises you can't keep, Flash.".

Escape From Earth-2
Having finally lost patience with Wells and knowing that Wells would now never voluntarily deliver him Flash's speed, Zoom ramped up his reign of terror over Earth-2 Central City to an unprecedented extent, racing throughout the city and leaving behind him signs demanding that Wells be handed over to him. Hunting for Wells throughout the city, he arrived at Star Labs as it was being evacuated, murdering several guards and a scientist (Earth-2 Henry Hewitt) as he ran through the building. Despite his best efforts (and thanks to a fake wall), Zoom was unable to find Wells or his comrades even in his (Wells') Time-Vault and was forced to temporaily abandon his search. Zoom subsequently raced back to his lair to discover Flash and Jessie communicating with the man in the metal mask, though he quickly cut the conversation short. To teach Barry a lesson, Zoom vibrated into Flash's cell and gave him a brutal beatdown in an effort to discourage any further collaboration between the prisoners. Knowing that he still needed Wells to complete his plan, Zoom pretended to resume his hunt for the scientist in Central City, correctly assuming that Wells and his companions would turn to Killer Frost to help them find his (Zoom's) lair and that she would comply.

Once they were inside his lair, Zoom cornered them just as Flash and Jessie had been freed, swept the team aside and grabbed Jessie by the throat, preparing to make good on his vow to kill her in front of her father. Just as Zoom was about to deliver the final blow, Killer Frost betrayed him yet again by attacking him and slamming him against a wall with a barrage of ice, causing him to let go of Jessie and temporarily freeze him in place. The distraction allowed Flash, Jessie and the team to escape, though Zoom would soon break free of Killer Frost's ice and likely killed her. Zoom raced back to Star Labs to stop Wells and the team from returning to Earth-1 through the last remaining breach and managed to grab Wells before Flash could bring him through. Wells however outsmarted Zoom by stabbing him in the heart with a speed-dampening serum dart, causing Zoom to let go of him and allowing Flash to grab Wells and return him to Earth-1. In the final moments before the breach was closed, Zoom reached through it, phased his hand through Jay Garrick's chest (who had been instrumental both in keeping the breach open and then closing it), and pulled him back through the breach to Earth-2 just before it closed, presumably killing Jay in the process.

King Shark
At the end of the episode Zoom is seen carrying Jay Garrick into his lair which frightens the masked man. Zoom then removes his mask and reveals that he is also Jay Garrick.

Green Arrow
At an unknown point in 2016, Barry fought Zoom, with the fight getting in the way of Barry attending the funeral of someone close to Oliver Queen/Arrow. Zoom is not shown on-screen in this episode.

Personality
As noted by "Harry" Wells, Zoom is obsessed with speed and has actually set a goal for himself to steal away the speed of every speedster in the multi-verse. He has been known to make anyone under his control do things that are out of character, as he was able to make a simple thief like Linda Park become a killer.

The most-notable feature about him is that he's extremely-terrifying, able to intimidate anyone into doing his bidding with "minimal" effort; Jay Garrick even admitted that he deliberately avoided confronting him several times because he was scared of him to the point of being called a "demon with the face of death". His fear manipulation has allowed him to make meta-humans with powers superior to his, such as Al Rothstein/Atom-Smasher and aforementioned Linda Park, do what he tells them to; though they had the power to fight back, Zoom was able to make them feel powerless before him.

In the episode "Enter Zoom", he was shown to be rather egotistical; after defeating Flash in combat, he proceeded to run around Central City with his helpless body in tow like a hunting trophy, showing him to the Central City Picture News and then the police department while making a speech about how Flash is nothing compared to him.

He has shown multiple signs of sadistic prowess in a fashion similar to Michael Myers from the Halloween movies and Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th movies, toying with his victims at any chance possible. In "Running to Stand Still", he toyed with Harry by running around S.T.A.R. Labs and terrifying him instead of facing him instantly. In "Potential Energy", Harry told Cisco the story of how Zoom got his name and existence established, which was a situation where he faked a hostage situation, only to then mercilessly slaughter all the police officers at the scene except one, letting him go to tell everyone what happened just now. The next night, he murdered the cop.

Despite being the evil maniac that he is, Zoom is not without patience, as he carefully plans multiple situations well ahead of time without fault. He could long-term map out his plan to "fatten up" Barry until he's so fast that he can absorb his speed and become the fastest man in the multi-verse; to make sure it works, he gets together contingency plans, such as forcing Harry to help him in exchange for the safe return of his daughter Jesse.

Powers
Zoom has shown that he is incredibly-powerful. The full extent of his power has so far been shown during his battle with Barry in "Enter Zoom". It was initially assumed that he had the ability to siphon a person's speed by using his claws and absorbing it into himself, becoming faster in the process; however, as revealed in "Escape from Earth-2", he wasn't actually capable of doing this, hence why he wanted Wells to steal Barry's speed for him.
 * Superhuman speed: Zoom is unbelievably-fast, perhaps the fastest speedster in the Arrow-verse. Having been able to successfully avoid a loss from Jay Garrick and Barry Allen multiple times, he is stated to be capable of exceeding light-speed (299,792,458 m/s), which could explain why he can go through the breaches between Earth-2 and Earth-1. Unlike Barry, Jay and Eobard, whose speed is emphasized by red/yellow lightning coming off of them, Zoom's lightning is light-blue, which is visible even when he's not using his speed. This is presumably because his cells have absorbed so much of the Speed Force that it's unable to keep itself contained properly.
 * Electrokinesis: In "Enter Zoom", he was able to actually catch a bolt of lightning thrown by Barry in mid-air, then throw it back at him with greater force.
 * Superhuman reflexes: Zoom's reaction time is augmented due to his powers, able to easily accomplish winning a battle with minimal effort. Even Barry Allen was unable to beat him despite all his powers and training he received from Eobard Thawne. His reaction time has also allowed him to catch numerous bullets fired at him by multiple cops all at the same time, then dropping them to the ground to emphasize his superiority.
 * Inter-dimensional travel: Somehow, Zoom was able to go through breaches between Earth-1 and Earth-2, which are invisible unless he runs through them.
 * Rapid cellular acceleration: His powers allow him to heal damaged cells and organs remarkably-fast, perhaps faster than Barry's healing; in "Enter Zoom", he and Barry wound up flung several hundred feet into the air and then fell back to the ground, but Zoom was apparently unharmed by this.
 * Phasing: In "Escape from Earth-2", Zoom was able to walk through walls and glass with ease by vibrating his molecules to match the resonate frequency of these solid surfaces. He also phased his arm through Jay Garrick's back and made it protrude from his chest before pulling back through to Earth-2.

Abilities

 * Master tactician/Manipulator: Zoom was able to easily elude Jay Garrick for over two years outside of occasional battles, all while being able to plan events long-term. Always seeming to be one step ahead of his enemies, Zoom could easily tell a foe's movements without fault. He could successfully manipulate other meta-humans with superior powers to his to do his bidding, such as Al Rothstein and Linda Park (Earth-2).
 * Master hand-to-hand combatant: He is able to easily defeat his foes with his powers in conjunction with his impressive hand-to-hand combat skills. In "Enter Zoom", he fought Barry with minimal effort, easily beating him to near-death without any signs on slipping up or making a mistake. His claws also seem to help with his powers, able to slice into his enemies with their ferocity, sharpness and strength.

Season 2

 * "The Man Who Saved Central City" (Cisco's vision)
 * "Flash of Two Worlds"
 * "The Darkness and the Light"
 * "Enter Zoom"
 * "Gorilla Warfare" (flashback)
 * "Legends of Today" (flashback)
 * "Running to Stand Still"
 * "Potential Energy" (Barry's dreams)
 * "Fast Lane"
 * "Welcome to Earth-2"
 * "Escape from Earth-2"

Season 4

 * "Green Arrow" (mentioned)

Quotes
"Here's your Flash!"

- Zoom to the people that love Barry, after showing the latter brutally defeated

"Merry Christmas!"

- Zoom to Harrison Wells

"Never forget, I'm the fastest man alive!"

"Look around this is the last place you will ever see"

- Zoom to Flash after capturing him

Trivia

 * Zoom is currently the fastest speedster on the show, even proving himself to be faster than Barry Allen's arch-nemesis, Eobard Thawne. The fact that he is the true "fastest man alive" was even confirmed by Jay Garrick himself during the episode "Flash of Two Worlds".
 * Much like with Reverse-Flash, Zoom's identity has been debated since his debut, with no-one able to tell who he really is. It can be presumed that Jay and Harry may know, but they aren't willing to share this. Prior to "Welcome to Earth-2", it was believed that he was the Earth-2 version of Barry Allen.
 * Zoom is very similar to Sylar in the science-fiction superhero TV series Heroes; they are both super-powered villains who have been stated to be the most-powerful character in their respective shows, and attain this reputation by stealing the powers of fellow super-powered people (though Zoom only targets those with Speed Force).
 * Zoom's blue lightning gives a similar impression to the DC comics character Malcolm Thawne/Cobalt Blue, Barry Allen's twin-brother who acquired a gem capable of stealing Barry's speed.
 * Zoom's eyes have been changed. In a previous version seen in trailers and in the Season 2 premiere when Cisco had a vision of him, his eyes were glowing blue. The current version has black eyes, presumably to prevent repetitiveness, as Eobard Thawne had glowing red eyes when he used his powers.
 * Zoom's supposed ability to steal the speed of other speedster has by now been proven false as he needs the help of the Earth-2 Wells to do so. This has been further backed up by Jay Garrick's admittance that he lost his speed due to an over-reliance on the Velocity drugs.