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| “ | My name is Hunter Zolomon. Despite what the public believes, I am the fastest man alive. I am Zoom. But I am not a Rogue. Far from it. I have taken the name and colors from Eobard Thawne -- the time traveler known as Professor Zoom -- in order to terrorize my friend. Wally West. The Flash. I suffered through tragedy. I lost my family to it. I understand the depths it will drag one down to. And only by surviving it does one become stronger. I will recreate myself to help my friend and in turn -- the world. I will do anything to make the Flash a better hero. | „ |
| ~ Zoom |
Hunter Zolomon, also known as the second Professor Zoom or simply known as Zoom is a major villain and archenemy against Wally West in DC Comics. and a major antagonist of the Flash and one of the few beings in the DC universe that rivals Flash in speed. He was the main antagonist of Blitz and Flash War story arcs as well as the archenemy of Wally West, and currently serves as an enemy of Barry Allen. He was a former F.B.I. Profiler that became paralysed by an attack caused by Gorilla Grodd, due to this he asked Wally West if he can use the Cosmic Treadmill to gain motor functions but he was denied. He became delusional and attempted to use it, which caused it to explode.He along with Captain Cold are the secondary antagonists of the Flash Franchise.
He was able to regain the ability the walk and obtain powers similar to the speedsters but due to his distorted mind, he believed that Wally West couldn't help him because he never experienced . He thought the only way to get Wally to be a better hero was to be his greatest enemy, becoming the second Reverse-Flash and tormented him. He then lost his ability to walk again before gaining the Speed Force again, later reforming and sacrifice himself to save Wally West from the Black Flash and repair the Speed Force barrier that was caused by Thawne.
Personality
There are key differences between Eobard Thawne and Hunter Zolomon, most importantly, how they think. Eobard Thawne is a sociopath that attacks The Flash (Barry Allen) due to him being destined to become his greatest rival while Hunter Zolomon is a tragic man that can't understand the world around him.
Hunter Zolomon has shown to be very troubled in the sense that he has dealt with many major tragedies in his life. With his father murdering his mother due to her finding out he was a serial killer, Hunter Zolomon has nothing but pain in his life, which resulted in him having a pessimistic view on life. This was later amplified when he worked in the F.B.I. field, where he ended up dating and marrying a girl named Ashley, but due to her dad being murdered (which the murderer was revealed to be Thawne himself), she left him and he was shortly fired which did nothing but only caused Hunter to be bitter as he soon worked as a police officer and was bitter due to his job there. His final straw was when Gorilla Grodd severely injured him during one of his attacks, which caused him to be paralyzed. When he asked The Flash (Wally West) to help him by using the Cosmic Treadmill and was refused, he became delusional and took matters into his own hands by using it himself, which was a success but his only further caused him to be more delusional as he believed in his warped mind that the only way to make The Flash be a better hero is to be his greatest enemy and so ended up becoming the Reverse-Flash.
As his time as the Speedster, he was extremely delusional, paranoid and warped. To the point of him having a bit of anti-social or sociopathic tendencies. Even going as far as to attempt to kill Wally West's wife, Linda Park, which resulted in her having two miscarriages. His goals to so far into him joining the Secret Society of Super Villains and killing anyone (including attempting to kill Wally West) in order to ensure his goal into making Wally into a good hero. Despite his violent tendencies, he still has good inside of him as he still loved his ex-wife, Ashley and when Cheetah had a brief romance with him, he disregarded her due to his love for Ashley and when he later died in Infinite Crisis, he apologized to Ashley in a ghost-like appearance, showing remorse for his actions. This also shown to be his turning point as when he later regained the Speed Force, he changed his costume similar to Barry Allen and Wally West's costumes and due to his mistakes, he decided to sacrifice himself that to fix what Eobard Thawne did and repair the Speed Force Barrier that Thawne harmed, showing that he does have remorse.
History
Hunter Zolomon was a survivor of tragedy. His parents had died on the same day, his mother killed by his father, and the police killed his father. He worked for a career in the FBI, but he made a mistake that led to the death of his father-in-law, his wife leaving him, a bad knee, and his discharge from the bureau.
He tried once more to build a life in Keystone City as a profiler with their police department, which made him a target for Gorilla Grodd, who broke his back with a single snap, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. Hunter was driven into the depths of depression by his feelings of helplessness, and insisted the Flash take him back in time to prevent the mistake that cost him everything. The Flash knew first-hand that changing history can easily make things far worst and refused.
Undeterred, Hunter took the F.B.I.'s theories on the workings of the Cosmic Treadmill and attempted to hot-wire the device so that he could use it himself. Instead it exploded, taking the Flash Museum with it, and shifting Hunter onto a faster timeline, effectively giving him super-speed. With his grasp on reality deteriorating, Hunter latched onto a recent discussion about Professor Zoom, and decided he needed to become a new Reverse Flash. He would make the Flash face ultimate tragedy. He would force the hero to understand he must risk everything to prevent it. Zoom was born.
It is later revealed that Thawne brought Zolomon into the twenty-fifth century as part of Zolomon's prior suggestion that they could help each other be better, the two manipulating the Renegades and agreeing on the need for the Flashes to take a different approach, but they soon parted ways because Thawne felt that, in the end, Zolomon still had faith that the Flashes could be what he imagined them to be whereas Thawne had given up on that idea. After Thawne's 'death', Zolomon finally concedes to Thawne's ideas, returning to his appearance as Zoom and proclaiming that he will provoke the Flashes to war if they will not cooperate with his vision themselves. He subsequently draws Wally to him, claiming that he has lost his powers and regained his sanity, and provokes Wally's memories of his lost children, convincing Wally that the Speed Force must be sacrificed to release the other speedsters- including his children, Impulse and Max Mercury- who are trapped within it, provoking Barry and Wally to war against each other due to their conflicting views on Hunter's 'advice'. The situation escalates when Barry and Wally's conflict breaks the Speed Force, allowing Hunter to draw on the energies of other forces- including what he terms the Strength Force and the Sage Force, enhancing his physical strength and knowledge but when he tries to use these powers to set history to his own design, he is pursued by the Flashes and lost when he breaks the Speed Force, leaving his location unknown and rendering time travel impossible for the Flashes and any other heroes or villain.
Powers and Abilities
Hunter Zolomon's primary ability is to alter time relative to himself, as opposed to utilizing the Speed Force like most of the DC Universe speedsters do. He can move his own personal timeline forward as seemingly unlimited speeds, and he can even stop time altogether. However, he cannot travel back in time. He can apparently use this ability to move at "speeds" to surpass even Wally West, the fastest of the Flashes. Since Zoom isn't actually moving at great superhuman speeds (rather, he is greatly slowing downtime relative to himself and can make himself so "fast" that even most of the Flashes look to him to be moving in slow motion, instead), the Flashes cannot steal his speed when he is moving. The temporal nature of his speed allows him to avoid the usual problems encountered by other Flash-type speedsters (friction, seeing and hearing at such near-light speeds, etc), whose automatic and unconscious use of the Speed Force overcomes those problems. As he is moving at a normal velocity, and the rest of the world is "slow", those hindrances simply do not affect him. Zoom also possesses the ability to create very powerful sonic booms and shock waves with just the snap of his fingers, an ability he used to kill Linda's unborn babies.
Though not specified, Zoom appears to have a host of other powers such as longevity, superhuman speed, superhuman endurance, and invulnerability. The aforementioned would be necessary to explain certain feats Zoom has accomplished.
In other media
Justice League Unlimited
Zoom never officially appeared in the DCAU series Justice League Unlimited, but his image and likeness are referenced in the episode "Divided We Fall." As the Luthor/Brainiac hybrid creates artificial replicas of the Justice Lords (the fascist versions of the Justice League from an alternate dimension within the show) and pits them against their counterparts, Luthor/Brainiac creates a special replica of The Flash in Zoom's color scheme, since the Justice Lord Flash died before the Justice Lords were formed. The evil android Flash's design is identical to Zoom's (although the lenses of his cowl remain white instead of black), with his taunts and jeers referencing Zolomon's own accusations of Wally West. In the end, he was destroyed by The Flash along with the rest of the android Justice Lords. Elements of the real Zoom also appear in the Flash Museum during the episode "Flash and Substance."
Arrowverse
- Main article: Zoom (Arrowverse)
Hunter Zolomon/Zoom appears as a major antagonist in the Arrowverse. He debuts on The Flash as the main antagonist of Season 2, and, as the Black Flash, a minor antagonist in Season 3, and a major antagonist in Season 2 of DC's Legends of Tomorrow. Unlike his original look in the comics, Zoom wears a black version of Barry's suit, along with a demonic mask that appears to be made of skin, and he emits blue lightning that also radiates off him.
Also, unlike his origins in the comics, he is a serial killer from Earth-2 with a traumatic childhood as a result of watching his father kill his mother at a young age. When he was sent to Saint Perez Mental Alysum for the Criminal Insane, he was affected by the Particle Accelerator, he gained powers from the Speed Force. He later decides to go to Earth-1 as "Jay Garrick" and attempts amplify Barry Allen's powers so he can later kill and steal his powers. After he "dies", he is revealed as Zoom when Trajectory dies when her streak turned blue.
He was defeated by Barry Allen and killed by Time Wraiths, turning him into Black Flash. He was later defeated by Killer Frost after attempting to attack Savitar.
He is portrayed by Teddy Sears while being voiced by Tony Todd, who played Candyman in the Candyman films.
Video games
- Zoom appears as the fourth-level boss in Justice League Heroes: The Flash.
- Zoom appears in DC Universe Online, voiced by Robert Dieke.
- The Arrowverse version of Zoom from The Flash (2014) appears in Lego DC Super-Villains, as part of the "DC Super-Villains: TV Series DLC Villains Character Pack"
