Who Is Zoom? The Flash Villain Explained

There are few heroes in the DC Comics canon more notable than the Flash. Not only is the Flash the Fastest Man Alive, but different versions of the character — such as Wally West, who DC has confirmed to be the fastest — have served as core members of the Justice Society of America, the Justice League of America, and the Teen Titans. The Flash has been around in some form or another since the 1940s, and has continued to make a massive impact on superheroes at large. But for every great Flash, there comes a stellar band of foes who make the Scarlet Speedster's life a living hell. While the Rogues are perhaps the most interesting of Flash adversaries, there's one enemy who always lurks in the hero's shadow, relentlessly scheming to hurt him more profoundly than any other villain could: Zoom.

Clad in a yellow-suited reversal of the Flash's standard uniform, there is no villain as personal to the Flash as Zoom. No matter which Flash we're talking about, there is always a reverse counterpart waiting to strike. But who is Zoom? Well, his real name is Hunter Zolomon, a profiler for the Keystone Police Department who first appeared in 2001's "The Flash: Secret Files & Origins" #3 before taking up his villainous mantle a few years later. If that doesn't sound right to you, you may be remembering another Zoom from the Flash's (often confusing) comic book history, but don't worry, we'll get there. It turns out that there's more than one reverse speedster in the DC Universe. Despite that, Zoom is a character who stands all on his own.

Although Hunter Zolomon didn't become Zoom until 2003's "The Flash" (Vol. 2) #197 — during the famed "Blitz" story arc by Geoff Johns — the concept of a Reverse-Flash has been around for quite some time. In fact, back when Jay Garrick was the original Flash at the tail-end of the Golden Age of Comics, "Flash Comics" #104 introduced a character known as "The Rival Flash." Later called simply the Rival, he was the first villainous speedster who held a candle to the Fastest Man Alive. But when the Flash was rebooted during the Silver Age, with Barry Allen deemed the new Scarlet Speedster, a new villain named Eobard Thawne was introduced in "The Flash" (Vol. 1) #139, known as Professor Zoom or the Reverse-Flash.

We noted before that the Flash timeline can get a bit confusing, especially as many characters (heroes and villains alike) share super-powered aliases. Nowadays, Thawne is only ever called the Reverse-Flash, but for decades he was also called Professor Zoom. When Hunter Zolomon first took on his Zoom mantle during "The Flash: Blitz" arc, he had no problems being referred to as both Zoom and the Reverse-Flash. However, with Thawne's official return in the 2009 "The Flash: Rebirth" miniseries, which paved the way for 2011's "Flashpoint," there were now two Reverse-Flashes speeding around. Anticipating the confusion, DC now only refers to Thawne as Reverse-Flash and Zolomon as Zoom, with all comics post-2009 following suit. Generally speaking, Reverse-Flash is the Barry Allen Flash's nemesis, and Zoom remains Wally West's biggest foe.

But who is Hunter Zolomon, and what makes him an effective villain? Well, at first, Zolomon didn't actually see himself as a villain. Certainly not the same way that Eobard Thawne did. When Zolomon was a child, he discovered that his father was secretly a serial killer, a revelation that informed his entire existence. One might assume that Zolomon followed in his father's footsteps by becoming a supervillain, but the news actually had the exact opposite effect. Aiming to understand his father's actions, Zolomon chooses to study criminology and psychology in college, leading him to secure a position at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. There, he met his wife, Ashley, whose father became Zolomon's mentor.

But things with the Bureau didn't work out, as Zolomon was eventually let go after mistakenly mis-profiling a suspect named Lyle Corley aka the Clown. Because he didn't believe the Clown would use a gun (he hadn't before), Zolomon's father-in-law was killed in combat, and Zolomon himself was wounded. Disgraced and estranged from his bride, the former agent moved to Keystone City (the home of the Wally West Flash) to work as a profiler for the local police department. Nevertheless, it's Hunter Zolomon's strict upbringing, with a serial killer for a father, that is ultimately responsible for the trajectory that would lead him to become Zoom.

While the Reverse-Flash taps into the Negative Speed Force (a dark counterpart to the Flash's Speed Force) to move faster than the human eye, Zoom's powers work a bit differently. When Hunter Zolomon first got his powers, it was the result of an accident after attempting to use the Cosmic Treadmill to go back in time and prevent his latest injury. In "The Flash" (Vol. 2) #193, Zolomon was attacked by Gorilla Grodd, and ended up paralyzed from the waist down. Though he pleaded with the Flash to change the timeline just a little so that he could walk again, Wally refused. And when Zolomon tries to use the Cosmic Treadmill himself, it explodes, destroying the Flash Museum and nearly killing him too. Instead, Hunter Zolomon gains superpowers and a lasting connection to the Forever Force.

However, Zoom's powers aren't of the super-speed variety, though they appear as such. In reality, Zoom can manipulate his own position within the timestream, slipping through time as quickly or slowly as he wishes, meaning that he can't move as fast as the Flash can run. Nevertheless, for Zoom, a second could last an hour or a few minutes depending on his goal. Additionally, his localized chronokinesis grants him the ability to generate bolts of electricity and create powerful shockwaves with a snap of his fingers. Though on occasion Zoom appears to have some connection to the Speed Force (indeed, "The Flash War" gave him such powers, albeit temporarily), 2023's "The Flash" (Vol. 1) #800 notes that he has no real tether to it at all.

After his superpowers restore the use of his legs, Hunter Zolomon makes it his mission to turn Wally West into a better hero. In Zoom's mind, the reason the Flash didn't use the Cosmic Treadmill to rewrite history was because the hero hadn't yet suffered enough. In contrast, the previous Flash, Barry Allen, killed the Reverse-Flash after the villain first killed Iris West-Allen during the Bronze Age. Barry had suffered in his life, and even died a hero during the "Crisis on Infinite Earths," while Wally — in Zoom's view — hadn't. To that end, Zoom does the unthinkable. Knowing that Wally's wife, Linda Park-West, is pregnant with twins, Zoom creates a shockwave that causes Linda to miscarry. Afterward, he tries to kill Linda as well.

Yes, Zoom is responsible for taking Wally's children away from him, and it sends the Fastest Man Alive over the edge. "Blitz" ends with Wally defeating Zoom, but the hero is left defeated due to the unimaginable loss. "The Flash" (Vol. 2) #200 concludes with the Spectre restoring Wally's secret identity to keep anything like this from happening again. Miraculously, at the conclusion of "The Rogue War" story arc in "The Flash" (Vol. 2) #225, Flash and Zoom's next battle warps reality in a way that restores Linda's pregnancy. Soon after, Linda gives birth to their twins, Jai and Irey West, who each gain access to the Speed Force. Zoom didn't win, after all.

Apart from his previous attempts on the West family's lives, one of the worst things about Zoom is that he was once Wally West's closest friend outside of the metahuman community. The pair first became acquainted before Hunter Zolomon got his time-warping superpowers. It was easy for Wally and Zolomon to become fast friends while the latter was still a profiler for the Keystone Police Department. Working together side-by-side, the two built a kinship that ran deep. In fact, it was because of this friendship that Zolomon felt so betrayed when the Flash refused to change the timeline for his benefit. This drove him to take revenge on Wally, taking up the mantle of Zoom.

Despite this, Zoom continues to see himself as a blessing in the Flash's life, even as he continues to prove himself a curse time and again. Although Wally has defeated him at various points over the years, he holds fast to the notion that he's doing the hero good by opposing him. Of course, years of meditating on their friendship and some outside help have given Zoom a fresh perspective. In 2019's "The Flash" (Vol. 5) #81, at the conclusion of the "Death and the Speed Force" arc, Zolomon expresses remorse for all the pain he put Wally through, especially during the initial "Blitz" arc, and seems inspired by the Fastest Man Alive to become a better man himself. He even tells Barry Allen, Wally's uncle and mentor, that he wishes that he and Wally had remained friends all those years before.

In 2011, the Reverse-Flash, Eobard Thawne, coaxes Barry Allen into doing what Zoom could never get Wally West to do: Change the timeline. However, when Barry travels back to save his mother from being killed by Thawne, he breaks reality. As a result, he creates DC's Flashpoint timeline, as seen in Geoff Johns' "Flashpoint." When Barry tries to restore his world, it ultimately results in the birth of the short-lived New 52 continuity. Following that, DC Rebirth era once again reworks reality, and even restores Wally West (and eventually his family) to the DC Universe after being erased by the Flashpoint years prior. But in all of this, Hunter Zolomon is nowhere to be found. That's because between "The Flash: Rebirth" and "Flashpoint," Thawne and Zolomon travel to the 25th century together, hoping to unite against the Flashes.

In "The Flash" (Vol. 5) #46, we learn that Thawne's bringing Zoom to the future is what keeps the villain's age and memory intact in the newly-revised DC continuity. More than that, Zoom's anger at the Flashes' inability to become better heroes (from his perspective, anyway) becomes the catalyst for the restoration of his own powers. Once Wally is restored to the timeline, Zoom returns to incite "The Flash War," pitting Barry and Wally against one another. Interestingly, not even the original Reverse-Flash was unaffected by the New 52, making Zoom a remarkably unique character who retains all his memories from both the pre- and post-Flashpoint eras of DC Comics. Those time-warping powers certainly come in handy.

Of course, the original Reverse-Flash — who ranks among the most powerful villains in the DC Universe — has a far more sinister connection to Hunter Zolomon, and it's not just that they share the same colors. While there is a lot about Zoom's time in the 25th century that we don't know, there's one thing about his past that becomes key to understanding the character's motives. In "The Flash" (Vol. 5) #81, Barry Allen discovers and reveals to Zolomon that it was Thawne who gave Lyle Corley/the Clown the gun that was used to kill his father-in-law. This event, which ended in his mentor's murder and his expulsion from the FBI, was the nexus point for Zoom's creation. It turns out, Zolomon's instincts about Corley had been correct all along, and it was only due to the Reverse-Flash's influence that he was first disgraced.

In many ways, this makes Zoom a dark mirror to Barry Allen. Both men's history were muddled by Thawne, who used them as pawns in his own scheme to tear down the Flash's legacy. This helps Zoom to recognize that he has been manipulated his entire life, and it's here that he realizes that he could easily have been a hero himself if he had made different choices. It's a dark revelation, but one that prompts Zolomon to an uncharacteristic act of heroism at the end of "The Flash War." Whenever Zoom and the Reverse-Flash eventually do reunite, there will certainly be words between them.

At the end of "The Flash War" as seen in "The Flash" (Vol. 5) #81, Hunter Zolomon decides that he no longer wants to be Zoom. Having discovered that his life's history was a lie corrupted by Eobard Thawne, he instead deems himself "The True Flash." Although he was the one behind "The Flash War," Zoom concludes that he had been misguided about what it means to be a hero. Hoping to repair the Force Barrier that held back all the different forces — such as the Sage Force and the Strength Force — that make up the Forever Force, Zolomon sacrifices himself to ensure that Wally and Barry can return home to be heroes.

"This is what Flashes do, right?" the villain declares. "Sacrifice themselves to save the day?" Though Barry tries to stop the reformed antagonist, his mind is made up. With the Force Barrier restored, the Speed Force is preserved. While it seemed that we had seen that last of Hunter Zolomon, the character soon returns — back in his Zoom moniker — in "The Flash" (Vol. 1) #800. Here, we see Zoom trapped in the otherworldly Speed Force, where he continues to call himself the Fastest Man Alive. "Don't let anyone else tell you different," he notes. Evidently, Zolomon's tenure as a hero was brief, as he vows once more to be the greatest villain he can be, with one goal in mind: To make the Flash the perfect hero.

We noted before that Zoom's entire reasoning for becoming a supervillain is so that he could make Wally West a better hero, and over time that's only become more clear. In "The Flash" (Vol. 1) #800, the reason Hunter Zolomon forces himself out of the Speed Force prison he is trapped in is solely because he wants to ensure that Wally West is the best hero he can be. "The greater the villain, the greater the hero," he explains. In Zolomon's mind, he can never stop being Zoom until Wally's heroism is perfected. It's certainly a frightening thing to be the object of a supervillain's affections, and considering how easily Zoom can switch from good to bad, things are more dangerous for the West family than ever.

While the Reverse-Flash traditionally hates Barry Allen because he's envious of his fame and heroism, Zoom doesn't hate Wally. Sure, he's been betrayed by the Scarlet Speedster and feels as if his hero let him down, but it only prompts him to want to push the Flash to further heights of heroism. Misguided and deranged, Zoom has no problem acting like a complete psychopath — the very kind he used to profile for the FBI — if it means forcing Wally to become better. How Zoom aims to do that next remains to be seen, but with the villain's return to the mainline DC Universe, anything is possible.

Fans of "The Flash" television series that ran for nine seasons on the CW likely remember a villain by the name of Zoom. In the show's second season, Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) met Jay Garrick, a speedster from Earth-2 who wanted to help Barry become an even more effective superhero. But Jay came with some baggage. It turns out, he was chased to Earth-1 by a rival speedster named Zoom (voiced by Tony Todd), whose sadistic tendencies made him one of the Flash's most formidable big bads. Well, in the end, "Jay Garrick" turns out to actually be Hunter Zolomon (Teddy Sears), a serial killer who relishes the opportunity to absorb Barry's speed for himself. Having stolen the Jay Garrick name from another speedster he imprisoned (played by John Wesley Shipp), Zoom only pretends to be a hero, enjoying the diversity of playing both roles on his world.

Unlike his comic book counterpart, "The Flash's" Zoom is a traditional speedster with a connection to the Speed Force. He doesn't have localized chronokinesis that allows him to appear as if he's moving faster than sound, but rather actual super-speed that rivals Barry's. Additionally, though a version of Wally West (played by Keiynan Lonsdale) appears during "The Flash" Season 2, Zoom is not his primary antagonist. Indeed, Zoom and Wally never duke it out at super-speed at all, with Barry instead the primary Flash who ultimately defeats the multiversal speedster. Eventually, Zoom is turned into the Black Flash, a grim reaper to all speedsters who haunts our heroes throughout the entire Arrowverse timeline.