Hunter Zolomon

Hunter Zolomon as he initially appeared before his transformation as the villainous speedster Zoom. Art by Scott Kolins.

Hunter Zolomon had a troubled relationship with his parents who rarely spoke to each other or to him. On the day Hunter was to leave for college, his father (a serial killer who murdered six young girls) had killed his mother before being gunned down by the police after refusing to surrender. Following this incident, Hunter became obsessed with understanding the criminal mind and went on to study criminology and psychology at college. He later joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I.) with his girlfriend Ashley whom he soon married. The two specialized in apprehending low-level costumed criminals until Hunter inadvertently caused the death of Ashley's father; Hunter had mistakenly believed that a criminal they were after was incapable of using a gun.[4] The case also left him with a damaged knee, forcing him to use a cane to walk. Abandoned by Ashley and fired by the F.B.I., Hunter moved to Keystone City and became a profiler in the police's Department of Metahuman Hostilities. Hunter soon befriended the Flash (Wally West) as his insight was critical in solving a number of cases, though Hunter resented being stuck behind a desk.

Hunter was severely injured during an attack by Gorilla Grodd at Iron Heights Penitentiary, and was left paralysed from the waist down.[5] He begged Wally to use the time-travelling cosmic treadmill in the Flash Museum to prevent the series of tragedies in his life from ever occurring. But Wally refused, not wanting to risk damaging the timestream and thus shattering their friendship. Hunter then broke into the museum and attempted to use the cosmic treadmill himself. The resulting explosion cured Hunter's paralysis and shifted his connection to time; he now had the ability to alter his personal timeframe, granting him super-speed.[6]

Hunter came to the conclusion that Wally's refusal to help was because of never suffering a personal tragedy unlike Barry Allen. Hunter became the supervillain "Zoom" (aka the second "Reverse-Flash") to bring tragedy to Wally's life, believing that this was the only way to make the Flash a better hero. During an attempt to kill the pregnant Linda Park, Zoom created an electrical shockwave that caused Linda to miscarry their twins instead. Wally then forced Zoom into a temporal anomaly; Hunter was rendered comatose and forced to relive his father-in-law's death repeatedly.

Zolomon's estranged wife Ashley replaced him as a profiler in the police department and attempted to communicate with him. When Ashley was hospitalised after a car accident, Zoom awakened from his coma out of concern.[7]

Zoom is freed from imprisonment by Cheetah (Dr. Barbara Minerva), seeking to recruit him into the growing Secret Society of Super Villains. Although the two share a minor attraction and romance, Zoom still considers himself married to Ashley.[8]

Zoom infiltrates the Rogue war between Captain Cold's Rogues, the Trickster's reformed Rogues, and the Top's brainwashed Rogues. After spiriting Ashley out of danger to Linda's home, Zoom returns to the battlefront to dispatch Captain Cold whom he believes is wasting the Flash's time.[9] As Wally and Kid Flash (Bart Allen) attempt to contain the battle, Zoom threatens to snap Bart's neck in a manner reminiscent of what Barry had done to Eobard Thawne (Professor Zoom aka the original Reverse-Flash). Before Zoom can kill Kid Flash, however, Thawne arrives on a cosmic treadmill with Jay Garrick chained to the front end.[9]

A battle ensues between the three Flashes and the two Zooms. Zolomon and Thawne capture Wally and jump onto the treadmill. Hunter then forces Wally to repeatedly experience their first fight in which Linda was severely injured, feeling that West should be made to focus on feelings of sorrow and loss to become a better hero. However, Barry arrives on his own cosmic treadmill in search of Thawne. Barry subsequently saves Wally and returns Thawne to the predecessor's proper place in the timeline. The enraged Zoom then begins running around the world, building up speed to collide with and kill Linda. Wally catches up with Zoom and pushes him, causing the villain to fall forward into the sonic boom that he himself used to kill Linda's twins, thus creating a "fissure in time" that restores Linda's pregnancy. Wally grabs Zoom and uses the treadmill to return to the present. Zoom recognises his mistreatment of Wally and briefly apologises before slipping into the timestream. He is later seen as a ghostly figure apologising to Ashley.

Zoom returns during the "Infinite Crisis" event as the Secret Society of Super Villains' chief speedster. He serves as a member of the Society's strike force, scarring Damage with super-speed punches and massacring the Freedom Fighters.[10]

Zoom later appears at the sacking of Rome; it is unknown whether he travelled to this time period himself, or if he became stranded there after his last encounter with Wally. Zoom is asked by Bart's grandmother to help protect Bart from a tragedy plotted by the villain Inertia.[11] He is also pursued by the Justice League who seek to locate Sinestro after Batman and Green Lantern learn of the Sinestro Corps' existence.[12] Zoom is chased by the Justice Society of America to Atlanta. Damage, seeking revenge on Zoom, takes the villain hostage during a scuffle until being talked down by Liberty Belle. Disappointed that Damage is not "improving", Zoom throws a sharp pipe to kill Damage. Liberty Belle uses super-speed to catch it and toss it back, knocking Zoom unconscious.[13] Zoom later becomes a member of Libra's Secret Society of Super Villains.

In Final Crisis: Rogues' Revenge, Zoom frees Inertia from the paralysis inflicted by Wally, hoping to make an apprentice out of Inertia by teaching how to "improve" both his own life and the lives of others by inflicting tragedies.[14] Kid Zoom learns this lesson too well and ultimately betrays the Flash's Rogues and Zoom himself, revealing his own desire to make the heroes suffer whereas Zoom wanted them to work through their pain.[15] Inertia then uses his mentor's own timestream manipulation powers against him, unravelling Zoom's timeline and reverting him to the crippled, powerless Zolomon.[16]

Hunter approaches the resurrected and imprisoned Thawne at Iron Heights Penitentiary, stating that they can help each other to be better.[17]

In the DC Rebirth relaunch, when Iris West seemingly kills Eobard in the 25th Century, a cloaked figure sends the Renegades back in time to arrest Iris. The hooded man is then revealed to be Zolomon proclaiming that the only way to make the Flashes better heroes is to pit them in a war where they'll experience tragedy.[18] Zolomon muses that he sees Wally as the 'true' Flash, reflecting that Barry's ability to accept death is the crucial difference between Barry and Wally as the Flash (feeling that Wally goes into situations determined to survive) and musing that this difference is how he'll provoke his planned war.

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.[19] He subsequently draws Wally to him, claiming that he has lost his powers and regained his sanity, and provokes Wally's memories of lost children, convincing Wally that the Speed Force must be sacrificed to release the other speedsters- including the Flash's 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'.[20] 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-[21] 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 villains.[22]

After he massacred all the Flashes in the multiverse and terrorized Gorila City, he began searching for the Still Force user. After stealing the Still Force, Hunter reveals to Barry that the combined forces create an entirely new force called the Forever Force, allowing him to see all of time and space. Barry gives chase, along with the Black Flash hot on their trail, intent on purging the other Forces from the Speed Force. Hunter proclaims his goal is to kill the Black Flash, as he says it's his destiny to kill "death itself" after all the tragedies in his life. Barry then shows Hunter a memory fragment in the Forever Force, explaining he investigated Hunter's case on Ashley's father, discovering Eobard Thawne played a part in the murder. Distraught by this revelation, Hunter starts to slow his pace. Barry reminds Hunter that he broke the Force barrier by using him and Wally, so they also must find a way to repair the barrier in order to return and solve the mystery of Thawne's involvement. Hunter feels remorse for all the tragedy he inflicted on Wally, his best friend, and against Barry's pleas, resigns to fix the barrier by sacrificing himself as atonement. He wishes things could have been different, but then remarks that saving the day is what Flashes do. His plan works, and the Black Flash is also banished to the Forever Force.

• Zoom is alluded to in Justice League Unlimited, voiced by Michael Rosenbaum. In the episode "Divided We Fall", a fusion of Brainiac and Lex Luthor creates robotic androids of the Justice Lords to combat the Justice League; the Zoom-esque android (loosely based on Hunter Zolomon) fights the Flash.

Zoom in a promotional image of The Flash (left) and Teddy Sears as the unmasked Earth-2 Hunter Zolomon (right)

• Teddy Sears portrays both the Earth-1 and Earth-2 incarnations of Hunter Zolomon on the 2014 live-action series The Flash, the latter of which is the villain Zoom and serves as season two's main antagonist.[2][26][27][28][29][30][31][32] Tony Todd provides the character's disguised voice,[33][34] Ryan Handley plays Zoom's initial portrayal,[35][36] and Octavian Kaul plays Hunter's child depiction in flashbacks.[37][38] This version is depicted as a speedster from Earth-2 who produces blue lightning while running and wears an all-black leather bodysuit with clawed gloves and a demonic mask resembling a face restraint, while simultaneously impersonating Jay Garrick/The Flash. Hunter was forced as a child to watch his father murder his mother and this traumatic event resulted in him becoming a serial killer years later before being captured and sent to a mental asylum. When Harry Wells's S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator exploded as Hunter was being electrocuted, the dark matter released gave him super-speed. Adopting the supervillain moniker Zoom, Hunter used his speedster powers to subjugate Earth-2, and further augmented his speed by creating a velocity serum. Although fast enough to travel through time and cross parallel universes, Zolomon was slowly dying, forcing him to siphon other speedsters' Speed Force energy to survive. At some point, Zolomon decided to publicly act as the Flash of Earth-2 to give the people on any Earth a false sense of hope after capturing Jay Garrick of Earth-3. Zoom proceeds to send numerous Earth-2 metahumans to challenge Barry Allen while presenting himself as the Flash of Earth-2 to Team Flash in order to push the Flash of Earth-1 to get faster. To avoid suspicion, Hunter uses time-remnant copies of himself to ensure that Zoom and "Jay" are seen in two different places at the same time. However, his romance with Caitlin Snow forces him to reveal his non-metahuman Earth-1 doppelgänger which leads to Team Flash learning about his identity. Zolomon is eventually cured of his affliction when he steals Barry's speed after holding Wally West hostage, though his nemesis's powers are restored by entering the Speed Force. After killing Henry Allen, Zolomon attempts to destroy every world in the Multiverse (except for Earth-1 for him to rule) but is defeated when Barry destroys his machine, and he is transformed by the Time Wraiths into the Grim Reaper-esque Black Flash before dragging him out of reality for the Speed Force's corruption. In season three, the Black Flash goes after Savitar but Killer Frost freezes and shatters him before he can erase Savitar from existence. In season five, Zolomon has a cameo appearance when Barry and Nora West-Allen time travel to season two.
  • The Black Flash also appears in season two of Legends of Tomorrow.[39][40] Able to sense active speedsters, he pursues a time-aberration of Eobard Thawne/Reverse-Flash, and eventually manages to erase his target from existence.
  • Hunter Zolomon is mentioned in season six of Arrow. Black Siren (who was brought to Earth-1 by Zoom) compares Richardo Diaz to him.

• Zoom appears as the fourth-level boss in Justice League Heroes: The Flash.
• Zoom appears in DC Universe Online, voiced by Robert Dieke.
• The Hunter Zolomon version of Zoom from The Flash TV series appears in Lego DC Super-Villains, as part of the "DC TV Super-Villains DLC pack".[41]

• Funko has released two POP! vinyl figures of Hunter Zolomon in The Flash television series line. The first is a regular version in his Zoom costume, and the second is a "Legion of Collectors" exclusive of his Jay Garrick impersonarion.[42][43]
• DC Collectibles has released a 7-inch Zoom figure based on his appearance in the TV show The Flash.[44][45]