Hunter Zolomon

Hunter Zolomon, also known as Zoom, is a fictional supervillain appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Geoff Johns and Scott Kolins, the character made his first appearance in The Flash: Secret Files & Origins #3 (November 2002). He is the third of the Reverse-Flashes, and the archenemy of Wally West, the third superhero to be called the Flash.

IGN's list of the Top 100 Comic Book Villains of All Time ranked Zoom as #37.^[1] In 2015, the character made his live-action debut on The CW's television series The Flash, portrayed by Teddy Sears and voiced by Tony Todd.

Fictional character biography

Origins

Hunter Zolomon before his transformation into 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, he came home to find the police laying siege to his house. His father was a serial killer who had killed six young girls, and, when his mother told the police, his father murdered her, and was subsequently killed by the police after refusing to give himself up.

Hunter became obsessed with understanding the criminal mind to stop people like his father, studying psychology and criminology in college, then joining the F.B.I. along with his girlfriend Ashley, whom he later married, specializing in low-level costumed criminals. One case resulted in Ashley's father being killed (Hunter had thought the criminal they were after was incapable of facing his adult life, and thus would not use an 'adult' weapon such as a gun). Ashley left him shortly thereafter, and the F.B.I. terminated his employment. Hunter was also left with a damaged knee due to the case, requiring a cane for walking and being unable to ever run again.

After arriving in Keystone City, he got a job as a profiler, working with the police in their Department of Metahuman Hostilities. His work put him in constant contact with the Flash, Wally West, and the two became good friends. His insight was critical in solving a number of cases, but he always resented being stuck behind a desk.

Transformation into Zoom

Zolomon was severely injured in an attack by Gorilla Grodd in Iron Heights, when Grodd staged a mass prison break, and was left paralyzed from the waist down. He asked Wally West to use the time-traveling cosmic treadmill in the Flash Museum to prevent this from occurring, but West refused, saying that he could not risk damaging the timestream. Zolomon, feeling that Wally should be prepared to disregard such fears for the sake of their friendship, then broke into the museum and attempted to use the treadmill himself. The resulting explosion destroyed the museum, gave Zolomon the ability to use his legs again, and shifted his connection to time—described by Jay Garrick as him being 'derailed' from the timeline by the explosion—thus allowing Zolomon to alter the speed at which he could move in time, giving him the effect of superspeed.

Zolomon decided that West had refused to help because, unlike the previous Flash, Barry Allen, West had never suffered personal tragedy, and thus did not understand how terrible it could be. Zolomon decided that if he became the new Zoom and caused a great tragedy in Wally's life, this would help the Flash become a better hero. Using this philosophy as 'justification', he attacked the Flash and his allies, creating a shockwave by snapping his fingers that caused West's wife Linda to miscarry their unborn twins. After borrowing speed from the other speedsters to even the playing field, briefly allowing him to match Zoom's near-impossible speed, Flash succeeded in defeating Zoom, and prevented his former friend from killing his wife. Thanks to Wally using the slight 'rips' in time that were being created by the use of Zoom's powers, Zolomon was forced into a temporal anomaly—being shoved into the rift essentially tied a 'knot' in his timeline—and ended up in a comatose state, continually watching the death of his father-in-law.

Zolomon's ex-wife, Ashley Zolomon, replaced him as profiler and spent a lot of time attempting to communicate with him. Due to a car accident, Ashley was hospitalized for some time. It is around this period that Zoom awoke from his coma, out of concern for Ashley. He cautiously chose to remain in his cell.

Rogue War

Cover to The Flash (vol. 2) #224. Art by Howard Porter.

Zoom is driven out of his self-imposed imprisonment by Cheetah (a.k.a. Dr. Barbara Minerva) in an attempt to both harness superspeed and induct him into the growing Secret Society of Super Villains. The two share a minor romance, but nothing serious happens, as Zoom still considers himself married to Ashley.

Zoom later infiltrates the already-growing "Rogue War" between Captain Cold's Rogues, the Trickster's reformed Rogues, and the Top's brainwashed Rogues. Quickly spiriting his estranged wife Ashley out of danger to the home of Linda Park,^[2] Zoom returns to the battlefront to dispatch Captain Cold, claiming that the "Man Who Mastered Absolute Zero" is wasting the Flash's time with his longstanding, self-aggrandizing methods of villainy.^[2]

As the Flash and Kid Flash (Bart Allen) attempt to contain the battle, Zoom throttles Kid Flash and threatens to snap his neck in a manner reminiscent of what Barry Allen had done to Eobard Thawne (Professor Zoom). Before Zoom can kill Kid Flash, Eobard Thawne himself arrives on a cosmic treadmill, with Jay Garrick chained to the front end,^[2] Zoom having earlier captured Jay and forced him to take him back to the day of Professor Zoom's death to recruit his assistance.

A battle ensues between the two Flashes and Kid Flash against the two Zooms (during which Kid Flash escapes Zoom by vibrating to become intangible, the only speedster power Zoom cannot duplicate). In the end, the two Zooms accomplish what they intended, grabbing West and jumping onto the treadmill. Zoom then forces The Flash to watch their first fight, in which Linda is severely injured and miscarries. Zoom tells Professor Zoom to replay the experience, as he feels that West should be made to focus on the feelings of sorrow and loss from this experience. As the scene starts to rewind, West's uncle and mentor Barry Allen appears, riding his own cosmic treadmill after searching for Professor Zoom.

Barry removes Wally from immediate danger, telling Wally that he was here to return Thawne to his proper place in time, and that, no matter how bad it seems, West can win if he "just pushes himself a bit." He and Thawne then disappear through time. Zoom, enraged, begins to run around the world, building up speed with the intention of killing Linda by colliding with her. Wally rushes to catch up, though he is just a step or two behind. At the last minute, he realizes what Barry's advice means and puts on a final burst of speed, pushing himself, and hitting Zoom in the back. Zoom falls forward and is caught in the sonic boom that his past self-created to kill Linda's babies, causing him to take the brunt of the force. This action creates a "fissure in time" that prevents Linda's original miscarriage and restores her pregnancy just in time for her to give birth in the present. Zoom runs for the treadmill, but Wally forces them back to their mutual present. Along the way, they view scenes of Zoom's life. Zoom realizes his mistreatment of Wally and briefly apologizes before slipping into the timestream. He is later seen as a ghost-like figure apologizing to his wife.

Zoom returns in Infinite Crisis as the Society's chief speedster, claiming that their adversaries would all be stronger heroes if they survive. He is part of the Society strike force responsible for massacring the Freedom Fighters. Zoom himself scars Damage by pummeling him with punches at superspeed.^[3]

One Year Later

Zoom later appears at the sacking of Rome, being approached by Bart Allen's grandmother, to help her protect Bart from a great tragedy that the villain Inertia was setting up.^[4] It is unknown whether Zoom traveled to this time period himself, or if he became stranded there after his last encounter with Wally West.

He was also pursued by the Justice League in an attempt to locate Sinestro after Batman and Hal Jordan learn of the existence of the Sinestro Corps.^[5]

Zoom is pursued by the Justice Society of America into Atlanta. Damage is banned from the city, but enters anyway seeking revenge. During a scuffle, he ends up taking Zoom hostage until being talked down by Liberty Belle. Disappointed that Damage is not "improving", he throws a sharp pipe to kill him. Liberty Belle uses her superspeed to catch it and toss it back, knocking Zoom unconscious.^[6]

Zoom is later seen as a member of Libra's Secret Society of Super Villains.

Powerless

In Final Crisis: Rogues' Revenge, he frees Inertia from his paralysis, inflicted previously by Wally West, hoping to make him his apprentice as a new Kid Flash, teaching how to "improve" his own life and the ones of others by inflicting great tragedies.^[7] Inertia learns the lesson too well, and, claiming himself to be "Kid Zoom", the new master of tragedies, betrays the Flash's Rogues and Zoom.^[8] Claiming that he just wanted to make the heroes suffer where Zoom actually wanted them to work through the damage he inflicted, Inertia unravelled Zoom's timeline to return him to the crippled, broken body of Hunter Zolomon, stripping him of his powers.^[9]

In Flash: Rebirth, when the resurrected Professor Zoom is imprisoned in Iron Heights, Zolomon speaks to him, saying they can help each other be better.^[10]

Powers and abilities

Zoom does not actually move at super-speed as most other speedsters do by using the Speed Force. Instead, he alters time relative to himself. He manipulates the speed at which time flows around him, allowing him to go faster or slower in relative time to everyone around him, making it appear that he is moving "fast"; even most of the Flashes look to him to be moving in slow motion. This allows him to move at "speeds" rivaling those of even Wally West, and usually "faster" than speeds that Wally can muster in most cases.

The temporal nature of his speed allows him to avoid the usual problems encountered by other Flash-type speedsters - e.g., heat from air friction, or seeing and hearing at heightened speeds - whose automatic and unconscious use of the Speed Force overcomes those problems. However, he is unable to become intangible like other speedsters can by vibrating his molecules at certain frequencies. He compensates by "quantum-tunneling" his way through objects.

Even though his powers are not tied to the Speed Force, he has demonstrated the ability to grant a form of "super-speed" to other beings by giving them the ability to control their relative time through Zoom himself. Zoom can shut down this connection at will.^[11] He can also create shockwaves across space and time simply by snapping his fingers.

In other media

Television

Teddy Sears as Zoom (left) and unmasked as Hunter Zolomon (right).

Teddy Sears portrays Hunter Zolomon / Zoom as the main antagonist in season two of The Flash,^[12] and his disguised voice is provided by Tony Todd.^[13][14] Prior to the revelation of Zoom's true identity, he was portrayed in costume by stuntman Ryan Handley.^[15][16] Octavian Kaul portrays Hunter Zolomon as a child in a flashback.^[17] This depiction of Zoom, who comes from Earth-2, wears an all black speedster costume with a full face mask (the mouth area resembling a face restraint worn by the criminally insane) and claws on his fingertips. He is depicted as a traditional speedster who produces blue lightning while running.^[18] Prior to becoming a metahuman, Hunter Zolomon was a notorious serial killer on Earth-2, who was captured and subjected to electroshock therapy at a mental asylum. As he was being electrocuted, the particle accelerator exploded, thus giving him his powers. Dissatisfied with his speed Hunter sought to increase it and developed one of the first versions of the Velocity serums to increase a speedster's speed allowing him to cross into other-dimensional worlds while also slowly killing him. Additionally the drug turned Hunter's lightning blue. Sometime after gaining the moniker of 'Zoom', Hunter captured and impersonated Jay Garrick, the Flash from Earth-3, to give the people on his earth a false sense of hope. Over the course of the season, Zoom sends numerous Earth-2 metahumans to challenge Barry Allen, the Flash of Earth-1, while presenting himself as Jay Garrick to Barry and the S.T.A.R. Labs team, a deception that ends soon after he kills his time remnant copy as part of his plan.^[19] In the season finale, Zoom attempts to destroy every world in the Multiverse (aside from Earth-1 for him to rule), but is finally defeated when Barry creates a time remnant copy of himself to destroy Zoom's machine, which summons the Time Wraiths. The creatures instantly attack Zoom for his multiple acts of corruption against the Speed Force, giving him a decayed appearance before dragging him out of reality.^[20]

Sears also briefly appears as Zolomon's Earth-1 counterpart, a non-metahuman individual.^[21][22]

Video games

Zoom appears as a boss in Justice League Heroes: The Flash.

Merchandise

In July 2016, a Funko POP! vinyl figure of Zoom was released based on his appearance in the television series The Flash.^[23]

References

External links

• Profile on Hunter Zolomon
• Profile on Zoom