In The Flash season 2, episode 11, “The Reverse Flash Returns,” we saw Jay’s Earth-1 doppelganger. And he happens to share a name with an infamous character from the comics.
Jay Garrick tells Caitlin that his doppelganger on Earth-1 is named Hunter Zolomon; his mother died in childbirth, and after bouncing from family to family, he was adopted and raised by the Zolomon family. Hence the different name.
This is noteworthy because Hunter Zolomon is the third Reverse Flash of the comic books, and he goes by the alias Zoom.
Yes, Zoom. As in the Big Bad of the current season.
So, just who is Hunter Zolomon? Could he be Zoom?
In the DC Comics
Hunter’s father was a serial killer who killed his mother when she told the police. The police then killed him during a standoff. This put Hunter on the law enforcement path, and he eventually joined the FBI. After a case that led to the death of his wife’s father, his wife left him, the FBI fired him and his knee was damaged.
Now stuck behind a desk, Hunter moved to Keystone City and became a profiler with the police’s Department of Metahuman Hostilities. It was through this work he became friends with the current Flash, Wally West, and helped him solve numerous cases. However, he always resented being unable to go into the field due to his knee.
After Gorilla Grodd left him paralyzed from the waist down, Hunter asked Wally to travel back in time to stop the accident from happening. Wally refused, not wanting to damage the time stream. Determined, Hunter broke into the Flash Museum and attempted to use the Cosmic Treadmill himself. This backfired and caused an explosion that allowed Hunter to alter his personal timeframe, which gave him the illusion of super speed.
Hunter decided that Wally refused to help him because he hadn’t suffered a personal tragedy like Barry Allen had, so he targeted Wally’s wife, Linda Park, to help him become a better hero. While Wally defeated Hunter and saved Linda’s life, Linda miscarried their twin children, though her pregnancy would later be restored.
On ‘The Flash’
According to Jay, his cells were mutated when he became a speedster, so he does not believe Hunter’s cells could help him with his illness. This is assuming Hunter isn’t a speedster himself, of course.
What’s interesting, however, is that Hunter/Zoom in the comics does not actually use the speed force; he just appears fast. Yet the Zoom on the show wants to steal the speed of other speedsters, including Barry. This is why he wants Wells to help Barry get faster before they have their final showdown. The Flash has not been afraid to take liberties with its characters’ comic book personas, however, so this might be a moot point.
So, could Hunter Zolomon from Earth-1 actually be Zoom? There would be some hurdles to jump, such as how Zoom has been operating from Earth-2 if Hunter has had a life on Earth-1 prior to the portals opening due to the singularity or how Harrison Wells created him when, again, Hunter is living on Earth-1.
With those narrative obstacles in mind, it seems more likely that he is being set up to be the Big Bad of a future season. But either way, he is definitely someone to take note of considering his comic book counterpart.
The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8:00 p.m. ET on The CW.
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