Legends of Tomorrow introduced Black Flash this week, but who is he and why is he chasing Eobard Thawne?
In “Legion of Doom,” Thawne revealed to Malcolm Merlyn and Damien Darhk that since Barry pulled him out of the timeline to create Flashpoint, he’s been chased by something that senses the Speed Force. Though this entity is never named, comic book fans will recognize him as Black Flash.
But just who is Black Flash?
In the DC Comics, Black Flash is essentially the grim reaper for speedsters. Black Flash, like other speedsters, draws its powers from the Speed Force. As an aspect of Death, it cannot be killed by any ordinary means, and its touch is fatal. It is seen before the deaths of speedsters.
Interestingly, Barry himself temporarily becomes Black Flash in Flash: Rebirth after coming upon the remains of the previous Black Flash. He accidentally kills a few speedsters, including Savitar, the current villain in The Flash season 3. To cleanse himself, Barry has to run back into the Speed Force so the Speed Force absorbs Black Flash’s essence. The transformation turns out to be a plot masterminded by the one and only Eobard Thawne.
But where did the Black Flash on Legends of Tomorrow come from? This incarnation of Black Flash is a remnant of Zoom, who was killed by time wraiths in the Flash‘s season 2 finale. Time wraiths had been hunting Zoom because he was traveling through time and creating time remnants of himself to help complete his plan of destroying the multiverse.
When Barry created his own time remnant to help him stop Zoom and save Joe from his clutches, this lured time wraiths in. However, when they arrived, they discovered a far more enticing target in Zoom. It’s hard to forget Zoom’s horrifying death as the time wraiths reduced him to a decaying corpse, turned his speedster insignia red, and dragged him off into the Speed Force.
Watch the final showdown below:
Black Flash is recognizable as Zoom not only by the corpse-like appearance and the red flash markings, but by the torn mask that Barry himself ripped in their final confrontation.
So why is Black Flash, the speedster grim reaper, on Thawne’s trail? Because he is a time aberration. He should not currently exist because Eddie Thawne killed himself in The Flash‘s season 1 finale. But Barry traveling through time and stopping Thawne from killing his mother, thus creating Flashpoint, created a version of Thawne that is not meant to be.
(Is all this time travel making anyone else’s head spin?)
Thus, Thawne needs the Spear of Destiny to prevent Eddie from killing himself and erasing Eobard from existence. This would, presumably, also take Black Flash off his trail.
Though the Legion succeeded in locking Black Flash in a bank vault, Thawne notes that it will only temporarily hold the speedster grim reaper. Unless Thawne can change his destiny, he will be continuously hunted by Black Flash until it accomplishes its mission: reaping the Reverse Flash.