The difference between a good hero and a great one is all down to a good rogues gallery. Every hero needs that perfect compelling villain to fight, andThe Flashhas plenty to choose from across DC history. From Captain Cold to Reverse Flash, the Flash always has a major threat that readers will love to see him take on. But not all rogues are created equal.
There have beendozens of versions of the Flash over the decades, from Jay Garrick to Wally West. As such, each version of the Flash has fought their own group of villains, and some of them have been truly bizarre.These are the top 10 weirdest villains that have gone up against some version of the Flash.
10The Top Was The Fastest Man Alive – When Spinning
First Appearance:The Flash#122 by John Broome, Carmine Infantino, & Joe Giella
Flash is used to fighting speedster villains, but the Top was a unique spin on this idea. Roscoe Dillon was a young boy who was obsessed with tops, to the point he preferred playing with them to human contact (or playing sports with other kids). As he grew up, this anti-social behavior eventually morphed into a life of crime.
Wanting to incorporate tops into it, Roscoe studied how they worked and made numerous top-related gadgets as well as learning how to spin himself at inhuman speeds, which somehow also had the side effect of increasing his brain power. This would eventually culminate inTop gaining full-on telekinetic powers. While Flash is used to fighting costumed supervillains, Top was one of the weirder ones – though that is precisely what made him such a memorable opponent.
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9Rainbow Raider Takes The Cake As Flash’s Most Colorful Villain
First Appearance:The Flash#286 By Cary Bates, Don Heck, Frank Chiaramonte, Gene D’Angelo, & Ben Oda
Roy G. Bivolo was an incredibly gifted painter, even at a young age. Unfortunately, he was also colorblind. Wanting his son to see the true beauty he had created, Roy’s father designed a special set of glasses for him, which would let him see color. Unfortunately, these didn’t work. Instead of allowing his son to perceive color, Roy’s father created glasses that could send out beams of color, which couldtransform into physical objects, blind people, turn the wearer invisible, or affect people’s emotions.
Infuriated at his father’s failure to let him see color, Roy immediately turned to a life of crime, putting his father’s invention to tragic misuse. This overreaction eventually led him to battle the Flash, and he’s become a member ofFlash’s rogues gallery ever since, as quite literally one of the Speedster’s most colorful villains.
8The Eel Pushed Jay Garrick To The Limit With His Slippery Crimes
First Appearance:Comic Cavalcade#3 by Gardner Fox & Lou Ferstadt
Eel Madden was one of the first villains that Jay Garrick went up against during his tenure as the Flash, and did a surprising amount of damage in the process.Jay Garrick’s Flashwas used to beating most criminals with ease, but Eel took things to a new level. With his trusty squirt gun full of grease, Eel was able to make the ground far too slippery for Jay, causing him to lose their first encounter.
In a second fight, Eel managed to manipulate the law, gettingJay Garrick thrown in prison for not wearing green clothing, which was illegal according to ancient law. Finally, in their third encounter, Jay was able to sneak up on Eel and defeated him before the man had a chance to slip away.
7Razer Was Almost Too Sharp For The Flash
First Appearance:The Flash#84 by Mark Waid, Barry Kitson, Joe Marzan Jr, Ian Akin, Ken Branch, Gina Going, & Gaspar Saladino
Wally West took over the mantle from Barry Allen, and got a great number of his own villains as a result. One of them was an extremely large and muscular man named Razer, who wore a battlesuit coated in lubrilon. Lubrilon was a frictionless substance that was said to be a thousand times more slippery than Teflon. This made grabbing or holding onto Razer practically impossible.
More concerningly, Razer’s hands were also covered in spikes, which is how he managed to hold onto things without it also slipping away. This meant grabbing Razer was practically impossible, and being grabbed by him was unbelievably painful. Wally failed to stop Razer twice,before finally managing to cover him in tar, which diluted the lubrilon.
6The Folded Man Took Crime To A New Dimension
First Appearance:The Flash#153 by Mark Waid, Brian Augustyn, Paul Pelletier, Jose Marzan Jr, Tom McCraw, & Gaspar Saladino
Edwin Gauss is one of the most brilliant minds in the DC Universe,even often being compared to Mr. Terrific. His greatest achievement was creating a suit that allowed him to travel between dimensions. Each dimension granted Edwin differing abilities, such as being 2D rendering him untouchable and invisible when viewed from the sides.4D granted Edwinmassivelyincreased power.
He was forced into a life of crime after he invented his technological suit, since his benefactor, who provided him with the resources, tried to claim ownership over it. When Edwin tried to kill his benefactor, Flash got involved, and the following battle took them across dimensions.
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First Appearance:The Flash#174 by Geoff Johns, Scott Kolins, Doug Hazlewood, James Sinclair, and John Costanza
Joseph Monteleone was the brother of a major drug kingpin, and wanting to take care of his brother, Joseph was given a job peddling drugs. Joseph never took this seriously and quickly ended up in Ironheights Penitentiary. It was here that Joseph decided to meditate to pass the time, and discovered he was a metahuman capable of astral projecting his spirit into inanimate objects.
With nothing better to do, he decided to start causing chaos by possessing random things throughout the city, until he possessed a vat of tar and got trapped. For whatever reason, Joseph decided he actually preferred this to having a human body, andsimply became a giant tar monster andbecame a nightmare for the Flash.
4Double-Down Pushed His Luck Against The Flash
First Appearance:The Flash: Iron Heightsby Geoff Johns, Ethan Van Sciver, Prentis Rollins, Chris Chuckry, & John Costanza
One of the stranger villain origins was that of Jeremy Tell. Jeremy was a gambler, and apparently not a good one, as he lost all of his money in one match. Angered by this, he immediately murdered the winner and was surprised when the winner’s cursed deck of cards latched onto him.
Jeremy then starts a life of crime as thevillain Double Down with his new powers. With the cursed deck of cards fused to his skin, he was able to launch the cards from him. These cards have proven remarkably deadly, as they’ve evenbeen shown to be capable of hurting Superman, as well as cutting through the bars of a prison cell.
3Papercut Was One Of The Flash’s Most Annoying Villains
First Appearance:The Flash#10 by Joshua Williamson, Felipe Watanabe, Oclair Albert, Chris Sotomayor, and Steve Wands
Benedict Booker is the non-threatening villain known as Papercut. Benedict has the unique ability to control anything made out of wood,though he struggles to control wood itself. This has resulted in him mostly using his powers to control razor-sharp pieces of paper that he carries on him.
Naturally, this doesn’t make him the most threatening villain Flash has ever seen. During one of his first appearances, despite Benedict using his absolute full power, he was quicklyoverwhelmed and defeated by Kid Flash.Surprisingly, this was not the last readers saw Papercut, and he has re-appeared a few times since, even joining the Legion of Zoom at one point.
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2Black Mold Lived Up To His Name, Using Mold To Kill People
First Appearance:The Flash#31 by Van Jensen, Robert Venditti, Brett Booth, Norm Rapmund, Andrew Dalhouse, & Dezi Sienty
Black Mold was everything his name implied.He was a man with a specialized suit who used mold spores to kill people. It didn’t get much more complicated than that. Eventually, Black Mold actually retired from his role as a supervillain until a police detective stole his uniform from the evidence locker.
This detective would then become the second Black Mold. Despite his simple gimmick, he was involved in some surprisingly important Flash moments, including helping Henry Allen escape prison. Outside of that, Black Mold really hasn’t appeared since. Likely due to the fact his gimmick isn’t something that could stand up to theFlash’s absurd speed.
1Girder Was Half A Man Of Steel
The Flash: Iron Heightsby Geoff Johns, Ethan Van Sciver, Prentis Rollins, Chris Chuckry, and John Costanza
Tony Woodward was a man who used to work in a steel factory. One day, after assaulting a female co-worker,he caused a riot and his co-workers tossed him into a vat of molten steel. This wasn’t the last people would see of Tony though, as this particular steel was left over from a S.T.A.R. labs experiment.
Instead of suffering a horrific death, Tony became bonded with the steel and survived the incident. He then returned with incredible strength and durability. He then went on to become aconsistent enemy of the Flashand even faced off against Cyborg a few times, which made him a surprisingly versatile villain.
