Eobard Thawe, better known as Professor Zoom and the Reverse-Flash, is one of DC’s most popular villains. His popularity is due in no small part to how utterly insane he is. He’s the fastest villain alive and has dedicated his entire existence to making the Flash’s life as miserable as possible. The Reverse-Flash is easily one of the pettiest people to ever exist, having done everything in his extraordinary power to ensure that every day of Barry Allen’s life is as unhappy and uncomfortable as possible. He’s done everything from killing Barry’s mom to pushing him down the stairs, and every story is elevated by his presence.
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However, as incredible a narrative force as Thawne is, he was removed from comic books five years ago, and that’s exactly where he should stay. The Reverse-Flash was retired in one of the most conclusive and emotional endings that not only perfectly wrapped up his character, but also Barry’s time as the main Flash. It all went down in the “Finish Line” storyline, which concluded superstar writer Joshua Williamson’s monumental one hundred and one issue run on The Flash (2016).
The Race to End Them All
“Finish Line” was the culmination and grand finale to Williamson’s run on the title, and sought to wrap up not just the battle he established between Barry and Thawne, but their rivalry as a whole. Reverse-Flash had tormented Barry for the entire run, from infecting him with the Negative Speed Force to manipulating him and all of his allies to ruin their lives and relationships with his new hypnosis ability. Thawne wanted to take his and Barry’s fight to the next level, while Barry finally decided to end this once and for all. He’d killed Thawne before, and now Barry was willing to do it again.
Reverse-Flash created his own Reverse-Flash Family, his Legion of Zoom, consisting of all of the Flash’s worst enemies, all ganging together to bring the Scarlet Speedster down for good. Barry, meanwhile, tried to push his family away so that he could kill Thawne on his own. This whole thing started as a battle between them, and that’s how Barry wanted to end it. Their battle was larger and more personal than ever before, and in the end, as much as Barry wanted to kill Thawne, Thawne wanted Barry to kill him even more. He knew how much murdering him would hurt Barry, and how little it would matter.
Barry has killed Thawne before, way back in The Flash #324, to prevent the villain from killing his second wife. Back then, the death stuck for some time, but nowadays Thawne is connected to the Negative Speed Force, meaning that he is a living time paradox. Even if he died, he would just come back to torture Barry again. Barry finally realized this and saw the path to ending this. He decided to forgive Thawne and used his own connection to the Speed Force to anchor Thawne to the timeline once again. Thawne’s timeline was reset, reverting him to the curator of the Flash Museum in the 25th Century, and he’s remained there ever since.
The Race to Forgiveness
What makes this final goodbye to Eobard Thawne so incredible is how it completes his and Barry’s arcs. Thawne had been a being of pure hate and pettiness ever since his heart was broken by what he saw as Barry’s betrayal. Barry had, on numerous occasions, tried to move on from his rivalry with Thawne, but every time he tried, Thawne dragged him back in. Every time Barry tried to move forward, Thawne would ruin his life again and restart their endless cycle of fighting. Barry could never put his life back together because this problem didn’t just involve him; it also involved Thawne.
Thawne was a man consumed by hate because he idolized Barry more than life itself and wanted Barry to be tied to him in any way possible. He failed to be a hero like Barry, so he made himself important by becoming the scourge of Barry’s life. His obsession transcended time itself, and locked Barry to him no matter how fast the Flash tried to run away. Barry realized that the only way to save himself from Thawne was to save Thawne. Killing Thawne would only be playing into his hands. The only way that Barry could save both of them was to forgive, thus embodying the same heroism that inspired Thawne in the first place.
The Flash could only beat the Reverse-Flash by being as heroic as possible, and by doing so, gave Thawne the perfect life that he threw away so long ago. This was the ultimate close to Thawne’s story, and the perfect bookend to Barry’s. Although Barry continued to be a hero after this story, Wally became the main Flash again. This story completed a circle that was started when Thawne brought Barry back from the dead in The Flash: Rebirth, letting both men move on from the relationship that brought them back from the dead to finish. Any story Thawne appears in after this one would be a disservice to his character and ruin this story’s impact.
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