Malcolm Thawne is the lost twin brother of Barry Allen. He is a Cobalt Blue, one of a number of evil counterparts of the Flash that wields the Blue Flame.



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History

On the stormy night of May 13, two pregnant women came to the office of Fallville, Iowa's Dr. Gilmore. However, the doctor had been drinking, and he had sent his nurse home. The child of one of the women, Charlene Thawne, had been strangled on its own umbilical cord, and Gilmore was too intoxicated to save the poor baby. However, the other woman, Nora Allen, successfully gave birth to twin boys. Gilmore, to cover up the baby's death, gave one of the twins to the Thawne family, telling the Allens that one of their children had been stillborn. The twin that remained with the Allens was named Barry, and he grew up to be the Flash. The other twin, however, was raised by the Thawnes, and he was named Malcolm.

Malcolm's adoptive parents were con artists, using a strange inherited Thawne power, a blue flame, to heal people, afterwards selling jars of petroleum jelly with blue food coloring to the healed and their friends. All the other members of his family had this power except for Malcolm, and they constantly taunted him for being inferior. Finally, when he was seventeen, during one of their many arguments in which Malcolm asked to be taught the power of the blue fire, his mother told him that he had been adopted. Going to Fallville, knowing that was where he was born, Malcolm sought out Dr. Gilmore. The doctor told him of his origins, and the enraged lad killed the doctor for having picked him to give to the other family.

Malcolm traveled around the world and got into trouble with the law. Upon his decision to finally confront Barry with his existence, he learned that his brother had become a policeman. Envious, Malcolm got a job as a janitor for a cleaning service used by the Central City Police Department. He watched Barry from afar, even witnessing the accident that gave him the power of superspeed. He grew to hate Barry for having everything that Malcolm thought should have been his own.

He went to his adoptive grandmother to learn more about the blue flame the Thawnes wielded. It turned out that it was an art with many more capabilities than what Hugo and family had been using it for. Malcolm's grandmother told him that the flame could steal anything that your heart desired, feeding on passion. Using this power, she taught him how to place his hatred for Barry Allen inside a talisman, which he wore on his chest.

Malcolm drew his power from this talisman, and adopted a costume as the super-villain Cobalt Blue. When he faced the Flash and Kid Flash, he had the ability to steal their speed by enveloping them in his blue flame. After a battle at the zoo, Cobalt Blue appeared in Barry's lab, revealing his knowledge of Barry's identity. After a high-speed chase with a Flash created from the blue flame, Cobalt Blue was engulfed in his own blue flame. Wally thought that he had caught a glimpse of the face behind the mask, a very familiar one. The same face as his ancestor Barry Allen.

Cobalt Blue surfaced again after Barry's death. He blew up the Flash Museum and attacked Barry's old house and his laboratory at the police station. He also robbed the original Flash, Jay Garrick, of his speed. Wally, now going by the Flash, tracked him down to Barry's tombstone, which Malcolm tricked Wally into destroying. However, Wally bought time by prompting Malcolm to tell his life story while he soaked up enough speed force energy to retaliate, defeating the villain quite quickly.



Powers and Abilities

Powers

Blue Flame Energy Access: By tapping into his talisman, Malcolm can access fellows abilities: Energy Projection : Malcolm can cause his flame to burst out of his body and sword. Energy Construct Creation : Malcolm can create objects out of his flame, his favorite being a flaming sword. Power Absorption : Malcolm used his hatred to channel the Blue Flame to steal objects and power from his enemies. On most occasions he uses this power to steal speed from the Flashes. Superhuman Speed : Malcolm can reach incredible amounts of speed by using his Blue Flame to steal speed from opponents. He can steal multiple levels of speed from different sources and achieve speeds to assault even Wally West. Healing : The Blue Flame was mainly used by the Thawne family to "heal" and presumably Malcolm has the same ability but he hasn't shown the ability to produce healing flames as of yet.

By tapping into his talisman, Malcolm can access fellows abilities:

Abilities

Weaknesses

Obsession: Although his hatred for the Flash Family allows him to activate his talisman it also becomes a major downfall to his battle-prowess and general well being by blinding him from his true purpose.



Paraphernalia

Equipment

Blue Flame Talisman: Although unable to tap into the power of the Blue Flame, Malcolm was granted access to the Blue Flame through a talisman given to him by his adopted grandmother.

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