The Flash has been one of the most successful shows to be brought to life in the Arrowverse. Grant Gustin sports the red tracksuit as Barry Allen and becomes the fastest man alive who patrols Central City and protects it from evil. After being struck by lightning, Barry Allen developed a meta-human power that allows him to move at super speeds, granting him a number of abilities. Seeking to use his power for the betterment of mankind, Barry decides to put on a costume and become Central City's superhero, the Flash.
Along with his friends and trusted teammates, the Flash takes on some of the most dangerous and maniacal villains in the Arrowverse who either seek to rule the world or destroy it completely. Among the endless sea of bad guys the Flash battles, some rise to the top as the most threatening that gave him a run for his money. Here are the best villains from The Flash television show, ranked.
8 The Trickster
The Flash is well known for making callbacks to the original Flash series that starred John Wesley Shipp. Throughout each season, fans can dig through each episode and find a smorgasbord of Easter eggs that tie back to older shows and comics. For example, the Flash decided to pay respects to a milestone character and one of the Flash's oldest villains, The Trickster.
The Trickster was a psychopathic genius who thought of the most intricate ways to torture The Flash and Central City. In the original Flash series, the character was played by Mark Hamill. In S1 E17 of The Flash, Mark Hamill reprises his role as the original Trickster and joins his son, who had taken up his mantle, in a mission to take out the Flash permanently. The charisma and threatening presence that Mark Hamill brought to James Jesse and the show was one of the highlights of the first season.
7 Captain Cold
Leonard Snart, commonly known as Captain Cold, first appeared in the S1 E16 of The Flash. Played by Wentworth Miller, Snart would play a thorn in the side of Team Flash as he would stage a series of robberies that were impossible to stop.
The cold calculations backed by the brain of Heatwave made the team one of The Flash's greatest challenges. However, Snart has quite the redemption arc as a character as he and Heatwave went on to become Legends of Tomorrow alongside Rip Hunter, a time lord in the far future.
6 Gorilla Grodd
Gorilla Gordd's history has been intertwined with the character since The Flash's creation. When the series was announced, fans were ecstatic to learn that Gorilla Grodd would be a recurring villain for the show. Making his first appearance in the 20th episode of season one, Grodd was affected by the particle accelerator explosion, which granted him his powers.
Unfortunately, Grodd was tutored by the Reverse Flash and garnered immense hatred for the Flash and his team. Grodd would appear several times over The Flash's seasonal runtime and became an increasingly more dangerous threat, which resulted in him being sent to a forest habitat in another dimension with other gorillas.
5 Godspeed
Godspeed has appeared multiple times in The Flash series, but has most recently been the arch-nemesis of Bart Allen, also known as Impulse. Godspeed was an artificial speedster who acquired his powers through nefarious means and used the Velocity nine chemical to increase it, making him stronger than the Flash temporarily.
Godspeed constantly terrorized Team Flash, focusing on Barry Allen to steal his speed and Bart Allen to torture him mentally. Finally, it took the combined speed of Barry, Bart, and the Reverse Flash to subdue Godspeed, who now sits in Iron Heights prison.
4 The Thinker
The Thinker served as one of the most challenging villains the Flash had ever faced. As the sole villain of season four of The Flash, The Thinker seemed to be ten steps ahead of Barry Allen at every turn.
Gifted with monumental processing abilities from the particle accelerator explosion, Clifford DeVoe would become The Thinker after his increased intelligence corrupted his moral compass. He sought to reset the intellect of all human beings and rebuild the world in his image.
3 Savitar
Savitar serves as one of the most interesting villains the Flash has gone up against, and showed how the consequences of Barry's actions of messing with the timeline would always come back to haunt him. Savitar was a time remnant that was abandoned by the original Barry Allen and cast out by Team Flash.
Alone and tortured by his banishment, he decided to acquire enough power so that his weakness would become his strength. Savitar ventured back in time to reap his revenge on Barry and team Flash by killing Iris, a plot that seemed set in stone as no matter how fast he ran, the Flash could not beat Savitar alone.
2 Reverse Flash
The Reverse Flash is the epitome of a great villain and is the self-proclaimed greatest nemesis of the Flash, having traveled back in time to create the Flash just so that he could torture him forever. The Reverse Flash first appeared in season one of The Flash, serving as both the main threat and hiding in plain sight as Dr. Harrison Wells.
The Reverse Flash would enjoy toying with Barry and return to continue his mission of proving that he will always be better than the Flash by causing as much chaos and dismay as he could. Every time the Flash thinks he's triumphed, the Reverse Flash returns to tear his life down.
1 Zoom
Season two of The Flash is arguably one of the most spectacular and heart-wrenching seasons of the show. After narrowly avoiding catastrophe while facing the Revers Flash in season one, Barry and Team Flash now face an entirely different type of monster who calls himself Zoom.
Zoom is a ruthless and visceral advisory that knows no fear and will stop at nothing to completely demolish the Flash. What truly set Zoom apart from most The Flash villains was the betrayal that was revealed when Team Flash realized that Zoom had been parading himself as Jay Garrick from another universe when he was actually Hunter Zoloman, a convicted murderer.