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Citizen Abra was a stage magician in the 64th Century, going by the name Abra Kadabra. Using his future science, he came back to the 20th Century and committed crimes that were often stopped by the Flash.

Silver Age Career

Due to the advanced technology of his era, there was no demand for performances by those in his profession. No magic tricks could rival what could be done by simple science. However, when he heard of a recent scientific development, a time machine powered by M-Metal, which would be capable of a single trip through time, he decided to use it to go back to a time when magicians were celebrities. He invaded the laboratory where the machine was kept and used his gadgets to paralyze the scientists so that he could travel back to the 20th Century. He arrived in Central City, where he quickly began impressing people with his tricks, all performed by using 64th Century technology. When they did not applaud, he would use his gadgets to make them applaud. After earning enough money to finance a series of shows, he was disappointed when no one attended due to more interesting things that conflicted with them, such as a World Series game and the dedication of a new statue in town. After reading the Picture News and determining that the best way to get publicity in Central City was by stealing things, he decided to steal the statue that was being dedicated. After the theft, he paralyzed all the witnesses, including Barry Allen, who as a result, was not able to chase after him as the Flash. Kadabra's second theft was the oldest book ever printed, newly on display at the library. The Flash arrived to stop him, but the magician used his technology to force the Flash to clap his hands and stamp his feet and made his getaway. He then announced that he would perform the greatest magic trick ever seen, and filled an entire hall full of people anxious to see what that might be. It was, in fact, a trap for the Flash. When the speedster arrived to bring him to justice, Kadabra sent him flying through space, leaving his costume behind. However, the Flash was able to use his speed to return to Earth, and after tracking Kadabra to his base, easily defeated him by putting him in the path of his own paralyzing Hypno-beam.[1]

While in prison, Kadabra worked in the kitchens. Here, he was able to build a hypno-ray using pots and pans, which he used to compel the governor to pardon him, just minutes before the end of his term. Determined not to return to jail, Kadabra sought applause by staging a puppet show which featured a Flash puppet comically being defeated. It was a huge hit, until the actual Flash, disturbed by how this ridicule might affect his reputation and ability to stop crime in the city, decided to step up his heroic activity. The public took notice and threw their support behind the speedster, resulting in drastically reduced ticket sales for Kadabra. In retaliation, the magician transformed the Flash himself into a puppet, to be used in his next show. During the show, the speedster was able to regain control over his molecules and knocked Kadabra out while still in puppet form.[2]

Some time later, Kadabra escaped from prison. He transferred his magical powers to the Flash, but caused them to only work against the speedster whenever he used his speed. After working with a group of crooks to commit four separate crimes around Central City, the magician eventually confronted the Flash. He offered a trade. Kadabra would allow the Flash full control over his magical powers if the Flash would agree to transfer his superspeed to the magician. The speedster refused. After noticing that his punches were not hitting their intended targets, but rather seemingly random nearby locations, the Flash frantically began making myriads of punching motions. His plan worked, and he eventually happened to hit Kadabra, knocking the villain out. Kadabra was again sent back to prison.[3]

Kadabra eventually was sent back to the 64th Century. Here, the authorities made it so that anyone in Kadabra's vicinity was compelled to applaud and cheer for him, thus canceling his urges to commit crimes in the Flash's era. He sent a small pyramid-shaped object to Barry Allen's lab in the past, which transported the speedster to Kadabra's era. Here, the Fastest Man Alive was hypnotized and made to appear like he was murdering Kadabra. He was subsequently arrested by 64th Century authorities.[4] However, Kadabra was not dead. Instead, he had been transported back to the Flash's home century, where he planned to commit crimes without interference from his rival. However, he found himself in Keystone City, home of the original Flash, Jay Garrick. Jay, together with Barry, who eventually freed himself from prison in the future and returned to his home era, defeated Kadabra, sending him back to the 64th Century.[5]

On a subsequent visit to the 20th Century, Kadabra managed to trap the Flash in an illusion where he was bedridden in a clinic, as the accident in his laboratory years ago had not granted him superspeed, but caused him to be paralyzed. His adventures as the Scarlet Speedster were not real, but fantasies brought on by reading comic books starring Jay Garrick. Kadabra created illusions of his friends and family corroborating this story and himself posed as a psychiatrist, Dr. Petrou. However, when the magician conjured up an image of Professor Zoom, the speedster realized the trick, as no Reverse-Flash could exist without a Flash to inspire him. Breaking free from the illusion, the Flash easily defeated Kadabra.[6]

Trial of the Flash

Abra Kadabra as Reverse-Flash

Abra Kadabra masquerades as Professor Zoom

After being imprisoned in his home era for several years, Kadabra was able to engineer an escape by generating a bio-energy field about himself which attracted a massive charge from a negative ion storm which was occurring at the time.[7] Kadabra had made a wager with the High Commissioner in his era. If he succeeded in preventing the death of the Flash as history had recorded it in the 20th Century, then magic would again be declared a noble art form. Since Professor Zoom had recently been killed in the Flash's era, five hundred years prior to his own birth, the timestream had become malleable. Kadabra planned to lure the Flash to the 64th Century, trapping him there just as time became fixed again, thereby changing the speedster's fate and winning the wager.[8]

First, Kadabra broke into a research facility containing a time teleporter and travelled back to the Flash's era. Here, disguised as Zoom, he broke into the police department and deleted all computer records profiling various members of the speedster's Rogues Gallery.[9] He foiled an escape attempt by Pied Piper[10] and captured Mirror Master, Weather Wizard, Trickster, Captain Cold,[11] Captain Boomerang, and Rainbow Raider,[12] imprisoning them inside a rock formation outside Central City.[13] He then interfered with the trial of the Flash, who was charged with killing Professor Zoom, by impersonating juror Nathan Newbury and causing the jury to arrive at a guilty verdict.[12] His final act in the 20th Century was to destroy city hall, with the Flash and Newbury inside, causing onlookers to believe the speedster was responsible and Newbury his hostage. The plan had its desired effect of driving the speedster into chasing Zoom into the future, hoping to clear his name. The Flash and Newbury travelled the 25th Century, where they found evidence that it was Kadabra who had been impersonating Zoom. They left for the 64th Century, but Kadabra captured them soon after their arrival. However, the Rogues, who had escaped their prison and travelled into the future using an altered Cosmic Treadmill, temporarily put their differences with the Flash aside and helped their foe defeat Kadabra. He was again sent to prison. The magician did get part of his wish, as the Flash did leave the 20th Century to live in the 30th Century with his wife Iris, whose psychic essence had been possessing Newbury.[8] However, the speedster did perish soon after, saving the world in the first Crisis.[14] During this Crisis, Kadabra was one of the many heroes and villains brought to the Monitor's ship by Alexander Luthor in an effort to halt the destruction of the multiverse.[15]

Enemy of a New Flash

The city in which Kadabra lived was ruled by Chronarch and the Central Clockworks, who imposed strict order on its citizens. He became a revolutionary, fighting for individual thought and identity. As this was considered a threat to society, he was banished back to the Flash's era.[16]

The new Flash, Wally West, who had lost his powers, and Mason Trollbridge, disguised as the Clipper, fought him once in New York City. Thinking that Wally still lived in his posh Long Island mansion, Kadabra went there to destroy it. However, it had since been bought by Chunk. Wally and Mason followed him there, and seemingly destroyed Kadabra in an explosion involving Mason's truck.[17]

Kadabra after explosion

Abra Kadabra after the explosion

The circuitry on Kadabra's body which allowed him to teleport was severely damaged in the blast, causing him to become out of phase with the real world for some time. When the tech finally repaired itself, Kadabra returned, still horribly disfigured. He made his grand entrance at a charity event by killing a stage magician also calling himself Abra Kadabra in a fiery blaze and claiming he had risen from the grave. As he battled the Flash, a woman from his own era arrived and transported all three of them to the 64th Century.[18] Here, he learned that he was to be executed in order to quell the rebellion he had started. Appalled at how the citizens of the future were treated, the Flash helped Kadabra to overthrow Chronarch and the Central Clockworks. However, he did not want to see the magician be in charge, so he took him back to the 20th Century. Feeling as if he was robbed of the greatest glory in his life, Kadabra's hate for the Flash grew even greater than it had for his predecessor.[16]

Keystone police was in the process of transporting Kadabra to court when he made an escape from a straitjacket in the sealed van.[19] He began to monitor Flash's activities, and send street thugs out during Keystone's unusually hot Christmas season to keep Wally busy.[20] He also learned of Allison Armitage, a lady who worked at the Valentine Galleria who was badly injured in Flash's fight with Razer. She blamed Flash for not saving her. Kadabra used C. Eric McCullough, a widely known trial lawyer, to lure her to trial, kidnapping his wife and son for an incentive. He succeeded for a while, causing Wally to become a fugitive of the law. However, Wally found McCullough's family and handed them over to the police, who then taped Kadabra's confession. In the ensuing fight, Wally ripped apart much of Kadabra's circuitry, and when he tried escaping through a large puddle of water, and the electricity arcing through his body went into one of the consoles on the wall, blowing up the warehouse which had been Kadabra's hideout. There was no trace of his body.[21]

Kadabra did survive, however. He washed ashore outside Kobra's new Keystone headquarters, and hid among them, waiting for his chance to kill the Flash. It came when Wally discovered the building, and Kadabra trapped him in the hologram lab in a web of laser fire, reflected by mirrors. However, his plan was foiled when his costume began to change as a result of a temporal anomaly. He and Wally were transported to the 64th century.[22] Here, they encountered Waverider and Rip Hunter, just as reality was being destroyed by a powerful rift in time. Kadabra suggested that the Flash run at ultimate speed, creating a vortex to destroy the rift. However, he was unsuccessful, and Kadabra seemingly perished along with the rest of the universe.[23]

Underworld Unleashed

The demon Neron brought together many of the world's deadliest villains, one of whom was Kadabra himself. Another one was Doctor Polaris, master of magnetism. In a Flash biography from the future, once belonging to Professor, which Kadabra had found in the river, Kadabra read of a terrible Ice Age, an Ice Age he planned to start. He kidnapped Iris Allen, forcing her to write down everything she knew about the future so he could use the information as a roadmap to the future, which he hoped to use as ruler of the world after completing the Ice Age. Using cryonic technology built by Chillblaine, coupled with his own and Polaris's powers, they began to freeze Central City.[24] However, the machine was destroyed by Wally West and John Fox. Abra Kadabra was captured and sent to jail.[25]

Determined to take from his foe that which mattered most, Kadabra transported the Flash's bride-to-be Linda Park away from their wedding[26] to a prison inside the timestream while altering everyone's memories to believe that she had disappeared years earlier, the day before she had met Wally. Linda leaped from her prison, choosing to brave the timestream rather than stay with Kadabra.[27] He followed her to an alternate timeline, where she had been reunited with Wally, who had been drawn to her after brushing up against the Speed Force during a fight with Cobalt Blue.[28] During the ensuing battle with the speedster and his double from this alternate timeline, Kadabra seemingly killed Wally and Linda and severely hurt the alternate Flash before retreating.[29]

The alternate Flash traveled to Wally's reality to take his place. Kadabra followed him there, intent on finishing the job and defeating this new speedster. To this end, he recruited Replicant and Professor Zoom.[30] However, Zoom turned out to be the Flash leading Kadabra into a trap. He and a group of other speedsters turned one of the magician's spells back on himself, causing Kadabra to forget who he was.[31]

Kadabra next appeared possessed by a slug-like parasite which used its host to summon numerous Titans, creating a tsunami which threatens to wipe out a large portion of the eastern United States. The Justice League of America was able to avert disaster, and the parasite was removed from Kadabra by Plastic Man.[32]

Kadabra ended up in Iron Heights Penitentiary, apparently still amnesic. However, when a guard mentioned the name "Houdini", he suddenly remembered who he was. Instantly healing all his scars, Kadabra proceeded to make a grand escape from prison to the applause of the other inmates. He traveled to Metropolis, where he encountered Wally, Jay Garrick, and Superman. He forced the elder Flash and the Man of Steel to race or cause Wally and numerous spectators to die of old age. However, this was just a ploy to use their speed energy to traveled back to his home era and restock his supply of advanced technology. However, he was captured inside a Fourth Dimensional Chaos Sphere by the Flash and brought back to Iron Heights.[33] However, he was released some time later by Gorilla Grodd.[34]

He made his next appearance at a parade in Keystone honoring the Flash, accompanied by the Trickster, Tarpit, and a group of Grodan.[35] They were foiled by Wally, Jay and Kid Flash, but Kadabra disappeared to the 64th Century before he could be captured.[36] Some time later, he was present for the funeral of Captain Boomerang.[37]

Kadabra later resurfaced in Los Angeles, where he transported a store containing valuable gems to the Alps, where he had a team in place to move everything inside to a Swiss bank. However, the new Flash foiled his plan, using one of the gems to reflect Kadabra's spell back at him and sending him to Cambodia.[38] However, he was eventually captured and sent back to Switzerland, where he was imprisoned. Here, he was approached by Inertia, who freed him and began working with him on a device with the ability to stop time.[39] However, due to his 64th-century knowledge of temporal physics, he realized that was not in fact what the device was for, and in fact Inertia was lying to him.[40] The device was designed to rob the Flash of his speed and transfer it to Inertia. The powerless speedster was then killed by the Rogues.[41]

Captured afterward by the Suicide Squad, Abra was one of the first villains sent to Salvation.[42] There, he sided with Lex Luthor in the subsequent split before returning to Earth along with everyone else.[43]

Although he remains active, Kadabra was not with the Rogues during the Final Crisis, when they struck out on their own from the Secret Society of Super-Villains, and resisted Libra.

Powers

  • Magic: At first his magic-like powers were purely the result of futurist technology, but after a deal with the demon Neron, he became a true sorcerer, able to cast spells and fire energy bolts.

Abilities

Equipment

  • Hypno-Ray: Hidden in the gem-flower on Kadabra's lapel, it was capable of paralyzing Kadabra's targets or compelling them to perform an action, such as applauding.[1]


  • Although this character was originally introduced during DC's Earth-One era of publication, their existence following the events of the 1985–86 limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths remains intact. However, some elements of the character's Pre-Crisis history may have been altered or removed for Post-Crisis New Earth continuity, and should be considered apocryphal.
  • The name Abra Kadabra is a respelling of the phrase "Abracadabra", a mystical invocation commonly used by modern day stage magicians.
  • Abra Kadabra usually channels his mystic energy through his magic wand. He does so out of a sense of style and showmanship, but can just as readily perform magical feats without the wand.

Related

External Links

Footnotes



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Rogues Gallery
This character is or was a member of the Rogues, a loose collection of enemies to the Flash, in any of its various incarnations. They are a team of highly effective super-villains with their own internal code that prevents them from killing speedsters.
This template will categorize articles that include it into the "Rogues Gallery members category."

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Flash Villain(s)
This character, team, or organization, is or was primarily an enemy of any or all of the various incarnations of the Flash. This template will categorize articles that include it into the category "Flash Villains."

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Secret Society of Super-Villains member
This character is or was a member of the Secret Society of Super-Villains, a cadre of super-villains who band together to accomplish feats no one super-villain can do alone, in any of its various incarnations. This template will categorize articles that include it into the "Secret Society of Super-Villains members" category.

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