A
villain published by
DC Comics.
Captain Cold first appeared
in
Showcase #8 in 1957.
Lenord Snart (Len to his friends) was a small time hood who had
dreams of a great criminal career. The problem was that Snart lived
in Central City, the home of the Scarlet Speedster, The Flash.
Realizing that any criminal activities he attempted with the
Flash still active would inevitably lead to a lengthy prison
sentence, Snart realized that his only hope of criminal success
involved the removal of the Fastest Man Alive.
To this end, Snart stole the work of one of Central City's leading
scientific minds, a paper which hypothesized that the effects of a
cyclotron might hamper the Flash's powers. Snart then broke
into a local laboratory which had a cyclotron, and accidently exposed
a ray gun to the radiation from the cyclotron. The result was
that Snart's gun possessed the ability to reduce the molecular
motion of substances to near non-existence or to put it another way
freeze them to absolute zero. Snart (who for a small time criminal
possessed an amazing scientific knowledge considering he could construct
a ray gun, operate a cyclotron, and understand the complexities
of nuclear physics) decided to take his new discovery and become
a criminal, rather than turning over his discovery to the Nobel
committee and making a mint off of the invention royalties and
the big fat government research grants he would have been given.
Designing a costume with an arctic theme, Snart began a crime spree
as Captain Cold.
Captain Cold became one of the Flash's most persistent foes.
He and the Flash clashed on many occasions and he was one of
the founding members of the Rogues Gallery. Captain Cold's
sister used part of his technology to attempt to gain revenge
against the Flash for the death of her boyfriend, the Top. She
did this under the identity of the Golden Glider.
After the death of Barry Allen, the Silver Age Flash,
the members of the Rogues Gallery retired. Recently, Captain
Cold along with the other members of the Rogues Gallery were
approached by Abra Kadabra and offered immense powers. They
accepted and were killed by the demon Neron who brought them
back to life as soul-less killers with great power in an attempt
to entrap the new Flash Wally West. West eventually defeated
Neron and got him to return the Rogues Gallery to normal.