The Turtle
1902 - Robert Turowski is born.
1920 - 18-year-old Robert Turowski attends Midwestern University.
1924 - 22-year-old Robert Turowski begins his graduate studies.
1927 - 25-year-old Robert Turowski begins his doctoral work.
1930 - 28-year-old Robert Turowski earns his doctorate in applied experimental physics.
1932 - 30-year-old Robert Turowski begins his designs for a device that can absorb ambient kinetic energy. He presents his designs to Midwestern University, who decline to fund his research. He continues working on it on his own.
1938 - 36-year-old Robert Turowski perfects his kinetic absorbtion device. He uses it to rob a bank, and attempts to attack Midwestern University for rejecting his designs as the Turtle. Jay Garrick has to stop him without his speed, and he is put in prison, where he begins working to recreate his kinetic absorber.
1947 - 45-year-old Robert Turowski successfully creates a new kinetic absorbtion device that feeds the energy directly into his own body. He escapes and hunts Jay Garrick, the absorbed kinetic energy mutating his body. Jay isolates him from external kinetic energy, causing him to absorb his own null-field, leaving him unable to move.
12 years ago - Robert Turowski, still frozen in Star Labs, absorbs enough ambient speed force energy from both Barry Allen & Wally West to be able to move again. He is able to manipulate the Speed Force directly. He breaks Wally's leg and captures Barry, intent on using him as an infinite power source. With his new understanding of the Speed Force, Wally is able to heal his leg, and tap into the Speed Force to stop the Turtle and freeze him again, sending him to Iron Hights, where he is secured against any Speed Force access.
now - Robert Turowski's frozen body is stolen from prison by Vandal Savage, to face Wally West in his new team Tartarus.
The Turtle is a rough character to adapt, because there's really no version of this character that's ever really worked in continuity. There have been a couple versions of this character that have made their way though continuity and that have even interacted with each other a few times, none of which on their own really constitute a fully formed concept that we would necessarily want to bring into our timeline.
Here's the thing, though; there's a reason a character called 'The Turtle' has occurred so many times in the history of Flash Comics. It's just such an obvious no-brainer for a character who's all about moving fast to somehow have an enemy that is about moving slow. These are childrens characters, afterall. It just needed to be executed in a way that worked within the world of the characters, and we think we've found a way to do that. We hope you agree!
Here's the thing, though; there's a reason a character called 'The Turtle' has occurred so many times in the history of Flash Comics. It's just such an obvious no-brainer for a character who's all about moving fast to somehow have an enemy that is about moving slow. These are childrens characters, afterall. It just needed to be executed in a way that worked within the world of the characters, and we think we've found a way to do that. We hope you agree!
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The Turtle's Comic HistoryThe very first version of the Turtle debuted in All-Flash Quarterly #21 in 1941. He was just a zoot-suited gangster who insisted that by moving slowly he could out maneuver the Flash, and for the better part of the issue, he was right. This character would go on to appear in a few other issues where he would earn his own Turtle-based costume. His schtick continued to include moving slowly, but that became more of an affectation while he was actually more about having long-term plans.
A second Turtle is actually the very first baddy Barry Allen ever faced, debuting in literally the same issue; Showcase #4 in 1956. He was basically the same concept as the original turtle, with the innovation of wearing a turtleneck. This character actually manages to make almost zero appearances all the way up until the Post Crisis Wally West-led Flash series when we see a completely redesigned version of BOTH Turtle characters, partnering them in one storyline where the original Turtle gets a grey-haired redesign that will be relevant later. |
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The Wally West Flash series as written by Mark Waid and Geoff Johns vastly evolved the world of the Flash, and we still saw the Turtle occasionally in the background of big group scenes, but at this point it's basically been established that this character isn't actually of any narrative importance at all. No attempt is really being made to take the idea of him being slow and make it work as an actual threat to the hero.
This gets done in a pretty big way when the Turtle was depicted in the New 52 & Rebirth era Flash stories, which actually account for a sizeable total of the character's appearances. In particular we're looking at a longer story by Josh Williamson. Not only was his version of the Turtle an avatar of the "Still Force", and able to absorb all movement around him, he was essentially immortal, able to wait out any resistance. Barry even witnessed a future where the Turtle had taken over all of Central City and ruled as a king. It was a try-everything-plus-the-kitchen-sink approach that was certainly a far cry from the essentially useless character we'd seen before, but sometimes it's possible that you're overcorrecting. |
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Our Turtle StorySo if we're going to take a stab at making our version of the Turtle, what do we want to do with him? We wanted to start him out as a pretty classic Flash viillain; just a guy who builds a device that he uses to rob banks, something right out of a Gardner Fox comic. What makes him different is that his device is absorbing kinetic energy, letting him do the most obvious thing for a Flash villain to do; he can actually slow the Flash down.
We do like the idea of him slowly mutating into a weird Mole Man-esque creature as he he starts to absorb that kinetic energy into his body, making everything move slower... and even being frozen as a statue, an idea that actually does occur here and there in other Flash stories, and works pretty well here. It's when he shows up again that he really becomes something special, though... because in all that time frozen, he'll have worked out the math of what the Speed Force actually is. He can be the first villain to actually manipulate it directly, representing an absolutely unprecedented threat to Barry and Wally. We even built a story where Wally, the Flash most notable for using Speed Force tactically, has to go up against the Turtle alone to save Barry. We're pretty proud of this take on the Turtle and his powers, and this execution of the character as a part of the mythology of the Flash. He feels like an intrgral part of the story. |