The sinister enemy of the Flash put his own creative (and quite disturbing) spin on origin stories. Before he ever set out to ruin Barry Allen's life, the Reverse-Flash tried perfecting his own, only to discover the process wasn't as easy as he thought.
Few villains in comic books have as much hatred for their adversaries as Reverse-Flash has for Barry Allen. Once a fan of the Flash from the 25th century, Eobard Thawne desperately attempted to recreate Barry's famous accident and become a speedster himself. Though successful in his attempts, Thawne discovered he was fated to become the Flash's nemesis, the Reverse-Flash, a revelation that completely broke his mind. While Thawne wants nothing more than to kill his enemy, he needs Barry alive to inspire him in the future. Instead, the Reverse-Flash resolved to use his mastery of speed and time to make the Flash as miserable as possible.
But it appears that before Thawne set out to destroy the life of Barry Allen, he practiced manipulating the timeline to change his own life. In Flash #8 by Geoff Johns and Scott Kolins, the villain narrates his secret origin starting from his youth. In the 25th century before Eobard Thawne becomes the Reverse-Flash, Thawne has a little brother whom he despises...until a demonic figure in red lightning removes Eobard's sibling from the timeline completely. Eobard later loses out on a highly-coveted spot working at the Flash museum, until Thawne's main competitor also disappears from the timeline. As Thawne details his life, the Reverse-Flash is shown 'improving' history to give himself everything he ever wanted, even helping his past self find the crucial key to accessing the Speed Force. But Reverse-Flash knows that whatever happiness his past self finds will never last.
By cruelly removing elements from Barry's timelines little by little, this story becomes a dark mirror that depicts how Reverse-Flash changed Flash's life forever. While Thawne applied what he learned from changing his own life to his enemy, the end result had the opposite effect. No matter what Reverse Flash did to the Flash, Barry still wound up living a pretty happy life.
Heroes and villains often have origins that reflect or compliment one another in some form or fashion. They could share a common background or experience a similar hardship, but there’s usually a thread that connects the two. Eobard Thawne lived his whole life worshipping the Fastest Man Alive, only to break under the realization he was his idol's complete opposite. However, it isn't enough to be told that. The Reverse-Flash saw firsthand just how opposite he and Flash were by messing with both of their timelines. No matter how much Thawne tried to better his life, he remained miserable. And despite the hell he put Barry through, his enemy got a life full of love and happiness. By messing with his own and Barry’s origins, Flash’s greatest enemy saw the cosmic perspective of their relationships with his own eyes.
