Captain Boomerang

Illegitimate son of American toymaker W.W. Wiggins*, Australian-born George Harkness was a troubled teenager always getting into scrapes with the law. His presumed father had always resented him because of his mother’s affair with Wiggins, and after one of George’s capers led to a particularly nasty family fight, his mother sent him to the United States, arranging with Wiggins to give him a job in Central City. “Captain Boomerang” was created as a gimmick to create interest in boomerangs.

One day, after a particularly lousy performance, Boomerang tried to pick someone’s pocket. He was spotted by the Flash, but Digger threw a boomerang at him and flattened him. Realizing what he could do, he began a criminal career as Captain Boomerang, using both regular and gimmicked boomerangs for ever more spectacular crimes.

For a time, Boomerang worked with the “Suicide Squad,” a secret government organization employing convicted super-villains for extremely hazardous missions. Rebellious and insubordinate, he was never a model team member, and even briefly borrowed Mirror Master’s costume to continue his criminal career in secret. During this time on the Squad he returned home briefly and learned that Wiggins was his real father.

Disgusted with his life, he jumped when Abra Kadabra brought him and four other Rogues an offer that would bring them respect. An offer that would “guarantee that they would be remembered forever not as has-beens... but as the most infamous villains of their age.” What Kadabra did not tell them was that it would cost them their lives. The five died, and unleashed the demon Neron upon Earth (Underworld Unleashed #1, 1995).

Neron was not finished with them, however. As part of a convoluted plot to force the Flash into a deal, he sent the Rogues’ bodies to Earth without their souls. The bank robbers who had so enjoyed matching wits with the Flash were now soulless killers, in command of vastly enhanced powers, with even more powerful avatars that caused enormous damage and killed thousands before the Flash was able to turn the deal around and force Neron to halt the destruction and return the Rogues’ souls to their bodies (Flash #127–129, 1997).

Captain Boomerang, like his fellow Rogues, returned to his life of crime, though for a time he was concerned with protecting himself from Neron. His experience in Hell did not seem to change him much, but near-fatal injuries at the hands of the Dark Flash (Flash Secret Files #2, 1999) embittered him. He declared revenge on the latest super-speedster, and created the living weapon Replicant. Only his exposure to Joker venom healed him (Flash #179, 2001), and even then he disappeared from public view.

While attempting a comeback, Boomerang also tracked down his long-lost son Owen. Shortly after they began reconnecting, he took a job to kill Jack Drake. At this time, several heroes’ loved ones had been killed or attacked. Drake was warned, and given a loaded gun just as Boomerang arrived at his apartment. As Harkness burst through the door, the two men killed each other (Identity Crisis #5, 2004).

• Art Credits
• Origin Tales
• Profiles in Print
• Silver-Age Appearances
• Crisis-Era Appearances
• Series Regular In...
• Further Notes
• Related Commentary

Art

• Who’s Who (loose-leaf edition) #2 (September 1990) - Geof Isherwood

Origin Tales

• Suicide Squad #44 (August 1990): “Grave Matters” John Ostrander and David M. deVries

Profiles

• Who’s Who in the DC Universe #4 (June 1985)
• Who’s Who (loose-leaf edition) #2 (September 1990)
• The DC Comics Encyclopedia (2004)
• The Flash Companion (2008)

Significant Silver-Age Flash Appearances

• Flash #117 (December 1960): “Here Comes Captain Boomerang!” John Broome
• Flash #124 (November 1961): “Space Boomerang Trap!” John Broome
• (Impersonated) Flash #130 (August 1962): “Who Doomed the Flash?” John Broome
• Flash #148 (November 1964): “The Day Flash Went Into Orbit!” John Broome
• Flash #155 (September 1965): “The Gauntlet of Super-Villains,” John Broome
• Flash #174 (November 1967): “Stupendous Triumph of the Six Super-Villains,” John Broome
• Flash #209 (September 1971): “Beyond the Speed of Life!” Cary Bates
• Flash #227 (June 1974): “Flash—This Is Your Death!” Cary Bates
• Flash #243–244 (August–September 1976): “If I Can’t Rob Central City, Nobody Can!” and “The Last Day of June is the Last Day of Central City!” Cary Bates
• Flash #278 (October 1979): “Road to Oblivion!” Cary Bates
• Flash #300 (August 1981): “1981—A Flash Odyssey,” Cary Bates (cameo)
• Flash #310 (June 1982): “Colonel Computron Strikes Back—With a Vengeance,” Cary Bates
• Flash #311 (July 1982): “Captives of the Boom-Boom-Boomerang!” Cary Bates
• Flash #325 (September 1983): “Dead Reckoning,” Cary Bates
• Flash #337 (September 1984): “Beware the Speed-Demons!” Cary Bates (boomerang only)
• Flash #338–342 (October 1984–February 1985): “The Revenge of the Rogues!” “Warday!” “Reach Out and Waste Someone!” “Trial and Tribulation,” and “Smash-Up,” Cary Bates
• Flash #349–350 (September–October 1985): “...And the Truth Shall Set Him Free!” and “Flash Flees,” Cary Bates

Significant Crisis-Era Flash Appearances

• Flash #19 (December 1988): “A Meeting of Rogues,” William Messner-Loebs
• Secret Origins #41 (June 1989): “A Rogue By Any Other Name,” Dan Mishkin and Gary Cohn
• Flash Annual 5 (1992): “Run-In” (Eclipso: The Darkness Within), Mark Waid and Craig Boldman
• Underworld Unleashed #1 (November 1995), Mark Waid
• Flash #125–126 (May–June 1997): “Cause and Effect” and “Trial Run,” Mark Waid and Brian Augustyn
• Flash #127–129 (July–September 1997): “Hell To Pay,” Mark Waid and Brian Augustyn
• Flash #134 (February 1998): “Still Life In The Fast Lane,” Grant Morrison and Mark Millar (cameo)
• New Year’s Evil: The Rogues (February 1998): “Men & Gods,” Brian Augustyn
• Flash 80-Page Giant #1 (August 1998): “The Professional,” Christopher Priest
• Legends of the DC Universe #16–17 (May–June 1999): “Dark Matters” Parts 2–3, Michael Jan Friedman
• Robin #62–64 (March–May 1999): “Faster than Anything,” “The Blink of an Eye,” “Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One,” Chuck Dixon
• Flash Secret Files #2 (November 1999): “Twenty-First Century Rogue,” Mark Waid and Brian Augustyn
• Flash #179 (December 2001): “Smile for the Camera,” Geoff Johns
• Flash #213 (October 2004): “Slow Motion,” Geoff Johns (cameo)
• Identity Crisis #2–6 (September 2004–January 2005), Brad Meltzer
• Flash #215 (December 2004): “The Secret of Barry Allen, Part Two: Reformed,” Geoff Johns (cameo)
• Flash #217 (February 2005): “Post-Crisis,” Geoff Johns (body)
• Flash #218 (March 2005): “Rogue Profile: Heat Wave,” Geoff Johns (cameo)
• Flash #220–222 (May–July 2005): “Rogue War, Chapters 1–3,” Geoff Johns
• Flash #224 (September 2005): “Rogue War, Chapter 5,” Geoff Johns (cameo)

Series Regular In...

• Suicide Squad (1987–1992)

Notes

* Captain Boomerang’s relationship with W.W. Wiggins was not established in either Flash series, but in Suicide Squad. When he first appeared, he had recently arrived in Central City just as Wiggins was preparing the boomerang promotion.

For another villain with a connection to Wiggins, see Colonel Computron.

Related Commentary

• Super-Spawn: Rogues

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