Replicant

Origin

Anthony Gambi’s mother died when he was a child, and his father spent most of his early life in prison. Thus, he was raised largely by his uncle, Paul Gambi, a tailor who catered to the Rogues of Central and Keystone Cities. Throughout his childhood and adolescence he was very close to the Rogues, who treated him as an adoptive nephew. When Captain Boomerang was crippled by the new, darker Flash, Gambi vowed revenge. He volunteered to go through T.O. Morrow’s newly-acquired Humanifold, and become a living weapon. Successfully merged with the weaponry of several Rogues, he took the name Replicant, and began his mission to destroy the Flash.

Creation

Replicant was created by Mark Waid, Brian Augustyn and Ron Lim. He made his first appearance in Flash Secret Files #2 – Twenty-First Century Rogue.

Major Story Arcs

Secret Files

Replicant attacks Governor Thornton during a campaign party, attempting to draw the Flash to him. He succeeds and they fight, but his unfamiliarity with his own powers is his downfall. Defeated, he nonetheless manages to escape after realizing that he is now able to absorb and replicate other weapons that he was near.

Dark Flash

Replicant begins hunting other villains and stealing their weapons, in many cases killing them once he has what he wants. He tracks down Trickster’s hidden warehouse housing discarded and stolen weapons from dozens of villains. He attacks Walter West and Angela Margolin in Venice. He is almost struck by a fireball, but is teleported away by Abra Kadabra. They join forces with Professor Zoom who uses a neuron gauntlet to incapacitate the other speedsters, and together they briefly succeed in trapping Walter in Replicant’s mirrored body. However, Walter escapes, and Zoom is revealed to be the original Flash in disguise. Replicant attempts to absorb the neutron gauntlet, but is incapacitated, as the gauntlet was a Trojan horse containing a nanovirus. He is taken into custody and imprisoned.

Rogue War

Replicant appears in the buildup to the Rogue War, but does not participate in the subsequent fighting.

Interviews

Replicant appears and is terrorizing a young hero named Hot Spot. Seeing this on the news, another young hero, Sideways, teleports to the battleground to confront Replicant. During the battle Replicant copies his ability to ‘Rift’ which allows him to travel through various dimensions. Not understanding the power he just absorbed, he accidentally blows himself to pieces, a side-effect of the ‘Rifting’ power.

Powers & Abilities

Replicant has the ability to absorb and replicate technology and weaponry that is near him. Having done so, he can store these abilities and use them at any time. Due to the objects he has absorbed he has many powers, including: ice generation and cold manipulation; fire generation; sound manipulation; weather manipulation; mirror illusion casting and travel; elemental transmutation; explosion generation; natural material manipulation; neural system disruption; time and space travel. He may have other, unknown powers that were absorbed but never demonstrated or discussed.