Cicada (DC)
The Cicada is a male comic supervillain who features in DC Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Origin
David Hersch was a male human born in 1890 where he came to be an architect and preacher at St. John's Catholic Church, though prone to paranoid, violent outbursts that often took the form of physical abuse of his wife, Elizabeth. After murdering his wife, David Hersch, sick with regret, sought to end his own life, when he was struck by a bolt of lightning. He discovered that he had gained the ability to absorb the life-force of others, extending his life-span almost a century. He believed the accident was the same as the Flash's and that they should be linked. The lightning bolt gave him a vision of his own immortality and foretold the resurrection of his wife. Over the subsequent years he operated as the cult leader Cicada, accumulating many followers planning for the day he would resurrect his wife. (The Flash v2 #171) The Cicada cult and its followers were dedicated to the murder of every one that the Flash has ever saved using lightning bolt shaped daggers. He teams up with the Flash's ex, Magenta and managed to kidnap him. Cicada reveals to Wally that his wife was murdered and he was struck by lightning. Cicada saw a vision that he was destined to live on, together with his wife. By taking the energy left over from all the people the Flash has saved and from the Flash himself, Cicada succeeded in bringing his wife back from the dead. The solution to this came in the form of the Flash. In Wally West, Cicada saw the hero as a brother blessed by the lightning. By this point, the Flash had been saving people’s lives with Cicada reasoning that if not for the Flash’s interference these individuals would have died anyway. Thus, in Cicada’s mind, he could take their lives with a clear conscience and ensure that these people fulfilled their intended fates. (The Flash v2 #172)
As the appointed day approached, Cicada sent his followers out through Keystone City, armed with daggers that collected life energy, killing those whom the Flash had saved. The Cicada cult and its followers were dedicated to the murder of every one that the Flash has ever saved using lightning bolt shaped daggers. He teams up with the Flash's ex, Magenta and managed to kidnap him. The killings overwhelmed the police, and the Flash was kept busy dealing with Magenta, who finally captured him and brought him their sanctum to witness the resurrection. Cicada revealed to Wally that his wife was murdered and he was struck by lightning. Cicada saw a vision that he was destined to live on, together with his wife. By taking the energy left over from all the people the Flash has saved and from the Flash himself, Cicada succeeded in bringing his wife back from the dead. (The Flash v2 #172) However, his wife revealed that Cicada murdered her. Cicada denied this and killed his wife yet again by absorbing her energy through a kiss. He was eventually stopped by the Flash and Detective Jared Morillo and Officer Fred Chyre, though not before he managed to slash Morillo with his knife. This gave Morillo the ability to heal rapidly from any injury, similar to Cicada's own. (The Flash v2 #173)
He came to be sentenced to Iron Heights Penitentiary where he was sentenced to death by lethal injection though the judgement was halted until S.T.A.R. Labs could verify his new status as a mortal. Hersch lived a simple life of contemplation and prayer in his prison cell. Iron Heights later went under a lockdown when the guards were infected by the Frenzy virus that was killing them. The Flash was sent into the prison to investigate and find a cure for it with Wally coming upon Cicada's cell. David claimed that he was undergoing his penance in the hope of the Flash accepting his worship but West simply closed the window into the cell rather than engage further with the captive villain. (The Flash: Iron Heights v1 #1)
Jared Morillo passed Cicada's cell, and the wound Cicada gave him flashed with lightning. Cicada tried to use his connection to Morillo to get Morillo to set him free, but Morillo shook off the influence. (The Flash v2 #180) Gorilla City gorillas tore apart the Heights and freed prisoners, including Cicada, in order to find Gorilla Grodd’s cell. Flash came to the Heights and was attacked by the villains, and Cicada wanted him to admit he had freed him because he was such a loyal follower of the Flash. Their superior numbers had him beat when Gorilla Grodd appeared and claimed Flash for his own. Cicada and the others fled the prison. (The Flash v2 #193) Cicada later came to become a member of Lex Luthor's Secret Society of Super Villains. (Villains United v1 #1) He came to be one of the various super criminal sent to to the penal colony on the planet Cygnus 4019, which has been nicknamed Salvation. (Salvation Run v1 #1)
Post-Flashpoint
Following the Flashpoint, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events.
Overview
Personality and attributes
Powers and abilities
Cicada has the ability to steal the life-force of other living beings and use it to prolong his own life and regenerate physical damage. He carries a hilted blade capable of absorbing the life force of its victims in order to resurrect the dead. Cicada is an immortal and cannot die.
David Hersch carries two hilted blades capable of absorbing the life force of its victims and resurrecting the dead.
Notes
- The Cicada was created by Geoff Johns and Scott Kolins where he made his first appearance in The Flash v2 #171 (April, 2001).
In other media
Television
- In The Flash, the Cicada appeared in the CW live-action television series of the Arrowverse in its fifth season where he was portrayed by actor Chris Klein. This version was named Orlin Dwyer who was a lower middle-class individual who gains super-strength and a telekinetically controlled lightning-shaped dagger able to nullify most metahumans' powers after being struck by a fragment of the Thinker's exploding satellite. Amidst the same incident, another fragment struck his niece Grace Gibbons putting her into a coma. As Cicada, Dwyer vowed to exterminate all metahumans, whom he blames for the death of his sister as well as what happened to Grace. Dwyer's vendetta brings him into conflict with the Flash and his allies, but he eventually agrees to take a metahuman cure developed by S.T.A.R. Labs as it could also be used to cure Grace, who also became a metahuman. This experience and the file on Grace's parents' deaths causes him to realize that his anti-metahuman prejudice was excessive and acknowledge that the circumstances suggest an accident rather than a deliberate attack. However, he was killed by a future version of Grace, who had become consumed by her own vendetta.
Appearances
- The Flash v2: (2001)
- The Flash: Iron Heights v1:
- Villains United v1:
- Salvation Run v1:
External Links
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