Kyle Nimbus


 * For the drug of the same name, see The Mist.

"Take your last breath!"

- Kyle Nimbus to Barry Allen's team

Kyle Nimbus, nicknamed The Mist by Cisco Ramon, was an assassin from the Darbinyan crime family. He was affected by the S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator the night he was supposed to be executed via gas chamber and gained the ability to transform himself into poisonous gas. He later became the first inmate of the makeshift particle accelerator prison under S.T.A.R. Labs. However, he, along with the rest of the imprisoned meta-humans, were eventually freed by Leonard Snart and Lisa Snart.

Supposed execution
Kyle Nimbus worked as a hit-man for the Darbinyan crime family, until they testified against him in court, and he was arrested by Joe West and sentenced to death by Judge Theresa Howard. On the night he was to be executed, the S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator explosion hit the gas chamber he was in, fusing his molecular structure with the toxic gas, hydrogen cyanide. Thought dead, he escaped from the morgue of Iron Heights Prison.

Rampage through Central City
Kyle began his rampage of revenge with the Darbinyans, slaughtering all of them at a family meeting with his poisonous gas, due to their involvement in his execution. Following this, his next target was Judge Howard, who had convicted him, whom he killed in an elevator at the mall, while she was shopping for her daughter's prom dress. The final target of his revenge spree was Detective West, who had arrested him, who ironically enough was visiting Iron Heights at the time. After beginning to kill West, he escaped from the prison with The Flash in pursuit, whom was able to suffocate him by using his super speed to keep him in gas form, thereby depriving him of oxygen, until he fell unconscious. Once he awoke, he discovered that he was a prisoner of the particle accelerator-turned-makeshift meta-human prison under S.T.A.R. Labs and furiously tried to get out.

Time in the Pipeline
When Harrison Wells was extracting the deceased Farooq Gibran's blood, Nimbus was still attempting to escape from his cell before he saw Wells. Wells smiled and put his finger to his lips, signaling the Mist to keep quiet.

Nimbus tried to kill his jailer, Cisco Ramon, numerous times when he tried to feed him while he was an inmate in the accelerator, eventually forcing Caitlin Snow to suck him up in a vacuum cleaner. Cisco once resorted to attempting to use one of Brie Larvan's robotic bees to feed Nimbus, but Nimbus simply destroyed the bee.

Escaping imprisonment
After being sedated by having knockout gas sprayed in his cell, Nimbus was moved out of STAR Labs in a truck with the other meta-humans. He and the other metas awoke and began squabbling, with him picking a fight with Mark Mardon and Jake Simmons in particular. However, Leonard and Lisa Snart sabotaged the truck, and Nimbus and the others escaped. In the ensuing battle, Nimbus tried to kill Barry, but he vibrated his arms at a fast enough speed to create a large wind which kept Nimbus at bay until he grew exhausted and had to revert to his normal form. Mardon soon struck Barry with a lightning bolt and knocked him to the ground, and Nimbus took the opportunity to escape.

Powers

 * Meta-human physiology: After Kyle was struck by the energy of the Particle Accelerator explosion, this altered his DNA and supercharged his cells, augmenting his physiology and allowing him to turn himself into a cloud of toxic gas.
 * Gas mimicry: Kyle is able to transform himself into a toxic cloud of hydrogen cyanide mixed with a sedative. His gas form was able to change to any shape and form and even expand his mass, which allows him produce the chemical he is made of from his form and not lose any of his own mass in the process of using the chemical to poison others. He can use his gas form to fly and can propel himself independently of other forces, though not as high a speed as Barry can. If he moves too fast or is caught in wind, the air currents can strain him and force him to return to his original form.
 * Limited intangibility: This power also allows Kyle Nimbus to phase through or around certain kinds of objects, such as when he changed into his gas form to move through a chain link fence to break into Iron Heights when seeking revenge against Joe West. He also did this to avoid getting punched while fighting the Flash. However, Kyle could not use this power to phase through the solid glass door of his cell in the S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator.

Weaknesses

 * Speed vacuum: If Kyle moves too fast or is caught in wind, the air currents can strain him and force him to return to his original form. When Barry was fighting Kyle at the Ferris Air Testing Facility, he created vacuums from his arms, causing Kyle to drain his gas particles and needing to recharge/recoup.

Novels

 * Flash: The Haunting of Barry Allen

Behind the scenes

 * Nimbus is the Latin for "aura", as in the cloud type cumulonimbus, a warning sign for thunderstorms. This is an obvious reference to his powers.
 * Anthony Carrigan also plays Victor Zsasz, a Batman villain, in the television series "Gotham", which is also based on characters from DC comics. Both Nimbus and Zsasz are hitmen for crime families in both shows.
 * In the DC comics, the Mist was a man whose real name was unknown, who had similar abilities but with a completely different backstory.
 * The character's other aliases included Nimbus.
 * The character had a son named Kyle and then a grandson sharing the same name.
 * The character, however, was not a foe of the Flash, but the archenemy of another superhero, Starman (Ted Knight).