Al Rothstein (Earth-2)


 * For other uses of this name, see Al Rothstein (disambiguation).

Al Rothstein, dubbed "Atom-Smasher" by Martin Stein, was a meta-human from Earth Two.

Early life
Not much is known of Rothstien's early life, other than he like all metahumans on Earth Two gained their powers as a result of Harrison Wells's particle accelerator explosion. Rothstein then became a criminal named "Atom-Smasher" with super-strength and the ability to grow twice his size, but was required to physical harness radiation into his systems to retain his size. Rothstein also had at least one encounter with Jay Garrick/The Flash.

Rampage on Earth-1
Atom-Smasher was brought from Earth Two to Earth-1 by "Zoom", an evil speedster from Earth Two, who promised him the means to return to Earth Two in exchange for killing Barry Allen/The Flash, the Flash of Earth-1. Atom-Smasher agreed but like most other Earth Two residents was terrified of Zoom and in case he was unable to kill Flash, Atom-Smasher murdered his Earth-1 counterpart in the hopes he could fool Zoom into thinking he was dead.

Atom-Smasher then attacked Flash at the "Flash Day" festival and wounded many police officers and managed to overpower Flash himself, but he and Joe West shot at petrol canisters near him and caused his mask to come off, revealing Rothstein's identity to them. Later Rothstein went to a nuclear facility to repower and was confronted by Flash again and again overpowered him but thanks to Cisco Ramon, the alarms went off distracting Atom-Smasher and giving Flash the chance to escape.

Rothstein hid out in an apartment building until he saw a light with the Flash's symbol on it, signaling a challenge and confronted him yet again but this time Flash lead him into a chamber at a nuclear plant and trapped him in it. Cisco then hacked into the computers and insured all the plant's radiation was absorbed into Atom-Smasher's body which as planned, was too much for Atom-Smasher to handle. Before dying, Rothstein was questioned by Barry, apologizing for killing him but asking why he wanted him dead. With his dying breath, Rothstein told Barry that Zoom had promised to take him home if he killed him and passed away from the radiation poisoning.

Powers

 * Radiokinesis: Atom-Smasher was able to absorb radioactivity and harness it, even if the source of the radiation is vast distances away After absorbing the radiation, his physical parameters became significantly increased.
 * Superhuman strength: Atom-Smasher also had significantly enhanced strength compared to a normal man. He could easily lift up and throw a food stand several meters and likewise swat away full grown men with a single blow. He was also able to move a car with a single push. Even Barry's speed vacuum couldn't budge him, but through decent effort.
 * Superhuman durability: His skin was very resilient, bullets ricocheting off when fired at him. He also took many of the Flash's speed blows without really being phased at all.
 * Superhuman mobility: The strength in his legs made him very fast and agile, being able to tail the Flash while he's running at super speed by running and leaping.
 * Size manipulation: Using his accumulated radiation, Atom-Smasher could increase his size to significantly bigger than normal, usually twice his own size. This allowed him to proportionally increase his strength and resilience even further.

Weaknesses

 * Radiation Absorption Limit: There is a limit to how much radiation Atom-Smasher can absorb before it fatally poisons him.

Trivia

 * Atom-Smasher was named by Martin Stein due to his ability to absorb atomic power, as well as simply smash things.
 * In Season 1 of the Flash, in the episode Power Outage, Dr. Wells said the name Al Rothstein in reference to those that died in the particle accelerator explosion, yet Rothstein from Earth Two later killed his Earth-1 equivalent in the premiere of Season 2.

Behind the scenes

 * In the DC comics, Albert Rothstein is a hero known as Atom-Smasher, hence the overt reference to their resemblance in his appearance. However, his villainous turn is similar to his appearance in the JSLA comics.