Harrison Wells (Earth-1)


 * For his Earth Two equivalent, see Harrison Wells (Earth Two). For the man who stole his appearance and identity, see Eobard Thawne.

"Research laboratories unconnected to the government, unconnected to any business interests or any of that kind of stuff. And then we build right downtown in the heart of the city, in the epicenter, and we become the heart of the city. We become the heart of the nation. We change the way you think about the sciences, and then..."

- Dr. Harrison Wells to Tess Morgan on his ultimate dream

Dr. Harrison Wells was a brilliant scientist, the husband of Tess Morgan, and a friend of Tina McGee.

Early life
Harrison originally lived in Starling City and became a well respected, yet eccentric scientist. He was good friends with equally devoted scientists Tina McGee and Tess Morgan, the latter of whom he fell in love with and eventually married.

Original Timeline
In 2000 Harrison had the concept of a laboratory in Central City and discussed it with Tess while on a date at the beach, unaware that Eobard Thawne was spying on them. As Harrison drove with Tess, Eobard left spike strips across the road, causing them to crash their car. Shortly after Tess' murder, Harrison's life was then ended when Eobard uses a futuristic device, completely dissolving Harrison into a decayed corpse in a matter of seconds as his likeness gets transferred onto Eobard.

Legacy
Eobard would pose as Harrison for almost 15 years while everyone remained unaware of his death, though Tina always knew that something wasn't right about "Harrison" after Tess' death.

In 2013 when Eobard created the particle accelerator to give Barry Allen his speed, the resulting explosion released a wave of energy which created countless meta-humans. However this led to at least 16 people dying and Harrison's reputation suffered greatly as a result of Eobard's actions.

In mid-2015 Harrison's body was finally discovered near the crash site in Starling City by Joe West, Cisco Ramon and Quentin Lance. Bringing the corpse back to Central City Cisco ran tests twice and confirmed the corpse in question was Harrison.

In late-2015 after Eobard was erased from existence Barry discovered a message he'd left for him confessing to the murder of Nora Allen to release Henry from jail, but this completely destroyed Harrison's reputation as he was now a murderer to the public. This also made it hard for Harrison's Earth-2 counterpart, nicknamed "Harry" by Cisco, to be seen in public on Earth-1. Harry would later occasionally reference his late counterpart, particularly whenever Team Flash would forget that the impostor was his own counterpart's murderer. After Tina was introduced to Team Flash after revealing she knew Barry's secret she met Harry and was finally told the truth of what happened to the Harrison Wells she knew.

Flashpoint Timeline
Harrison's fate is largely unknown during the events of Flashpoint but it can be presumed that since Eobard Thawne was prevented from murdering him that he and Tess were still alive and created S.T.A.R. Labs. However for reasons unclear S.T.A.R. Labs was sold to Cisco Ramon, CEO of Ramon Industries.

Current Timeline
When Barry released Eobard so he could finish what he started to correct the timeline after Wally West was hurt, Eobard arrived moments after his initial attempt and succeeded by rather than become marooned traveled straight back to 2016 to deliver Barry back to his time, implying that Harrison could still be alive since Eobard never murdered him this time.

Personality
According to Tina McGee, Harrison was a very kind man. He showed himself a romantic during his date with Tess Morgan to the point of idolizing and wanting to name S.T.A.R. Labs after his wife. Wells was clearly very much in love with her; after awakening from the crash he expressed only concern for her and none for himself.

Abilities

 * Genius-level intellect/Business acumen: Harrison was a famous scientist who (in one timeline) successfully opened and operated his own scientific company, possibly similar to his murder/impersonator Eobard Thawne and counterpart Harry Wells.

Trivia

 * According to Eobard Thawne in the "original timeline", one where apparently Nora Allen wasn't killed, Harrison and Tess lived to see S.T.A.R. Labs constructed and in 2020 successfully unleashed the particle accelerator which resulted in the creation of many meta-humans, apparently including Barry. However it was shown that Eobard's first encounter occurred in 2016 of the same timeline where he'd later go back further to kill Nora and Wells, then build the accelerator himself. Furthermore during the events of Flashpoint a timeline where Nora was alive Wells, though presumed alive, was no where to be seen and even sold S.T.A.R. Labs to Cisco Ramon years prior to 2016. It's possible given the timeline changes both Barry and Eobard have made in their feud that Eobard's knowledge is of another alternate timeline, now deleted.
 * While it has been shown that Earth-2 Harrison has a daughter, Jesse Wells, it's unknown if Earth-1 Harrison had any children.
 * Apparently, Harrison Wells doesn't exist on Supergirl's Earth. But as shown by Jay Garrick being Henry Allen's counterpart from Earth Three, same versions of people do not necessarily have the same name.
 * Despite the fact that everyone is aware of the existence of meta-humans, it would probably still be a stretch for both the population and the legal system to accept the fact that a person from the future stole Wells' identity.

Behind the scenes

 * Even though Harrison Wells does not originate from the DC comics, as he is an original character specifically created for the show, another brief character, only known as "Dr. Wells", appeared in the tie-in DC comic book of the 1990s The Flash TV series titled, Flash TV Special #1 (January, 1991). Interestingly enough, the character was a wheelchair-bound villain who dressed in black and yellow and had the ability to be in two places at once, similarly to how Eobard Thawne (disguised as Harrison Wells) was introduced on the show.
 * Even before that, a villainous character known as Dr. Wells, sporting similar looks, appeared in the 1973-1985 animated series Super Friends episode "Elevator to Nowhere". Like the CW version, Dr. Wells was associated with time travel, forcing Wonder Woman and the Atom to participate in his time machine experiment.