Leonard Snart

"The same reason you keep running after guys like me. The adrenaline, the thrill of the chase. I love this game and I'm very good at it."

- Leonard Snart to Barry Allen

Leonard "Lenny" Snart, nicknamed Captain Cold by Cisco Ramon (or simply, Cold), born June 2, 1972, is a world-class thief from Central City. He is also the older brother of Lisa Snart and son of the late Lewis Snart. In early 2016, Leonard Snart was recruited by the rogue time-traveller Rip Hunter on a mission to take down Vandal Savage.

Early life
In 1975, Leonard woke up one night and went downstairs to get some water. He happened upon an older version of himself, under the pretense that he was a friend of his father's, who gave him advice to always look out for himself. His father appeared, causing him to return upstairs. Days later, his father was arrested for attempting to sell the Maximillian Emerald, causing him to be sent to jail for 5 years.

When his father was released, he began to take his anger out on Leonard. His sister, Lisa, was soon born and was equally abused. Lewis turned to crime, mostly breaking and entering, bringing his young son along so that he could help him to disable the security systems during the heists. Sometime later, Lewis was sent to prison. Leonard's grandfather took him and his sister to a diner right across from Central City Precinct named the Motorcar. Snart kept going there in his later life to listen to police radios and learn their response times. While Lewis did frequent sentences in and out of prison, Leonard mostly raised Lisa himself and thus shares an almost parental bond with her, despite their vastly different personalities. While in Juvie at the age of 14, Snart was jumped by several guys and almost stabbed with a shiv until Mick Rory intervened and defended the scrawny teenager, the two forming a close partnership. He dropped out of high school and eventually became a bank robber, putting together a crew. Every six months or so, he arrived in Central City to case a job for a few weeks, and disappeared after stealing his target. He became one of Central City's Most Wanted. He worked on a job with Rory, which ended badly for the latter. Snart ended the partnership between the two when Rory lost control of his pyromania while on a job, burning down the building they were inside of. Snart escaped without injury while Rory received severe burns.

Kahndaq Dynasty Diamond heist
Later, in 2014, Snart and his crew attempted to hijack an armored car in order to steal the Kahndaq Dynasty Diamond it was carrying to an exhibition in the Central City Museum. They stopped the armored car by hooking it to the tow truck they brought to the robbery via steel cables. After taking the security guards as hostages, Snart opened the door of the armored car by using liquid nitrogen on it, just before the Flash arrived. The Flash quickly took down the robbers, making Snart lower his mask and expose his face. One of the security guards was shot in the shoulder by one of Snart's men, forcing the Flash to take him to a hospital as Snart and his crew escaped.

Back at their base of operations, Snart looked at the camera footage of the robbery he stole from the armored car as his men argued about what the Flash was, with one of them stating that maybe it was a top-secret drone. Snart explained that they attacked moving targets because the police response time was a hundred eighty two seconds once the armored car reported the robbery, as opposed to sixty seconds with banks. He berated his man who shot the security guard for "losing his cool" when the Flash had arrived. When the man said he was quitting, Snart killed him explaining that "when you're out, you're out." He claimed that the Flash was a man, and they needed to "up their game."

Snart later met with the arms dealer Basil Nurblin. Nurblin first offered Snart a fire-based weapon, but he refused, saying "he did not need to heat things up, but slow them down." Next, Snart looked at a weapon stolen from the S.T.A.R. Labs that emitted a cold substance and glasses meant to protect against the glare the weapon caused. Snart asked Nurblin who else knew he had taken the weapon, and when Nurblin answered they were the only two, Snart shot and killed him with his newly acquired weapon.

After obtaining his cold gun, Snart went to the Central City Museum to observe the security around the diamond he had tried to steal earlier. By taking the exhibit tour twice, he alerted the museum owner Dexter Myles, who contacted Detective Joe West, who followed Snart after he left the museum. When Joe caught up to him, Snart used the cold gun to freeze the road underneath a newly arriving police car and escaped into a nearby theater as the car crashed. Inside, Snart shot at Detective West, but the Flash got there in time to throw the detective out of the way, instead being hit by the weapon himself. Snart then started shooting at the nearby civilians as a test run, forcing the Flash to save them. The Flash saved all but one of the civilians; he was unable to get to the theater's security guard in time as he was slowed down by the cold gun. Snart left the scene when the Flash was distracted by the deceased security guard.

Returning to his base, Snart told his two remaining men that they would be back to the museum to steal the diamond that night. When his men protested, saying the museum would be crawling with the police and the Flash, Snart answered that his cold gun could stop the Flash and he knew the Flash's real weakness. His men mutinied and pulled a gun to his head. They left, saying that Central City was no longer Snart's playground now that the Flash was there. Disagreeing, Snart went to the museum by himself and broke in using the cold gun. He stole the diamond and made his way to the Central City Train Station, where he was engaged in a gunfight with Detectives West and Eddie Thawne. Snart escaped the two men by getting on a train, but this time he was challenged by the Flash, who had followed him using a signal the cold gun emitted. He told the Flash that he had seen his real weakness during the armored car robbery and at the theater. Explaining that he would save himself while the Flash saved everyone else, he shot the floor of the train with the cold gun and jumped from the train before it was derailed. The Flash got everyone out of the train but was ambushed by Snart, who shot him in the back with the cold gun. He thanked the Flash for forcing him to up his game, then was threatened by Cisco Ramon with what he claimed was a prototype of the cold gun but was actually just a vacuum cleaner with LED lights. When Ramon called him Captain Cold, he smiled and left, taking the diamond with him.

Leonard discovered and disabled the signal his gun emitted with which the Flash had tracked him. He met with his former accomplice Mick Rory and told him that even though their previous partnership had not worked out well, things had changed and he needed a new kind of crew. He offered Mick the fire weapon he had taken from Nurblin and asked if Mick wanted to join with him, which he accepted.

Forcing The Flash to reveal himself
Even with sources like Iris West's blog reporting multiple sightings of the Flash, the speedster was still somewhat considered an urban legend. Knowing the Flash would make his more or less criminal activity harder to pull off, Snart started scheming for ways to make the citizens of Central City and the world aware of the Flash's existence. He first broke into a facility that held expensive foreign cars, with Rory initially under the false pretense that they were there to steal the vehicles. They left without stealing after it became clear that the Flash wasn't going to show up.

The duo's second attempt to lure the Flash was robbing the modern painting Fire & Ice, recently bought by Osgood and Rachel Rathaway at the cost of twenty-five million dollars. The CCPD showed up quickly, and with Cisco Ramon and Harrison Wells modifying their shields, they held off the effects of the Cold Gun; they, however, were not prepared for Rory's attack. Seeing that the Flash was still a no-show, Snart and Rory left the crime scene along with the art piece.

Snart finally got the Flash's attention when he and Rory kidnapped one of the speedster's partners: Caitlin Snow. She was rescued by Cisco and Joe West while the Flash confronted Captain Cold and Heatwave. With the help of Eddie Thawne, the Flash defeated the duo by tricking them into crossing the streams of their respective weapons, which cancelled both guns out and knocked the two backwards. The two were then sent to jail but were rescued by Snart's sister, Lisa, which was part of Leonard's plan. She was his fail safe.

3 months later, Leonard and Mick returned to Central City with Lisa. The pair was captured by mafia boss Vincent Santini but escaped and killed the boss' bodyguards. Snart told Santini that he was the one in charge before leaving. He later got his sister to lure Cisco to their base. Revealing that they had captured Cisco's brother, Dante Ramon, Snart forced Cisco to remake his and Rory's guns and make a third one for his sister. Later, he and Lisa attacked a casino and encountered the Flash, Leonard's primary objective. Snart convinced the Flash to back off by telling him that he had Cisco captive. Back at the hideout, Leonard made Cisco reveal the Flash's identity by threatening Dante's life. He re-encountered the Flash after an attempted heist and threatened to reveal his identity to Central City. Barry, however, convinced Snart to keep the identity a secret (and stop killing innocent people) while agreeing not to place Snart in the particle accelerator prison in S.T.A.R. Labs.

Moving the Metas
After knowing that the meta-humans would die because of the particle accelerator that Eobard Thawne reactivated, Barry contacted Leonard to meet at Saints and Sinners and made a deal with him; If Leonard agreed to help him, Barry had to destroy every single piece of information in the world concerning him erased. Leonard also got his sister Lisa to help out with the job. When Team Flash and Leonard & Lisa got to Coast City airfield, Leonard double crossed the deal by getting Mark Mardon/Weather Wizard to destroy the plane that would transport them to Lian Yu, then getting all the meta-humans to try to destroy the Flash. When Jake Simmons/Deathbolt was about to kill the Flash, Leonard used his cold gun to kill Jake, claiming he owed him money. Leonard let Mark and Roy Bivolo/Rainbow Raider go and told the Flash that the meta-humans and he now owed him, by joining his "Rogues" and then road off with Lisa on their motorcycle.

Forcibly working for his father and incarceration
During a robbery, Leonard was kidnapped by his father while his sister was injected with a specially designed thermite micro-bomb. When the Flash came to rescue him, Leonard told him he doesn't need saving. As the Flash asked him why his sister thinks he's been kidnapped, he was distracted by a cabinet closing in the back. Snart took the opportunity to shoot the Flash with his cold gun as his father intruded. The Flash managed to thaw out, but not before the two left the scene. Later, Leonard was approached by Barry, who offered help again. Barry said that Leonard may be a criminal with a code of honor, but his father doesn't seem to live under a code. He added that he would take Leonard down, and Leonard reminded Barry that he could reveal his secret. While planning for a heist, Leonard argued that Lewis's timing may be off. When David Rutenberg told Leonard to shut up, Lewis killed David brutally. Barry then came up with a plan to infiltrate the team by acting as their new tech guy, "Sam" and Leonard vouched for him. When they arrived at the crime scene, Leonard realized he was right about his father's timing being off. The two briefly argued while the Flash subdued the guards. After "Sam" cracked the security code, Lewis shot Barry, and Leonard showed remorse. Unbeknown to the two, Barry caught the bullet, but simply played dead. When they arrived at the vault, Leonard froze the lasers. Leonard told his father they only had 125 seconds before the alarms would go off. When the two left, the Flash confronted them. Lewis ordered Leonard to shoot him, but he hesitated. After the Flash said that Lisa was safe, Leonard immediately shot and killed his father. Leonard was then arrested taken into Iron Heights. Barry visited him and said that although he may be a criminal, he still has a light in him.

1 month later, Snart was freed when Mark Mardon broke into jail, along with James Jesse, and proposed an alliance between the three to kill the Flash once and for all. However, Snart was uninterested in Mardon's plan and declined. Later, he went to the West house and warned Barry of Mardon and Jesse's plans, but declined to share anymore information and left.

Aiding Rip Hunter
1 month later, Snart and his partner Mick Rory conducted a heist on Central City Bullion Exchange and were making their escape in a mini-van when they were intercepted by Rip Hunter, who took them to Star City alongside the other heroes.

Future
In a possible future, Leonard can be seen fighting alongside the Flash, Ray Palmer/The Atom, and Sara Lance against an unknown metallic adversary. Barry caught a glimpse of this when travelling through the Speed Force.

Personality
Leonard is a ruthless man who has a calm, composed and level-headed demeanour, rarely ever losing his temper or giving into emotions. Although he never finished high school, he is intelligent and patient, staking out a job for months before making his move, emphasizing timing, precision, and minimizing possible leads on him and his activities by refusing to kill unless necessary. He was also clever enough to deduce that what stopped his job at the armored car was in fact a man, and that he would need a weapon to halt Barry, choosing the cold gun for this very reason. Leonard has, however, begun to revel in his new-found weapon's power, and his battles with the Flash have begun to alter his perceptions of how the job works.

Despite his unapologetic criminal lifestyle, Leonard sees and declares himself as a man of his word. This is demonstrated further, when he promises to release Cisco if he tells him who the Flash is. Although he does torture Dante to get this information from him, he keeps his word afterwards and lets both Cisco and his brother go. However he doesn't always keep his word when he betrays his alliance with Barry by setting the meta humans free. Leonard simply defends his actions by claiming that he is a criminal that saw an opportunity and used it for his own benefit because that's who he is.

Despite Leonard's ruthless nature, the only thing he does care about is his younger sister Lisa, who he has a close relationship with her, despite her immaturity. He severely despises his father Lewis, for what he did to him and his sister; for physically abusing them as children for no apparent reason, he became disgusted when Lewis planted a bomb inside Lisa's head in order to manipulate him into helping him with one of his heists, however, after Barry told him that the bomb was removed from Lisa, without hesitation he killed his father for what he did to his sister. He is also quite prideful, Barry claimed if Snart was planted with a miniature bomb inside of his head, he'd dig it out if he had to. A similar case happened in Left Behind, as while Snart was handcuffed to a wall, he managed to reach his Cold Gun, and when he could not use it while he was restrained, he used his feet to fire the gun and intentionally turn his hand to ice and then proceeded to shatter it against the ground, despite the great pain of it. He still walked out without much grief over his injuries, focusing on escaping and the task of stopping the team from killing Chronos, who was also Mick Rory.

Despite being enemies most of the time, Leonard and Barry seem to possess a mutual respect for each other; although he betrayed him, Leonard saved Barry from certain death at the hands of Jake Simmons. A few months afterwards, his liking of Barry increased to the point he felt genuine remorse after his father shot him. Barry also visited Leonard upon the latter's arrest. Leonard even refused to go along with Mark Mardon and James Jesse's plan to kill Barry and instead warned him of what they were up to before departing. Leonard deeply cares about his sister, going as far as working with a man he slightly hates (due to his more moral and honorable ways) in order to keep her safe. All of these qualities have led Barry to believe Leonard has good inside of him and that he'll eventually change his ways (although Leonard jokingly remarks that heroes don't get paid enough). Another instance is when Snart is broken out of prison, instead of going after Barry to kill him, he warns him. When Barry asks where the other two (Mark and Jesse) are, Snart says "[Barry and his friends] love to solve a good mystery" and goes to leave. Barry snorts at this and tells Snart that he's there because he (Barry and co) saved Lisa and Snart doesn't like owing him one and that's called honor. Snart is quiet for a brief moment before wishing Barry and Iris merry Christmas and leaves.

Leonard also possesses a code of honor when it comes to his teammates, shown when he becomes a full-fledged member of Rip Hunter's team after Carter Hall is murdered by Vandal Savage. When he deduces that Hunter wants Sara Lance to kill Martin Stein in order to prevent the devastation of the Cold War in the present time if Stein breaks and agrees to help the Soviets create their own Firestorm, Leonard is against the idea as he doesn't believe in turning on his own team members and manages to talk Sara out of shooting Stein, showing a profound understanding of her nature and drives and expertly employing reverse psychology. Proving himself not a hypocrite, Leonard also refused to kill Jax when he was mutated by Savage into a feral bird-creature, allowing his team to ultimately cure Jax.

Abilities

 * High-level intellect/Expert tactician: Leonard's most noticeable and dangerous trait is high intellect, making him a threat even to metahumans like the Flash. Very calculating and methodical in every action he takes, Leonard is infamous for analyzing and preparing for events well in advance. He is able to plan for every plausible detail several steps ahead and even when new variables come into play, he can calmly change tactics to escape unscathed. Likewise, he is highly adept in misdirections and subtle manipulations of his targets/enemies to suit his plans. Despite dropping out of high school, Leonard has repeatedly shown an advanced knowledge of various subjects, including biology and engineering, able to at least understand the nature to which they operate. Leonard is also very charming (when he wants to be), able to seduce Valentina Vostok.
 * Eidetic memory: In his nature for preparation, Leonard has repeatedly displayed an unusually adept memory, being capable of memorizing the details of every job before mobilizing simply by analyzing the information. For more regular use, Leonard is able to memorize every last meticulous detail of the highly technologically advanced Cold Gun to personally perform regular maintenance and repairs without the need of instructions or schematics. He did this to have a better control and usage of his signature Cold Gun by learning all of its parts and inner workings after disassembling and reassembling his weapon.
 * Expert engineer: While not as skillful as Cisco Ramon or Ray Palmer, Leonard has adept skill in electrical engineering, obtaining this skill from growing up with his father, forced to regularly join and aid him in thefts. He is able to quickly understand a software setup and effectively deactivate it. Likewise, he was shown able to modify his Cold Gun for additional features.
 * Expert thief: Over the years of criminal experience, Leonard has mastered the art of thieving, from armored car heists, jewel theft and bank robbery, he displays the utmost skill.
 * Expert marksman/Firearms: While normally preferring to avoid killing when not necessary as to not sully his plans, Leonard is more than proficient with a gun. After making the cold gun his signature weapon, Leonard showed considerable aim and tactical usage of the gun, even against the Flash, able to hit his enemy, despite the former moving at superhuman speed. He is also proficient with regular weapons, such as the handgun he used before using his Cold Gun and the revolver he used in the Old West, as he could outdraw seasoned gunman who were used to using such weapons. He was shown to also be a skilled sharpshooter and sniper, as he used a rifle to shoot a gun from a man's hand from a window several buildings away.
 * Expert hand-to-hand combatant: Despite his composed demeanor, Leonard is a very capable unarmed fighter. When seemingly taken captive by a mafia boss, he and Rory quickly broke free and killed the mafia boss and most of his men with ease while his hands were still bound. His abilities are somewhat inferior to Rory's, as during their brawl after Rory's betrayal, he quickly pummeled Snart without taking much damage himself.
 * Indomitable will/High tolerance for pain: While selfish and arrogant by nature, Leonard is a man with great conviction in any action he takes. When handcuffed to the wall by "Chronos", with almost no hesitation Leonoard used his Cold Gun as means to escape, freezing his right hand and shattering it to escape. After which, despite the immense pain, he quickly sought his allies.

Equipment

 * Cold Gun: Generating a beam of absolute zero temperature, the weapon freezes whatever it touches and creating solid ice. It can also slow down the motion of fast moving molecules, specifically those of the Flash, retarding his accelerated healing and vastly reducing his speed. It also gives off bright white and blue flashes that the user protects their eyes from with goggles.
 * Goggles: Leonard also wears a pair of blue wraparound goggles, which are designed to protect his eyes from the flashes given off by his cold gun.

Trivia

 * Although he's called Captain Cold by Cisco, he refers to himself as simply "Cold".
 * He is the first non-metahuman villain Barry has faced, in addition to being the enemy Flash faces to escape custody.
 * Leonard Snart has apparently watched Star Wars, as shown in Pilot, Part 1 of Legends of Tomorrow when he refers to Chronos as "Boba Fett".
 * In the episode "Fail-Safe" Leonard Snart says: "This isn't my first prison break" referring to his criminal past, but also to the series "Prison Break" where he plays the role of Michael Scofield, trying to break out his brother Lincoln Burrows, played by Dominic Purcell, who is Mick Rory/Heat Wave in Legends of Tomorrow.

Behind the scenes

 * Wentworth Miller, the actor behind Captain Cold pitched Leonard as pansexual to the writers, stating that if Captain Cold met another superhero or villain with the right combination of smarts, and wit, and badassery, he'd be into them. Their sex or gender would be totally irrelevant.
 * In comparison with some of his DC comic book portrayals, this version of Leonard Snart is more serious, and a genuine threat to Barry Allen's life.
 * Leonard wears a blue parka along with the Cold Gun's complementary goggles when taking on the Flash and derailing the train and when recruiting Mick, a reference to his costume in the DC comics. He continues to wear the outfit when in action after first seen in that getup.
 * In the DC comics, Leonard is called "Len", a shortening for his full name.
 * On the show, Lisa Snart calls him "Lenny".
 * In "Blood Ties", Leonard was apparently nicknamed "Leo" as a child.
 * Most of the Flash episodes in which Leonard Snart appears contain the word "Rogue". i.e. Going Rogue, Revenge of the Rogues, Rogue Time, Rogue Air, Family of Rogues.
 * In the DC comics, Leonard is the founder and leader of the Rogues, a team of super criminals/supervillains led against the Flash.