- For other uses of the name Abra Kadabra, see Abra Kadabra (disambiguation).
- For the butler, see Philippe (Earth-Prime).
- "I'm the greatest magician of all time, which is why you should be more than just afraid... you should be terrified."
- —Abra Kadabra[src]
Philippe,[1] also known as Abra Kadabra, was a criminal time traveler from the 64th century. He had outfitted his body with futuristic nanotechnology which provided him with a range of abilities that, for all intents and purposes, are almost indistinguishable from magic and sorcery in the eyes of 21st century humans.
Abra Kadabra claimed that he and Barry Allen were old enemies in his future and also claimed to know Savitar's true identity.
In the new multiverse, Philippe returned to the 21st century after discovering he had a family in the original multiverse. Philippe planned on using an antimatter bomb to erase Central City, but was talked down by the Flash, and was later killed by Fuerza while attempting to use the bomb on her.
Biography[]
Original multiverse[]
Early life[]
Philippe was born sometime in the 64th century. At some point, he outfitted his body with advanced nanotechnology, which provided him with a wide range of abilities that most people in the 21st century would perceive as magic. Adopting the moniker "Abra Kadabra", he became a criminal exploiting time travel and breaching for his own personal gain, primarily in the 21st century. At some point, Abra became the leader of the techno-wizards.[2]
At some point, Abra Kadabra married Amélie and they had a son named Luca.[1]
Encounters with the Flash[]
At some point after 2017, Abra Kadabra came into contact with Barry Allen/The Flash and had several encounters that left Abra Kadabra with a bitter hatred of the Scarlet Speedster. He came to learn much about Barry's personal life including a relationship with Iris West and her death on May 23, 2017 at the hands of his supposed greatest enemy, his corrupt temporal duplicate, Barry Allen/Savitar. He also became aware of the Flash's other enemies, such as Eobard Thawne/Reverse-Flash, Hunter Zolomon/Zoom, and Clifford DeVoe/The Thinker and came to know Savitar's true identity.[2]
When the Flash from a past arrived in Central City the year 6345, Abra Kadabra went to fight him where Hocus Pocus was contained. During the fight, he asked Barry if he has figured out who is Savitar before Iris dies but Kadabra didn't realize that he is not like the previous version of Barry that he faced. Which surprised him but he still managed to avoid a punch since he was a hologram. Abra created 10 other holograms but Barry managed to find the real one by spinning his arm and create a whirlwind. He managed to break Pocus out after taking Pocus's wand from Barry before vanishing. Later at his lair he argued with Pocus about the bad decision he made by going back in time and slapped him after lecturing him how he should respect him for releasing him from the Quantum Cops prison but Pocus mocked him because compared to him people applauded him and a least he had managed to put the Flash on his knees. Abra than revealed that the Flash was actually there in the present and when Abra showed him his wand, Pocus took it and teleported behind him asking "would you like to take this outside?". Later, Abra was still arguing with Pocus but this time, two other techno-magicians were present. But suddenly, Pocus attacked Citizen Ali, another techno-magician that still possessed his citizenship but Voila, another techno-magician attacked Abra Kadabra and she and Pocus managed to put him on his one knee during the fight. The fight was interrupted by the Flash who saved Citizen Ali from a Bullfrog. Abra snapped his finger causing large spotlight in the ceiling to spin and knock Voila creating some kind of spotlight monster. Barry saved Citizen Ali again by destroying the object. After Barry knocked out Citizen Ali and Voila, Abra threatened Barry by saying that once he's done with Pocus, he's going to kill Barry. After a rough fight with fire balls, gravity and the Bullfrog, Abra just assumed that this Barry is from the Crisis of 2024 where he vanished and assumed that the reason why he vanished, was because he was destined to kill him. But before he could kill the Flash, Pocus knocked him out and tried to take the credit of being the one that kills the Flash. When Abra Kadabra woke up, he saw that Hocus Pocus was mind controlling the Flash. Hurt, Pocus still incapacitated him so that Abra could witness Pocus Ultimate Triumph. Abra then admitted that he is no one compared to Pocus allowing him to take his name "Abra Kadabra" and Pocus as the new Abra Kadabra made chains appear from nowhere and dragged him away from the fight.
At some point after the new Abra Kadabra was defeated and transformed into a wooden puppet, Abra had taken back his name since Pocus was a failure as an Abra Kadabra and went back into committing crimes.[3]
Trapped in the past[]
At some point, Abra Kadabra went back in time and got stuck in the past.
Trapped in the past, Abra Kadabra sought to return to his time and began traveling through the multiverse to obtain the technologies needed to return to the 64th century of Earth-1. During his quest, he traveled through Earth-19 in the year 2014 and killed several people in his pursuits, including the partner (in both the professional and romantic sense) of Gypsy before fleeing to another reality.[2]
Central City 2017[]
- "Here it is, in the future you and I have been enemies for years. There have been others, of course. There's Thawne, Zoom, DeVoe, but none of them hurt you like Savitar. He truly broke you. I have to be honest, I always was a bit jealous. But now, it's like I get to kill her too."
- —Abra Kadabra to Barry Allen[src]
Abra Kadabra appeared in Central City to steal some more technology to build himself a timeship to travel back to the 64th century. He first targeted Stagg Industries, where he was confronted by two guards. Abra trapped the two in a vat and then had it fill with water so that they would drown. At his second robbery, Abra was confronted by the Flash. He had expected to run into the speedster, but was thrown to see him look much younger than he was used to. He revealed that he knew his identity and that he knew that Barry was dealing with the impending death of his love, Iris. When Barry asked what he knew about Savitar, Abra claimed that he knew everything.
Abra Kadabra offers Savitar's identity for his release.
Barry rushed to capture him but instead yanked away a phony arm before Abra moved to escape. However, Gypsy appeared through a breach and attacked him. He quickly created a shower of cards to cover his teleporting escape. Abra then went to S.T.A.R. Labs, where he incapacitated both Julian Albert and Joe West. Before he could kill any of them, he was quickly apprehended by Barry and Abra Kadabra quickly told him that he could tell him everything he knew about Savitar, in particular his true name. He was thrown into the pipeline as Barry and the West family asked him what he knew about Savitar. Abra Kadabra gave them some trivial information about what he would do in the future but wouldn't reveal Savitar's name for free. In exchange for the information, he wanted his freedom as he knew Gypsy would take him back to Earth-19 for execution. Later, he was visited again by Joe, who wanted to take the deal in order to save his daughter's life. He opened the door and held Abra Kadabra at gun point.
Barry begging Abra Kadabra to reveal Savitar's identity.
Just as Abra was about to tell him Savitar's name, Gypsy interrupted and he used the distraction to escape. He then went to Dr. Wells' Time Vault and stole a power source in order to complete his time machine. Before he could leave, he was confronted by Team Flash and Gypsy and he set off a bomb to escape, seriously injuring Caitlin Snow.
As Abra prepared to leave 2017, he was pursued by Barry and Wally West with Gypsy and Cisco moving to cut off his escape attempts. He managed to open a wormhole but before he could fly into it, Barry crashed through the window of his ship and pulled him out and he watched in despair as the ship returned to the future without him. As Gypsy was taking him back to Earth-19 for trial and execution, he was confronted again by Barry. He tried to appeal to any sense of humanity that Abra Kadabra had to get him to tell him who Savitar was. Abra merely smiled and told him that all through Barry's life, he had a slew of enemies including himself, though none managed to truly break him save for Savitar by taking the one thing he really cared about. He admitted that he was jealous of the godlike speedster for that feat, but now, denying him the information, it made him feel like he was killing Iris as well. He was then taken away by Gypsy to Earth-19 to be executed for his crimes.[2] However, Abra somehow managed to escape before the Collectors could execute him.[1]
Anti-Monitor Crisis[]
During the Anti-Monitor Crisis, Philippe as well as everyone in the multiverse except for the seven Paragons, was killed in an antimatter wave by the Anti-Monitor on December 10, 2019,[4] only to be restored a month later, after the Paragons and the Spectre created a new universe.[5] However, the rest of his family was erased from the timeline; it is known that Philippe was never married to Amélie on Earth-Prime; hence never conceiving a baby Luca.[1]
New multiverse[]
Abra Kadabra's name is seen amongst Cisco's Who's Who? Binder.[6]
Return and death[]
Abra Kadabra with his family.
Abra Kadabra returns in 2020 after the defeat of Eva McCulloch. When Abra began recalling his pre-Crisis memories, he visited the Flash Museum with a crew to find Cisco Ramon's memory device, repairing it. He regained his memories of the Pre-Crisis/original multiverse using the device. Later, he kills a worker, who was part of the city's rebuilding movement called "Central City Strong", which Team Flash is sponsoring. He turns a building into a heavy obelisk. The Flash and Vibe capture him after he makes another obelisk. A.R.G.U.S. arrests him, only for him to break out and gain access to another obelisk. The Flash shows up but Abra uses his advanced technology to capture him. He refers to their last conversation when the Flash asked who Savitar was and had asked Abra to find a light and hope within himself. Abra says he did and that the Flash stole it from him, so he was going to make Central City disappear. He uses the obelisks to make a red orbed piece of technology. Team Flash realize he made an antimatter bomb to destroy the city. The Flash finds him and tries to reason with him. Abra Kadabra confesses he had a wife and son before Crisis changed his timeline.
Barry convinces Abra Kadabra to stop.
The Flash tells him how he lost someone like a brother to him. When Barry says that both of them know this won't change his timeline and bring Abra's family back (which is physically impossible in any case due to the crisis which destroyed the multiverse, and the timeline was changed on Earth-Prime, completely making it impossible to run back in time and undo this on a planet that technically speaking, never existed to begin with now), he asks Abra if his family would want him to destroy a city. So, Abra disarms the bomb. He tells the Flash his name is Philippe and ask who Barry lost, to which he replies Oliver. The Flash says that he hopes they will no longer be enemies. An earthquake hits the city, to both of their surprise. A giant, muscular, monstrous humanoid shows up and knocks the Flash out with incredible strength. Abra tries to save him by killing the monster with the antimatter bomb. The bomb has no effect, something Abra Kadabra says is impossible. Before he can attack again he is hit and killed by the huge monster.[1]
Personality[]
- "It's frustrating isn't it? Knowing that you're going to die unless I give The Flash what he wants. All that power, all that speed, and yet you're still slow."
- —Abra Kadabra to Team Flash[src]
Abra Kadabra was much like Eobard Thawne as he wanted to return home to the future and was willing to commit many terrible acts in order to do so, including murder.
Abra claimed he always felt "jealous" of Savitar because he managed to accomplish what no other villain who the Flash had faced managed to do; break the speedster by taking away the person who matters most to him. After fighting the Flash for so long, Abra grew to extremely hate him to the point that he wanted to make the speedster suffer. This is best shown as when Barry begged him to tell him Savitar's name, Abra refused and simply stated that not giving Barry this information was almost like he was killing Iris West as well, which would bring Barry that much closer to his breaking point.
However, Abra is not without a good quirk; he is more than willing to honor his promises. Joe West offered him freedom in exchange for Savitar's true name (keeping a gun on him for good measure) and Abra agreed though later he backed out of it when Barry distracted Joe long enough to escape.
On Earth-Prime, Abra retained the same hatred for the Flash. However, his personal timeline had been altered, and he used to have a family until Crisis - where they were erased from the timeline upon the rebirth of the universe. Due to Flash's involvement in Crisis and prophesied disappearance that did not come to pass, Abra comes to the conclusion that it is Flash's doing. Driven by his grief, Abra returns to the 21st century, bent on killing the Flash and erasing Central City.
While similar to Thawne in terms of being from the future and wanting to return home, Abra has a greater sense of humanity. Having been a loving father and husband, Barry was able to make him waver and successfully appealed to his heart to stop him from going through with his plan, empathizing with his loss of loved ones. Abra shed tears during their confrontation.
Powers and abilities[]
Powers[]
- "He's certainly got a lot of tricks."
- "Yeah, we think he has some sort of nanotechnology built into his body... allows him to do extraordinary feats. Teleportation, telekinesis, you name it, and believe me, I have seen it all."
- —Barry Allen and Gypsy on Abra's powers[src]
- Techno-magic: Abra Kadabra was augmented with various nanotechnology infused into his body, which allowed him to perform various superhuman feats. To the perception of people from an earlier era, his 64th century technology could easily be mistaken for magic. When Kadabra returns in 2021, he uses a 64th century magic wand that seems to amplify his magic, making him even more dangerous and powerful than before.
- Conjuration: Abra Kadabra has the ability to seemingly materialize whatever he desires out of thin air. To date this includes filling a glass chamber with water when there was no known water source, creating a fake arm that the Flash grabbed onto, creating several hundreds of playing cards that he can send flying as projectiles, materializing a harness around the Flash to incapacitate him.[2][1]
- Hologram projection: Abra Kadabra can project holograms from thin air, even when he is not in the vicinity.[2]
- Interdimensional travel: Abra Kadabra was capable of traveling between different universes, but not through time itself.[2]
- Technopathy: Abra Kadabra was able to combine his conjuration and technology manipulation to cause water to squirt from Joe West's gun. He could command various technologies in S.T.A.R. Labs, and even the futuristic former lair of Eobard Thawne. Additionally, he can cause machines to explode. During his second appearance, he was able to open an electronically controlled door at A.R.G.U.S by swiping his hand across the control pad. [2]
- Intangibility: Abra Kadabra was able to go intangible, so the blast Joe West shot at him went right through him.
- Telekinesis: According to Gypsy, Abra Kadabra is capable of telekinesis. When fighting the Flash and Mecha-Vibe, he telekinetically threw Cisco’s attack back at him. He was also able to make the antimatter bomb he created float in the air unsupported.[2]
- Teleportation: Abra Kadabra was able to teleport in and out of anything. He could use this ability to teleport others, as seen when he trapped two security guards in a glass box. He could also teleport objects, such as covering an item under a handkerchief and making it disappear, or teleporting meta cuffs off of him and putting them on the Flash.[2]
- Vibe immunity: Cisco Ramon tried to find Abra Kadabra using his dismembered prosthetic arm, but was unsuccessful. According to Gypsy, Abra's powers render him "invisible" to Vibers.[2]
- Ergokinesis: Abra Kadabra's wand was able to generate an unknown energy and use it for various purposes.
- Conversion: Abra Kadabra displayed the power to transfigure objects into a different form, which he uses to turn several structures around Central City into obelisks.[1]
- Retrocognition: Abra Kadabra was able to recall some of his pre-Crisis memories by being exposed to neuro-temporal displacement, though he required use of a Martian memory restorer in order to fully regain his memories of the original multiverse.
Abilities[]
- Genius-level intellect/Expert scientist/ Expert tactician/Expert engineer: As Abra Kadabra comes from the 64th century, he is considered a genius amongst individuals from the 21st. century; even considering the Flash (who is also a genius in his own right) to be a backwards thinker. He has enough experience with 21st century technology to construct a timeship, knowing what pieces he needed and where to get them. Kadabra is also a brilliant strategist as shown during his second appearance when he took every variable of his plan into consideration to insure team Flash couldn’t stop him. He would have succeeded had the Flash not been able to appeal to his heart. [2]
Former weaknesses[]
- Power-dampening tech: Abra Kadabra's powers appeared to operate similar to those of meta-humans. As such, S.T.A.R. Labs' power-dampening tech, including specialized handcuffs and cells, prevented him from using his powers.[2] After Crisis, however, he seems to have modified his techno-magic powers, as he was not affected by power-dampening cuffs.
Appearances[]
The Flash[]
Season 3Season 4
Season 6
Season 7
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Novels[]
The Chronicles of Cisco[]
- Post 55 "#EmoCisco" (mentioned)
Trivia[]
- Abra Kadabra was indirectly responsible for Caitlin Snow finally becoming Killer Frost, due to a stab wound he inflicted on her that required her meta-human powers to heal.
- During this second appearance, Abra was shown to rely mostly on a mysterious wand, which apparently uses the same kind of advanced techno-magic Abra himself was infused with.
- Abra is one of the few villains on the show that the Flash wasn’t able to overpower. The others being Bloodwork, the Speed Force ("Nora"), Despero and Deathstorm.
- Unlike Thawne, it is hypothetically possible that Abra could return and avoid his death, unless his existence in the 64th century allows most of his Earth-1 history to remain intact on Earth-Prime (despite his family being erased from the timeline). Either way, he currently remains dead as this is the end of his personal timeline.
- First, due to the universal reset in "Negative, Part Two", which may have altered how long the Strength, Sage and Still Forces existed, it may potentially mean he doesn't get killed by Fuerza.
- Second, is that Abra hails from the future. If Barry has future confrontations with Abra's younger self due to the latter's personal timeline being preserved, Barry could warn Abra about his death.
Behind the scenes[]
- In the DC comics, Abra Kadabra is an enemy of the Flash, a magician from the 64th century, where technology completely replicated something that would have been seen as magic centuries ago. With no interest for magicians in his century, Citizen Abra traveled through time, trying to earn pride and adoration in the Flash's era, both with magic shows and masterful crimes, seeking attention at all costs. After losing his technology, he made a deal with a demon for magical powers.
- A villain named Chronarch is the cruel 64th century ruler that exiled Abra Kadabra. He was ultimately defeated when Abra Kadabra teamed up with The Flash; a storyline adopted for "Central City Strong" in Abra Kadabra's second Arrowverse appearance.
- His nickname is a play on the phrase "abracadabra", an incantation often used in stage magic tricks.