- "All of you! Listen up! Central City is crumbling. The streets are empty, and its people live in fear... as you once did. Why? Because of lies. Now, the police say that they'll protect their citizens. Did they protect you? No. Did they offer you food? Shelter? Even a little hope? They left you cold and hungry... living in the gutter."
- —Nicholas Pike[src]
Nicholas V. Pike[1] is a criminal on Earth-90, a corrupt former police officer of the Central City Police Department and the former leader of the Dark Riders. A sworn enemy of the Flash, he was responsible for the tragedy that led to his heroism.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Nicholas Pike's police department's profile.
At some point, Nicholas Pike became a member of Central City Police Department motorcycle patrol. Being very capable at his job he wrote a handbook for police motorcycle officers. He also became a partner of Jay Allen.[1]
However, Pike also engaged in a side operation, involved in illegal activities with guns, narcotics, and explosives. After Jay discovered the activities in 1987 he set up a decoy on Highway 61. When Pike showed he was chased down by Allen, until his motorcycle crashed and burned, scarring Pike in the process. A couple of weeks later, he escaped from a prison hospital after being dishonorably discharged from police.[1]
Leader of the Dark Riders[]
At some point, Pike became a leader of a motorcycle gang called Dark Riders. He leads the gang in the field on an assortment of crimes ranging from vandalism and property damage to the robbery of Central City Armory in 1990.[1]
After the armory robbery, one of Dark Riders, Rick persuaded his girlfriend Lila to escape with him, after stealing $300 from robberies, being afraid that Pike's psychotic behavior will get the gang arrested. After Lila told Pike about that, the latter gave a speech to the gang and ordered other members of the gang to kill him in a way mirroring that of Genghis Khan's punishment for disloyal warriors: sending him down the corridor tied down to his motorcycle with a bomb.
Later Pike lead Dark Riders on a heist in Central City Mall, where he lost an item containing his hair sample, which was discovered by Julio Mendez and sent to Chicago for DNA analyses.[1]
The next day police chief Arthur Cooper held a press conference on which he presented to press the newly formed Dark Riders Task Force, lead by Jay Allen. Dark Riders showed up to the event, opening chaotic fire and injuring several people, including Cooper. Back at the Riders hideout Pike paused the WCCN news report on the event on the shot of Jay Allen and told to the gang that they're going to murder him.[1]
Nicholas Pikes runs Jay Allen over with a motorcycle.
Pike ambushed the task force, leaking the information that Riders were going to hit a semi full of medical supplies on Highway 61, ambushing policemen with a car full of explosives. As Allen remained the last man standing, Pike ran him over with his motorcycle, fatally injuring him. Having discovered the fact that Pike is behind the Riders and his brother escorting a semi on the same very Highway where Pike was injured and caught, Jay's younger brother Barry Allen who recently gained superpowers from an accident in his laboratory, rushed to the scene only to find Jay dead. As a result, Allen vowed to bring Pike in using his powers. Pike's use of gang insignia (a blood dot) inspired Allen to create a symbol of his own, a bolt of lightning in a circle.[1]
Nicholas Pike leads Dark Riders through jail.
When Pike ordered some members of Dark Riders to rob Central City Chemical in order to gain materials for explosives, their plans were thwarted by now full-costumed vigilante Barry Allen. Several members of the gang were neutralized and some, including Lila, were captured by the police, which arrived at the scene. Angered Pike decided to stage a prison escape and the Riders to prison, where they armed convicts as the police, informed by Allen, approached the building. Making the use of firepower stolen from the armory Pike was able to hold off the siege by Central City police until Allen arrived, using tear gas to neutralize most of the Dark Riders and convicts. Pike was able to evade the capture through the use of gas mask and tried to flee the scene navigating his bike through the prison and to the sewers, but crashed due to interference from Allen. Just as the latter tried to apprehend Pike, claiming that he was responsible for his own 'creation' as a vigilante, he suffered from temporary metabolic failure, which enabled Pike to get an upper hand in hand-to-hand combat. However, as soon as Allen's health stabilized he was able to evade Pike's rocket launcher and defeated him in unarmed combat, disarming Pike, accidentally electrocuting him and leaving him to the police.[1]
Release and revenge[]
Less than a year later, in 1991, Pike's murder conviction was overturned on legal technicalities thanks to his lawyer and lover Monica. Exiting the courtroom to a crowd of excited fans chanting "Free Pike", Pike was briefly confronted by Allen in his civilian persona. After that, he left the scene in an expensive car, already planning on taking down The Flash.[2]
Later that day Pike and Monica visited a restaurant where Allen, coincidentally, was having lunch. Taunting and threatening Allen Pike made him punch himself in public, further strengthening his status, with Monica specifically making a point that Allen belongs to police, resulting in Allen having a 30-day suspension pending a professional responsibility hearing. The incident made Allen unsure as to whether his efforts are helping and whether he should stay in town at all.[2]
Just as Allen was heading out of town, Pike, determined to defeat The Flash, threatening to flood the city via bomb in the Devil's Gate Dam, his old hideout, unless paid a ransom of $10M. Accidentally overhearing this happening as he was picking up his belongings from the department, Allen rushed to the scene as The Flash, finding it to be a trap with Pike addressing him through a video monitor and aiming a locked missile at him. However, a future version of Allen's arrived from an alternate timeline's 2001 and stopped the missile before it went off, reuniting with Allen and giving him his memories. Rushing to Pike's van, The Flash tied him, Monica and Pike's another assistant Victor Kelso. Allen then launched a missile, directing it straight to the van, making Pike confess to the murder of Jay Allen on audiotape and giving out the location of Jay's murder weapon, which he dropped in a reservoir outside Devil's Gate Dam.[2]
Promptly, Pike was committed for his crimes. It is unknown where he was or whether he was even alive at the time Earth-90 was obliterated by Mar Novu in 2018.[2]
Alternate timeline[]
Pike's mayoral campaign poster in 2001's Central City.
Pike addressed Allen through a video monitor and fired a missile at him, which Allen was unable to lose because it was locked into his heat signature. Manually exploding the missile close to The Flash, Pike accidentally made The Flash time travel to March 3, 2001. Without The Flash on his tail, Pike was able to successfully take over the city's criminal organizations and corrupt Central City police, buying his way into becoming a mayor. His revitalization plan for the city included building multiple factories which were supposed to create jobs, but instead resulted in pollution and slums. Amassing political power, Pike was able to rebuild Central City into a disastrous area nicknamed "Pike City" nearing a police state with a critical level of poverty, crime, and homelessness. Despite that he was re-elected on a new term by March 2001, with scarce resistance from Liberation Underground movement.[2]
Keeping Julio Mendez under surveillance Pike quickly became aware that depowered Allen returned when Mendez tried to hide him in his apartment. Among with Monica and his right-hand man since 1991 Victor Kelso, Pike met with The Flash in Police Rehabilitation Center (ex-S.T.A.R. Labs facility) and tried to lobotomize Allen electronically after taunting him, which actually managed to temporarily recharge Allen's powers which resulted in Pike being strapped to his own "rehabilitation" equipment.[2]
Nicholas Pike as a mayor of Central City.
Upon getting out, Pike demanded results from Kelso, threatening to send him to rehabilitation from his office via the video call. When Kelso informed him that Liberation Underground and Allen barricaded themselves in a rehabilitation center, Pike came there personally to supervise the siege. At the same time Tina McGee and The Flash successfully replicated the incident by blowing up a small nuclear reactor which was giving the power to the laboratory. It is unknown whether Pike died in an explosion before the timeline was re-set.[2]
Personality[]
- "We're two sides of the same coin. Forged from the same fire. One has to defeat the other."
- —Nicholas Pike on The Flash[src]
Despite being an expert tactician and able combatant Pike is borderline psychotic, having violent, aggressive episodes. It could be suggested that his mind deteriorated after he suffered a bike crash in 1987, but considering his criminal activities, he might have had such kind of behavior all along.[1]
In an alternate timeline, Pike is proven to be slightly more psychotic, having violent outbursts and assaulting his right-hand man Victor Kelso.[2]
Abilities[]
- Peak of human physical condition: Pike possesses extreme agility and strength for his age, being able to withstand several punches from a speedster.[1]
- Keen intellect/Expert tactician: Pike is an expert tactician and field leader, able to plan and execute difficult operations with incredible precision. He also makes great use of distractions, traps and theatrical effects. Alternate timeline accidentally created by Pike himself shows him having a potential to become a ruthless politician/dictator capable of instating a near-dictatorship within one city.[1]
- Expert driver: Pike is capable driver; able to viciously attack people with his bike and evade capture. He was also proven to be able to ride his motorcycle in unusual situations like indoors and on the stairs.[1]
- Network: Pike was able to organize several unusual criminal enterprises and was using his network to gain sufficient resources for his criminal endeavors.[1]
- Writing: Pike is a keen writer as seen through the fact that he was able to write a handbook for police motorcycle units.[1]
- History knowledge: On more than one occasion Pike was shown to have sufficient knowledge of history, especially regarding the East, including Genghis Khan and eastern mysticism.[1][2]
- Master hand-to-hand combatant: Pike is very skilled in hand-to-hand combat, from both police training, a life of crime and unstable psyche. If given sufficient opportunity, he was able to defeat meta-human Barry Allen with relative ease when the latter was suffering a metabolic failure. He was also proven to be able to make full use of his surroundings on more than one occasion, immediately arming himself with a stick in the sewers and finding a gas mask in a security guard booth in the prison, despite the hectic nature of both events.[1]
- Expert marksman: Being a trained policeman, Pike excels with most types of firearms, including being proficient with the M60 heavy machine gun and a rocket launcher.[1]
Equipment[]
- Leather suit: Pike is usually seen wearing a reinforced motorcycle suit with particularly strengthened boots and gloves.[1][2]
Former Equipment[]
- Hunting knife: Pike kept a hunting knife in his boot prior to being captured.[1]
- Assorted firearms:
- M60 Machine Gun
- Rocket launcher
- Helmet: As a leader of Dark Riders, Pike used helmet as both a measure of identity concealment and a protection from road collisions.[1]
- Gas mask: Was acquired and used by Pike during the prison siege.[1]
- 1985 Yamaha VMX 1200 V-Max motorcycle: Was used by Pike as a field leader of Dark Riders.[1]
Appearances[]
The Flash[]
- "Pilot"
- "Honor Among Thieves" (indirectly mentioned)
- "Fast Forward"
Trivia[]
- Tied with James Jesse, Pike had more appearances than any other villain of the show, as both he and Jesse appeared in two episodes.
- Pike specifically could be considered Barry Allen's archenemy as both he and Allen treat their clashes very personally.
- Pike's scars look different in "Fast Forward" then how they appear in "Pilot". Although basic outlines of the scars are the same, they appear to be less visible.
- Another small inconsistency between the episodes is an alleged "murder weapon" which makes for Pike's conviction in "Fast Forward": in "Pilot" he was shown carrying some sort of blunt object while riding, but it could be argued that the actual murder weapon in that case was Pike's motorcycle.
- Despite his name being fully revealed in "Pilot", he is listed as "Pike" in the opening titles.
- Pike's photograph is featured in the article in The Flash TV Special, albeit he is not appearing or mentioned in the comic sections, only in the episode guide included in the publication.
Behind the scenes[]
- While Nicholas Pike is not from the comics, his antagonism with Barry Allen bears more than a passing resemblance with latter versions of Eobard Thawne, including one seen on The Flash. Among other things, both Pike and Thawne ended up being responsible for the murder of Barry Allen's relative (which lead to the creation of The Flash persona), the accidental creation of an alternate timeline during a murder attempt and being a part of a neo-nazi/nazi-like government.