Hannibal Bates

Hannibal Bates
Biological Information
Status	Deceased
General Information
Family	Mrs. Bates (grandmother)
Alter ego	Everyman
Actor	Martin Novotny (as himself) Atlin Vera Mitchell (as Nina) Chris Webb (as jewel thief) Barbara Wallace (as Mrs. Bates) Rick Cosnett (as Eddie Thawne) Grant Gustin (as Barry Allen) Laiken Laverock (as a little girl) Maxine Miller (as old woman) Marshall Virtue as (TSA agent) Danielle Panabaker (as Caitlin Snow) Candice Patton (as Iris West)

"I, uh...I can't remember. I can't remember."

—Hannibal after failing to remember what he looked like^[src]

Hannibal Bates, nicknamed Everyman by Caitlin Snow, is a meta-human. After the S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator accident, Hannibal gained the ability to shape-shift into any person he has contact with. For unidentified reasons, his name is on "The List".

Biography

Due to unidentified reasons, Hannibal's name was on "The List".

Gaining shapeshifting powers

After the explosion of the S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator, Bates gained the ability to shapeshift in to anyone he touched (later keeping their identity in case of needing to change on the fly). A month after the explosion, he framed his friend Jacob Fisher for robbery at a bank in Central City. Over the next year, he began to continue framing a plenitude of people. One such individual was Nina, whose key he used to enter their bank's vaults and empty the contents. He continued on, taking the identity of a man and stole some jewels. He took the jewels to a buyer, but the buyer identified them as stolen and called the cops. He left before they could arrive and was intercepted by Eddie Thawne. Eddie was knocked down, but The Flash tried to intervene. However, Hannibal took the identity of a woman and escaped through a crowd of people.

Following this, he left to his grandmother's house. However, having found out his identity, Eddie and Barry arrived, looking for the grandmother. Bates posed as the grandmother momentarily, before escaping on foot. Eddie almost caught up, but Hannibal was able to steal his identity. He ran on ahead, intercepting two cops that he'd called for backup. He shot them both dead, before shooting out the police camera. The following day he headed to the West House to find Barry, who was incredibly surprised to see him free of police custody. He was promptly knocked out, before Hannibal shapeshifted in to him. Caitlin Snow arrived soon after, and the two headed to S.T.A.R. Labs. While there, Caitlin revealed the plan to him, believing him to be Barry. Iris West arrived, believing she had some leads, but before he could kill either of the women, Dr. Wells tasered him, identifying him as Hannibal Bates due to his not being right-handed like Barry. Iris and Caitlin decided to drive him to the police station to clear Eddie, but he turned into a little girl and screamed for help, pretending to be kidnapped. As they were stuck in traffic by a construction site, one of the workers helped release him, only for him run away. He headed to Central City Airport, but was caught by Barry, who identified him through an X-ray machine. He ran as fast as he could, but was caught by The Flash. They fought as he transformed in to Caitlin, Iris and Eddie, before finally shapeshifting in to The Flash himself. However, he did not gain The Flash's speed, and before long was administered a temporary cure, leaving him in Iris' form. Following that, he was imprisoned in The Pipeline. The team asked to see his true form, but he couldn't remember, only being able to display a blank body.

Powers and abilities

Powers

• Shapeshifting: Hannibal is able to shapeshift into any person he has physical contact with, even copying the clothing they were wearing. His ability allows him to instantly change the color and texture of his body, allowing him to replicate clothing and other materials on his own body more affectively.

Abilities

• Peak of human physical condition: Hannibal is shown to be very quick in battle. During his skirmish against the Flash, he was able to block a number of the speedster's strikes and slightly overpower him until the Flash began moving much quicker and used his enhanced physical force and momentum to weaken him.
• Expert hand-to-hand combatant: Hannibal is a potent fighter, able to quickly defeat Eddie Thawne. He was also known to sneak up on people and use surprise attacks, as he did when appearing as Eddie in front of Barry and knocking Barry unconscious by striking the back of his head with a handgun when Barry's back was turned. During his skirmish against the Flash, he was able to land multiple solid hits, albeit he repeatedly caught his opponent off by shapeshifting into people close to the Flash and having the strength to repeatedly overpower him.

Appearances

Arrow

Season 1

• "Pilot" (mentioned)

The Flash

Season 1

• "Who is Harrison Wells?"
• The Trap

Behind the scenes

• In the DC comics, Hannibal Bates is a meta-human who can transform himself in to anyone by eating a part of them (a reference to one of his namesakes, Hannibal Lecter, while the other being Norman Bates). He was first known as Everyman, then later as Dark Arrow when he teamed up against Green Arrow.
• Bates is notably the first, and as of yet only, person on "The List" to appear in The Flash.