Russell Glosson

For the criminal from Earth-Prime also known as Turtle, see, Frida Novikov.

Russell Glosson
Biological Information
Species	Meta-human
Status	Deceased
Universe Information
Home universe	Earth-1
Current universe	Earth-Prime
General Information
Occupation	Criminal (formerly)
Family	Rosalyn Glosson (ex-wife; deceased)
Alter ego	The Turtle
Actor	Aaron Douglas

"I like to take things nice and slow."

—Russell Glosson to Patty Spivot^[src]

Russell Glosson (died January 19, 2016), nicknamed The Turtle by Cisco Ramon, was a meta-human thief who had the capability of unleashing a pulse wave that absorbs all of the kinetic energy around him into himself, leaving everyone and everything around him in a temporary state of potential energy.

Biography

After the particle accelerator explosion

Russell Glosson was upset when his ex-wife Rosalyn Glosson tried to leave him. He was affected by the S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator and used his power to make her "stay". Russell later began using his powers for thievery and used Rosalyn's former workplace, the Naydel Library, which shut down shortly after the explosion, as a storage area for the valuables he stole. He had been on the Central City Police Department's radar but they were unable to capture him for a long time.

Team Flash's active pursuit

Russell Glosson's CCPD record.

In a discussion about how to fight Zoom, Cisco Ramon proposed that perhaps they were looking at the situation the wrong way, and that instead of trying to make The Flash faster, maybe they could try to slow Zoom down, which was where Russell Glosson, known as The Turtle, was brought into the picture. It was revealed that apparently everyone on Team Flash sans Barry Allen knew of this person's existence and how the CCPD failed at arresting him. Although the first target, the Vandervoort diamonds, was correctly predicted and that The Flash did show up at CCPD to stop The Turtle, Glosson got away. The same went for the second target, The Crystal Ball, a painting recovered from Markovia, exhibiting at Central City Museum. Glosson not only successfully stole the painting, he had managed to both figure out the most precious thing to The Flash, while injuring him by landing a chandelier on top of him. Glosson then kidnapped Patty Spivot, intending to make her another one of his collection, like what he did to his ex-wife. The kidnap prompt The Flash to seek out Glosson once more. After being defeated by the Flash and put into the S.T.A.R. Labs pipeline, Glosson was injected by Harrison Wells with a drill-like syringe into his nose to get a sample of his brain tissue, killing him.

Powers and abilities

Powers

• Meta-human physiology: After Russell was struck by the energy of the Particle Accelerator explosion, this altered his DNA and supercharged his cells, augmenting his physiology into beyond peak human condition.
  • Kinetic energy absorption: Russell is capable of unleashing a pulse wave that absorbs all of the kinetic energy around him into himself, leaving everyone and everything around him in a temporary state of potential energy. As Russell's kinetic energy absorption significantly slows down electronic transport through nerve cells and thus cognitive processing, all those affected by this event will perceive everything moving as super fast until the effects wear off. Depriving kinetic energy like this also allows him to stop bullets in midair by denying momentum of their trajectory.

Abilities

• Expert thief: Russell was a skilled thief.

Weaknesses

• Super speed: Russell's pulse wave is not continuous. At the same time, he requires about 2.7 seconds between each usage of it. Because of which, should an individual possess enough super-accelerated motion, like the Flash, that person can potentially generate enough kinetic energy within themselves to bypass Russell's energy siphoning, only resulting in them dramatically slowed down by the kinetic absorption before overcoming the effects completely.

Equipment

• Turtle suit: Russell wore a suit while operating as his supervillain alter-ego, The Turtle. It consisted solely of a green hooded jacket.

Legacy

Wells used Russell's blood to steal the Flash's speed.

Years after his death, another metahuman with powers similar to Russel's, named Frida Novikov, took the codename turtle.

Appearances

The Flash

Season 2

• "Potential Energy"
• "The Reverse-Flash Returns" (corpse)
• "Fast Lane" (indirectly mentioned)
• "Trajectory" (indirectly mentioned)
• "Back to Normal" (indirectly mentioned)

Season 6

• "Death of the Speed Force" (mentioned)

Trivia

• Russell was motivated to steal objects, including people, of sentimental value over anything else. This likely stemmed from the emotional damage caused from his divorce.

Behind the scenes

• In DC Comics the Turtle is a legacy name used by the enemies of the Flash and Green Arrow, whose crimes were associated with slow deliberate planning, and later with the ability to drain speed from those around them, much like in the show.
• The character's name, Russell Glosson, is a nod to Starkville Labs podcast hosts Steve Glosson and Derek Russell.^{[citation needed]}