Tony Woodward

Tony Woodward
Biological Information
Species	Meta-human
Status	Deceased
Universe Information
Home universe	Earth-1
Current universe	Earth-Prime
General Information
Occupation	Criminal (formerly) Employee of Keystone Iron Works (formerly) Student (graduated)
Affiliation	Keystone Iron Works (formerly)
Alter ego	Girder
Actor	Greg Finley Austin Dunn (young)

"Looks like you were born to take a beating."

—Tony's catchphrase^[src]

Tony Woodward (c. 1989 – October 19, 2014), nicknamed Girder by Cisco Ramon, was a meta-human and the former childhood bully of Barry Allen. He became a meta-human after falling into a vat of molten steel when the S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator exploded, giving him the power to transform himself into steel. Tony was imprisoned in the Pipeline, but he was killed by Blackout at S.T.A.R. Labs when "Harrison Wells" released Girder to try and fend off the intruder.

Biography

Original multiverse

Early life

Tony was born in 1989 in Central City. He attended Carmichael Elementary alongside Barry Allen and Iris West. During his school days there, Tony relentlessly bullied Barry, making fun of his father's murder conviction. He secretly harbored a crush on Iris.

Criminal convictions

Tony Woodward's CCPD crimal record.

As an adult, Tony had records of violence, petty theft and assault. These habits (apparently) started back when he was a juvenile.

Particle accelerator accident

Tony eventually became employed at an Iron Works facility in Keystone City. On December 11, 2013, Tony was laid off, much to his anger and got into a physical altercation with his boss. During the fight, Tony was knocked over a railing and fell into a vat of molten steel. Coincidentally at the same time, the S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator exploded, causing Tony to transform in to a meta-human with the ability to transform any part of his body into girded steel at will.

Fighting the Flash

10 months later, Tony returned to Central City, where he stole a Hummer and robbed several ATM machines along with several beer rigs, after escaping the Central City Police Department, he was caught by the Flash, though he defeated him with ease. The next day he went to Jitters looking for Iris, questioning her reasons for blogging about the Flash, explaining that he'd defeated him in a fight the night previous, a far more interesting event for her to blog about.

After a co-worker of Iris notified her of a news segment revealing Tony as an armed robber, Iris attempted to call Eddie Thawne under the guise of contacting him about a policeman's ball for the evening, Tony crushed her phone using his powers, telling her that they would pickup their conversation later, before fleeing. After using the information given to Iris by Tony, Barry tracked him down at the old Keystone Iron works where Tony was staying. After discovering The Flash there, Tony defeated him once more by pushing a full shelf on top of him and leaving him for dead.

Tony later abducted Iris from her house, taking her to their old elementary school, Tony expressed that he wanted Iris to blog about him, as he had defeated the Flash and he had always liked her, after pretending to flirt with him, Iris pulled the fire alarm alerting the police of their location, as the Flash arrived and the two fought, Tony was misled into thinking he had won the fight after he gained the upper hand and the Flash fled without Iris, the Flash returned at a speed just over Mach 1 to land a punch that could injure him, although it hurt him momentarily, he seemed to recover from this, however, an added jab from Iris while caught off guard, and thus; not protected by his steel form, finished the job. He later awakened imprisoned in the core chamber of the S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator. After being confronted by Barry, and learning his secret identity, he shouted for his release, though to no avail.

Death

When Farooq Gibran broke into S.T.A.R. Labs, Wells released Tony, promising that if he killed Farooq, Wells would set him free, albeit Wells did not tell Barry or the others until after Tony died. When Tony confronted Gibran, a fight ensued, and was soon blasted with a blast of electricity. He sarcastically replied, "Ouch" and soon carried on fighting. Soon though, Tony was fatally attacked by Gibran's electricity and knocked down on the floor right next to Barry, with his final breath beseeched the latter to run.

Barry was furious with Wells for tricking Tony to risk his life, stating that he may have been a bully, but did not deserve to die like that. Wells simply stated that he did not care for Tony.

Tony's body was stored in the S.T.A.R. Labs morgue.

Reanimation

Tony reanimated as a zombie

Over a year later, after Team Flash's attempt to have Barry regain his powers (which were stolen by Zoom) in a recreated particle accelerator explosion, the energy wave it released somehow reactivated part of Tony's brain, causing him to come to life in a zombie-like state. Tony broke out of S.T.A.R. Labs and began retracing his steps from his last attack. Once Team Flash finally determined what he wanted, Iris decided to act as a bait for him to get him to come back to S.T.A.R. labs. Cisco and Harry Wells tried to shut down his brain using a pair of powerful electromagnets, but to no avail. Once Barry came back from the Speed Force, he used his spin to create enough energy to supercharge the electromagnets, giving them enough power to finally put Tony to rest for good.

New multiverse

Tony's name is seen amongst Cisco Ramon's "Who's Who?" binder.

Personality

"Come on, you know me, Allen. I never run from a fight "

—Tony Woodward to Barry Allen^[src]

Throughout his entire life, Tony enjoyed hurting others to prove his superiority. He was often boastful in order to impress people. He became obsessed with dominating and inspiring fear in others; Tony was also very pugnacious and confrontational, never going to other way from a confrontation. He showed a complete disregard for the law. He was highly belligerent, taking pride in never backing down from a fight. He had a crush on Iris West, insisting that she write a blog about him and trying to beat the Flash to get her attention. Despite being a lifelong bully, Tony tried to protect Barry Allen in his last moments, even though the latter had defeated and incarcerated him earlier, possibly meaning his time locked up has made him seek redemption.

After his reanimation, Tony became completely quiet and aggressive, wandering from place to place and attacking anyone who came too close. The only person he could recognize in this state was Iris.

Powers and abilities

Powers

• Meta-human physiology: After Tony was struck by the energy of the Particle Accelerator explosion, this altered his DNA and supercharged his cells, augmenting his physiology into well-beyond peak human condition.
  • Organic steel transformation/Metal Mimicry: Tony had fallen into a vat of molten steel just prior to the S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator's explosion. Instead of dying, the antimatter, dark energy, and X-elements released during the accident caused Tony to gain superhuman powers. Tony could partially or completely transform his skin into a metallic substance, enhancing his physical parameters.
    • Superhuman durability: Tony's metallic skin could withstand extreme conditions. Bullets from handguns inflicted virtually no damage on him. The Flash had to impact him at Mach 1.1 (837 mph) before he could break through Tony's skin. Tony's skin also protected him from certain amounts electricity.
    • Superhuman strength: Even without transforming, Tony was stronger than the average human of his physical build and fitness, being capable of easily lifting heavy objects such as people and oil drums. By changing his arm/s to metal, Tony's strength was elevated enough to lift and overturn a car as well as deliver punches that could smash concrete. Once fully transformed, Tony was able to tip over a large metallic shelf stacked with weights ranging from 20 to 100+ lbs with one hand. Judging by when he encountered Iris West at CC Jitters and how she complimented his looks, Tony responded that he had been "working out", implying that he was getting stronger and not yet at his peak physical form.

Weaknesses

• Human form: Tony was vulnerable as any human whilst in his civilian form.
• Extreme electricity: As metal is a great conductor for electricity, Tony could be easily incapacitated if he was struck with significantly high voltage. Farooq Gibran/Blackout's electricity powers dealt enough damage to Tony to kill him.
• Electromagnetic properties: In his zombified state, Tony was essentially "turned off" by Barry Allen transferring the current from a pair of electrodes from two of Cisco Ramon's magnets.
• Extreme force: Barry was able to harm Tony while he was in his metal form by hitting him at Mach 1.1, which knocked Tony to the ground. As such, it is possible that weapons powerful enough force could penetrate Girder's metal form.

Appearances

The Flash

Season 1

• "The Flash is Born"
• "Power Outage"
• "Grodd Lives" (mentioned)

Season 2

• "Flash Back" (pictured)
• "The Runaway Dinosaur" (reanimated corpse)

Season 6

• "Marathon" (pictured)
• "Death of the Speed Force" (pictured)

Arrow

Season 5

• "A Matter of Trust" (indirectly mentioned)

Novels

• The Flash: Hocus Pocus (mentioned)

Behind the scenes

• In the DC comics, Girder is an inmate of Iron Heights and an enemy of the Flash. His origins are similar, but, rather than being accidentally pushed into a vat of molten steel, Woodward was deliberately thrown into one, which contained pieces from S.T.A.R. Labs experiments. Also, this act was precipitated when Woodward assaulted a female co-worker, rather than his boss.
• Harrison Wells referred to Tony as "a man of steel." In the comics, this is a nickname for Superman and was used as an alias by the hero John Henry Irons when Superman was temporarily killed in the Death of Superman storyline.
• Iris West told Barry Allen that Tony had an "iron fist". Iron Fist is the name of a Marvel Comics superhero, and "Dr. Ironfist" was the nickname of Ukrainian world heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko. His brother Wladimir, the current champion, is "Dr. Steelhammer".
• In the DC comics, Girder is part of Amunet Black's Rogues, and developed an attraction to Magenta/Frances Kane, and is later ripped in half by her magnetic powers and is later welded back together the same way.