Is there a Doctor Alchemy on this flight?
Every Flash-Fan, whether you watched the CW series or simply are a comic fan-whatever, knows Dr Alchemy
Albert Desmond is undoubtly the most popular one as he's "the 1st Doctor" and has been serving this role non-stop pretty much since 2004, but there were some "proteges" I'd like to delve into, hence this post will be about nearly everything
So, once upon a time in popculture there used to exist this trope of "opposite twins":
-Samantha & Serena in Bewitched (which seems to be the primal source of this trend),
-Wayne & Lucien from The Cramp Twins and many many more
July '80; in The Flash #287
Cary Bates starts the arc with Dr Alchemy's attack at the lab in CCPD. Naturally, the last wearer of the mantle - Al Desmond, comes first to Barry's mind, although he doesn't want to believe that Al would revert to his criminal career
'cause here's the thing: Mister Element appeared in Showcase #13 whereas Dr Alchemy debuted in Showcase #14, where even Flash pointed out the quick change in Desmond's alter ego
What's even more interesting, it seemed like Al just "wanted to be" a criminal
Since then, Al did his time in prison, became a model citizen...
Well, it wasn't perfect, because he happened to have few relapses now and then, whether he:
was mind-controlled by Professor Zoom [The Flash #147]
was possesed by this "evil star" that aCtUalLy had been influencing his mental condition from the beginning [The Flash #216]
orrr was possesed by a demon? [The Flash #230]
In The Flash #153 Albert feels an urge towards doing evil, hence he behaves compulsively, firstly imitating having a gun, attempting to rob a restaurant and then suiting up in Element's costume
He later returns as Mr Element in order to rescue Flash, simultaneously deceiving Thawne ['cause Zoom believed that was the result of his "evil-making machine"]
Fortunately, Barry takes Al to 25th century, where the latter goes through some "electro-re-education programme"
[at least it worked all right here, right Alex DeLarge?]
Later on, Al relinquishes
"the Dr Alchemy-self" in The Flash #230
[aight, I know, sorry for this long interlude but I found it necessary to include it - now back to #287]
Upon meeting Desmonds, Rita - Al's wife, reveals that her husband's been absent at the time of Alchemy's assault, further increasing Barry's suspicion; police arrives, takes Albert to custody and not long after - Dr Alchemy escapes, ultimately leading Allen to a terryfying conclusion
But, reaching the final page, the reader finds out that
Soooo the new Dr Alchemy is an Al Desmond. Both Desmonds happen to be "astral/platonic twins":
-they both were born into Desmond families [although they aren't really related]
-they both are fond of chemistry
-they have the same voice
And the most interesting aspect about their "connection" - while one is a good citizen, the other tends to behave violently, albeit this doesn't explain Al's becoming a criminal in the first place
and yeah, second-Albert created a hypnotic serum, which he named...desmondium
As the second-Albert battles and seemingly wins over Flash, he proudly reveals his secret. Barry obviously gets out of the trap, but at least now his mind is at ease about Albert. Talking about Albert, what's up with him?
[*sets "Without me" by Eminem]
That's right, Mr Element's back in action, but despite his previous returns, this time Al ain't sinister nor controlled - he's deliberately a good guy, whose only goal is to stop Dr Alchemy. Albert donned his old alter ego as he felt responsible for Dr Alchemy's deeds
Barry learns from Rita about Alchemy's potential hideout.
And so, the final battle between Dr Alchemy, Flash and Mr Element...doesn't happen as Al's quickly rendered unconcious, but heyy, Barry's here to save the day
And so, the two pals walk into the night as Al confesses that it's over finally
Years later, Wally tries to exorcise an irish ghost out of Linda. In order to do that, they pay a visit to Albert Desmond who apparently inhabits now a goth-like mansion
So not only does he look different, but he behaves oddly, too. He's clearly obsessed with recreating the Philosopher's Stone for some reason
But what is "concerning" is his usage of that stone; Alvin seems out of practice, sloppy and uncreative when it comes to choosing the post-transformed product; he makes a few pauses, ponders too long over what the Stone can transform things into
To put it simply, isolation & obession drove him even more insane, rendering him insensible
But well, Wally manages to defeat him; he and Linda find the real Albert Desmond
poor guy...well anyway, hopefully this time it's really ov--
Alvin somehow breaks out [only leaving a salty statue of himself behind in the cell] and creates chaos for kicks, but suprisingly - this time he utilises the Philosopher Stone's powers quite well even going as far as to defeating Wally
Simultaneously Albert returns as Mr Element, but it still isn't enough to beat Alvin
Then a slight retcon happens while Wally realizes that Alvin is pretty much just a manifestation of Al's evilness with fake memories implemented by the Stone itself. In result, Al accepts the reality and destroys Alvin once and for all - FOR REAL this time
In Who's who in DC Universe #14 we find out that, sadly, after retrieving the Philosopher Stone, Albert started to become more and more seduced by his artefact
And it looks like he gave in, 'cause he appears few times in Waid's run
When Johns took over, he made Albert into a stereotypical mystic, who spends a lot of time on reading and practising alchemy [even his cell's been decorated in goth-theme] and he stays this way till N52&Rebirth
But before I get to that "version", lemme talk a bit about the third Alchemy - perhaps the lest known, Curtis Engstrom. He worked as an advisor on a S.T.A.R. Labs project that would use Philosopher's Stone's special properties to cure blood diseases. He of course stole both the device and the Stone. In prison he met a guy, who later tricked him, stealing the device from the first thief. Curtis decided to get his revenge on the guy, got the Philosopher's Stone, calling himself the Alchemist. Engstrom, despite lack of experience, cleverly uses the Stone's power i.e. by creating copper stalagmites while it's raining [electricity conducive] or by lacing an area with thin molybdenum strings [sharp enough to slice Flash]
Engstrom only appears in two issues -
The Flash #71-72
In Rebirth Albert does appear a few times. In The Flash #764-766 Albert tricks Barry into wielding Philosopher's Stone in order to control Flash himself; oh and he kinda absorbs Stone's powers so he doesn't physically need it anymore
A propos, depending on the issue, Albert either used the Stone to access powers or used it to channel his powers
-in The Flash #216 Al revealed that the elemental-gun only concencrated his elemental energy, although nothing like this had ever happened before
-albeit in The Flash #230 a similar thing happened, this instance regarding Dr Alchemy, thus he didn't need the Philosopher's Stone anymore
-ever since the Alchemy-excorsion, Al has been constantly using his Elemental Gun
[The Flash #41 & the coolest Mr Element design, along with his cool af machine gun]
-then in Rebirth Al initially used the Philosopher's Stone embeded in a ring, but later he acquired the Stone's powers thanks to lighzinium - a protective material layered on the Flash-ring by Barry
Additional notes:
°although mostly it's been implied that Al's identity disorder wasn't caused by the Philosopher's Stone, The Flash #765 clearly states a connection between those two aspects
°the ring from The Flash #764-766 resembles greatly the Dragon-Eye one back from #216
°intriguing, but whenever Dr Alchemy appeared in Waid's Flash-run he has never been referred to by his name; NOT ONCE
In fact in Waid's run he looks a lot more like Alvin, although considering the Who's who in DC Universe we have to think it's actually Allbert
°more interesting, The Flash vol 2 Annual 8 takes place right before Messner-Loebs' run and guess who's the villain of the week?
That's right, Dr Alchemy, whose name's never called out and in opposition to later issues we can't assume it's Albert under the mas--the hood
What's even funnier, present Wally's telling Linda that story, mentioning at the end "amazingly enough, Alchemy would eventually turn up again...and again that's another story"
If Wally'd be talking about #40-#41, then it's stupid cos Linda knows about that incident first hand cos she was there
°[*"The Man who sold the world" plays in the back*]
Thug: So uhh mr Desmond, how much of that gold do we need to transform?
baratheonpilled
dailybridgerton
janainaart
prguitarman
turnnoffyourmind
snowghoul
izzy806
gummygunk
vaporwave
areudirty
