The new Captain Boomerang has appeared in The Flash season nine and he’s making life a lot harder for the Scarlet Speedster.
Most people know about the first Captain Boomerang, Digger Harkness, the Australian criminal who was featured in the first Suicide Squad movie and as a recurring villain in the Arrowverse — although Digger was more of a Green Arrow villain than Flash’s. The marksman threw boomerangs with lethal efficiency and had different versions of them, such as boomerangs that explode on impact. Digger was eventually killed by Malcolm Merlin when he exploded himself and Captain Boomerang, leaving the role open for the taking.
In The Flash season nine, that very thing happens. Owen Mercer, played by The 100‘s Richard Harmon, has taken up Digger’s methods and calls himself the new Captain Boomerang, but first, it’s important to know his comic book origin.
Owen Mercer comic book origin story
Owen Mercer made his first appearance in Identity Crisis by Brad Meltzer and Rags Morales. In this DC crossover event, the Justice League’s hidden secrets have come out and someone is hiring villains to kill those closest to the superheroes. Digger Harkness/Captain Boomerang is one such villain. In this story, Digger Harkness requests villainous information broker the Calculator to track down his son and the Calculator fulfills the promise. He finds his son Owen Mercer and to his surprise, Owen was impressed by his father. The two play a game of boomerang with each other and Owen is a natural, but when a razorang comes too fast at Digger, Owen uses his superspeed to catch it before it kills his father. Digger sees for himself that his son is a metahuman.
Captain Boomerang wants to impress his son and certify himself as a supervillain to be respected, so he takes the job to kill Tim Drake/Robin’s father Jack Drake. Tim and Jack were aware that villains were on the attack, and Jack was prepared with a gun in the house. While Batman and Robin were in the Batmobile, they get a message from Jack as he tells his son goodbye and Batman rushes them to Tim’s place, but they arrive too late. Jack has been impaled by boomerangs and Digger has been shot dead.
Although he loved his father and took his rogue name as the new Captain Boomerang, Owen didn’t follow in his father’s exact footsteps at first. He was introduced to the Flash’s rogues gallery given his familial connection and he became a member of the Suicide Squad. Owen had somewhat of a rivalry with Tim Drake — their fathers killed one another after all — but that was ultimately shortlived. His main team was The Outsiders led by Nightwing, a team of anti-heroes who get their hands dirty when they have to, but they stood on the side of good.
Sadly, this didn’t last. In Blackest Night by Geof Johns and Ivan Reis, the rogues fight for their lives against Black Lanterns in Iron Heights and it ends in a stalemate. Owen arrives and retrieves his father, chained his body up, and fed him victims hoping that it would bring him back to life. Instead, Captain Cold pushed him into a pit for killing women and children and breaking their code. Black Lantern Captain Boomerang ripped out his son’s heart, turning Owen into a Black Lantern and Captain Cold freezes them.
Owen Mercer in The Flash
In The Flash season nine, episode one, “Wednesday Ever After,” Barry Allen goes to work at the Central City Police Department. He speaks with Captain Kramer about a promotion. In the middle of it, a police officer enters the room and informs her that a transport is under attack downtown and Barry speeds off. Owen Mercer stands atop the transport and launches energized boomerangs at the authorities surrounding him. He opens the container and takes the portable particle accelerator. The Flash arrives to stop him and easily dodges the boomerangs that are thrown at him.
Flash contacts Allegra and asks her about this villain. Allegra tells him that Owen Mercer has been in and out of Iron Heights since he was 19 and now he’s just a “run-of-the-mill baddie,” but that couldn’t be any further from the truth. Captain Boomerang teleports away and it’s revealed later that Captain Boomerang is working for Red Death, the mysterious new supervillain speedster who wants to kill everyone the Flash loves. Red Death hired Captain Boomerang to steal the portable accelerator battery for their master plan involving the cosmic treadmill.
In The Flash season nine, episode three, “Rogues of War,” Red Death’s team has gotten bigger with the Fiddler and Murmur. The last item they need to steal is the quantum vibration engine. The Division of Defense facility that houses it has a metahuman dampener and the Flash enlists the help of other rogues to get to it before Red Death’s team does. During the battle at the facility, Captain Boomerang fights Goldface who uses his chain to knock the projectiles away. One slips past him and returns, knocking Goldface out. Captain Boomerang is impressed by Goldface and implies that he would’ve preferred that they join forces.
In the end, the two sides face off, but the Red Death speeds in before the battle commences and takes the quantum vibration energy. Red Death’s negative speed canceled out Barry’s for a few minutes and the villain was able to get away. The Flash has no idea who this is, but they’re wearing a Bat-symbol and could have a connection to Batman. Red Death is still active with a rogue army and Barry decides to keep his team of rogues around to stop them.
At this point, there’s not much reason to believe that this version of Digger Harkness’ son. There have been no connections made to the first Captain Boomerang, so for all intents and purposes, this is just a criminal who appreciated the original’s style and went with it. He also doesn’t have superspeed so he’s probably not a metahuman either, though his boomerangs are made with advanced Wayne-Tech designs with bleeding-edge nano-technology, so he’s still incredibly dangerous.