The Flash's season 6 villain Bloodwork is based on a surprisingly unique comic book character named Dr. Ramsey
CW’s 'The Flash' has had some great villains over the years including the Reverse-Flash, Zoom, and Captain Cold. In many ways, the bad guys drive the show forward as their schemes force Barry Allen to confront the limits of his powers and the trauma of his childhood experiences.
The show unveiled its new villain in a teaser trailer released during the San Diego Comic-Con 2019. The short clip revealed the big bad to be Dr. Ramsey (played by Sendhil Ramamurthy), who also goes by the name Bloodwork. The panel revealed that there will be two big bads in this season and Bloodwork will be the first.
Season six will reportedly introduce Dr. Ramsey as an old acquaintance of Dr. Caitlin Snow, the S.T.A.R. labs bio-engineer who is also the villain/antihero known as Killer Frost.
Bloodwork is a relatively new addition to the Flash's rogues gallery, having only been introduced after the 'New 52' reboot of the DC comics. In the books, Ramsey Rosso is a mortician working in the Central City Morgue. The show seems to have changed his job profile to make him an oncologist but we don't know what else is different between the character and his comic book counterpart.
The Flash has a hard time fighting Bloodwork in the comics because of the villain’s unique skillset. Bloodwork has the power to transform his entire body into a blob-like creature made of blood. In this form, he is essentially indestructible, which is particularly useful for him because he is a hemophiliac and the slightest cut or injury could cause him to bleed to death.
Apart from the control he has over his own body, Bloodwork can also generate more blood and take control of the blood in the veins of his enemies, forcing it to congeal, coagulate, and even burn. With powers like that, it’s a miracle the Flash ever managed to stop him.
The only way to bring Bloodwork down is to slow his heart. His powers are tied directly to his heartbeat - the faster his heart, the more blood he can generate. That's not much of a weakness, seeing as his powers would, therefore, get more effective in the heat of battle and it’s not like Barry can force-feed him a calming cup of tea to take him out.
In the comics, the Flash defeats Bloodwork by using the Negative Speed Force to temporarily stop his heart. The Speed Force’s darker twin has already been introduced on the show so it shouldn’t be a huge stretch to imagine Barry using it to stop this menace.
However, using both the Speed Force and the Negative Speed Force simultaneously causes Barry’s body to deteriorate in the comics, almost killing him in the process. If Barry is going to die or disappear during 'Crisis on Infinite Earths', there’s a pretty good chance it might have something to do with the Negative Speed Force and his encounter with Bloodwork.
