A
villain published by
DC Comics.
The Top first appeared in
The Flash #122 in 1962.
Roscoe Dillon was a professional criminal. Realizing that he would
never achieve the level of success he wanted as a normal criminal,
he decided to become a supervillain, but needed an edge. He had
always been fond of toy tops as a child, and decided that spinning
would be a cool gimmick, and so designed a costume and some weapons
based on tops and named himself The Top. Dillon was not the
brightest of criminals.
Inexplicably, the Top's early crimes were a success. He became
rather infamous and decided to strike in Central City, putting
him in conflict with Barry Allen, the Silver Age Flash.
Dillon was defeated and sent to jail and upon his release began
working with other foes of the Flash as part of the Rogues Gallery.
He also began to date Captain Cold's sister, Lisa Snart who
was also a professional ice skater.
During this time, Dillon found that spinning increased his intelligence.
Why this happened and how has never been properly explained, but
never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Dillon began to use
his new intelligence to plan craftier and more elaborate crimes, but
continued to be defeated by the Flash. Eventually, Dillon's mind
developed the ability of mind over matter and he realized that this
might be the key to finally defeating the Flash. What the Top had
not taken into account was that his new powers also made him highly
sensitive to the Flash's vibrations and on his first outing with his
new powers, the Flash's vibrations caused his brain to overheat
and him to die.
Roscoe was not going to let a little thing like death keep him out
of the game though. He has revisited the land of the living on
a number occasions, taking over the bodies of the recently deceased.
He first attempted to kill the Flash by taking over the body of
Barry Allen's father, who had been caught in a car accident and
who had died for a minute. The Flash tricked Dillon into trying
to possess him and allowed the Flash's father to return to his body.
Years later, the Top tricked the hero Hawk of Hawk and Dove into
helping him, convincing Hawk that he was Hawk's brother Don. The
Top caused a car accident that killed U.S. Senator Thomas O'Neil
and he jumped into O'Neil's body. The Top used O'Neil to attempt
to become president, by running as vice-president and then killing
his running mate. He was stopped by the new Flash Wally West and
presently is imprisoned in a mental institution.