Cicada enters the Flash's life as a mysterious cult leader who's followers are dedicated to the murder of every one that the Flash has ever saved using lightning bolt shaped daggers.  He teams up with the Flash's ex, Magenta and manages to kidnap the Flash.  Cicada reveals to Wally that his wife was murdered and he was struck by lightning.  Cicada saw a vision that he was destined to live on, together with his wife.  By taking the energy left over from all the people the Flash has saved and from the Flash himself, Cicada succeeded in bringing his wife back from the dead.

However, his wife revealed that Cicada murdered her.  Cicada denyed this and killed his wife yet again by absorbing her energy through a kiss.  He was eventually stopped by the Flash and Detectives Fred Chyre and Jared Morillo, though not before he managed to slash Morillo with his knife.  This gave Morillo a healing factor, similar to Cicada's own.

Cicada was put on death row in Iron Heights (pending confirmation by STAR labs that he could even be killed in the first place) but escaped during Gorilla Grodd's jailbreak.  Cicada later appeared at Captain Boomerang's funeral and accepted an invitation to join Alex Luthor's Society during Infinite Crisis.