Folded Man

History

Edwin Gauss was a physics student at M.I.T. looking to definitively prove Albert Einstein's Unified field theory. After feverish effort, which included the theft of software from electronics billionaire Norman Bridges, Gauss invents a method of interdimensional travel. He developed an exoskeleton which allows his physical form to move across at least four dimensions seamlessly.

Bridges, who considers the exoskeleton Gauss developed (using Bridges own software) to be his own property, pursues Gauss to claim the technology for himself. Gauss reinvents himself as a costumed criminal named "the Folded Man". His new criminal career brings him into conflict with Wally West , the third Flash, although he has so far escaped capture.

In Infinite Crisis, Folded Man becomes a member of the Secret Society of Super Villains. Gauss would also battle against the future Bart Allen.

New 52

Folded Man is one of the escapees shown following the events after Captain Cold broke free and escaped Iron Heights. Iris West is cornered by Folded Man, alongside fellow inmates Girder and Tar Pit. They plan to take her hostage as "insurance", however Barry Allen (as the current Flash) speeds in and saves the day.

One notable difference in Folded Man's design is that his grey exoskeleton seems stitched into his actual flesh, instead of being a removable costume.

Xolani

This version of the Folded Man is actually a different person entirely. One of the Acolytes of Zoom, Xolani was a slave to diamond miners in the reaches Southern Africa in the 1800's. Struck by lightning and imbued with the Speed Force, Xolani had gained the ability to teleport vast distances and used this ability to steal from his would be captors. Reasoning that they would no longer enslave his people (along with him and his wife) if they could not profit, Xolani regularly raided their cache of diamonds and would hide them away as he stashed them in a cave.

Despite how careful he was to hide away his stolen diamonds, his wife would find and keep one that Xolani had unknowingly left by accident, leading to the slavers finding it and killing his entire village while he was away. Approached by Zoom and Magali, he was offered a chance for revenge and a chance to master his abilities, which he accepted. Unbeknownst to him, Zoom had actually set this up from the beginning, using his super speed to misplace one of the diamonds that were stolen in his wife's bed. And then tipped off the Slavers to search Xolani's village, all in his scheme to recruit all of his Acolytes touched by the Speed Force in an attempt to kill the Flash (Barry Allen).

The Acolytes would disband shortly after Barry defeating them and exposing Eobard's involvement in each of their respective tragedies, despite Xolani almost killing Barry by teleporting him to the bottom of the ocean instantly.

Powers and Abilities

In his Post Crisis self, Gauss within his exoskeleton was capable of teleporting anywhere within the 3rd dimension by shifting to the 4th, allowing him to seemingly disappear from reality altogether when in actuality he was merely crossing from one dimension to the other. This allowed him complete unpredictability in terms of where he could attack from and how, making him almost untouchable even to the perspective of highly skilled speedsters. Gauss could also drag other people with him into the 4th dimension, which trapped them there unless they escaped with his own suit. When attacking from the 4th dimension, Gauss's limbs and head became enlarged, and were dangerous enough to smash people if they weren't careful.

As well as this, Gauss could convert people into 2-dimensional shapes, which killed them instantly, as well as doing so to himself, which made him able to slide around objects and be immune to physical harm. He wasn't completely safe as physical attacks could still hurt him (if he wasn't completely phased within the 4th dimension) and in theory, anything that would effect electrical objects would be able to disable the suit.

The new Folded Man from the N52 was changed somewhat: his powers were meta-based, not tech, and rather than shifting dimensions, this Folded Man merely stretches his body to extreme proportions to achieve the same teleporting effect by shifting space-time, sometimes by shoving people into his stretched body himself to forcefully teleport them. As he stated himself, his range is to the moon and back, through it's unknown if he could actually teleport to the moon, or if this is merely a figure of speech to showcase how versatile his powers are.