In the world of superheroes and villains, speedsters are characters that possess superhuman speed and reflexes. Some of the most popular speedsters in comics are The Flash, Quicksilver, and Speed. But when it comes to the fastest and most powerful speedster of all, that title goes to none other than the Speed Force itself.
What is the Speed Force?
The Speed Force is an extra-dimensional energy field in the DC Universe that grants speedsters their powers. It is the source of their speed, momentum, and chronokinetic abilities. The Speed Force is sentient and has demonstrated intelligence, consciousness, and self-awareness.
The Speed Force first appeared in the 1990s Flash comics, where it was presented as a semi-mystical energy field that empowers speedsters. Over the years, writers have expanded on the concept, exploring the Speed Force’s role as a dimensional barrier, alternate universe, and even a god-like entity.
As a god-like being, the Speed Force requires speedsters to serve as its avatars and conduits across the mortal plane. It grants them a portion of its phenomenal power, allowing them to channel its energy through their bodies and tap into the Speed Force dimension.
The Origins of the Speed Force
The origins of the Speed Force are shrouded in mystery. As an extra-dimensional energy source, it is eternal and infinite in nature. The Speed Force has existed for eons, since the very beginning of time and space.
Some theorize the Speed Force was born at the moment of the Big Bang, the cosmic genesis that created the current DC Universe. Others believe it has always existed, even before the known universe came into being.
As an elemental power embodying motion, velocity, and acceleration, the Speed Force is one of the primal forces of existence in the DC Cosmology, on par with cosmic principles like the Emotional Spectrum, Life Equation, Source, and more.
The Speed Force’s Relationship with Speedsters
Throughout its existence, the Speed Force has empowered worthy wielders to channel slivers of its unimaginable power. Acting as a benefactor, it forms symbiotic partnerships with speedsters, linking with them on a quantum level.
The Speed Force grants speed, accelerated perceptions, time travel, dimensional breaching, and other abilities to its hosts. In exchange, it uses mortal speedsters as physical anchors to interact with the tangible world since it exists as an incorporeal entity.
This mutualistic relationship provides speed, energy, and knowledge to the speedster, while the Speed Force gains agents to manifest its will into the world. However, the link between speedster and the Speed Force goes deeper than a mere transactional bond.
The Speed Force’s Avatars
The Speed Force demonstrates favoritism towards certain speedsters, choosing more powerful conduits to express itself through. These speedsters become direct manifestations of the Speed Force’s will – its avatars. They gain greater access to the Speed Force’s energies and abilities.
Barry Allen, Wally West, Jay Garrick, Max Mercury, and Johnny Quick are some of its most prominent avatars. As living embodiments of the Speed Force, they wield its power to a phenomenal degree compared to other speedsters.
In essence, the Speed Force’s avatar speedsters are physical incarnations of itself, empowered to carry out its agenda in the mortal world. They act as the Speed Force’s hands, changing reality as it desires.
The Speed Force’s Consciousness
The Speed Force possesses its own consciousness, personality, and intelligence. It has demonstrated the ability to think, experience emotions, and make decisions like any other sentient being.
The Speed Force directly communicates with speedsters through visions, dreams, and mental connections. At times, it manifests itself visually to speedsters as well – most often in the form of their deceased loved ones.
It also expresses desires, giving missions and directives to its avatars. The Speed Force thinks on inscrutable timescales, often engineering events and outcomes millennia in advance to suit some mysterious cosmic agenda.
The Powers of the Speed Force
As a fundamental force of reality, the Speed Force possesses limitless power,only a fraction of which is channeled through mortal speedsters.
The Speed Force generates inexhaustible energy quanta that it distributes to its conduits. This is the source of a speedster’s enhanced speed and reaction time. The Speed Force energy also grants accelerated regenerative healing, metabolism, and electrical generation.
Reality warping is among the Speed Force’s many talents. It manipulates spacetime, the fabric of existence, to achieve outcomes like vibrating through objects, time travel, dimensional transport, and more.
As an eternal cosmic force, the Speed Force exists across all timelines simultaneously. This omnitemporality allows it to alter the past, present, and future as it desires. Its avatars can access this timeline manipulation ability in controlled ways.
The Speed Force exhibits extrasensory, empathic, and cosmic awareness. It can perceive events across time and space through intrinsic omniscience. The Speed Force uses this foreknowledge to guide its avatars and further its inscrutable purposes.
When needed, the Speed Force can manifest its full power, altering reality itself on a macroscopic scale. It has overwritten universal histories, merged timelines, and transformed universes to preserve its own existence.
Notable Feats of the Speed Force
Here are some notable reality-warping feats the Speed Force has achieved:
- Resurrected and granted powers to Johnny Quick when he was killed by Savitar.
- Transported Max Mercury through time to the 20th century.
- Granted abilities to those it found worthy, like the original Liberty Belle.
- Empowered Jay Garrick when the god Mercury could no longer sustain his powers.
- Saved Barry Allen from the Anti-Monitor’s antimatter cannon during the Crisis on Infinite Earths.
- Absorbed the kinetic energy from the planet Apokolips hurtling towards Earth.
- Temporarily froze Professor Zoom in time for murdering Sue Dibny.
- During Flashpoint, merged the DC, Vertigo, and Wildstorm timelines to form the New 52 universe.
- Granted Wally West abilities through an extra-dimensional shard of itself.
The Speed Force and Other Gods
The Speed Force interacts with other godly figures and cosmic forces in the DC Universe as well. Despite its immense power, the Speed Force respects the domains of fellow fundamental forces like the Emotional Spectrum, Life Equation, Source, and more.
However, when other divine beings like Krona, Superboy-Prime, or Perpetua threaten reality, the Speed Force has intervened to stop them. It lends its strength to defeat these beings when necessary.
The Speed Force has aided DC’s more benevolent gods too. It enhanced the powers of Captain Marvel and the Marvel family on behalf of the wizard Shazam. During Crisis on Infinite Earths, it worked with the Guardians of the Universe’s gambit to stop the Anti-Monitor.
In fact, some texts hint that the Speed Force may have contributed to creating the DC Universe itself after the previous Multiverse was destroyed, implying its powers rival even the mightiest gods.
The Speed Force vs. Other Speed Deities
The Speed Force has interacted and clashed with other divine beings associated with velocity as well:
| Deity | Relationship to Speed Force |
|---|---|
| Savitar | Rogue avatar who became a speed god in some timelines but was ultimately absorbed back into the Speed Force. |
| Mercury | Roman god who originally empowered Jay Garrick before the duties passed to the Speed Force. |
| Superboy-Prime | Kryptonian speedster who sought to control all speedsters until he was imprisoned by the Speed Force. |
| Iris West | Briefly became the speed deity known as the Goddess of Death, but her powers stemmed from the Speed Force itself. |
| Kid Zoom | Tried to remake reality using Speed Force powers but was ultimately absorbed into the Speed Force. |
As these examples illustrate, the Speed Force remains the supreme authority regarding speedster abilities in the DC Universe.
When Has the Speed Force Intervened Most?
The Speed Force operates in mysterious ways for inscrutable purposes. But its most direct interventions occur when:
- A massive cosmic threat like the Anti-Monitor or Perpetua endangers reality – it will empower its avatars or act directly to preserve the timestream.
- A rogue speedster goes unchecked – it will depower or absorb malicious speedsters who abuse its gifts.
- Important historical events risk unraveling – it will guide its conduits to preserve the timestream.
- A new Avatar proves worthy – it will grant them greater power to carry out its will.
The common theme is the Speed Force takes action when its agenda faces interference. Whether reality, history, or its own conduits are threatened, the Speed Force quickly intervenes to protect itself and the greater DC Universe.
The Flash: DC’s Greatest Speedster Avatar
While the Speed Force has several worthy avatars, its greatest is undoubtedly Barry Allen, the second Flash. Barry’s connection to the Speed Force runs deeper than any other speedster.
Barry is the paragon of all the Speed Force embodies – righteousness, selflessness, compassion. In many timelines, Barry created the Speed Force by tapping into the timestream’s energies during the accident that gave him powers.
The two share an inseparable destiny. Some speculate that Barry is destined to ultimately merge with the Speed Force completely, becoming one with its consciousness. This may be the culmination of the Speed Force’s grand design.
As the Flash, Barry channels more raw Speed Force energy than any speedster. He exceeds even Wally West in speed feats like phasing, time travel, dimensional breaching, and more. The Speed Force trusts Barry with its full power because they share an intrinsic bond.
When the Speed Force requires a mortal form to carry out its will, it manifests as Barry Allen. From major events like Flashpoint to more personal moments, Barry acts as the Speed Force’s hand reshaping destiny itself.
The Flash’s Greatest Speed Force Feats
Barry Allen has accomplished some of the Speed Force’s most impressive reality-warping feats:
- Went back in time to save his mother, creating the Flashpoint timeline.
- Ran faster than light to break the Anti-Monitor’s antimatter cannon.
- Outraced death itself to the end of time to save Wally West.
- Vibrated his molecules at infinite frequency to enter the Speed Force dimension.
- Defeated Superboy-Prime with Wally West by dragging him into the Speed Force.
- Used the Infinite Mass Punch powered by kinetic energy from the entire Speed Force.
Barry’s status as the Speed Force’s prime conduit allows him to achieve the impossible consistently. When a crisis threatens time itself, the Flash summons the Speed Force’s ultimate power.
Is the Speed Force Really a God?
The sheer scope of the Speed Force’s abilities prompt an obvious question – can an energy field, even a sentient one, qualify as a true god? By many definitions, the answer seems to be yes:
- It has a conscious intelligence and willful agenda.
- It exists outside normal time and space.
- It has displayed creational powers, like forming new timelines.
- It possesses enough power to reshape existence itself.
- It channels this power through mortal forms it empowers.
- It interacts with multiple other godly figures in the DC Universe.
The Speed Force checks all the boxes for godhood. While it doesn’t seek worshippers, it behaves akin to a supreme being steering the destiny of its chosen people – speedsters.
Conclusion
The mysterious Speed Force is more than just the source of speedsters’ abilities. It is a fundamental force of creation that has directed the DC cosmos since the dawn of time. While its full capabilities and purpose remain unknown, it has proven to wield power equaling the mightiest beings in existence.
As the God of Speedsters, the Speed Force governs entropy, velocity, time, and destiny itself. It acts through avatars like The Flash but also intervenes directly when necessary to preserve its agenda. If the endless battle between good and evil threatens existence, the Speed Force tips the balance – flashpointing reality into whatever shape it requires.
The Speed Force’s relationship with speedsters transcends transactional logic or mere physics. It is the patron deity of speed, granting power in exchange for acts of stewardship over time itself. Through faithful conduits like Barry Allen, it ensures the timeline unfolds as foreseen in its unknowable cosmic plan.