The Flash has, of course, always been a prime platform for evil speedsters to emerge. The Reverse Flash, Zoom, the Rival, and the upcoming Savitar have all made up a healthy stable of foes that Barry Allen must tangle with in order to protect the denizens of Central City. This season, following the creation of the new timeline “Flashpoint”, Barry has been dealing with problems emerging because of his tampering with the space time continuum. While the Rival and Dr. Alchemy have presented themselves as the main baddies so far (though the Rival being killed subsequently by the latter) the producers of the series have promised to introduce yet another villain in the form of Savitar, referring to him as “the god of motion.” While not having a huge influence on the comics, Savitar’s background is interesting, and I’m excited to see how he’ll be used in the episodes to come.

Father, Son, and Holy Speed Force

Savitar, whose real name was never actually revealed in the comics, only had around a dozen appearances in the DC universe, which for comic characters might as well be nothing at all (especially in the world of The Flash, which has thousands of issues). He first appeared in Flash Volume 2 #108 in 1995 and was created by comic book legends Mark Waid and Oscar Jimenez. What makes this evil speedster unique from the other cadre of Flash villains is his origin, as he comes from a completely different locale and mindset from characters like Captain Cold, Heatwave, or even Eobard Thawne. Rather than having an insatiable obsession with revenge against Barry Allen -- or simply wanting to rob a bank here and there -- Savitar found himself receiving his powers through his occupation as a pilot in a third world country. Similarly to DC’s Green Lantern, the villainous speedster was granted super powers during a flight when his plane was struck by lightning that originated from the Speed Force, that being the same plane of existence whose powers fuels characters like Barry Allen, Wally West, and so many other fast heroes in the DC universe.

Rather than going the altruistic route, Savitar thought his new powers made himself a god, which is why he chose his name of Savitar, as “Savitr” is the Hindu God of Motion. Deeming himself the only one worthy of the Speed Force, he began creating a cult and studying his super speed. As opposed to the other speedsters, he managed to translate his studies into creating new methods of speed powers for himself, which we’ll get into shortly. At this point in the comics, Barry Allen had been long dead following the events of the big DC crossover, Crisis on Infinite Earths, so Savitar’s main obstacle came in the form of Wally West. Deciding that the only way to grant himself and his cult followers access to the Speed Force was to kill everyone outside of his circle, he came to blows with Wally West, but eventually was granted his wish of joining directly with the source of his powers. Savitar was gone for a long time until finally re-emerging from the Speed Force, only to be inadvertently killed by Barry Allen, who had briefly become the Black Flash, the Grim Reaper for speedsters. Comic books!

 

God of Motion 

As mentioned earlier, Savitar was able to grant himself some new abilities that other wielders of the Speed Force hadn’t thought of before, thanks to his studying into the source of his powers. Aside from simply being able to run as fast as the Flash, he could also lend his powers to other people, allowing for members of his cult to access the Speed Force as well. It’s through this that Savitar was able to create an army of followers that could terrorize the world in the blink of an eye. He can also steal the speed force from others if he’s in their direct vicinity, which makes him a dangerous threat to Barry Allen or any other speedsters he happens to encounter. It’s in Savitar’s cunning and intelligence that he’s able to give so many a run for their money, as he brings entirely new difficulties to the table.

Savitar’s mastery of the Speed Force also grants him a healing factor that puts him on the same level as Marvel’s Wolverine. Now to be fair, all speedsters have a healing factor that makes their injuries disappear much faster than your average Joe, but this evil speedster’s knowledge allowed him to knock out any issues nearly as quickly as he received them. Another cool aspect of Savitar is his ability to create a “null-inertia field” which is essentially like a force field that manages to steal speed from incoming objects that are being flung his way. While the idea of an evil speedster is ground that has been tread more times than one can count at this point, the originality of Savitar’s powers and methods make for an interesting foil for the Flash in both the comics, and hopefully, the television series.

 

Cult of Personality

As mentioned earlier, Savitar has not really appeared in the comics that much, and hasn’t appeared in any media outside of them. No movies, television shows, radio dramas even have ever seen hide nor hair of the leader of the speed force cult. Even with his television appearance on the CW, we don’t know a ton about what his motivations are or even if he’ll appear close to his comic book characteristics. His origin however leads to a lot of possibilities to what could be in store for Barry Allen in the third season of the Flash, especially with the idea of a cult backing Savitar. We’ve already seen the Alchemy has devoted followers wearing similar garb to himself, so Savitar could either be the force behind the Flashpoint devotees or something entirely new.

The benefit of comic book TV shows and movies is the ability to re-work the origins of these  story’s predecessors in the comics, and create something entirely new while still being faithful to the characters and their abilities. With Savitar, there are a lot of original concepts to dig into, and since his identity was always something of a mystery, he could even be placed onto an entirely new character with similar motivations. The idea of yet another evil speedster is something that isn’t exactly the most appealing idea for the CW’s Flash, considering that the Big Bads of the past two seasons have both been evil speedsters. But if we have to go that route once again, Savitar is a good option.