Speedster (fiction)

Cover to The Flash vol. 2 #109 (January 1996), showing the title character, with fellow speedsters Jesse Quick, Bart Allen, and Jay Garrick in the background. Art by Oscar Jimenez.

A speedster is a superhero whose powers primarily relate to superspeed. Primary abilities shared by all speedsters include running at speeds far in excess of human capability (to varying degrees) and resistance to the sideffects (air resistance, inability to breathe, dynamic shock resulting from contact with objects at high speed, etc.) that result from such velocity. In almost all cases, speedsters are able to physically attack opponents by striking them while at high speed to impart huge amounts of kinetic energy without suffering harm, although this has on rare occasion been lampshaded by characters discovering that they cannot do this and suffering severe injury from the attempt. A variety of other powers have been attributed to speedsters depending on the story, the origin of the power, and the established continuity and rules of a given universe.

Plausibility and artistic license

The use of speedsters in fiction requires artistic license due to the laws of physics that would prohibit such abilities. Moving at the speed of sound, for example, would create sonic booms that are usually not heard in such stories. An enormous amount of energy would be required to achieve such speeds, and as some speedsters can actually move close to or at the speed of light, this would cause them to gain near-infinite mass, according to the laws of relativity.

For example, the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe states that the character Northstar maintains speeds which can be considered "modest," especially when carrying a passenger. The Handbook also concedes that a solid object moving in the Earth’s atmosphere at several times the speed of sound or faster would wreak havoc on the planet and that moving at such speeds would prohibit Northstar from breathing, while the generated wind/friction would ravage his body. On the other hand, the Handbook states that the character Quicksilver was born with adaptations that make higher speeds possible, such as enhanced cardiovascular, respiratory, musculature, and digestive systems, a more efficient metabolism, better lubricated joints, tendons with the tensile strength of spring steel, unidentified bone composition that can withstand the dynamic shock of his touching the ground at speeds over 100 miles an hour, and a brain that can process information fast enough for him to react to his surroundings at high speed.^[1]

DC Comics dispenses with such explanations with its Flash family of speedsters, who instead derive their abilities from an extradimensional energy source known as the Speed Force, which not only grants them super speed, but protects them from the ravages that would be suffered by their bodies, and grants them various other related abilities as well. (See Speed Force Powers section.) However, the Speed Force is not the source from which other DC characters with super speed such as Superman or Shazam derive their powers, although Superman is capable of using them without harm.

Writer John Byrne maintained modest abilities for the speedster character Danny Hilltop in his series John Byrne’s Next Men. Although Danny can keep pace with a race car, the friction generated by his speed melts any footwear he wears, burning his feet. Thus he runs barefoot, having toughened the soles of his feet through a regimen of pounding increasingly harder materials (sand, gravel and then broken rock).^[2] The costume he wears has a built-in guidance system.

Other writers choose not to offer any scientific explanations for the questions raised by the actual use of such abilities.

Comic book writer Peter David, whose run on the series Young Justice included the junior speedster Impulse, has opined that speedsters are inherently difficult to write, saying:

In other media

Speedsters in other media include Daphne Millbrook (played by Brea Grant), a character in the NBC television superhero drama Heroes. Daphne first appeared in that series' third season in 2008, initially as a villain.^[5]

In addition, many characters exist in other media such as film, video games, anime and manga who possess the abilities to perform feats at incredible speeds that exceed the abilities of those around them. Examples include the video game character Sonic the Hedgehog, and the animated cartoon characters Speedy Gonzales, the Road Runner, Morton of Horton Hears A Who!, several Ben 10 Aliens including XLR8, Jetray,and Fasttrack, Goku, Vegeta and several other characters of Dragon Ball, Saitama of One-Punch Man and Dash Parr of The Incredibles.

References