Savitar (comics)

Savitar is a fictional supervillain published by DC Comics. He first appeared in Flash (vol. 2) #108 (December 1995), and was created by Mark Waid and Oscar Jimenez.

Fictional character biography

A Cold War pilot for a third-world nation, the man who would become known as Savitar was to test a supersonic fighter jet. As he reached top speed, his plane was struck by what appeared to be lightning, and he went down in hostile territory. Discovering he could defeat the enemy by moving at super-speed, he became obsessed with it, naming himself after Savitr, the Hindu "god of motion", and dedicating his life to unlocking its secrets. As Savitar studied, he discovered new powers that no other living speedster has mastered. He can protect himself in a null-inertia force field, give speed and kinetic energy to objects or people, even those in a "rest state", and he could also heal his own injuries almost instantly.

Savitar’s obsession gained followers, and he became the leader of a cult. In search of more knowledge, he sought out the only super-speed hero operating at the time: Johnny Quick. This encounter became a battle, the tide of which was turned with the arrival of Max Mercury, who led Savitar toward the Speed Force, but caused him to bounce off.

Savitar reappeared decades later to find that his cult had grown in his absence, awaiting his return. He recruited former Blue Trinity member Lady Flash (Christina Alexandrova), and discovered a way to use her speed to divert all energy from the Speed Force to his own army of ninjas. He then sought to eliminate the competition: Flash (Wally West), Impulse, Golden Age Flash (Jay Garrick), Johnny Quick, Jesse Quick, XS, and especially, Max Mercury.

Fortunately, Wally’s direct line to the Speed Force prevented Savitar from stealing his speed, and a coalition of just about every speedster (except for Red Trinity), foiled his plans. Hell-bent on at least destroying the Flash’s world in retribution, he led him on a worldwide race of destruction, until Flash chose to give Savitar what he wanted: union with the Speed Force. His earlier encounter had shown him that the others who had arrived before would deal with Savitar as they saw fit.

In The Flash Rebirth mini-series, Savitar was able to escape from the Speed Force. He was run down by the recently returned to life Barry Allen; however, when Barry touches him, Savitar disintegrates, leaving only a pile of bones.^[1] It is revealed that Professor Zoom altered the Speed Force and Barry to make the Flash shift in reverse, cursed to kill every Speed Force user with a single touch, though it seemed to be undone by the defeat of Professor Zoom during the conflict between the two speedsters.^[2] Thus far, Savitar, Lady Flash (Lady Savitar at the time) and Johnny Quick have been killed by this effect.^[3][4]

Powers and abilities

Savitar can move at super speed, and is able to lend or steal speed from moving objects. He has accelerated healing due to increased metabolism and can generate a full inertia force field.

In other media

Television

• Savitar appears as the main antagonist in season three of The CW's live-action television series The Flash. As the self-proclaimed "God of Speed", Savitar has a cult of followers led by Doctor Alchemy, his chief acolyte. A speedster who wears metallic cybernetic armor that covers his entire body, this version of Savitar's costume differs greatly from his comic book counterpart's. Commentators saw similarities between Savitar’s depiction on the show with Megatron from Michael Bay’s Transformers films, Sauron from The Lord of the Rings, and Daniel West.^[5][6]
  • For as-of-yet unknown reasons, he is invisible to everyone except for Barry Allen / The Flash. He makes a brief appearance at the end of the episode "Paradox", when he breaks into Edward Clariss' cell to kill him for his failure in defeating the Flash. Savitar later makes his official debut in "Shade", where he reveals himself to the Flash at Alchemy's lair. In the following episode "Killer Frost", Savitar drags the Flash around Central City and severely beats him, but Caitlin Snow arrives and uses her new powers to freeze Savitar, forcing him to retreat once he frees himself. Savitar then makes contact with a hospitalized Julian Albert, who is a CSI of the Central City Police Department, and it is revealed that Albert is secretly his servant Alchemy.

References

External links

• Savitar entry on DCDatabaseProject
• Arrowverse entry for Savitar