The Flash is known for having an assortment of costumed criminals who try tirelessly to stop him or bring down Central City, but few have hurt the Scarlet Speedster the way that Savitar has.
While the Flash has faced the likes of Captain Cold, Captain Boomerang, Trickster, and Weather Wizard, Savitar poses a more immediate threat as a speedster whose powers rival that of a god. This puts him among the ranks of high-level threats such as Godspeed, Black Flash, and Reverse-Flash, supervillains who can keep up with — and, at times, beat — the Flash at his own high-speed game. In order to understand Savitar, it’s best to start at the beginning.
Savitar’s comic book origin story
Savitar’s first appearance was in The Flash #108 (1995) by Mark Waid and Oscar Jimenez. He was a Cold War military pilot from a third-world country who was elected to test an experimental supersonic aircraft. When he was flying at top speed, he was struck by Speed Force lightning, and his aircraft went down. He recovers from the wreckage unharmed and realizes that he has superspeed and he uses it to make quick work of the foreign soldiers surrounding him. He gives himself the name Savitar, the god of motion. He becomes obsessed with speed, it becomes his religion, and he researches new methods of enhancing his abilities. He learns to create null-inertia force fields that protect him, metabolizes his injuries to heal instantly, grant others speed, and transfer kinetic energy to objects or people. His efforts gain devout followers as Flash soon learns.
At this time, Wally West was the Flash, and Barry Allen was still presumed dead following the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths. Wally is having a date at a restaurant outside with Linda Park when he notices ninjas appear out of nowhere. These are Quicktime Ninjas, and no one else can see them except Wally because they move at hyper speed. Wally defeats them, using his skills and nearby kitchen utensils to do so. Shortly thereafter, Jay Garrick and Jesse Quick arrive on the scene and blame him for their loss of speed since Wally’s the one that mainlines the Speed Force, but he knows he’s not to blame for this.
The Flash interrogates one of the Quicktime Ninjas by hanging him over the side of a building Batman-style, and the ninja admits that he was sent by Savitar. The lord of speed has stripped the unworthy of their swiftness and has transferred it instead into Thunderbolts Agents to eliminate all true students of the lightning. The Flash realizes Bart Allen/Impulse is on that list, and he and his team go to find him surrounded by Savitar’s acolytes. Wally defeats them too, even with his limited speed since he had to share it with his fellow speedsters.
Senior member Max Mercury is missing, and they search through his notes and learn that Savitar approached Johnny Thunder with questions about the Speed Force. When Savitar wasn’t given a good enough answer, he attacks. Max and Johnny team up, but Savitar is faster than them, but Max outthinks him. He brought him to the edge of the Speed Force and altered his path, throwing him into the timestream. Max noted it would be a while before Savitar would return, but when he does there will be a holy war. Max escapes from Savitar’s castle and tells Wally that it’s up to him to stop Savitar, and Wally sees that a map to Savitar’s castle is marked on Max’s body.
The Flash takes Jesse Quick to Savitar’s castle. As Flash fights Savitar, Jesse battles Lady Savage. The Flash and Savitar speed off out of the castle and travel all across the country, battling at super speed. Savitar throws everything he has at the Flash and endangers innocent civilians and the lives of Flash’s team with all of his powers. Running out of options, Wally gives the villain what he wants and brings him into the Speed Force. Savitar becomes one with the Speed Force and can no longer harm anyone in this state, ending Savitar’s reign of high-speed terror.
Savitar in the Arrowverse
Savitar appeared in the Arrowverse during season three of The Flash as the main antagonist. After Barry went back in time to save his mother from the Reverse-Flash, he created an alternate timeline dubbed “Flashpoint.” Barry realizes that this new timeline isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, but every time he tries to correct it, there’s always something off. Jay Garrick has a talk with him about his Speed Force malfeasance, and he has to learn to live with the mistakes he’s made because it can never be as it was.
The speedster known as the Rival gains his powers back from a villain named Alchemy. He is Savitar’s herald who uses the Philosopher Stone, a condensed piece of Speed Force used to create more meta-humans, but the Flash still soundly beats him. After he’s put in his cell, Savitar appears and kills Rival. Similar to his comic book incarnation, Savitar is going after speedsters.
Barry has visions of Savitar murdering the love of his wife, Iris West, after he’s flung into the future and sees it for himself. the Flash and Savitar race through Central City, but the Scarlet Speedster is outmatched by the God of Speed. Caitlin Snow/Killer Frost and Cisco Ramon/Vibe show up to lend Barry a hand, but the villain escapes, leaving Barry to lick his wounds and come up with a plan to stop Savitar.
The Flash teams up with Jay Garrick, and they find Alchemy. Together they defeat him and put the Philosopher’s Stone, the source of Savitar’s power, in a box, and the evil speedster disappears. Savitar’s still able to influence others even while he’s trapped, and he curses Cisco to have visions of his dead brother, but Caitlin breaks him out of it. Savitar then possesses Barry’s new lab partner and Team Flash member Julian Fellowes and warns that one of them will fall.
Savitar is actually trapped in the Speed Force, and Team Flash discusses how to defeat him. Wall West/Kid Flash has been having his own visions of Savitar and throws a piece of the Philosopher’s Stone in the Speed Force to solve their problems. Instead of killing him, Savitar returns and switches places with Wally West and still threatens to come after Iris.
Barry takes a trip into the Speed Force where he experiences his worst memory, saves Wally from the Speed Force, and Jay switches places with Wally. Barry even goes into the future to get some advice from the future Team Flash, but they’re all in a bad way and don’t offer much help. Barry finally puts it all together and realizes that the only way for Savitar to know as much as he did was if he was a future version of himself. He’s always been one step ahead of him. The Flash calls out Savitar in the middle of the street, and the supervillain arrives. Savitar doesn’t just know what happens to Team Flash; he remembers everything because he was there. Savitar’s armor opens up, and a scarred Barry emerges and admits to being the future Flash.
Savitar is a time remnant, a temporal duplicate Barry inadvertently made when he defeated Zoom. The Flash’s duplicate died saving the Multiverse. However, when he created Flashpoint, Savitar slaughtered all of the time remnants so he was the last one standing. Team Flash rejected him as an aberration, so he decided to become a god. He wants to kill Iris to turn Barry into a version of himself.
Savitar pretends to cooperate with the good guys only to set the Philosopher’s Stone to explode and destroy S.T.A.R. Labs. Killer Frost turns evil and teams up with Savitar while Flash, Kid Flash, and Vibe mount their attack. Team Flash develops the Speed Force bazooka to destroy Savitar, but he’s just too fast. Savitar captures Iris, but Flash isn’t fast enough to stop him before he pierces her with his blade. Only, it’s not actually Iris; it’s H.R., Team Flash’s “idea man” from Earth-19, who used a body-morphing device. Iris is still alive, but Savitar has taken the Speed Force bazooka.
Savitar rejoins Killer Frost in the forest and creates a Speed Force splicer that unleashes Black Flash, the speedster of death, and Frost shatters him with her ice power to complete Savatar’s transformation into a god. Frost hits Savitar with the Speed Force bazooka to empower him, but Vibe uses his powers to bring Jay Garrick out of the portal and the ascension is stopped. Flash, Kid Flash, and Jay attack Savitar together, racing through the forest at superspeed. Vibe forgives Killer Frost, turning her good again. Iris finishes him off after he’s weakened with a bullet to Savitar’s back. The Flash jumps into Savitar, pushing his future form out, but instead of killing himself, the good Barry breaks the Savitar armor, and Iris shoots the future Barry in the back, killing him.