The end of last season on The Flash saw Barry sacrifice himself to the Speed Force. While we know that Barry will come back to Central City in the upcoming fourth season we don’t know what to expect from Barry when he returns.
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With the Speed Force being integral to the powers of all speedsters it begs the question: will Barry have new powers when he emerges from the Speed Force?
In comic books, the various speedsters to wear the mantle of The Flash have a wide range of powers attributed to their speed and while we have seen Barry’s abilities grow and evolve since the first season there are abilities that haven’t been fully revealed or explored in The CW series. While we wait for The Flash to return both to television and to Central City, here are some of the comic book powers we could see when Barry exits the Speed Force.
Running at the speed of light
Barry is fast, but as we saw last season he’s not really the Fastest Man Alive. Wally West is a little faster than Barry is and Savitar was faster than both Flash and Kid Flash. But in comics, we’ve seen The Flash go even faster, to the point of being able to move at the speed of light.
In Mark Millar and Grant Morrison’s “Through the Looking Glass,” Wally West’s Flash has only 15 minutes to save Linda Park from the Mirror Master. Wally is able to run at the speed of light to save Linda and even manages to get in a couple of trips to Singapore in the process.
With Barry being in the Speed Force it would make sense for him to come out with a stronger connection to it, one that might allow him to increase his speed and finally be fast enough.
Speed constructs
Green Lanterns can conjure constructs thanks to their power rings, but the Lanterns aren’t the only characters in the DC Universe who can do that. The Flash can, too. In comics Wally West’s later Flash costume was itself a construct of the Speed Force itself and while that’s a cool trick, he could make other things as well. Wally’s Flash has used this ability to create an armored version of his suit as well as to repair it and create pockets, though the effort and concentration required to craft these constructs makes the ability a little inefficient.
When Barry emerges from the Speed Force, his time being spent inside of it might give him a better understanding of how it works, allowing him this new skill. And even if building things out of the Speed Force might be a little too complicated to use in a fight, a Speed Force construct suit would undoubtedly be an upgrade.
Speed stealing
Yes, in the second season of The Flash Zoom stole Barry’s speed. But Zoom required science in the way of a special transmitter to be able to take Barry’s connection to the Speed Force and then had to inject it like a drug to utilize it. In comics, however, speedsters can steal speed far more effectively. They can simply siphon the motion or momentum from people and even objects, allowing them to enhance their own speed. But a more significant side effect of speed theft is that it can potentially stop the person being robbed.
Barry emerging from the Speed Force with the ability to siphon speed would be a fitting new skill considering that he’s struggled to be fast enough against both Zoom and Savitar in previous seasons. However, we’d like to see Wally develop this skill. It would be a way for Kid Flash to set himself apart from The Flash and give him his own, unique niche on Team Flash.
Infinite mass punch
Technically we may have already seen this power hinted at on the show. When Flash does battle with Solivar in “Attack on Gorilla City” Barry is able to knock the gorilla out using a vibrating punch, but in the comics Flash, can punch even harder than that.
Introduced in Grant Morrison’s JLA, The Flash is able to use the Speed Force to deliver something called Infinite Mass Punch, letting the speedster hit opponents with a mass equal to that of a white dwarf star. That’s right, with a punch like that even Superman would be no match for the Flash. Of course, a hit that hard would also come with major damage, which could be fun to explore on the show as well.
The Flash returns October 10th on The CW.
