The Flash season 5: Who is Godspeed? Breaking down next big villain
So … who is Godspeed? What does he mean for The Flash? Why bring him in now? Yes, we understand fully that this is a lot of questions, but we’re going to get to many of them over the course of this article.
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Who is Godspeed in the comics?
August Heart is a fairly recent character within the world of the comics — he’s only been around a few years! Heck, The Flash as a television series has been around longer. Yet, he’s made the most of his time in the source material, becoming a notable villain or antihero who uses his super-speed to achieve his own goals, including revenge for who he believed was responsible for his brother’s murder.
Speedster villains within the world of The Flash are pretty much everywhere, but what makes Godspeed slightly special is that he has a personal relationship with Barry — it’s different than the show’s interpretation of Zoom (a psychopath from another Earth) or Savitar (a time remnant of Barry himself). He’s a little closer to Eobard Thawne, who had a relationship with Barry under the guise of Earth-1 Harrison Wells.
Remember that The Flash the TV show is more than likely to make some huge deviations to the source material. Their version of Savitar is hardly similar to the comic-book one at all! They can and most likely will do whatever they want, but it’d be nice to keep an emotional component to the character … though we don’t exactly know an August Heart in the TV universe. They’d have to find some other way to make that work.
What are his powers?
Much like Barry, he has super-speed and can move around within the speed force. He’s also capable of creating temporary duplicates of himself and drawing speed-force energy from other speedsters. It seems like being a speedster on The Flash is kinda like being an artist — everyone has a palette and a lot of different colors, but everyone is going to find a way to create a different picture with it.
Why debut the character now?
This is an excellent question, given that Godspeed has legitimate Big Bad potential — there was even talk that he’d be the main villain this season! That title went instead to Cicada, who has been a little hit-and-miss so far this year. You don’t typically debut villains in the middle of a season unless they’re serving as one-offs … though this could be the show opting to do things a little bit differently.
One thing that we have seen as of late within the world of The Flash is them implanting stories and people who matter down the road. Think back to the DeVoe references in season 4, or the appearances of Nora West-Allen before we even knew her name. Perhaps we meet Godspeed now as a precursor to him being a Big Bad down the line! The one mitigating factor is that we know there’s another potential evil speedster on the horizon in Red Death, who was name-dropped via the Flash Museum earlier this season.
Our conclusion
The Flash is stockpiling some really solid people that they can move in and out of the show. Maybe Godspeed is nothing more than a one-episode villain and this season’s the only chance we’re going to get to see him. Or, maybe this is the writers bracing us for some spectacular stuff down the road. What matters most is that we’re getting another super-cool villain and also options for what should be an exciting, speedster-filled future for The Flash after taking a break from this sort of baddie the past couple of years.
What do you want to see from Godspeed on The Flash? Share your thoughts on the matter below! (Photo: The CW.)