Warning: The following feature contains SPOILERS for The Flash season 7, episode 3, "Mother."
Barry Allen's creation of a new Speed Force in The Flash seems to have released other powerful cosmic forces upon the Arrowverse. This could be a nod to a recent storyline from The Flash comic book and a hint as to the challenges Team Flash will be facing over the rest of The Flash season 7.
The first few episodes of The Flash season 7 have centered around Barry Allen's efforts to regain his powers following the death of the Speed Force after Crisis on Infinite Earths. After briefly experimenting with an Artificial Speed Force that enhanced his intelligence but left him emotionally detached from humanity, Barry attempted to create a new Speed Force born of the power of love. Using his wife, Iris, as a lightning rod, Barry tried to draw out the residual Speed Force energy within Iris from her time as a speedster and use that spark to restore what had been lost. Barry was successful and regained his powers, but the final scene of "Mother" revealed that the lighting bolt Barry's experiment generated broke up into four different colors in the skies over Central City.
This seems remarkably similar to the conclusion of a relatively recent storyline in The Flash comics, "Flash War." The story saw Wally West attempting to break the Speed Force to free his children, who had been locked away in a divergent reality. Instead, Wally's efforts brought about the release of three new Forces; the Sage Force, Strength Force and Still Force. This was all according to the plans of the Reverse Flash, Eobard Thawne, who had studied these Forces in the distant future, but lacked the ability to arrange their release himself. The fallout of "Flash War" fueled several years worth of stories, as new heroes and villains became empowered by the new Forces, including a Reverse Flash who drew upon the Strength Force and Sage Force.
The Strength Force was to gravity and mass what the Speed Force was to velocity. Beyond increasing the physical strength and durability of its wielder, the Strength Force also granted control of the earth, manifesting around its wielder in the form of rocks tinged with red energy in the same way The Flash generated yellow lightning. The Sage Force manifested as blue flames and granted those who connected with it enhanced intelligence, as well as telepathic and telekinetic abilities. Strangest of all was the Still Force, the equal and opposite power that balanced the Speed Force and governed entropy and inertia. The Turtle, whose power to steal the speed from moving objects around him manifested with a green light, became even more powerful as a Still Force manipulator.
It may just be a coincidence that the four colors of energy released over Central City in the Arrowverse correspond to the colors assigned to the four Forces in The Flash comics. However, given that the show has been drawing more and more material from the Flash comics written by Joshua Williamson (including adapting one of Williamson's co-creations, Bloodwork, as one of the chief villains of The Flash season 6) it seems likely the showrunners might take a stab at adapting "Flash War" in some form or fashion. If nothing else, the new Forces would lead to new foes for Team Flash to fight over the course of the current season of The Flash and give the STAR Labs team something new to study.
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March 19, 2021 at 05:41AM
