Godspeed (comics)

Godspeed (August Heart) is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character first appeared in The Flash (vol. 5) #1, as part of the DC Rebirth story event. He is an antagonist of the Flash (Barry Allen) .

Fictional Character Biography

Godspeed first makes an appearance during one of Barry's visions, claiming he'll kill them all.^[1]

August Heart is a colleague of Barry's whose brother was murdered by a career criminal and his killer was let free due to insubstantial evidence and the destruction of said evidence when Barry and his lab were struck by lightning. When August confronts the Black Hole, a group who had stolen a van containing equipment from S.T.A.R. Labs, he recognizes their symbol which was spray-painted near his brother's crime scene. August is shot at but before the bullet could hit him or Barry can save him, August is struck by lightning from a Speed Force storm. Now a speedster, August knocks out his shooter. After Barry reveals himself to be the Flash, August creates his own costume and becomes Barry's partner, also wishing to use his powers to solve his brother's murder. After defeating Black Hole, they witness another Speed Force storm strike more citizens, turning them into Speedsters.^[2] August helps Barry round up any new speedsters who use their newfound powers as criminals. The two meet Dr. Meena Dhawan, a new speedster who has helped create a Speed Force training center to help the new speedsters control their powers. When Barry and Meena return after recruiting more speedsters, they find an injured August who tells them that a new speedster called Godspeed killed the speedster criminals and took their speed.

A recovered August brings two of the recruits with him in order to storm the Speed Force storm-infused Dr. Carver. After Barry and Meena's 'day off', Godspeed arrives at the training center where he is confronted by Meena. As Avery Ho, one of the speedster recruits, escapes to get the Flash, Godspeed kills Meena and two of the recruits and takes their speed.^[3] When Godspeed kills Billy Parks, the main suspect in August's brother's murder, Barry realizes that August is Godspeed. Barry confronts him and August reveals that he is indeed Godspeed and had given up on the justice system, deciding to become judge, jury, and executioner, killing his brother's murderer. August reveals that when he was near the speedster criminals, he could feel the Speed Force within them connecting with him. He decided to take their powers from them, resulting in their deaths and August being injured. After realizing that it was possibly to siphon another speedster's speed without killing them (evident when he, Barry, Meena, and two recruits took Dr. Carver's speed), August tried it again on Meena and the two recruits. However, it garnered the same results as the first time. With his increased speed, August reveals he can create a double or himself and be at two places at once, a feat that is limited and takes a physical toll on him. Barry uses this to his advantage and escapes. August proceeds to interrogate the other Black Hole members about his brother's death but kills them all when he receives no information. When the speedster recruits safely give their speed to Barry and Wally to stop Godspeed, August arrives and is able to take Avery's speed. Barry chases after Godspeed who reveals that he'll head to Iron Heights and do the one thing Barry couldn't, kill his enemies, including Eobard Thawne. However, the new Kid Flash (Wally West II) intervenes and helps the Flash in taking down Godspeed, who is later incarcerated in Iron Heights.^[4]

Powers and Abilities

Godspeed shares the same abilities as any other speedster, having both shown to have super speed and the ability to generate cyclones by rapidly spinning his arms. He also has the ability to forcibly take another speedster's speed, which is shown when he ran around a speedster (or speedsters) at extreme speed, resulting in Godspeed gaining their speed, but at the cost of injuring himself and killing the speedster/s. This occurs when the speedster/s he takes speed from wasn't/weren't willing to let go of their powers (as shown when Barry and Wally were able to take the speed from several speedster safely and when Godspeed was able to take Avery's speed without killing her).

Godspeed also has the ability to create a clone of himself, due to how fast he is compared to the Flash. However, he is dividing up the Speed Force between himself and his copy which, during elongated use of the copy, will result in pain from the Speed Force and the copy will then destabilize with its portion of the Speed Force returning to the original Godspeed.

References

Rebirth