Originally Posted by
Ascended
I've always thought of the speed force as the source of kinetic energy in the universe/multiverse. It's the ability to go from "here" to "there." Any movement is due to the speed force; your blood pumping, your tires rotating, your eyes swerving as you read this....all possible because of the speed force. In my head it's a unified force, like gravity and the electromagnetic spectrum but on a multiversal scale; one of those fundamental building blocks of reality. And according to Morrison's multiverse map, the speed force is also what divides matter from energy and keeps the physical multiverse separated from the god sphere.
I figure things like the Black Flash, the embodiment of death for speedsters, that's just (Endless') Death reaching from the god sphere, through the speed force, into the material world because otherwise Death can't actually catch a Flash. So the Black Flash (or is it the Dark Flash? Isn't the Dark Flash just Walter West?) isn't a singular entity, it's just a glove that Death wears to catch fast people.
I figure a speedster does "return to the speed force" when they die, and I like the idea of them becoming the bolt of lightning that gave them powers in the first place. But that's just the speed force rubbing up against the timestream/still force; its natural opposite. Seems to me if the speed force is the ability to go from "there" to "here" then the still force/time is the ability to distinguish "then" from "now." And in the same way the unifying forces rub up against each other and help define each other, the speed force and still force do the same. So sometimes a speedster dying ripples across the speed force, that interacts with the still force, and the friction causes a paradox loop where the speedster becomes his own origin story lightning bolt. And there's likely other forces in the "speed/still force unifying field" but I don't think they're the ones Williamson introduced in his Force Quest arc.
And I don't think the speed force has any sentience of its own. What it has are echoes of previous speedsters floating around in it and that can sometimes give the appearance of agency and awareness.
Oh, and in my head Hunter "Zoom" Zolomon didn't tap into the speed force, he was tapping into the still force. Back in the day he didn't run fast, he ran at a normal pace but accelerated his personal clock to mimic speed. Not sure if newer writers have held to that distinction or not, but Hunter was never a speedster like Wally, he was more like a Turtle who used his powers in reverse; speeding himself up instead of slowing everyone else down (same basic result anyway).
What powers should it give? Realistically "kinetic control," and that covers a whole ton of possible things. But people are funny creatures and 90% of the time we manifest this limitless power in a way our brains can comprehend and understand, and "running fast" is easier to mentally process and translate than "control the foundational field of energy that allows for the movement of atomic particles and helps hold the multiverse together." This is why Barry's feats are all science based while Wally's were more fantastical. Barry viewed the speed force through the lens of physics, Wally (eventually) understood that the speed force isn't so much bound by the laws of physics as it is a major part in writing them, so if Wally can control the speed force and the speed force influences physics....physics then is whatever Wally can twist the speed force into doing.
Johnny Quick's speed formula is the keystone piece of math required to understand the science of the speed force. Not sure if others have used that formula to gain speed, if not then there may be some kind of latent metagene at work that allows the Quicks to tap into the power with the equation as a focal point.
Oh and Barry didn't create it. Bart didn't contain it in his body. They just think they did.
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