News from the Races
Speedsters are NOT broken!!!
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Most comic book fans and casual readers/viewers tend to view super speed as this amazing deus ex machina that can handle any and all threats easily and casually. And that the very idea of a speedster having trouble against any villain is preposterous.
Well first off it depends on what speeds the speedster is moving at and what degree of durability that speedster has. Speedsters for the most part (excluding secondary speedsters like Superman, Power Girl, Captain Marvel etc) aren't invulnerable and can at times easily be caught off guard with an errant blast of energy, bright flashes of light, holograms that might fool them into going somewhere else or something they just don't see coming. They get caught in stuff, slip on stuff, and heck sometimes speedsters can't even hurt the opponents they face directly. Speedsters especially primary speedsters have it a lot tougher than people seem to realize.
Of course this all boils down to one speedster in general. Numero Uno, the main man, the sultan of speed, the human whirlwind, The Fastest Man Alive, The Flash. In most reader's eyes he is the chief offender when it comes to overpowered and ridiculous feats. People love to believe that such things detract from the appeal of the character. Only thing is the people who believe that usually haven't picked up a Flash comic and actually read it in years or *gasp* ever. Flash's "overpowered feats" add a lot to the character IF you don't only focus on those feats. Flash doesn't do insanely over the top things all the time because it isn't really in his character to do so. He doesn't like to end fights in seconds because he likes to on occasion show off. True he has ended a fight like that before. He has gone in looking at an opponent as a minor annoyance and taken care of them swiftly. But should all heroes be like Spider-Man and have trouble taking on Stilt-Man and every other b, c, and d list villain they face? Flash is one of the major leaguers and he should act as such.
And of course there are tougher opponents that take more than a simple thousand punch speed blitz to take out. And this is where people find a problem. How would someone who has advanced reflexes, and can move at the speed of light be affected by a guy named "Captain Cold" or the "Weather Wizard"? Sure the names are lame but damn think about it. Imagine yourself a normal person trying to run on ice or even walk on ice at normal speed? You either experience great difficulty in trying to get across it or you slip and bust your ass. Either way it's hard. Now imagine a guy running at twice the speed of sound trying to run on ice. Situation instantly exacerbated. No matter how fast one is going ice is always going to find a way to take your ass down. Weather Wizard is even better. Imagine trying to dodge lightning while also trying to avoid huge chunks of ice falling on you and several cyclones that have kicked up out of nowhere all at the same time? Fastest Man Alive or not you are going to have a fight on your hands.
For the most part I just don't think we see enough speedsters utilized properly because writers don't know how to write one of the all-time classic archetypes and work around their powers and create limits. There is a reason that Mark Waid, Grant Morrison, and Geoff Johns all were able to tell great Flash stories even though he had ridiculous powers at times. They can handle the pressure, they have ideas and they know just how to use them. If writers would put forth an effort they would see it isn't that hard to use a speedster without having them overpower everyone off the bat.
I hate barely seeing characters like Speed Demon, The Blur, Quicksilver, Speed etc get any good face time because of the inability of the writers to write a compelling story while still using speedsters effectively. Kid Flash operated in a team environment for years with the Teen Titans, as did The Flash with the Justice League and they still managed to make the books they were in interesting without being an instant win for their team making things any cheaper.
SUPPORT SPEEDSTERS!!!
Well first off it depends on what speeds the speedster is moving at and what degree of durability that speedster has. Speedsters for the most part (excluding secondary speedsters like Superman, Power Girl, Captain Marvel etc) aren't invulnerable and can at times easily be caught off guard with an errant blast of energy, bright flashes of light, holograms that might fool them into going somewhere else or something they just don't see coming. They get caught in stuff, slip on stuff, and heck sometimes speedsters can't even hurt the opponents they face directly. Speedsters especially primary speedsters have it a lot tougher than people seem to realize.
Of course this all boils down to one speedster in general. Numero Uno, the main man, the sultan of speed, the human whirlwind, The Fastest Man Alive, The Flash. In most reader's eyes he is the chief offender when it comes to overpowered and ridiculous feats. People love to believe that such things detract from the appeal of the character. Only thing is the people who believe that usually haven't picked up a Flash comic and actually read it in years or *gasp* ever. Flash's "overpowered feats" add a lot to the character IF you don't only focus on those feats. Flash doesn't do insanely over the top things all the time because it isn't really in his character to do so. He doesn't like to end fights in seconds because he likes to on occasion show off. True he has ended a fight like that before. He has gone in looking at an opponent as a minor annoyance and taken care of them swiftly. But should all heroes be like Spider-Man and have trouble taking on Stilt-Man and every other b, c, and d list villain they face? Flash is one of the major leaguers and he should act as such.
And of course there are tougher opponents that take more than a simple thousand punch speed blitz to take out. And this is where people find a problem. How would someone who has advanced reflexes, and can move at the speed of light be affected by a guy named "Captain Cold" or the "Weather Wizard"? Sure the names are lame but damn think about it. Imagine yourself a normal person trying to run on ice or even walk on ice at normal speed? You either experience great difficulty in trying to get across it or you slip and bust your ass. Either way it's hard. Now imagine a guy running at twice the speed of sound trying to run on ice. Situation instantly exacerbated. No matter how fast one is going ice is always going to find a way to take your ass down. Weather Wizard is even better. Imagine trying to dodge lightning while also trying to avoid huge chunks of ice falling on you and several cyclones that have kicked up out of nowhere all at the same time? Fastest Man Alive or not you are going to have a fight on your hands.
For the most part I just don't think we see enough speedsters utilized properly because writers don't know how to write one of the all-time classic archetypes and work around their powers and create limits. There is a reason that Mark Waid, Grant Morrison, and Geoff Johns all were able to tell great Flash stories even though he had ridiculous powers at times. They can handle the pressure, they have ideas and they know just how to use them. If writers would put forth an effort they would see it isn't that hard to use a speedster without having them overpower everyone off the bat.
I hate barely seeing characters like Speed Demon, The Blur, Quicksilver, Speed etc get any good face time because of the inability of the writers to write a compelling story while still using speedsters effectively. Kid Flash operated in a team environment for years with the Teen Titans, as did The Flash with the Justice League and they still managed to make the books they were in interesting without being an instant win for their team making things any cheaper.
SUPPORT SPEEDSTERS!!!
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