It would appear that Savitar has a couple of different origin stories, but we’ll still to the one that’s been introduced into the TV series for the time being. One thing to know about Savitar is that he’s fast, he’s tough, and unlike some other opponents he’s every bit the match for the scarlet speedster. This could however be due to the fact that he knows more about the Flash than just about anyone, and that’s largely because he IS Barry Allen.
Or rather, he’s a Barry Allen from the future, one that merged with the Speed Force and thereby became as close to a god as is humanly possible. Savitar is kind of a hard character to explain since it’s stated that he’s the first person to ever come in contact with the Speed Force and after taking the name of the god of motion he became something of a cult leader that formed his own group and found ways to grant them super speed as well. If you can imagine an army worth of deadly criminals that can move faster than many humans or heroes can even register then you might get the feeling of just how serious this guy was. In fact he’s so tough that he could heal his own wounds and fight off the Flash at the same time as he made use of the Speed Force to do this. Where many other speedsters that are aware of the Speed Force use it and exhibit their knowledge about it, Savitar managed to merge with it at one point and became so increasingly dangerous that fighting him became like fighting the wind, it was possible for a few people but not all that many.
Tack onto that the fact that in the TV show the reveal that Savitar is a future Barry Allen and you get a villain that’s not only extremely tough, but is nigh unbeatable since he can predict just about everything you’re about to do. Unfortunately as anti-climactic as this could have been fans have not been too happy about it. If you want an explanation let’s look at things this way:
We’ve seen an evil Flash, we’ve seen Zoom, and they both turned out to be opposite versions of the current Flash. Now here comes a god-like being like Savitar that’s imposing, menacing, and halfway insane as well as capable of challenging the Flash in every possible way…and it’s still Barry. Obviously the CW is trying to push that Barry is his own worst enemy and doing a bang-up job if they’re trying upset the fan base. On the outside Savitar looks great, he looks like the kind of opponent that would even give Superman a run for his money if he really tried. But the idea that he’s just another messed up version of Barry seems to be hammering home a point that’s already been driven down into a blunt and well-beaten stump. Right now fans are wanting something different and if Savitar isn’t going to be that then they’re likely going to start looking elsewhere.
This is unfortunately one of the downfalls of creating a show or even a movie out of a comic book. In the comics there aren’t a lot of expectations until someone gets the ball rolling and the pages start to be printed. In the movies and the TV shows however the comics have already been read, the stories have been absorbed and accepted as canon, and the fans are wanting to see something amazing come out of the special effects department. But they’re also hoping that something equally amazing comes from the writer’s department, as they’re the ones giving direction to the rest of the production and in a way giving the director leave to say where everything needs to go and what has to happen and when. It’s advantageous if a writer that has worked on a comic book can make their way over to write for a show or a movie, but how often this happens is anyone’s guess. What does tend to happen however is that the story goes off track somehow and things get twisted in a way that not only makes the fans groan and question the story, but also makes them choose to look elsewhere or stop watching altogether.
The transition from the panel to the small or big screen isn’t going to be perfect, that much is clear, but following the source material as much as possible and making it interesting for the fans is what keeps shows and movies alive and keeps the people coming back for more. A lot of people have never read the comics or the books or seen anything but the movies. But for those loyal fans, and there are a lot of them, it seems smarter to finally take a cue and read the comics panel to panel and find out just what people are expecting.
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