Godspeed (character)

Godspeed (August Heart) is a fictional character appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. Heart was established as a detective and one of The Flash (Barry Allen)'s best friends on the police force. When his brother is murdered and the man he suspects is exonerated, he becomes vengeful and eventually gains speed-based superpowers. Donning the identity of Godspeed, Heart becomes a vigilante bent on killing criminals instead of incarcerating them, serving as an antithesis to the Flash. He has been portrayed as both a supervillain and an antihero in the comic books and adapted media since his introduction in 2016.

Godspeed
Textless cover of The Flash #6 (November 2016). Art by Carmine Di Giandomenico.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Cameo appearance: The Flash: Rebirth #1 (August 2016) Full appearance: The Flash #3 (September 2016)
Created by	Joshua Williamson Carmine Di Giandomenico
In-story information
Alter ego	August Heart
Species	Human
Place of origin	Central City
Team affiliations	Central City Police Department Rogues
Abilities	Superhuman speed, agility, reflexes, strength, durability, stamina Self-duplication Electrokinesis Vortex creation Speed Force conduit, aura, theft Accelerated healing Enhanced senses Intangibility and phasing Speed scout Energy construct creation Time-space manipulation

Godspeed made his media debut in the fifth season of The Flash in 2019, portrayed by Kindall Charters and voiced by BD Wong. He is adapted as a laboratory intern who uses science to imbue himself with powers, becoming a costumed thief and murderer who raids chemical facilities to increase his speed. In the sixth season, Godspeed created drone copies of himself to help serve a purpose.

Publication history

Created by writer Joshua Williamson and artist Carmine Di Giandomenico, Godspeed first appears in a cameo in The Flash: Rebirth #1 (August 2016), as part of the DC Rebirth. He makes his first full appearance at the end of The Flash #3 (September 2016).

Fictional character biography

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

August Heart is a colleague of Barry Allen from the Central City Police Department. Heart's brother was murdered by a career criminal and his killer was let free due to the evidence being destroyed 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 as the same one spray-painted near his brother's crime scene. August is shot at but before the bullet could hit him or Barry could 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 possible 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 had the same results as the first time.

With his increased speed, August Heart reveals he can create a double of himself and be at two places at once, though it 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 will head to Iron Heights and do the one thing Barry could not, 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. It is not known whether August still maintains a connection to the Speed Force, as it was hinted that all who were hit during the Speed Force storm's powers may be temporary. [4]

August later teams up with the Flash and his nemesis Eobard Thawne to stop the villain Paradox from erasing all of Flash's history from the timeline. After Paradox is defeated, August asks Thawne if, given the latter's extensive future knowledge of the Flash's history, he knows who killed August's brother. Thawne gleefuly admits that it was Thawne himself and snaps August's neck, killing him.[5]

Powers and abilities

Godspeed shares the same abilities as any other speedster, this having both shown to have super speed and the ability to generate lightning as an aura or as a projectile, even having the ability to become intangible. 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 was not/were not willing to let go of their powers (as shown when Barry and Wally were able to take the speed from several speedsters 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 by dividing the Speed Force in him. However, extended use of this clone will result in intense pain, and the copy will then destabilize, with its portion of the Speed Force returning to the original Godspeed. Like other speedsters, Godspeed can run up to 10 times the speed of light by entering the Speed Force.

In other media

August Heart / Godspeed appears in season five of The Flash, portrayed by Kindall Charters and voiced by BD Wong.[6] As seen in his self-titled season five episode "Godspeed", he is portrayed as the first supervillain that Nora West-Allen / XS faced in the year 2049. This version of the character is an intern at Mercury Labs who got his powers after replicating Zoom's Velocity-9 drug and became a criminal to create a new version that would make his powers permanent. He is eventually defeated by Nora and incarcerated. As of the season six premiere, Team Flash has caught four impostor Godspeed drones (with one portrayed by Ryan Handley) in 2019, all of whom were incapable of speaking except in a "modem language", but they have yet to locate the actual August Heart. In the episode "Pay the Piper," a fifth Godspeed drone capable of speech attacked Central City demanding that Barry give him his speed before draining that of the other drones'. With help from Pied Piper, Flash was able to defeat the fifth drone who leaked charged sound. After putting him in Iron Heights, Barry learned from the fifth drone that August aligned himself with a group that wants "infinite velocity."

References

1. The Flash Rebirth #1
2. The Flash #1–3
3. The Flash #4–5
4. The Flash #6–8
5. The Flash #755
6. "'The Flash': First Look At Godspeed Revealed". comicbook.com. February 23, 2019.