Super Speed, How Does It Even?

[2HF]

Quicksilver, Flash, Speedy McSpeedertonsville The 14th, how do they operate?

Is the world constantly in this mind numbing slow motion and they've just learned to slow their speech to the point where it?s coherent to us mortals? Is it a switch that they can flip? What gives? Are different characters experiencing it in different ways? Have the comics ever delved into this? I need answers but am only invested enough to post this post.

 

[Zontar]

It depends on the character and the writer, namely in their potrayal. Some Flash writers have painted the power as Flash being just fast with reflexes that are inhuman, while others have had him feel as though things are passing by normally and that it's just the universe which is slowing down, with much of the same being the case with Quicksilver.

The best way to think about it is to view it as a silver age power which shouldn't be analysed too deeply.

 

[ffronw]

Quicksilver, Flash, Speedy McSpeedertonsville The 14th, how do they operate?

Is the world constantly in this mind numbing slow motion and they've just learned to slow their speech to the point where it?s coherent to us mortals? Is it a switch that they can flip? What gives? Are different characters experiencing it in different ways? Have the comics ever delved into this? I need answers but am only invested enough to post this post.

The Flash comics have had the different versions of The Flash able to talk to each other in super speed, so that no one else can understand them. I think it's more that the super speed is not their default state, just an ability that they can "turn on" whenever they need it.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Probably not the best idea to think of the logistics. If you did you'd have to wonder why they don't just spin in place or completely centrifuge their own legs to smithereens.

 

[Smooth Operator]

You can choose to sprint and talk fast if you want to no? Then I would imagine it works the same for the imaginary fast dudes, they just have a bigger range.

 

[DoPo]

You can choose to sprint and talk fast if you want to no? Then I would imagine it works the same for the imaginary fast dudes, they just have a bigger range.

Depends on how it's portrayed. It's one thing to sprint fast, it's another to react as well. It's also different to be able to apply the same speed to everything. The Flash has been portrayed being able to absorb big amount of information in short amount of time, by, say, reading really fast. Get the world champion in sprinting and see if they are also the fastest reader. See if they are also able to type the fastest on a computer or other speed related stuff. Or, inversely, get a champion in speed chess and see if they are also the fastest runner.

Since this doesn't actually hold true, the explanation behind speedsters should be something different.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Quicksilver, Flash, Speedy McSpeedertonsville The 14th, how do they operate?

Is the world constantly in this mind numbing slow motion and they've just learned to slow their speech to the point where it?s coherent to us mortals? Is it a switch that they can flip? What gives? Are different characters experiencing it in different ways? Have the comics ever delved into this? I need answers but am only invested enough to post this post.

The Flash comics have had the different versions of The Flash able to talk to each other in super speed, so that no one else can understand them. I think it's more that the super speed is not their default state, just an ability that they can "turn on" whenever they need it.

Isn't the flash's power also based on momentum, therefore depending on his internal speed at the moment (is he vibrating at an insanely fast speed to take off/slow down the world around him?) can depend on how he is interpreting the world at the moment? (which is why bad guys can get the drop on him, even though he's faster than a speeding bullet.)

 

[Albino Boo]

Its simple when they slow down they take heroin and when they speed up that take cocaine.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I don't think there's any logic behind it. Just accept your comic book writing.

 

[Drops a Sweet Katana]

It's not something that you should really commit a whole lot of brainpower to. It's like flight: just a convenient thing that exists in comics because it's cool.

 

[kris40k]

Quicksilver, Flash, Speedy McSpeedertonsville The 14th, how do they operate?

Is the world constantly in this mind numbing slow motion and they've just learned to slow their speech to the point where it?s coherent to us mortals? Is it a switch that they can flip? What gives? Are different characters experiencing it in different ways? Have the comics ever delved into this? I need answers but am only invested enough to post this post.

Quicksilver, I can answer yes, he thinks faster than everyone else, and basically slows himself down to speak with everyone else at "our level". There is a great scene where he is talking to a therapist about

Spoiler: Why Quicksilver is such a jerk

 

[Vivi22]

Honestly, the question of whether speedsters think in super speed isn't even the least plausible part of their powers. How the hell they generate the force to run that fast without ever leaving the ground is far more puzzling to me. See, I can actually buy someone like Superman running fast more than the Flash since at least Superman can use his flight to hold him to the ground. But then there's the question of how you ever manage to apply that force to the ground without breaking it/completely overcoming the friction of the ground and making the entire endeavour pointless anyway.

 

[Little Woodsman]

The real question is--Super Hearing: Can they turn it off?

(I bloody well hope so, otherwise they'd go crazy in *real* short order....)

 

[FPLOON]

Basically, think of superpowers in general as controlling your own farts...

Other than that, I got nothing... This comment was made pretty quickly in my opinion...

 

[syaoran728]

My personal favorite instance of super speed is in the second season of Darker than Black. A character with super speed is facing off against a character with minor weather control. (Not)Storm makes it rain and the speedster gets turned into swiss cheese because of physics.

 

[silver wolf009]

Quicksilver, Flash, Speedy McSpeedertonsville The 14th, how do they operate?

Is the world constantly in this mind numbing slow motion and they've just learned to slow their speech to the point where it?s coherent to us mortals? Is it a switch that they can flip? What gives? Are different characters experiencing it in different ways? Have the comics ever delved into this? I need answers but am only invested enough to post this post.

From my baseline understanding of Flash, I think it's the world is slow motion, and they have to get used to communicating very slowly. I just don't think it's brought across that well, because it'd make for great conflict for a character, but would be hard to get across, and probably make the character seem like a jerk.

Might just be letting Ballad of Barry Allen influence me though.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

The real question is--Super Hearing: Can they turn it off?

(I bloody well hope so, otherwise they'd go crazy in *real* short order....)

Man of Steel had a pretty cool scene where young Superman can't control his Super Sight, so he sees everybody as skeletons and spends a large portion of his childhood terrified of the world around him. I guess it's all about learning self-control.

 

[silver wolf009]

The real question is--Super Hearing: Can they turn it off?

(I bloody well hope so, otherwise they'd go crazy in *real* short order....)

Both Man of Steel and Superman: Unbound have implied that, at least Superman, can't.


And I can't find the scene from Unbound, but basically Braniac asks how Clark can handle all the background noise, and he flatly answers "Used to it."

The real question is--Super Hearing: Can they turn it off?

(I bloody well hope so, otherwise they'd go crazy in *real* short order....)

Man of Steel had a pretty cool scene where young Superman can't control his Super Sight, so he sees everybody as skeletons and spends a large portion of his childhood terrified of the world around him. I guess it's all about learning self-control.

By less than a minute.

 

[Johnny Impact]

I figure it's like a muscle they can flex to make things slow down. Relaxed, everything is normal. Flex a little, outrun cars. Flex harder, catch bullets. Push as hard as they can and the world stops moving.

Discussion of why speedsters' human bodies don't tear apart from shear force or whatever belong in the same category as "How is Hulk's skin bulletproof?" The answer to every such question is because he's the fucking Hulk. Flash is fast because he just is. It's a comic book. Don't overthink it.

 

[shintakie10]

Depending on the incarnation, Flash generally perceives everythin as slower than him dependin on how fast he's movin. There was a cool scene from JLA where they're facin a guy who can make them dream their biggest fears. Flash's fear was that he would eventually go so fast that the entire world would stop around him and he wouldn't be able to slow down to speed the world back up.