The enigmatic energy that endowed the Flash with his powers has an interesting secret that completely changes everything fans know about the Speed Force. The Flash Annual #4 reveals the bizarre history of the source of power and what that means for the Flash.
It's the most mysterious and complex phenomenon in the entire Flash mythos. The Speed Force is what helped gave Barry Allen and his fellow members of the Flash Family their incredible speed. More often than not, a strike from a lightning bolt helped give these speedsters their tremendous power. But the inner workings of the Speed Force have largely remained a mystery. No matter how many times Barry or Wally West have tried to analyze the energy source, they've always hit a wall. The Speed Force's rules are often arbitrary and ephemeral, but what's remained consistent is that its empowered the Scarlet Speedster for years.
That said, while the Speed Force has definitely given a rise to speedsters, it seems that its also created other kinds of superhumans in the DC Universe. In The Flash Annual #4 by Van Jensen and Bong Dazo, the evil Eobard Thawne is going throughout history picking up a number of metahumans with strange powers. Over the centuries, the Reverse-Flash adds a magic-based meta that can reverse aging, a man who can create portals to anywhere, and a woman who is completely immovable and immune to damage. As the team seeks out their last recruit, Roscoe Dillon, aka the Top, Eobard mentions to the troubled young man that there is nothing wrong with his powers. Thawne says that like him and his acolytes, Dillon was struck by a lightning bolt and empowered thanks to a mysterious energy known as the Speed Force.
The Speed Force Can Create More Than Just Speedsters
The Reverse-Flash isn’t wrong, as a bolt of lightning is the origin of the Flash and other speedsters. But what’s surprising is that the Speed Force has apparently also created other superpowered people whose abilities aren’t strictly tied to speed. Granted, there have been other heroes such as Sprint and Turbo Charger who were blessed by the Speed Force. And while they didn’t have the exact same powers as the Flash, their abilities still related to speed in some way. However, the same cannot be said for Professor Zoom's curious coterie.
As misunderstood as it is, one would think that the energy source would primarily be responsible for endowing people with speed-based powers. Clearly, the Speed Force has the ability to give people other powers and not just create speedsters. This would mean that the Speed Force goes well beyond speed powers, and could be the origin for all metahuman abilities in the entire DC Universe. There’s evidence that the energy has existed since the dawn of the DCU, just as long as there have been superhumans. This tweak to the Flash’s Speed Force could be the very reason for why the DC Universe has as many godlike beings in its world.