Are The Flash, Quicksilver, Superman etc temporal prisoners to their superpowers?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Seriously think about how Quicksilver experiences time in Days of Future Past. Is waiting for somebody to finish a sentence not just the most agonizing thing ever for them?

What would take a minute for you or me must feel like a fucking year to them. How do they not go insane from the loneliness that the speed at which they experience time relative to everybody else isolates them to?

How do you have any sort of meaningful relationship with another human being when their two weeks with you feels like a decade spent together on your end?

Has this issue been explored in any of their respective stories? I mean, their perception of time isn't something that can just be turned off, right?
 
78NRDpY.jpg
 
Superman moves really really fast, but he grew up getting used to it, so he doesn't mind.

Quicksilver is usually an asshole

Flash has said it was absolute torture sometimes, but he keeps it to himself to be nice
 
Yeah I've wondered about that myself. I can't think of a time where it has been explored in depth. At least with Superman and Flash it seems like something that sorta turns "on." Quicksilver is kinda fucked, he is trapped in a world that moves in slow motion. Like I'm surprised he even talks, seems like he would get bored in the time it takes to say a sentence.
 
For Superman I believe it's similar to his hearing and his strength. He just mentally blocks it out. I don't know about the flash or quicksilver though. I would imagine Wally, Barry, and Bart going crazy after a while because of how slow everything is.

Young Justice had a scene were Wally and Barry talk to each other and they go so fast no one understands them. So I guys it's logical to guess they could hang out with each other allot to keep themselves sane.
 
I think JL cartoon examined this somewhat with The Flash and his biggest fear being that he is going so fast that the rest of the world would be frozen. More concerned with being alone than being... well slowed down.
 
Yeah I liked how because of his age and the scope of his powers his basement was packed with boxes of twinkies and other knicked goods

It was sort of a "this is how a 17 year old punk with these powers would really act" scene

I'd imagine like that young justice scene that they need to have somebody else to relate to. Otherwise it's just pure boredom and loneliness
 
I get the impression that Flash and Quicksilver's powers are not literally on all the time. But since it takes no effort they can adjust their perception of time at will. They naturally go fast and think fast - why would you get up and walk across a room very very slowly, or sit and read a sentence one character at a time? You wouldn't. You'd do things at your normal comfortable speed.

It would take effort for people with such powers to slow down to everybody else's clock and hold themselves there.

Of course it depends on whether the writer of the moment wants a character to "live in a world of cardboard" or not. Either their powers only activate when they need them by pushing past normal human limits, or they are always on so the ordinary world is strange and uncomfortable.
 
I'm not sure how often this is done in the comics, but in the 90s The Flash live action TV series, humor was made at how the Flash had to constantly eat the more he used his powers due to accelerated metabolism. He'd rip through a banquet dinner in pursuit of the bad guy, and skid to a stop still nomming a turkey leg.

The fridge horror version of that, naturally, is that speedsters are tortured by the feeling of being eternally starving.
 
It would be interesting if they created a character who had the power to move really fast but had an otherwise human body, so if they used their power to the fullest they would rip all their muscles from their bones.
 
I'm not sure how often this is done in the comics, but in the 90s The Flash live action TV series, humor was made at how the Flash had to constantly eat the more he used his powers due to accelerated metabolism. He'd rip through a banquet dinner in pursuit of the bad guy, and skid to a stop still nomming a turkey leg.

The fridge horror version of that, naturally, is that speedsters are tortured by the feeling of being eternally starving.
Yeah that exists in other media like the comics and cartoons too
 
It would be interesting if they created a character who had the power to move really fast but had an otherwise human body, so if they used their power to the fullest they would rip all their muscles from their bones.

This is what happens to Velocity 9 junkies in DC comics. Super speed without the speed force = you're gonna have a bad time.
 
I'm pretty sure, at least in the Flash's case, they can turn it off or on. Flash got stabbed by Deathstroke in Identity Crisis, meaning he got taken by surprise. There's no way he wouldn't react to the touch of a sword if he was constantly perceiving things at an accelerated rate.
Actually it was hilarious. Awesome character, awesome movie, great use of super speed.

I agree! Looking forward to how they do him in the Avengers/GoG/Future X-Men movies.
 
I'm pretty sure, at least in the Flash's case, they can turn it off or on. Flash got stabbed by Deathstroke in Identity Crisis, meaning he got taken by surprise. There's no way he wouldn't react to the touch of a sword if he was constantly perceiving things at an accelerated rate.

Yup. Actually, in the New 52, with Barry Allen as The Flash it took a while (~15-20 issues) before his mind could even keep up with physical speed. For the early issues (in which he'd already been Flash for a while), he can only think at the speed of a regular person. His powers definitely are not turned on at all times.

And as for Superman, I'm going to say it's similar. Even if he could have learned how to control it naturally enough from growing up on Earth, his cousin Kara (Supergirl) arrived on Earth as an adult in the New 52 and immediately had to adjust to her sudden super strength and speed, and did not experience any automatic super-thought-speed or change in the way she perceived reality.
 

Wow. This page speaks to me in a way no comic ever has.

I am constantly annoyed by how the complete ineptitude of others in day-to-day life can slow me down. I like to get things done quickly and efficiently as possible so that I can move on to the next thing.

Hell, my commute home is filled with frustration as I feel like I'm always in a crowd filled with slow walkers. I kind of wish there was a fast line for people who walk as fast as I do. The slow walkers can stay in their own lane.

I have always been extremely conscious of time and trying to maximize every second so that I have some free time at the end of the day yet I constantly encounter slow bumbling humans who delay my efforts.

Seriously.

I have actually considered seeing a psychiatrist about the issue. I really do have an obsession with time.
 
Normal sonic can only move at the speed of sound I believe. Super Sonic can achieve light speed but is still extremely slow compared to both of these guys.

Wut, Sonic and Super Sonic have a hard time catching up to a fat bald mad scientist on his Eggmobile (Sonic Unleashed Intro) or trying to catch him on foot (Sonic 2/3). So no Super Sonic does not travel at the speed of light :P

But yeah he moves a lot slower than Supes and Flash
 
Sounds like a fate worse than just killing him. Doesnt sound very heroic.

Don't worry. Zoom saved him.

Then he killed weather wizards kid, stole zooms power and basically got on the rouges bad side.

Then Piper and the rouges finished him off.

Good god mid 2000s flash comics were hard reading. Everyone you ever loved died.

Then they brought back Barry and ruined everything :madface:

I like new52 Barry
 
I tend to believe flash/superman can control their perception of time. Wally says he can perceive things at an attosecond, which would drive anyone insane if they really had to stay in place for a same amount of time. That or whenever their adrenaline kicks in things slow down.
 
I tend to believe flash/superman can control their perception of time. Wally says he can perceive things at an attosecond, which would drive anyone insane if they really had to stay in place for a same amount of time. That or whenever their adrenaline kicks in things slow down.

Wally once went to a movie and while watching the movie a gunman shot at him. When he felt the bullet came into contact with the back of his neck, his speed kicked in and it saved him.
 
I'm not sure how often this is done in the comics, but in the 90s The Flash live action TV series, humor was made at how the Flash had to constantly eat the more he used his powers due to accelerated metabolism. He'd rip through a banquet dinner in pursuit of the bad guy, and skid to a stop still nomming a turkey leg.

The fridge horror version of that, naturally, is that speedsters are tortured by the feeling of being eternally starving.

Since the body can't digest everything it eats, wouldn't that mean he would be constantly in the crapper? Not a very useful super hero.
 
Has this issue been explored in any of their respective stories?
Yes. Inconsistently.

I mean, their perception of time isn't something that can just be turned off, right?
No, depending on the writer. However, even for normal humans our perception of time is variable. YouTube "perception of time"

Assuming an inability to scale your perceptions we get the Ballad of Barry Allen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSumxCXbUVU
 
They propably experience it like humans do and only when necessary turn on their suprspeed. Otherwise they would all go insane.
 
No, time dilation only occurs as an object increases speed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvZfx7iwq94

The Flash, Quick Silver, and Superman only experience time slowing down as they start to speed up. When they're having a normal conversation, they experience time just like everyone else. If DoFP represented this differently, the movie fucked up the science.

He had it coming.

He killed Bart Allen.

That's cruel and unusual punishment. Torture via full body paralysis is far beyond the pale as far as punishments for murder goes. The character who did this is a sadistic fuck who's far worse than the original murderer.
 
No, time dilation only occurs as an object increases speed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvZfx7iwq94

The Flash, Quick Silver, and Superman only experience time slowing down as they start to speed up. When they're having a normal conversation, they experience time just like everyone else. If DoFP represented this differently, the movie fucked up the science.





That's cruel and unusual punishment. Torture via full body paralysis is far beyond the pale as far as punishments for murder goes. The character who did this is a sadistic fuck who's far worse than the original murderer.
Meh, he deserved it

tumblr_lugrk88SJP1qd5nk0o1_500.jpg
 
No, time dilation only occurs as an object increases speed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvZfx7iwq94

The Flash, Quick Silver, and Superman only experience time slowing down as they start to speed up. When they're having a normal conversation, they experience time just like everyone else. If DoFP represented this differently, the movie fucked up the science.

These speedsters can all react and think at super-speeds without time dilation.

Imagine 500 baseballs thrown at any of them at once. They would be able to stand in place and just use their arms/hands to snatch the balls out of the air and drop them to the ground.

If time dilation were necessary, they'd have to be constantly be in full-body speed motion to react and think quicker than a normal human.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom