The Flash season 7′s New Forces story takes a sudden turn as it produces a brand new speedster villain for its Arrowverse, a person who is different from Barry Allen’s past threats. Ever since it started its run in 2014, the series has used multiple speedster villains from The Flash. From Reverse-Flash, Zoom, and Savitar to Godspeed, Team Flash has had its hands full with combating speedsters who employed their powers for evil. Season 7 may also feature Godspeed later on as the real iteration has not been shown yet. However, before they could get to Godspeed, Barry has a different speedster villain to bargain with; a danger that he didn’t see coming.
Since Iris West revived the original Speed Force, that has the form of Nora Allen, they’ve been suspicious when it comes to the New Forces. After several episodes, The Flash season 7 has revealed the Speed Force’s true intentions in episode 8, “The People v. Killer Frost.” Barry and Speed Force Nora track down the Power Force’s conduit Fuerza, whose real name is Alexa Rivera when she is not in her other form. While they conduct tests on Alexa to see what triggers her Strength Force transformation, the Speed Force takes matters into their own hands by attacking Alexa. Even though the episode doesn’t clarify if Alexa expired from the lightning burst or not, the Speed Force takes its function as a rival to The Flash, even as they want to carry out the New Forces, but using lethal methods.
One of the things that earlier seasons of The Flash were criticized was it’s over usage of Barry going up against the other speedster. While Reverse-Flash will probably remain as the show’s best villain, Zoom and Savitar were simply a little too similar to Eobard Thawne. Though Godspeed’s identity and motives have not been fully explored yet, they are still evil. Regardless of the Flash vs the Speed Force revisiting that early formula, the Arrowverse is performing it in a refreshing manner. The Speed Force in itself isn’t pure evil since they don’t possess the reasons that Thawne, Zoom, and Savitar had.
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On the contrary, it is a conflict of different ideologies: whereas Barry wants to help the people affected from the New Forces, the Speed Force wants them dead. While The Flash is unquestionably depicting the Speed Force as an antagonist, they aren’t a one-dimensional villain who wants to cause injury for the sake of it. In some ways, it may be debated whether or not the Speed Force falls deeper into the anti-hero class as opposed to being a villain. While they Barry wants to stop the New Forces as a frequent goal, Team Flash’s methods differ from theirs.
What’s also helping The Flash season 7 is that Barry has to go up against a rival who resembles his deceased mother, providing this battle a psychological component. Can it be simple for the fastest man alive to resist somebody who resembles the parent that Reverse-Flash murdered when Barry was a child? It will probably be easier said than done, as it makes Barry Allen’s new big bad a more personal one. That helps this speedster vs. speedster arc stand out a bit from the previous ones The Flash has done in the earlier seasons.
