Last Updated on Tuesday, February 10, 2004

Real Name: Unknown
Base of Operations: Tibet, the Balkans, or South America*
Hair: Blue
Eyes: Black
First Appearance: The Flash (second series) #108, December 1995
Origin: c. 1950
Apparent Death: Led to speed field by Wally West (The Flash (second series) #111, March 1996)

The original name of the criminal called Savitar is lost to the depths of a communist filing system. He was a cold war jet pilot who was downed over hostile territory by an unusual lightning strike. During the process he brushed up against something greater than himself (the as yet unnamed Speed Force) and gained the power of superspeed. He released that there was more to the speed that previous speedsters thought. He adopted the name of the Hindu god of celestial motion Savitar. The original Savitar was a god of forgiveness and kindness, but this new usurper to the name was anything but good natured. He searched arcane scrolls, forbidden texts and ancient writing to clues and hints about his speed. He perused speedsters across the globe, hunting them down for any information they could give him to the source of his speed.

By this time the original Flash had retired and it was not long before Savitar encountered the most experienced to the speedsters - Max Mercury. In a fight for his life Max was forced to bounce Savitar off the edge of the Speed Force and into the future. Max was pulled along, but emerged a number of years before his foe. This allowed him to secretly begin preparing for when he and the other speedsters would have to face their greatest foe. When Savitar eventually emerged from the Speed Force he found that the cult he had founded still flourished and that Wally West now had a main line to the Speed Force. He discovered a way to create an army of superspeed ninjas by siphoning the speed energy from all the other speedsters. During the battle at Savitar's fortress Johnny Quick merged with the Speed Force to save his daughter, Jesse, and Savitar's speed sapping equipment was destroyed. Wally and Savitar began a superspeed battle across the world that resulted in a stalemate until the visiting XS delivered a message from Iris (Wally's time traveling aunt) that the only way to defeat Savitar was to give him what he wanted. Wally comprehended and used his ability to grant speed to push Savitar past the barrier around the Speed Force and into the speedster Valhalla from where he will never return.