The villain of The Flash Season 3 has finally been unmasked and now it’s clear the writers are incorporating two comic book arcs into one identity: Savitar and Future Flash.
Way back when Savitar was first introduced, his blue suit of armor resembled Future Flash more than Savitar from the comics, with the blue lightning and silver metal. Upon further inspection, fans started to notice an interesting storyline called “Out of Time." Basically, The Flash takes the Future Flash comic book arc and applies it to Savitar's missing origin story to make an evil Barry Allen from the future.
Since the beginning of The Flash Season 3, Savitar’s motto has been: “You are the past, whereas I am the Future Flash.” The comic, “Out of Time,” featured Barry Allen as Future Flash. Barry’s future self essentially wanted to kill his younger self to fix the speed force. Granted, Savitar on the show seems to be a bit more evil, you know, killing Iris and all -- but Savitar and Future Flash from the comics do have a similar agenda. The essence of what Future Flash intended to do in “Out of Time,” was essentially be the ‘god of the speed force’ by protecting it from manipulation.
Here's an excerpt from the comic book:
“There’s only one thing left to fix — this tear. Once I realized the Speed Force was leaking, I spent years searching for its location. By the time I found the wound, it had grown immense. There was no way to repair it. But I had a theory — that with a large enough detonation of Speed Force energy thrust back into the tear, it could be sealed off,” the older Barry explained to his younger self. “You’re the sacrifice. You’re a vessel of the Speed Force. When you die, that energy erupts out of you. It’s the charge I need to fix this damage. ( Via CBR )”
While some of that is not applicable to the show, the sentiment that a future version of Barry Allen, who has lived through so much pain and heartbreak, could turn evil remains everpresent. This future version of Barry Allen is so messed up the he truly believes killing Iris and stopping present day Barry Allen will fix something--and maybe it will?
Flashpoint, which could be the TV version of “the tear” in the speed force, really screwed everyone’s life up and seems to be the final straw for why Savitar even exists. Barry learned his lesson about not messing with time too late, and his future self is out to fix his old mistakes--even if it means turning evil to get rid of his younger self and using the younger version as a sacrifice to the speed force.
What’s more is Wally’s place in all of this. In “Out of Time,” it was Wally’s death, which Barry couldn’t prevent, that sparked him becoming Future Flash (sound familiar to the Iris situation?). Barry was ridden with guilt and traveled back in time to save Wally by killing the younger version of himself, preventing the death from happening. Future Flash succeeded in doing so, and because of younger Barry’s sacrifice, Wally got a faster and stronger connection to the speed force.
When Barry traveled years into the future on The Flash to look for clues about Savitar’s identity, he found Wally paralyzed (in the comics, it was Iris) and unable to walk let alone run at superspeed. In present day, Barry is reliving a loss on the same scale as Wally dying in the comics after witnessing Iris’ impending death. Everyone reassures him that heroes make mistakes and he’s no ‘god’ that can do everything perfectly. But that’s interesting because while Savitar considers himself a god, he also says the beliefs of others are the only thing that makes him one.
While the Future Flash comics illustrate the premise of what’s happening on the show, there’s seems to be a lot more going on in this new story, especially since Future Flash chose to take the name Savitar. It could be because Future Barry wants to reiterate that somehow, he doesn’t exist just in the future anymore. He takes the name Savitar, the god of speed, to prove he’s the fastest man alive, period.
In the comics, Savitar’s real name is not known, but he was obsessed with speed his whole life. His name is hindu for the god of motion. He encountered speedsters like Johnny Quick and Max Mercury (who we haven’t seen -- yet?) and later in continuity, Jesse Quick, Wally West, Impulse, Jay Garrick. He used a speedster named Lady Flash (soon after, renamed to Lady Savitar) to help him grow his speed cult.
Of course, the show is going to be much different from the comics, but it’s clear the show is at least taking psychological inspiration from The Future Flash arc and applying it to Savitar’s unknown origins. Savitar is kind of like a more evil and godly version of Future Flash -- an evil speed force iteration of future Barry Allen from some unknown time in the future who wants to replace present day Barry Allen and remake his future.
