spetznaz
Senior Fanboy Killer
Comic books obviously have aspects of physics that would be frowned (and many times outrightly laughed at) in the real world, however there are some graphic novels/comics that try to capture at least some essence (even though at times it is but an iota) of science. While there are many comics that at times just go to extreme idiocy, some do try to add a veneer of science (even though it is mostly pseudo-science) to the mix.
The Flash (and for that matter most writing on speedsters, be they DC, Marvel or Other) do try to have some taints of science going on. For instance in Flash the SpeedForce is DC's way of getting rid of a lot of scientific sin (while it is a deus ex machina tool, it still does enable them to get rid of many 'irritating' real-world aspects like friction and hyper-velocity obliteration of surrounding ----for instance if the Flash, or say a super-dense person like Superman, was to fly/run through a city at Mach 5 - no need for them to go ANYWHERE NEAR their top speed since the 'relatively slow' speed of Mach 5 could do - then what would happen is that every person within a certain radius would suffer punctured eardrums, and any person within a closer radius would die from lung collapse. It is interesting to read about the effects of Napalm use in Viet Nam when the detonation of the device would suck out all the air in the immediate vicinity - anyone who wasn't incinerated by the burning gel would suffer horrid effects due to the vacuum created).
Anyways, the short answer to your speed blitz question is this - for speedblitz to be effective the character possessing the ability must ALSO be able to use it with some degree of efficacy.
What does that mean?
It means that the character must be able to think at those speeds, react at those speeds, and so on. Without that all his/her/its speed is absolutely USELESS.
Imagine if I gave you the ability to run at hypersonic speed (say Mach 5 .....whcih while extremely fast is nowhere near the speed that characters like Superman and Flash can go at), but you still possess your normal thinking and reaction speed!
What would happen?
Well ....you would take one step and find yourself squished into a dozen different things!
Speed without control is worse than useless.
Anyways, another way of looking at it is the quickdraw of a revolver. Imagine a duel between two people at high noon. Both a good with their six-shooters, but one of them has amazing reflexes (imagine super-speed) and amazing muscular contraction speed.
What happens?
If both are equally good shots, the faster one will ALWAYS win.
Not only is his speed faster, but his thinking is too.
Anyways, for a speedster to be a speedster his thinking speed has to be (at least) equal to his engagement speed. If you can run at Mach 500, but your thinking ability can only work up to Mach 5, then you cannot say you can run at Mach 500 ....you ARE limited to Mach 5.
Why?
Because if you run even at Mach 6 (let alone Mach 500) you will run into all sorts of things because you would be moving one whole Mach number faster than your thinking can handle.
Anyways, while there are some people who do not like the whole speedblitz concept (for instance Hulk fans hate it since it is harder for them to say that the dumb green brute can defeat someone like the thin gangly Flash), the fact still remains that speedsters are some of the more lethal characters in comicdom.
