How to counteract the Speed Blitz and the characters who can do it?

[HVulpes]

When it comes to fighting people bring up the Speed Blitz as one of the ultimate wins when not having any plot or character stupidity.

So what power sets can counter act it and which characters would best use these powers?

[Surtur]

Well you either need passive defenses that don't require you to activate them(like a GL's autoshields) or you need to be durable enough to tank the blitz..or you need to be on a similar level of speed. I'm sure there are other esoteric powers out there that would be ideal. Isn't there a chick from One Piece who basically is frictionless or something so you basically slip right off her if you try to punch her? Or you can have powers like Nate Grey where you don't even need a physical form to function.

It also depends on who is doing the blitzing, a blitz from Quicksilver as opposed to a blitz from Superman aren't the same thing, even if they had equal speed. The more powers a person has in addition to speed the more difficult they will be to counter.

[Sharpandpointies]

Those are good starts. Massive durability (Quicksilver isn't doing squat to the Thing), autoshields capable of eating the speedblitz (Quicksilver also isn't doing squat to Classic Strange). Then possibly an area affecting attack (Ben's Thunderclap) or homing attack (Crimson Bands, which is both area and homing) to deal with the speedster.

Basically any kind of automatic defense that'll handle the speedblitzer's damage output or boot them out of their charge. Durability/autoshields handle it by just tanking it, but there are other possibilities. For example, Set the Destroyer handles speedblitzes just fine (even without his phenomenal durability) by 'reflexive temporal fugue' - he has feats for reflexively transporting himself through time to avoid massive attacks even when taken totally off-guard by them (ie, when hit by them). Another example would be someone like Longshot with his (gags) luck powers, that would do stuff like mess up the speedster on the way in.

Then to deal with the blitzer after the defense handles it, something that can either interdict a bigger area than the speedster can realistically dodge (filling the arena, for example), or something that 'hits automatically' or homes in, like telepathic attacks.

[Nik Hasta]

Adam Destine just lets people break their hands on his invulnerable body.

[Surtur]

Adam Destine just lets people break their hands on his invulnerable body.

He's the guy where some evil aliens showed up, saw how tough he was, assumed all humans were that tough..and proceeded to flee the hell away from Earth right? The one who Surfer said he couldn't figure out how to kill?



He also totally did it with a genie right?

[BitVyper]

Several versions of Cain have the Mark of Cain as an auto-reflect shield.

[Sol M]

In general, it's pretty bad news when one character has a vast advantage in speed over others. At smaller speed differentials it's possible to endure a blitz and counterattack with auto-targeting or AoE attacks. When the speed differential gets large enough though, the only thing you can hope for is that the faster opponent doesn't have some way of taking you out.

Autopowers are obviously the most common way to counteract speedblitzes.

Intangibility of any (non thought activated) sort works pretty well as well, as do any other forms of avoiding damage or rendering it useless.

Additionally, in a scenario, a precog with AoE capabilities or thought activated defences could pull it off.

Traps can also work against speedsters up to a point. Beyond that point they're just far to fast. Flash level speedsters in particular are pretty much impossible to trap without some kind of futuristic tech.

Another huge problem with Flash, specifically, is that simply being very durable won't stop him from taking people out by speedstealing them, something very few characters can defend against. Similarly, the Surfer can easily transmute opponents without them being able to resist. Heck, even something as simple as speedblitz spacetosses can allow much stronger and more durable characters to lose.


Essentially, the only sure way to survive a speedblitz long enough to counterattack is to ensure that...you have the ability to survive anything the speedster can throw at you and counterattack. And the counterattack would have to be auto-targeting or area of effecting if the speedster is still active. Otherwise, you'd have the wait for the speedster to tire out.


So...not good odds for the slower character. Lots of characters still pull it off though, but mostly by virtue of being vastly more powerful.

[Nik Hasta]

He's the guy where some evil aliens showed up, saw how tough he was, assumed all humans were that tough..and proceeded to flee the hell away from Earth right?

Yes.

The one who Surfer said he couldn't figure out how to kill?

Kind of... Adam got depressed and went on a jaunt around the Universe in a cosmic minivan (because he's just that awesome) and met Surfer. He asked Surfer to try and end his life because he didn't wish to live any more and Surfer went; "Huh... I don't... think I can hurt you... like at all. That is very strange,"

He also totally did it with a genie right?

Oh yes.

Clan Destine is awesome. I need to track down those trades.

[Beadle]

I imagine a null-field like Aquarian's would also be a good way to counteract a speedster. Or automatic time-control.

If you used the principle of Reed Richard's half-life room (where for every step you take, you only cover half the distance required to get to him, without ever actually getting there), that could be handy too. A telepath/mage using that kinda tech would be very effective against speedsters.

[Siriel]

You disappoint me Sol M.

The answer is obviously to have Perfect World for your power.

[Sol M]

You disappoint me Sol M.

The answer is obviously to have Perfect World for your power.

I assumed that fell under 'autopowers'. <_<

Think it should have deserved a special mention? :P


(Now, to be perfectly fair, Perfect World doesn't stop you from getting KO'd, but otherwise yeah. Speedblitzing is futile.)

[Hazard]

Like others have said durability or shield that protect you automatically are good.

Hulk can stand a blitz on account of being too durable to hurt. Accelerator can do it on account of his powers redirecting stuff all the time.

Regeneration would work too.

Then there are more esoteric abilities. Like Kumagawa's All Fiction which revives the guy. Giorno's Gold Experience Requiem which reality warps stuff into not happening. And so on.

[Beadle]

Thinking about it, there's an obvious equivalent to Zoom that I don't think I've ever seen used.

Flash is all about the speed, right? Zoom is a danger to him because he's detached from time. Speed is distance / time, so why not use the other part of the equation?

How about someone who is detached from space? e.g. space flows round him, like time does for Zoom. He could, for example, have an infinitely dense field of space around him that he can contract or expand at will if he wants to touch someone/something. He could make the distance that blood has to be pumped round his opponent's circulatory system infinitely long, so they die. He would have instantaneous travel to any point in space...... well, actually that space would travel to him, rather than the other way around.

Just a thought.

[Len Ikari145]

Autoshields, massive durability or invulnerability, intangibility, timestop, or any ability that covers a large area.

[Sol M]

Thinking about it, there's an obvious equivalent to Zoom that I don't think I've ever seen used.

Flash is all about the speed, right? Zoom is a danger to him because he's detached from time. Speed is distance / time, so why not use the other part of the equation?

How about someone who is detached from space? e.g. space flows round him, like time does for Zoom. He could, for example, have an infinitely dense field of space around him that he can contract or expand at will if he wants to touch someone/something. He could make the distance that blood has to be pumped round his opponent's circulatory system infinitely long, so they die. He would have instantaneous travel to any point in space...... well, actually that space would travel to him, rather than the other way around.

Just a thought.

I've actually created characters with that concept.

A character that can warp space on that level would be almost as broken as a character than can control time on a very high level.

And yeah, a character like that would render speedblitzes impossible, making the distance required to reach him impossibly large, or simply bending space around him so that any objects passing towards him would bend around him instead of going through him.