- "That's what we call them. Time Wraiths. Scary, aren't they? I thought, 'Oh, no, a Time Wraith has found me.' But then I thought, 'No, no, no. You know what you're doing.' No, the Time Wraith is after someone who's traveled through time... and doesn't know what they're doing."
- —Eobard Thawne to Barry Allen[src]
Time Wraiths are, according to Eobard Thawne and Hunter Zolomon, a race of wraith-like beings who are the enforcers of the Speed Force. Since they are enforcers of this energy, they are intimately connected with (and likely live in) the Speed Force. Thawne claimed the only way to draw a Time Wraith's attention is by carelessly traveling through time, although they won't respond to time-travel via super-speed immediately - only when the runner "runs out of luck". However, Zolomon revealed that Time Wraiths will also attack anyone who breaks the rules of the Speed Force though they won't be able to home in on said perpetrator at once, meaning they will attack anyone and anything whom they deem connected in some way to that person until they finally single out the intended target and shall be unrelenting in that endeavor.
Their existence is common knowledge among speedsters, but very few actually knows how to counter the threat that a Time Wraith poses; and so as a general rule, time-traveled speedsters would try to avoid an encounter with Time Wraiths whenever they can. Such speedsters favor impersonating an individual belonging to the time period or alternate reality they visited into as a typical tactic, if not choosing not to speed through time at all. However, they do not track other methods of time travel, such as Time Spheres, timeships, non-Speed Force wormholes, or other non-speedsters using Speed Force portals, such as the Breach Room.
Quick Answers
What is the purpose of the Time Wraiths in the Speed Force?
Who first introduced Barry Allen to the concept of Time Wraiths?
How do Time Wraiths identify who has improperly traveled through time?
What does the term 'black wraith' refer to in the context of Time Wraiths?
What does 'the speed in the wraith' mean in relation to Time Wraiths?
History
At an unknown time in the past, Eobard Thawne came in contact with Time Wraiths and learned to fear them.[1] Zoom also gained their attention when he began trying to manipulate the Speed Force to counteract the Velocity 9's negative effects on his systems.[2] The Time Wraiths hunted Zoom relentlessly, for ages, but in due time, they somehow lost track of the speedster.
A Time Wraith appeared to Barry Allen when he traveled through time in order to learn how to increase his speed from his former mentor, Eobard Thawne. When Barry started to impersonate his former self, the Time Wraith came to the CCPD looking for him, drawing the attention of numerous officers, including Joe West and Eddie Thawne. They and the other armed officers fired shots at it, all of which were ineffective for the apparition was only corporeal when it wants to be, sending the bullets passing harmlessly through its being; it did not take long for the wraith to realize that its target was not at the precinct, and thus left through the glass window. Later, it visited S.T.A.R. Labs and, encountering Caitlin Snow, Cisco Ramon and Hartley Rathaway, tried to attack them. Hartley succeeded in finding a frequency which, using his sonic gloves, was able to hurt him. It forced the Wraith to escape. Unfortunately, the disguised Thawne later reveals that not even he knows how to stop a Time Wraith; hence why speedsters, particularly those who dashed through time itself, like he and Barry did, generally avoid or hide from Time Wraiths at all costs.
Later it struck again, when Barry was using the Pipeline in gaining speed to return to his timeline. It almost got him, but past Barry tackles the creature, giving present Barry the opening to go into the Speed Force. The Wraith then followed The Flash to his timeline, brought him down and started to suck the life out of him, but the reformed Hartley stepped in and used his sonic gloves to obliterate it.[1]
During the race between the Flash and Zoom, Barry created a time remnant, causing two Time Wraiths to be summoned. When they arrived, they surrounded Zoom rather than the Flash and took him away, likely sparing Barry for using the time remnant to save the multiverse and aiding in Hunter's capture.[2]
A Time Wraith was set loose on Barry when he went into the Speed Force to try and find Wally West. Barry managed to outrun it and seal its way to keep it from pursuing him.[3]
Zoom tries to capture Barry and Nora.
Barry and Nora attracted the attention of a Time Wraith when they traveled into the past as part of Team Flash's plan to stop Cicada. However, ultimately, when Zoom started coming after them in the second point in the past that they visited, it appeared that the Time Wraith opted to pursue Hunter rather than them.[4] It possible that the Time Wraith returned Zoom to his proper place in time and erased his memories of future Barry and Nora to ensure the continuity of the timeline.
After the death[5] and rebirth[6] of the Speed Force, the status of the Time Wraiths are currently unknown. However, there is a possibility that they might still exist within the dimension or may have been erased after the birth of the other forces of nature.
What is clear is that the Time Wraiths still existed after the Crisis, but before the death of the Speed Force, as Eobard's time remnant was brought back to life, albeit without his powers and a new task to protect a fixed point. However, he did mention receiving a time watch and a "re-education" from the Wraiths, in a manner similar to the Time Bureau.[7]
Powers and abilities
Powers
- "You don't know how to stop a Time Wraith?"
- "None of us do. That's why we always try and avoid them in our travels."
- —Barry Allen and Eobard Thawne[src]
- Flight: Time Wraiths can fly and hover which is only natural since they do not have legs with which to walk or run.
- Advanced speed: Time Wraiths can fly at blindingly fast speeds, enabling them to easily keep up with and catch most speedsters, however, being as fast as he was, they couldn't catch Zoom until Barry beat him and handed him off to them.
- Immortality: Time Wraiths exist in the Speed Force outside the normal flow of time, therefore they can last forever; so far the only way to permanently kill them is with a sonic attack that uses low frequency with high intensity.
- Intangibility: Time Wraiths can move through solid objects, like ordinary walls and doors, but cannot penetrate the S.T.A.R. Labs pipeline's meta-human prison cells.
- Advanced durability: Time Wraiths cannot be damaged by most physical attacks; so far the only way to damage them is with a sonic attack that uses low frequency with high intensity.
- Advanced strength: Time Wraiths can exert immense physical force, despite their frail appearance; one was able to almost break into an impenetrable S.T.A.R. Labs Pipeline cell and later pin Barry to the ground with one hand. Two of them could effortlessly carry off Zoom into a portal while only holding his arms.
- Time travel: Time Wraiths are able to follow speedsters anywhere in the timeline.
- Life force draining/Decomposing touch: Time Wraiths can drain life-force through physical contact, the effect of this has the appearance of greatly accelerated aging on their victim, which is completely undone if the Wraith loses physical contact with them.
- Transformation: Time Wraiths are capable of reshaping and altering the appearance and powers of Speedsters like Hunter Zolomon, whom they transformed into a gray, skeletal, demonic-looking figure. They also changed the colors of his speed force lightning from yellow/blue to red and changed the colors of the lightning-bolt emblem on his suit. Also, if a speedster is traveling back in time through the Speed Force, the presence of a Time Wraith "transforms" the Speed Force from blue to grey/black.
- Resurrection: Adversely, Time Wraiths can also bring a speedster back to life. After the time remnant of Eobard was vaporized at the hands of the Black Flash, the Time Wraiths were able to bring him back, presumably due to his connection to the Speed Force and its negative counterpart. Despite removing his powers, the Time Wraiths were able to bring him back once more after his second death.
- Power erasure: When the Time Wraiths brought Eobard back to life after Black Flash killed him, they also stripped him of his speed to ensure he couldn’t try to escape.
- Memory erasure (presumably): Due to protecting all of time and reality Time Wraiths possibly can erase memories of people when they time travel. This is assuming after a Time Wraith caught Zoom when he was chasing XS and future Barry, instead of killing Zoom. It appears the Time Wraiths also did this to a resurrected Eobard Thawne, although it is unclear as the Speed Force itself also has the ability to "erase" memories, via amnesia.
Weaknesses
- Frequency attacks/Sonic Weapons: Time Wraiths can be hurt by sonic frequencies, but can only be destroyed by low frequency-based attacks with higher intensity, which could be made by devices such as Hartley Rathaway's sonic gauntlets.
- Speed Force dependency: As beings hailing from the Speed Force and is their source, the Time Wraiths most likely died with the death of the dimension. It is unknown if they were resurrected with the Speed Force. Although it can be assumed that they were since they resurrected Flashpoint Thawne again for a second time after the Speed Force had been brought back to life.
Appearances
The Flash
Season 2
Season 3Season 5Season 8
Season 9 |
Chronicles of Cisco
- "Episode 1" (mentioned)
DC's Legends of Tomorrow
Season 2
- "The Legion of Doom" (mentioned)
Season 7
- "The Need for Speed" (mentioned)
- "The Fixed Point" (mentioned)
Novels
- The Flash: Hocus Pocus (mentioned)
Trivia
- Time Wraiths behave similarly to the shadow demons in terms of how they move, look, and sound.
- How they differ is that while the wraiths are actually protecting reality and time, the shadow demons are assisting their master in the destruction of the multiverse.
- Time Wraiths appear to wear decayed versions of speedster cowls.
Behind the scenes
- Despite their corpse-like appearance and association with speedsters, Time Wraiths are not directly linked to the Black Flash (the Grim Reaper of the Speed Force), which does not actually punish or kill speedsters but rather comes for them when their time is up (i.e. the time of their death) to return them to the Speed Force. Rather, Time Wraiths likely work in concert with/alongside the Black Flash as each is under the charge of the Speed Force itself.
- Its appearance bears a resemblance to the Dementors from Harry Potter, a resemblance noted by Cisco and later by Hartley.
- Cisco Ramon called the creature "Inky", a cyan-colored ghost from Pac-Man.