'My name is Wally West. I'm one of the the fastest men alive. The other is Savitar, a ruthless and sadistic angel of death'

Savitar was a test pilot for an ambiguous third world country. He was testing an experimental supersonic plane to its limits when it burst all speed records and for a moment, Savitar was the fastest man alive. As the plane zomed into nowhere, it was embraced by luminous lightning and exploded. Savitar landed thousands of miles from home and completely unharmed.

Foreign soldiers, convinced that Savitar was a spy, opened fire upon him but Savitar responded with a ferocity prviously unknown. He mowed his way through the soldiers, killing them all with his newfound superspeed. He marvelled at his powers, he was a god. And speed was a new religion.

Savitar learnt all he could about the physics and dynamics of speed. He taught himself how to manipulate it to create fantastic powers. He trained himself until he was the master of speed. But as much as he tried, he could only skirt the edges of the speed force of which he had learnt - he could not embrace it.

He approached Johnny Quick to help him on his way, but Savitar's crual ways shocked Johnny and they ended up in a dual. Max Mercury saved Johnny from Savitar and the two of them penetrated his base and took down his disciples of speed.

Max chased Savitar into the time stream and the two of them became lost in time. Max was only sent forward a couple of years but Savitar wasn't so lucky. He ended up decades in the future, maddened by his near miss of the speed field.

He arrived to his disciples in the European base they had made their home and began to plan his new war, on the new disciples of speed - Wally West and his minions.

He approached Wally soon after Wally had entered the speed force and learned of it's existence. Wally and his allies fought Savitar bravely and eventually beat him - Wally drew him into the Speed force. (see Flash 108 - 110)