- "These breaches are pockets of time and space folded into and upon itself."
- —Martin Stein[src]
A breach, also called a portal or wormhole, is a hole or rift in the dimensional barrier, bridging any location to another.
History[]
- "We need to think of the breach as a door, and on Earth-2, there's another door. In between, we have a hallway, but the hallway's constantly shifting, twisting, collapsing upon itself."
"And the doors keep moving with it." - —"Jay Garrick" and Barry Allen about how a breach functions[src]
On Earth-1, under the guidance of Eobard Thawne, Barry Allen ran fast enough to hit the hydrogen particle with enough speed to create a wormhole that served as a portal to infinite times. But the explosion created a singularity, a black hole above Central City,[1] which threatened to destroy the world. It also created a breach to Earth-2. In Central City, seeing a blinding light in which the skies parted and showed him another world, Hunter Zolomon/Zoom came to Earth-1 to steal Barry's speed. While Team Flash was successful in closing the Singularity, there was a side effect. Using electrophotography, Cisco Ramon and Martin Stein found 52 breaches scattered throughout the city.[2]
Zoom appears out of a breach with Sand Demon. He asks Zoom where he is and what he has to do to get home, and Zoom simply tells that all he has to do, is kill the Flash.[2] Barry tries to speed through the breach under S.T.A.R. Labs, but isn't fast enough, and later, Harry comes through the breach; Zoom named it the speed cannon.[3] Barry is set on stopping Zoom, so the team choreograph a fight between him and Dr. Light to lure Zoom into an ambush, but he doesn't fall for it and comes through it later and captures Linda to get Barry's attention.[4]
Before going to Earth-2 to save Harry's daughter, Jesse, Barry closes fifty-one breaches with the breach implosion reactors, leaving only one open, through which Barry, Cisco and Harry use to cross over to Earth-2. The breach behind them destabilizes,[5] but Jay and Caitlin fix it, with stabiliser rings. Barry, Cisco, Harry and Jesse eventually come back through and seal it, but Zoom manages to grab and kill Jay, who is actually his time remnant.[6]
With encouragement from Barry, Cisco taps into the energies that binds the multiverse together, as is his power, and reopens a breach to Earth-2 so that Barry and Zoom can face-off. But, Zoom gets away after a mini fight with the Flash, and takes Wally hostage as a bargaining chip. Barry gives Zoom his speed for Wally's life, further enhancing Zoom's speed, far beyond what it was before and curing him.[7]
As a way to subdue the Earth-2 metas, the team sends out a high-pitch frequency specific to that of the frequency that Earth-2 vibrates at, affecting people from Earth-2, even Zoom, so Zoom creates a breach with his own power and hops through it.[8]
Savitar used the breaches in Central City, which allowed him to pop up wherever he wanted, and managed to take down Barry with him not being able to keep up at all.[9]
After two attempts at opening breaches (one over Kara's Thanksgiving dinner, and one in the middle of L-Corp HQ)[12], Cisco opened a breach to Earth-38 on his third try (in the same attempt, from his view), transporting him and Barry into the middle of Kara Danvers' apartment.[13]
Cisco later created an interdimensional extrapolator that could automatically open a breach between Earth-38 and Earth-1, and also added the ability to communicate between the two Earths. Kara Danvers utilized this to return to her Earth.[14] The extrapolator was also used by Music Meister to go from Earth-38 to Earth-1; having captured Supergirl, he would do the same to the Flash and entrap them within an imaginary reality.[15] A breach was once again used for the Superfriends of Earth-38 to go back from the speed lab (Earth-1).[16] Interdimensional extrapolators are able to be programmed to open to any other Earths,[17] though breaches will not work for destroyed universes that show up as "a void", according to David Chin.[18]
Breaches can be used for otherwise extremely short connections, which can take enemies by surprise; for example, a pair of breaches was able to be exploited to defeat the Reverse-Flash from in front and also behind.[19]
Later on, it is shown that The Monitor is able to open breaches by himself,[20] to test various Earths with invented elseworlds, to prepare the multiverse for the Anti-Monitor Crisis. During the Crisis, despite the Monitor and the heroes' efforts, the multiverse was destroyed by Mobius. As a result, the Spectre and the Paragons ended up going back to the big bang for the battle at the dawn of time, and restored a universe with those native to Earth-1, Earth-38, and Earth-TUD5 and various refugees from the original multiverse, all living on Earth-Prime; their worlds have merged. However, because vibrational frequencies have been altered, the rest of the multiverse has become closed to those from Earth-Prime via breaching, at least through technological or powered means.[21] However, other breaches still exist, such as transmatter portals. For example, one type of portal was also used by Mar Novu to send Felicity Smoak to the afterlife; others were still used by the Monitor previously.[22] For Team Flash, meta-humans' powers can open portals, such as Eddie Thawne, who is also able to open his own breach-like portals, and Nash's smoke bombs can teleport the user similarly.
Temporal gateway[]
A temporal gateway is a larger version of a breach that is more stable and works on the same physics as a breach. At its full potential it can open a large enough breach to allow a Waverider sized object to get through. Rebels on Earth-X built a machine to open one and help bring hope back to that darkened world. After a battle with an unidentified vigilante, Oliver seized the device and used it to travel to Earth-1 (via the Wellenreiter) to conquer that Earth and save Kara from her solar radiation poisoning with a new heart transplant. After being taken to Earth-X, Barry Allen, Sara Lance, Alex Danvers, Martin Stein, Jefferson Jackson, Oliver Queen, Leo Snart, and Ray Terrill used the gateway to get back to Earth-1. It is presumed that Winn Schott had it blown up despite Barry and Ray stopping Red Tornado doing that before they escaped.
Transmatter portals[]
Breach technology can be combined with supermassive transmatter portals to allow mass transport of billions between universes. Lena Luthor and Alex Danvers worked together to construct a huge portal to allow the residents of Earth-38 to be evacuated to Earth-1 before the antimatter wave hit. Just under half the residents, 3 billion, were evacuated on alien ships through the breach before it closed near National City; the universe was overwhelmed and destroyed.
Application[]
Hunter Zolomon said to look at a breach as like a "door," with a "hallway" in between that's always shifting and twisting, and if you stabilize the door, you stabilize the hallway.
Experienced speedsters can travel through breaches if they're fast enough. The "God of Speed" Savitar is even able to utilize them so well that he can hop in and out of a location. Reverb could open a breach to any Earth he so pleased, and Vibe could open them as well; he also used them to travel around the city within Earth-1, but under great strain until he became more proficient with his powers.
Users[]
Appearances[]
The Flash[]
Supergirl[]
Season 1Season 2Season 3Season 4Season 5 |
DC's Legends of Tomorrow[]
Season 2[]
Season 3[]
Freedom Fighters: The Ray[]
Season 1[]
- "Episode Two"
- "Episode Three"
- "Episode Four" (mentioned)
Arrow[]
Season 7[]
- "Elseworlds, Part 2"
- "You Have Saved This City" (flashforwards)
Season 8[]
- "Starling City"
- "Welcome to Hong Kong"
- "Purgatory"
- "Crisis on Infinite Earths: Part Four" (flashbacks)
- "Fadeout" (flashforwards)
Batwoman[]
Season 1[]
Superman & Lois[]
Season 1[]
- "Through the Valley of Death" (flashbacks)
Season 2[]
- "Into Oblivion" (flashbacks)
Comics[]
Crisis on Infinite Earths Giant[]
The Chronicles of Cisco[]
|
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- It seems to take more concentration and skill to for Vibers to open breaches within/to the same Earth, as evidenced by Cisco when he had trouble opening a breach from S.T.A.R. Labs to the water front, whereas he can easily open up breaches to other Earths, and Zoom never once transported around Earth-1 by using breaches. Savitar, however, utilized breaches with such preciseness and swiftness that he was able to shift about and appear anywhere in the city instantly, although this was only while he was manifesting himself in the real world from his Speed Force prison, which made him able to rapidly switch terrain and distance without even having to move himself.
- It is revealed that the only way to prevent anyone to breach to a particular earth is to activate a QT-Net on that earth.
See also[]
- Other/specific breaches: Speed cannon, Temporal gateway
- 'Temporal' portals: Time courier (Earth-1)/Prime; also Temporal disruption
- Alternatives/methods: Interdimensional extrapolator, Transmatter portal
References[]
- ↑ "Fast Enough"
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Flash of Two Worlds"
- ↑ "Family of Rogues"
- ↑ "Enter Zoom"
- ↑ "Welcome to Earth-2"
- ↑ "Escape from Earth-2"
- ↑ "Versus Zoom"
- ↑ "Invincible"
- ↑ "Killer Frost"
- ↑ "The Race of His Life"
- ↑ "Dead or Alive"
- ↑ "Medusa"
- ↑ "Invasion!"
- ↑ "Invasion!"
- ↑ "Star-Crossed"
- ↑ "Elseworlds, Part 3"
- ↑ "Starling City"
- ↑ "Welcome to Hong Kong"
- ↑ "Legacy"
- ↑ "Purgatory"
- ↑ "Marathon"
- ↑ "You Have Saved This City"
- ↑ "It's My Party and I'll Die If I Want To"