Nanites

Nanites
Information
Creator(s)	Ray Palmer
Owner(s)	Oliver Queen Ray Palmer (presumed)
User(s)	Oliver Queen Harrison Wells Hunter Zolomon
Function	Disable a connection to the Speed Force for a limited time

"Nanites, courtesy of Ray Palmer. They're delivering a high frequency pulse that's disabling your speed. You're not gonna be running around for quite a while."

—Oliver Queen to Eobard Thawne^[src]

Nanites are nanotechnology that can be used to briefly affect an individual's biological systems, especially a meta-human's, such as disable a speedster's connection to the Speed Force for a limited time. It was created by Ray Palmer sometime between 2014 and 2015.

Description

When a speedster is injected with nanites, he partly loses his connection to the Speed Force for a limited time, disabling his ability to move at super speed.

However, nanites can be disabled by the injected speedster if he vibrates his body at an incredible speed.

History

The nanites were created by Ray Palmer sometime between 2014 and 2015. They were given to Oliver Queen for unclear reasons.

In 2015, at Barry Allen's request, Oliver (as Al Sah-him) came to Central City to help the Flash and Firestorm defeat the Reverse-Flash. During the fight, knowing that he can't beat the evil speedster moving at super speed, Oliver shot Reverse-Flash with a Trick arrow filled with nanites, temporarily disabling his powers. He then explained to the speedster what it was before fighting him hand-to-hand. However, Reverse-Flash eventually managed to vibrate his body fast enough to disable the nanites, thus giving him the ability to run again and attack the archer.

Months later, in order to defeat Zoom, Harrison Wells created a speed-dampening serum out of the nanites Oliver used. When Barry fought the demonic speedster, he tried to inject him with the serum, but couldn't catch up to Zoom's incredible speed. Later in the fight, when Zoom was about to hit Barry with a lethal strike, Wells tried to shoot him using a dart containing the serum, but the speedster easily caught it and used it on Barry instead, thus temporarily disabling his speed.

In 2018, after Iris West-Allen made Oliver (whom she believed to be Barry due to the reality change) faint by putting something in his drink, she jokingly stated, "Nanites; courtesy of Ray Palmer," the same thing he said while fighting Reverse-Flash three years prior.

After Nora West-Allen went rogue, Barry suggested asking Ray for nanites in order to capture and lock her up, but Team Flash immediately shot this idea down.

4 months later, after Killer Frost decided to live a life on her own, Cisco used nanites in order to make her sound more of a human so she could fit in the public more easily.

When combating the Godspeeds during his visit with Team Flash, John Diggle momentarily incapacitated one of the Godspeeds with nanites and quoted Oliver Queen's "Nanites" line.

Appearances

The Flash

Season 1

• "Rogue Air"

Season 2

• "Enter Zoom"

Season 5

• "Elseworlds, Part 1" (mentioned)
• "Gone Rogue" (mentioned)

Season 6

• "A Flash of the Lightning"

Season 7

• "P.O.W."

Comics

EARTH-PRIME

• "Phantom Punch"

Behind the scenes

• The phrase "Nanites, courtesy of Ray Palmer," said by Oliver Queen in "Rogue Air", became an internet meme. Iris West-Allen and John Diggle quoting it again in "Elseworlds, Part 1" and "P.O.W." respectively were clear references to the meme.