Carter Matthews

Professor **Carter Matthews** (born c. 2151), also known as the **Reverse-Blur**, is a meta-human speedster from the twenty-second century, a descendant of the late Eddie Matthews, a time criminal, and the archenemy of Grant Watson/The Blur. Obsessed with the twenty-first century's Blur, Carter recreated the accident that was behind the Blur’s powers, becoming a speedster himself. However, after his very first trip back in time, Carter learned that he was destined to become the Blur's archenemy and grew to despise the hero, attempting to prove his superiority as the Reverse-Blur and becoming the opposite of his former idol. This included creating his own variation of the Speed Force using negative energy and emotions, which he used to travel through time without the Blur being able to detect him. Since then, the two speedsters battled each other for many years, but neither of them was strong or fast enough to defeat the other.

After learning the Blur's secret identity, Carter traveled back in time to kill Grant as a child to erase his foe from existence but was thwarted by the Blur of 2024 who brought the younger Grant to safety. The enraged Matthews then killed Caitlin Watson and framed Henry Watson for the crime instead, being known as the **Man in Yellow** after the incident. However, Carters connection to the Speed Force began fluctuating, trapping him in the early twenty-first century. Realising Grant was the only way to return to his time, Matthews killed **Dr. Harrison Davies** in order to assume his identity as the director of Array Industries, and to push through for the creation of a particle accelerator to ensure that Grant would become the Blur. Posing as Davies, Matthews mentored the Blur and became the leader of a team he assembled to stop the meta-human threats, to increase his protégé's speed so that Carter could use the hero's connection to the Speed Force to return to his own time. After his plan was exposed and subsequently foiled, Carter was erased from existence after his ancestor killed himself to stop him.

## Appearances

### Appears in

The BlurSaltire

Protectors of Time

Altered Space

## Biography

### Search for the Spear of Destiny

Realising he couldn't run from the Darkness forever, Carter set out to locate the Spear of Destiny, a mystical weapon foretold to have the power to re-write reality itself to restore his own existence to the timeline. However, the Spear of Destiny was divided into several pieces and guarded by the Knights of Justice members from 1956 scattered throughout time. To find this mystical object, Carter required the Askaran Amulet, a compass detailing the locations of the various pieces and their respective guardians. However, Carter discovered the Askaran Amulet was divided into two pieces but Matthews discovered one half was in Nazi Germany's possession in 1942 while the other half was in the Soviet Union's possession in 1987. Carter learned all of this by traveling through time and gathering informations across the 20th century.

### League of Evil

Carter then traveled to 1987 to retrieve the Askaran Amulet's other half and aided Damien as his "old friend" was about to be caught by DEA agents while trading drugs with dealers in exchange for a relic. Carter offers Damien a partnership to aid him in his plans in exchange for rewriting Damien's own destiny. Damien initially refused, however, Carter warned that he knew of Damien's plan and its outcome and promised that he could give Damien actual power, rather than symbols of power. Interested, Damien agreed and Carter had Damien arrange a meeting with the Soviets to obtain the Askaran Amulet's second half. When the protectors of time confronted Damien at the deal, Reverse-Blur traveled there to stop them from killing Damien and risk losing the Askaran Amulet.

Just as Jamie McDonald/Caledonia had taunted Damien about the ultimate outcome of Thomas’ plans for H.I.V.E., Carter sped Damien out of the facility. When Damien realised that Jamie had snatched his relic, Damien demanded Carter to be taken back, but the speedster reminded Damien the PoT had left the time period and were beyond reach. Damien then reconsidered Carter’s offer and begging to come along to his next destination, insisting Damien needed to change his own destiny. Accepting this answer, Carter showed his ally a Time Sphere. When Damien gets inside, Carter sped around it to open a portal into the Speed Force where he traveled to his next destination with Damien.

Carter and Damien then traveled to 2016 to recruit the second recruit (Malcolm). Carter sped himself and Damien into Malcolm's apartment. As Malcolm had descended into alcoholism after losing the League of Darkness and H.I.V.E. following Damien's death. Malcolm gets highly confused to see Damien alive (as having just watched Saltire kill Damien on the news) but Carter elaborated that he's from the future, and Damien was from the past, and they're on a quest to change their respective fates and offered Malcolm the opportunity to do the same in exchange for Malcolm's services. While skeptical at first, Malcolm agreed to Carter's offer and accompanied the duo through time. Following this, the trio traveled to the former Time Bureau's base of operations and began using the ruins as their own base.

After failing to retrieve the Spear of Destiny's last fragments, Carter sent Malcolm and Damien to get the Calebros Manuscript in order to activate the Spear of Destiny to rewrite reality. While he was making a plan to try and track the PoT, he discovered that the PoT had infiltrated the base and stolen their two fragments and fled before Carter could stop anything. When Damien returned and learned of what happened, Carter gets scolded for his recklessness, but Carter realised that now that the PoT had all the Spear of Destiny's fragments, they no longer had to hunt for the holy object piece by piece. However, Damien insisted that in order to succeed, they would need to up their strategy besides just the three of them. Carter then traveled back to 2014 and located Sgt Martin before he had joined the PoT, revealing the man's future death being all they needed to have Oliver agreed to help them in getting the Spear of Destiny. After Oliver successfully manipulated Tom into betraying the PoT and steal the Spear of Destiny from them during World War I, Carter sped into the war-zone and transported Oliver, Damien and Tom to the base. After Malcolm returned with the Celebros Manuscript, the five villains held onto the Spear of Destiny as Malcolm read the incantation and they began to use the holy object's power to re-write reality to their whims.

### Rewritten reality

In his syndicate's rewritten reality, Carter remains in 2017 but is now Array Industries' official C.E.O. (under his true identity this time) with world-wide recognition for using his futuristic brilliance to solve many worldwide problems. He is also a close friend of the President of the United States. However, Carter did not remove (or perhaps could not remove) the darkness from this new reality. Regardless, Carter built a dampening cell in Array Industries that he kept The Darkness imprisoned in, leaving the demonic speedster unable to escape, running around the inside of the cell in murderous rage, with Carter commenting that he wants to somehow bend the monster to his will, to no avail. As per his agreement, Carter also altered his syndicate members' fates based on their own desires.

Carter revived Malcolm's wife and son, made Malcolm's daughter a loving part of the Hunter family, gave Dawn, daughter of the Demon a "miserable life in Ohio," made Malcolm C.E.O. of Hunter Global Group once more, and even restored Malcolm's original right hand. Carter made Damien into the Mayor of Red Lake City and restored Damien's magic who then killed many opposing heroes and vigilantes (including the Blur). Finally, Carter improved Oliver and Tom’s lives.

As he considered his partnership with Malcolm and Damien over, Carter ignored any calls from his two subordinates. Malcolm eventually confronted Carter in person as there were still some things Malcolm wanted changed, but Carter insisted that the Spear of Destiny was best kept in his possession as he was the only one who knew how to use the holy object. They were interrupted by Jamie informing him the reactor's taking longer than anticipated but Carter, calmly made subtle threats to motivate. Carter broke into a hard laugh as Malcolm scolded him for keeping the PoT around as "pets" when the group should be erased altogether, though Carter considered this poetic justice. Carter then told Malcolm to leave and enjoy this new life as Malcolm frustratingly left. Fearing Malcolm may be a problem, he asked Oliver and Tom to keep an eye on Malcolm. Before they could go on further, Steve arrived past security, having no knowledge of Carter, and told him reality wasn’t right. Realising he’s starting to catch on to their actions, he ordered Oliver and Tom to take Steve away to be killed.

Luckily the team found Alex and travelled back to the Somme. Carter took his team back. Enraged, Carter intended to use the neutralised spear to physically kill Jamie instead only to be confronted by the The Darkness due to the fact that his syndicate's alternate reality never existed because the Spear of Destiny was neutralised, as well as Carter having carelessly left his warning device behind. As Carter panicked, he attempted to flee only for The Darkness to swiftly catch up and stabbed a hand into Carter's chest. After doing so, Matthews helplessly screamed while being vaporised along with the Spear of Destiny. After that, Reverse-Blur's time remnants were erased from existence.

### Return

Likely using the Negative Speed Force, Carter was able to preserve himself, returning to life once again. He retained the memories of his "Davies" years, though it's unknown if he also retained the memories of his time remnant. He traveled to Earth-X and encountered the New Reich, meeting der Führer/Overlord (Norman’s Earth-X counterpart), along with the Schutzstaffel generals Brutus and Persephone. Carter joined the elite SS forces, modifying his Reverse-Blur suit to add a complex mask and the SS double lightning runic symbol, being one of the high-ranked SS generals by leading the research regarding invasions of other universes and being the designer of the *Wellenreiter*. At some point before invading Earth-1, he decided to put on his Davies likeness, most likely to cause Grant the most pain.

## Personality

In Carter’s younger years, he was petty, somewhat short tempered and unstable, when Grant Watson found out Carter’s hatred was because he couldn't be just like the Blur, Grant expressed disgust, causing Carter to snap, yelling that he's "become better than" the Blur, arrogantly stating that he is the one person his nemesis can't stop. Learning that he caused such pain and sorrow later in the Blur's life made Carter giddy and proud of his life choices as the Blur's nemesis.

Although polite, Carter is also proven to be quite arrogant, self-righteous, overconfident, somewhat cruel and sadistic, these traits were evident during his first encounter with the Blur with Carter believing the Blur couldn't keep up with him, despite his superior speed, Carter gets outsmarted, beaten unconscious and imprisoned, upon meeting Leo Ramon for the first time, Carter is impressed by Leo’s powers, even curious, maintaining politeness for the most part. But he still smirked with sarcasm when Leo taunted him of his imprisonment. Eobard is shown to take great joy in mocking his enemies for their own actions' fallout, demonstrated when Harry Davies came to free him to be sent back to his own time so as to repair the timeline damage. Carter is also seen to justify his murders by stating that those whom he had killed (such as Tess Morgan) had already been dead for centuries from his perspective, not caring about his victims or seeing how his acts were harming the timeline.

## Powers and Abilities

* **Speed Force-Negative Speed Force connection/Meta-human physiology:** Replicating the circumstances behind the Blur’s powers, Carter gained access to the Speed Force. Sometime, later he created his own negative version of the Speed Force and became connected to it as well, thus; his physiology has been greatly augmented to beyond peak human performance, letting him handle extreme physical exertion and performance. His connection to both the Speed Force and Negative Speed Force grant him the ability to not only sense the Blur and other speedsters connected to the Speed Force but he can remain undetected such as why the Blur could never anticipate his nemesis' arrival and time manipulations. However after Carter’s death in Crisis, he turned into negative tachyons and could only tap into the Negative Speed Force if he had a willing host body. As the Speed Force made him whole once again, his connection to his Negative Speed Force remains intact and he doesn't need a host anymore. As a speedster; Carter is one of the most powerful beings in the entire multiverse.
* **Accelerated healing factor:** The Speed Force in someone's blood gives it regenerative properties. Carter’s body heals much faster and more efficiently than normal humans. His wounds from being attacked were completely gone without a trace afterwards, which he covered up by isolating himself to avoid speculation of any kind. After being viciously pummeled by the Blur of 2016 twice, he is able to recover as if he had never been hurt.
* **Enhanced longevity**: Due to his accelerating healing factor, Carter ages much slower than normal humans. Despite having spent nearly 30 years in the past, his appearance and performance remains the same as ever (albeit the alterations from stealing Harrison Davies' form may have contributed to it). While Matthews was stuck in Stormguard Prison in the future, his hair started to turn gray over a period of 15 years as a result of him aging naturally. However, when Cicada's dagger was destroyed in the past and Carter regained his powers, his hair turned back to its original black colour.
* **Intangibility**: Carter can seamlessly phase his arm through an individual, killing them instantly without outwardly damaging them. By vibrating the cells in his body, Carter can pass through other individuals or objects unharmed. As Leo Ramon remembered his own death at Carter's hands, Leo described Carter as having crushed the heart with his fist, performing this same technique on Mason Bridge in 2015 and Rex Taylor in 1942.
* **Superspeed**: Carter is able to move at levels of speed well above Mach 2.2, easily outpacing Grant’s limit during 2014-2015. Using this speed, he can easily move on vertical structures and ceilings. Grant said that he is so fast that he could kill everyone in the police precinct in seconds, describing him as "somebody that even i can't keep up with". His tremendous speed was later revealed to be greatly influenced by tachyon particles in his body. As revealed by Caitlin West-Watson, this allows Carter to move faster with each stride his feet spend less time on the ground, thus; propelling him forward much faster, similar to Jason Mewes with the Velocity serums. Later, after somehow returning from erasure, his speed also somehow increased considerably, able to keep up with the Blur of 2017 who was described as the fastest speedster ever. However, Carter also stated that his speed was equal to the Blur of 2024's speed, so it's also possible that he simply realised that Grant had reached that potential and ran using the full extent of his speed. Carter has stated that he is even much faster than Powerhouse. after the Speed Force made Carter whole once again, although he is still exceptionally fast; his speed is proving to be inferior to Grant’s; who has finally surpassed Carter in terms of "physical speed".

## Appearances

### Season 1

* ”Repilot: Line of Lance”
* ”Guilt”
* ” The Calm Before the Storm”
* ”Flashback”
* ”Little Runner”
* ” Worldchange pt “2”
* ” The Present”
* ”The Reign of Reverse-Blur”

### Season 2

* ”Fallout”
* ”War Pt 2”
* ”Mother”
* ”The Trials of Charles McLance”

### Season 4

* ”Acceptance”
* "Multiversal War part 2"

### Season 5

* ”Heroes Join Forces Part 2”
* ”Multiversal Chase”
* ”Origins of Carter Matthews”
* ”Welcome Back”

### Protectors of Time

* “Pilot: Captain Alex Lance”
* ”New York”
* ”Stuck in Time”
* ”The Kalaborous Manuscript Part 2”
* “Reverse-Blur Origins”

### Season 1

* “The Reverse”
* ”Remembrance”
* “Battle Stations”
* “Multiversal Chase”
* ”Big Brother”

### Season 2

* ”Catastrophe”
* ”Knights of Justice”
* "Manhunt"
* "Compromised"
* "The Return"
* "League of Evil"