A few days ago IGN.com published an article in which they announced that DC Comics finally revealed who is faster – Superman or The Flash.
The whole “Superman vs. The Flash” concept has been around for decades, with the two superheroes racing against one another in comic books, cartoons, and even the recent “Justice League” movie.
But within the pages of the recent “The Flash #49”, the penultimate chapter of the “Flash War” story (as explained by IGN.com), Wally West has been convinced by Zoom that his children (supposedly wiped out of existence thanks to the New 52 reboot) are trapped inside the Speed Force. He wants to use his speed to destroy the Speed Force itself and free them, while Barry Allen would prefer to use less drastic measures.
“As the two speedsters race across the globe in this issue, numerous natural disasters spring up in their wake. The Justice League are forced to intervene, with Superman doing his best to catch up to the two speedsters. But even he’s forced to accept that he’s just not fast enough to outrun a Flash.”
So, it would appear that Superman is unable to run as fast as either Barry Allen or Wally West. However, that’s not where things end…
The recent second issue of the “DC Nation” publication (which is available for 25c in print or as a free digital download), also published by DC Comics, has an interesting addendum to this debate…
Josh Williamson, the writer of the “Flash War” story, helped put together a “The Great Race” speed chart showing the top 10 fastest DC Comics characters. While Wally West beats out Barry Allen at the top of the list, with Superman rating at number four behind the Reverse-Flash, Williamson makes an interesting admission…
While he stipulates that while on the ground Superman can’t match the speeds of these speedsters, he does state that “The Man of Steel is unmatched when flying in the air, able to arrive and save the day in the blink of an eye.”
“Unmatched”.
So, while DC Comics may have cleared up the concept that The Flash (either Wally or Barry) is faster than Superman in a running race, Superman is faster than them both when using all of his abilities.
Yet, in issue 49,he was clearly flying after them, so . . . ?
Didn’t Geoff Johns do this in FLASH REBIRTH like six years ago? I remember Barry outrunning Clark and it being a plot point. Personally, I’ve always been fine with Flash being faster than Superman, as that’s his only superpower. Although I do like to think that Superman’s speed is hampered by the atmosphere of the Earth(something the Speed Force negates), and that if he really cut loose, the friction would cause all the oxygen on the planet would burst into flame, lol. But in outer space, I’d love it for Superman to be faster than light, breaking the time barrier,… Read more »
I’m okay with Flash being faster. It’s not like Superman isn’t also incredibly fast. Like @s-shield said, it’s literally Flash’s only super power and it makes sense that he would be/is ‘the fastest man alive.’ I love the other heroes as well and as much as I love superman I don’t want him to be the best at everything. This is the problem I’ve run into with Batman. It’s annoying.
Superman being faster when he’s flying while Flash is faster when running works for me. Superman has an arsenal of abilities at his disposal while speedsters can manipulate speed itself in various ways.
Now exactly why the hell are Barry and Wally fighting each other? (besides to manufacture more hero vs. hero crap)?
Barry and Wally are fighting because Sally basically wants to destroy the speed force, and of course Barry is like, ummmmm sorry can’t let You do that.