Flash Proved no Superhero as Powerful as Him in DC:
Behold the fastest man alive – the Flash is the world’s fastest superhero. In the comics, we seldom see any superhero that becomes the object of some abject ridicule and comic relief as the Flash. He is shown as a jokester and a careless guy who has trouble taking things seriously. Many times, the situation goes awry because the Flash tries to juggle too many things at the same time. In the DC Comic Book Universe, many superheroes are seen as stronger than the Flash. But here’s the catch – the Flash is a God. We are not even joking. The amount of feats he has achieved over the years is so many that he is already a living legend. Don’t believe us? See it for yourself.
1. He is faster than Superman
The Flash or Superman – who is faster? That was the question not long ago. Superman can traverse the whole world in a matter of minutes. He has travelled across galaxies in a time not even a space-ship with the most powerful engine could ever hope to achieve. The Flash, on the other hand, is also shown to be faster than bullets. He regularly faces off against villains that are speedsters and defeats them on a daily basis. It was really hard for the fans to figure out whether Scarlet Speedster is faster or is it the Man of Steel. There are actually storylines in the comic books where they pit the Flash against Superman in a race. In Flash Rebirth, we finally got to have an answer. The Flash, while being chased by Superman, reveals that he was holding himself back while racing against Superman all the time, and then zooms out of the horizon all the while Superman tries to catch up to him helplessly.
2. Defeated Brainiac singlehandedly when the entire Justice League could not
Granted this was not a comic book event but it is still worth mentioning. In the animated Justice League series, Lex Luthor gets his hands on technology related to Brainiac. Luthor’s lust for advanced Kryptonian tech leads him into merging with Brainiac’s consciousness and become a God. When the League gets wind of his plans, they try to fight back. By that time, Luthor has already completely become one with Brainiac’s programming. Even superheroes like Superman and Wonder Woman find it hard enough to even put a scratch on him. The only hero left standing is the Flash. At first it looks like he has run away in the other direction. But it is later revealed that he is only trying to gather up speed by encircling the world, hitting Brainiac multiple times with a series of Infinite Mass Punches, defeating the monstrosity once and for all.
3. Defeated Powerful Speedsters
Almost all the primary villains in Flash’s Rogues’ Gallery are speedsters. There is Professor Zoom, Reverse Flash, Savitar, Black Flash, Godspeed and a host of other villains that have regularly gone against the Flash. And here’s the thing – Barry Allen has defeated every one of them. Every time a villain turns out to be faster than him, the Flash pushes himself hard enough to surpass the adversary and save the day. There is even a theory that the Flash can actually go way faster than his max speed if he keeps pushing himself since he has done it already more than quite a few number of times.
4. Saved the Universe
For a guy who jokes around a lot, he is pretty serious when lives are on the line. Barry Allen is known for many things. But the one feat that turned him into a true hero was when he saved the entire Universe from being destroyed by using his speed force powers so much that his body disintegrated into the very energy source that gives him his powers. The death of Barry Allen became part of Barry’s legacy. The world saw the rise of Wally West who took on the role of the Flash after his mentor bit the dust but they never forgot the sacrifice of Barry Allen at the moment of crisis. He did come back in Flash: Rebirth decades later but that is a different story.
5. Created an entirely new timeline by himself
We think we all know where this is going. The Flash is the reason the Flashpoint timeline came into existence. Barry Allen wanted his mother to live. So he traveled back in time and saved his mother. In the process of doing that, he broke the entire stream of time like how the Reverse-Flash puts it as “a rank amateur”. The Flashpoint Paradox was the comic book arc set in an alternate reality, courtesy of Barry Allen. The Flash’s mother was alive in this new timeline but the world was so twisted and screwed up that it would have been better if things were the way they were before.
6. Can turn his body into a Speed Force Bomb
“Heroes in Crisis” was a very major milestone event that happened in the pages of the DC Comic book Universe not long ago. In the storyline, we see that a mysterious event led to the deaths of several innocent characters in a base called the Sanctuary. Nobody knew who caused it and the Flash – both Wally West and Barry Allen, were trying their best to find out the culprit. It is later revealed that it was Wally himself who killed all those people. Wally was so packed with Speed Force Energy that he lost control over his body for a second and there was a massive burst of energy that disintegrated hordes of patients. The fact that the Flash could do such a thing, where he just stands still and his body can turn into a walking WMD is a matter of grave concern.
7. He is the Speed Force
Believe it or not, the every energy source that gives Barry his powers was created by Barry Allen himself. Every time Barry runs, the lightning strands that radiate out of his body feed the Speed Force. The Speed Force is a mystical dimension of energy that is also responsible for upkeeping the flow of time in the Universe. It is supposed to have no starting point since time is infinite as long as the Universe exists. So in a way, Barry Allen created not only the Speed Force but also time. That completely changes how people view the Red Bullet of DC Comics.
8. Outran Death
In the Darkseid War storyline, the death of Darkseid creates a terrible imbalance in the universe. Grail, the daughter of Darkseid, kills her father and the Black Racer, the embodiment of death in the DC Universe, is set free. The Black Racer merges with the Flash and tries to reason why he should be his host. The Flash tries to fight back but the Black Racer’s logic is too hard to ignore. In the end, the Flash chooses the right thing and decides to cast the Black Racer out of his body, even though he had access to immeasurable power if he hadn’t. The Black Racer tries to exact revenge on the Flash for rejecting him. The Flash manages to defeat him.
9. Can travel to any dimension he wants to
Among the Flash’s many abilities, the one that is most often overlooked is his ability to slip into other dimensions. Using his skill to vibrate his body, he can tap into certain frequencies that allow for dimensional travel. Each Earth in each parallel universe vibrates at a specific frequency rate. If a person can manipulate his body into vibrating at that specific frequency like the Flash, you can just fade away out of one universe and appear in that universe. Barry Allen has done it so many times that he knows the vibrations of the different Piles of the earth like the back of his hands.
10. He can break time if he wants to
It was in The Flash War saga that we got to know the level of scary abilities the Flash has. Barry Allen and Wally West were at loggerheads with each other. So they decided to settle scores the way two speedsters should – through a race. Wally West is said to be faster than Barry Allen but the latter is the source of all Speed Force energy, so the fans were undecided upon whom to root for. The race was devastating to the flow of time. Barry and Wally ran so fast that they went past time. The comics then show us one terrible revelation – if the Flash continues the race, time will literally break and implode, bringing an end to reality as we know it.
