The Flash is too Fast

[Riv86672]

There a few things I will never change my mind/personal head canon on.

No one is faster than The Flash is one of those things.


^^^This is the way it should always be, period.

[JackDaw]

As a Superman fan, I don't see how him invalidating The Flash is a good thing. If Flash isn't the fastest, he's not really The Flash. Let the fast guy be the fastest one.

So does the existence of Barry Allen invalidate Wally and Jay?

As a Superman fan I also don’t mind Flash being a tad faster. But..for my money…when it gets to point that Flash is many times faster then Superman loses more than Flash gains.

Ultimately don’t really see any logic in saying a load of Flashes and his foes can be at roughly same speed level, but moment Superman is in same league Flash is diminished.

[achilles]

I think “needs some sort of kryptonite” is the heart of the issue….at very least introducing some sensible weakness would widen story possibilities.

(I’ve seen arguments that “he’s human so extremely vulnerable”…but in fights he never gets tired, can let items phase through him, can hit opponents with super speed blows without pulverising his own arm, recovers from poison with super speed, etc, etc. That’s not human!)

The other possibility is to do what was largely responsible for Wally becoming such an endearing character…start with a new main Flash at a much lower power level, and see him (or her) gradually get greater powers.

From my perspective, that was exactly the case. I was introduced first to Wally, back when he wasn't all Speed Force unstoppable. He was great back then! But I can't help but think that he's lost something at his current power levels. Though I can't put my finger on exactly what he lost.

[Drako]

So does the existence of Barry Allen invalidate Wally and Jay?

As a Superman fan I also don’t mind Flash being a tad faster. But..for my money…when it gets to point that Flash is many times faster then Superman loses more than Flash gains.

Ultimately don’t really see any logic in saying a load of Flashes and his foes can be at roughly same speed level, but moment Superman is in same league Flash is diminished.

Superman is already considered by DC the fourth fastest person in the universe. Why should he be even closer to the Flash? He already has a gazillion of other powers.

[Doctor Know]

As a Superman fan, I don't see how him invalidating The Flash is a good thing. If Flash isn't the fastest, he's not really The Flash. Let the fast guy be the fastest one.

So does the existence of Barry Allen invalidate Wally and Jay?

As a Superman fan I also don’t mind Flash being a tad faster. But..for my money…when it gets to point that Flash is many times faster then Superman loses more than Flash gains.

Ultimately don’t really see any logic in saying a load of Flashes and his foes can be at roughly same speed level, but moment Superman is in same league Flash is diminished.

Makes me think about the issues raised with CW Flash. A macrocosm for the character in live action and in the comics.

“My name is Barry Allen and I am the Fastest Man Alive”!

Except for Reverse Flash in season 1, Zoom in season 2, Savitar and Kid Flash in season 3, Godspeed in Season 6 and 7. The show highlights how much Barry looks like a chump in his own field of expertise.

Having the Super family keep up with the Flashes is the least of a Flash fans worries. Barry and Clark’s powers work differently. There are a lot of things Barry and the Flashes can do that Clark and his cousins can’t. That’s fine with me.

[Jim Kelly]

It's less about speed and more about reality. The speed of light is fundamental to how the universe works. Flash can't go faster than light because his world would cease to exist. If everything in the world (the basic particles) can't go faster than light, then the Flash is no longer in reality--time and space have no meaning.

But most readers don't know enough about science to be bothered by this. Just in case, Mark Waid invented the Speed Force. However, this cheat means that Flash isn't really going faster--he's simply warping through space. It's like in a two dimensional reality such as a piece of paper, you can fold the paper over and make a hole through both sides, going from point A to point B in no time.

[married guy]

This isn't anything new.
Marv Wolfman benched Wally for that exact reason.
Writers have added bits over the years, Speed Force put a cap on how fast Wally could run, Captain Cold created a field which slowed the Flash down, Wally could only hit speed of sound but needed to consume vast amounts of food etc.
I like Slaughter's idea:
I think a easy way to explain why Flash doesn't demolish slower foes instantly, is to simply account for the fact he would kill them if he went at FTL. So Barry vs Rogues limits himself to "Faster than sound" speeds, while the ludicrous speed gets limited to the big league fights.
Its also worth noting that the more you accelerate, the more work and energy you are using to increase your speed.
Going full Lightspeed should't be something Barry or Wally do casually.

[LordAllMIghty]

It's less about speed and more about reality. The speed of light is fundamental to how the universe works. Flash can't go faster than light because his world would cease to exist. If everything in the world (the basic particles) can't go faster than light, then the Flash is no longer in reality--time and space have no meaning.

But most readers don't know enough about science to be bothered by this. Just in case, Mark Waid invented the Speed Force. However, this cheat means that Flash isn't really going faster--he's simply warping through space. It's like in a two dimensional reality such as a piece of paper, you can fold the paper over and make a hole through both sides, going from point A to point B in no time.

True. IIRC, the speed of light use to be the limit for speedsters. As they approached the speed of light they risked being trapped in the Speed Force, which was a good limiter.

[married guy]

And for the record, he's the fastest man alive.
That includes Kryptonians.

[Dred]

Anyone who thinks The Flash is "too fast" doesn't understand storytelling or narrative. Or doesn't actually care about Flash stories and is just complaining about how they see the character compared to other characters.

The Flash is as fast as the story needs him to be. Plain and simple. As the status as the fastest alive whoever is said Flash will be incalculably fast when the situation calls for it, or slow enough that a relatively slow human can tag them and knock them out to remove them from the situation. Just as Superman sometimes goes way faster than light to do something preposterous, but then in another story can't get to his dad fast enough while he has a heart attack despite being one of the most powerful iterations of Superman around.

The Flash's speed, as a number, is irrelevant. The Flash's speed is the measure by which he does heroic actions, not whatever silly big number you want to attach to it.

[Triniking1234]

This would be a problem if The Flash's power level didn't depend on the story anyway.

[Lightning Rider]

The Flash should be and can be and has often been depicted as being naturally limited by his immediate environment. There are countless stories where Flash can't just go from 0 to a billion mph because there are civilians around him, and because the force generated would topple the buildings around him, etc. There are also ways to use his speed against him; the faster he's going, the harder it is to turn or slow or stop. Writers should remember that. Sometimes they do, too often they don't.

[Dred]

It's less about speed and more about reality. The speed of light is fundamental to how the universe works. Flash can't go faster than light because his world would cease to exist. If everything in the world (the basic particles) can't go faster than light, then the Flash is no longer in reality--time and space have no meaning.

But most readers don't know enough about science to be bothered by this. Just in case, Mark Waid invented the Speed Force. However, this cheat means that Flash isn't really going faster--he's simply warping through space. It's like in a two dimensional reality such as a piece of paper, you can fold the paper over and make a hole through both sides, going from point A to point B in no time.

The laws of conservation of energy are also fundamental to how the universe works and basically every superpowered individual violates those somehow. Seems arbitrary to apply it to The Flash.

[Jim Kelly]

The first story in DC COMICS PRESENTS was a two part Superman/Flash race. I liked the story, but their race is through time and they keep going forward to the end of time and then circling back to the beginning and forward to the present. As a race, it makes no real sense, as both heroes have the ability to go straight to a time in the future or the past, so it's not really a test of their speed. At best it's a test of their inventiveness. If the super-heroes have the ability to time travel and space warp--it's immaterial how "fast" they are.

[Doctor Know]

The Flash should be and can be and has often been depicted as being naturally limited by his immediate environment. There are countless stories where Flash can't just go from 0 to a billion mph because there are civilians around him, and because the force generated would topple the buildings around him, etc. There are also ways to use his speed against him; the faster he's going, the harder it is to turn or slow or stop. Writers should remember that. Sometimes they do, too often they don't.

I can’t remember the issues but on both Superman and Flash they narrate that they never go faster than the speed of sound (343 meters per second or 766 mph) in cities or populated areas. The sonic booms they would generate would shatter glass on buildings, knock people over, lift cars and damage people’s hearing.

That’s an understandable and tangible nerf right there.