The Superman v Flash Debate Is Settled Once And For All

SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for The Flash #49 by Joshua Williamson, Howard Porter, Hi-Fi and Steve Wands, on sale now.

Superman is the gold standard of DC heroes, so if there are any traits that he shares with any of his peers, there’s always the question of whether he is the best at that particular skill. Is he stronger than Wonder Woman or Martian Manhunter? Is he as invulnerable as Aquaman? Is he faster than The Flash? It’s a question that’s been asked and revisited a number of times, but this week’s The Flash #49 settles the matter once and for all, with Superman attempting to catch up to not one, but two Flashes, finally pitting himself and his top speeds against theirs.

Friendly Rivalry

The first race between Superman and The Flash took place in 1967’s Superman #199, by Jim Shooter (who was just sixteen at the time!) and Curt Swan and was presented as an event organised by the United Nations to raise money and awareness for third-world countries. However, the heroes learned that two rival criminal organisations had put money on the event and so they collaborated and made it so that they crossed the finish line at the same time, ending in a tie.

The rematch came in the same year’s The Flash #175 by E. Nelson Bridwell and Ross Andru, as the heroes were captured by aliens who wanted to see a definitive victory. It was eventually discovered that the two aliens were Abra Kadabra and Professor Zoom in disguise and the race was once again determined as a tie, as even with a photo-finish, the Justice League couldn’t decide which hero won the race.

The heroes have raced a number of times over the years, with it usually ending in a tie or in one of the heroes ceding the victory to the other. The last time Clark Kent and Barry Allen attempted to race was during Flash: Rebirth when Superman tried to convince The Flash not to race back into the Speed Force, but Barry pointed out that those races were always for charity before pulling away from The Man of Steel with a significant lead.

Superman has also raced other Flashes before, and there've been examples of Kid Flash/Superboy races as well, with similarly inconclusive results. The good-natured spirit of the original races was even replicated in the Justice League movie, with a post-credits sequence of Henry Cavill’s Superman and Ezra Miller’s Flash engaging in a friendly contest to see who is faster, once again ending without a definitive result.

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The Fastest Man Alive Is...

In the pages of The Flash #49, the heroes of the DC Universe are reacting to the chase between Barry Allen and Wally West and trying to figure out how to get them to stop, or at least slow down enough to talk to their friends. With no way of getting through to them, the Justice League and The Titans each have different takes on what to do about it, with Batman being the lone voice that they should be allowed to continue. Superman disagrees and decides he’s going to join the race in an attempt to get the two heroes to slow down and confide in their allies the reasons behind the chase, but to putting it in appropriate terminology, he barely makes it out of the starting block.

The only shot of Superman and The Flashes together is of Clark trailing incredibly far behind the heroes to the point they can’t hear him, or even know that he’s there. To illustrate just how fast the Flashes are going, Superman makes it all the way around the world in seconds, arriving back where he started, but is uncharacteristically out of breath. The Flashes are going so fast that they winded Superman, which is something that never happens. If anything was going to put a definitive bow on whether The Flash is faster than Superman, this issue should be it.

It makes sense too, because ultimately Superman doesn’t need to be as fast or faster than The Flashes. This issue shows that he’s still an incredibly swift individual, he just isn’t The Fastest Man Alive, because in literally every situation he finds himself in except this one, he doesn’t need to be. He’s already super strong and invulnerable, he can fly, shoot lasers out of his eyes and has frost breath; it takes nothing away from Superman for there to be faster people in the DC Universe.

However, it does help reinforce The Flash’s entire concept, of The Fastest Man Alive. The entire “Flash War” story has been about who is faster, Barry or Wally, and by showing that Superman doesn’t even enter the conversation, The Flash is able to increase the importance of finding out the answer once and for all.