10 Fastest Members of the Flash Family, Ranked

In DC Comics, there’s no faster hero than the Flash. However, the Flash mantle isn’t held by one person because it’s one of the longest-lasting legacy titles in comics. So many people have adopted the identity of the Scarlet Speedster that they’ve become an official Flash Family, with both direct relatives and close allies. Each member of the Flash Family can reach speeds beyond human comprehension. They can reach such immeasurable velocities because they tap into the source of all motion in the multiverse known as the Speed Force. With so many members of the Flash Family, only those with the greatest mastery of the Speed Force have a chance of being crowned the fastest person alive.

The Speed Force lets its conduits perform some of the most absurd feats in DC Comics, and these are the members of the Flash Family who push this multiversal energy to its limits.

10) Avery Ho

One of the newest members of the Flash Family is the Flash of China, aka Avery Ho. While in Central City, Avery was struck by lightning from a Speed Force Storm that gave her and many other citizens super-speed. After learning to control her powers, Avery became a member of Justice League China, where she effortlessly left teammates like Wonder-Woman and Super-Man in the dust. Avery also regularly keeps pace with fellow speedster Kid Flash. Her speed and skills eventually became so great that, with Barry Allen’s encouragement, Avery was inducted into the multiversal Justice League Incarnate to replace him on the team. While Avery’s still relatively new to the Speed Force game, she’s already shown great success.

9) Negative Flash

When a Speed Force Storm gave numerous civilians super-speed in Central City, S.T.A.R. Labs scientist Meena Dhawan not only took her new powers in stride but also became a teacher for those impacted by the storm. Initially going by the name Fast Track, Meena is fast enough to keep up with and battle Barry Allen and Godspeed. When she inadvertently absorbed the Negative Speed Force as well, Meena became corrupted and renamed herself the Negative Flash. In this state, she was even faster and could blitz both Barry and Kid Flash. And while Meena eventually lost her connection to the Negative Speed Force and regained her sanity, she’s still an incredibly skilled and fast speedster.

8) Jesse Quick

The daughter of Golden Age speedster Johnny Quick and JSA hero Liberty Belle, Jesse Quick inherited both of her parents’ powers. On top of possessing superhuman strength like her mother, Jesse learned that, by reciting a special speed formula, she could tap into the Speed Force like her father. Even when she was starting her superhero career, she could already run at half the speed of light. And as Jesse’s gotten older, she’s surpassed everything that her father was capable of. She’s raced around the world multiple times in mere moments, disassembled a giant robot in the blink of an eye, kept pace with Supergirl, ran faster than light to enter the Speed Force, and caught Reverse-Flash by surprise.

7) Kid Flash

Wallace “Ace” West became the latest Kid Flash when a future version of himself caused his younger self to develop a connection to the Speed Force. This connection grew further when Ace was exposed to a Speed Force Storm. With all this power and mentorship from Barry Allen, Ace became the hero’s latest sidekick and a welcome addition to the Flash Family. Kid Flash has regularly outrun the speed of light, once ran back into the timestream after being trapped in a void, and even vibrated at such speeds that he existed simultaneously on multiple planes of reality. Kid Flash is still inexperienced with his use of the Speed Force, but his future version shows that he has a lot of untapped potential.

6) XS

Hailing from the 31st century, XS is the granddaughter of Barry Allen and the cousin of Bart Allen. XS first displayed her latent connection to the Speed Force when she rescued her father from the alien Dominators. As the resident speedster of the Legion of Superheroes, XS is unbelievably fast. She’s practically mastered running fast enough to travel through time and different dimensions without the assistance of the Cosmic Treadmill time machine. She’ll periodically use this skill to travel back in time to the modern day so that she can meet her grandfather in his prime. XS has also been shown to be fast enough to take on the speedster Savitar, showing that she’s proficient at using her speed in combat.

5) Godspeed

Godspeed plays a similar role in the Flash Family as Red Hood does in the Bat-Family: switching from being one of their deadliest adversaries to a reluctant ally/anti-hero. Detective August Heart was originally Barry’s friend and partner until he was struck by lightning from the Speed Force Storm. This newfound power led Heart to adopt the name Godspeed and he then begin killing other speedsters to absorb their connections to the Speed Force. Godspeed regularly runs circles around members of the Flash Family like Barry Allen and Kid Flash. He can also move so fast that he can be in multiple places simultaneously. Over time, Godspeed has become a more distant member of the Flash Family, aiding them from time to time against villains like the Fraction and Zoom.

4) Krakkl

Easily the most bizarre member of the Flash Family, Krakkl is an alien from a race called the Kwzz, who live as living radio frequencies. Even among creatures that are almost constantly in a state of light-speed travel, Krakkl is the fastest of his people. Krakkl and Wally West were forced to compete in a race across the cosmos set up by alien gamblers who threatened both of their worlds. Not only is Krakkl fast enough to keep pace with Wally and escape from a black hole, but he has an extra ability that makes him even faster. Krakkl can draw from the kinetic energy of his entire race, giving him a significant boost and making him among the fastest speedsters in the universe.

3) Impulse

Bart Allen is Barry Allen’s grandson from the 31st century and was born with a strong connection to the Speed Force. Unfortunately, this connection was unstable and caused Bart to age rapidly. To address this, he used his speed to travel back to the modern day. There, Wally West trained him to control his powers. Whether as Impulse or the fourth Flash, Bart is among DC’s fastest speedsters. Bart has blitzed Superboy Prime, escaped the pull of a black hole, and has effortlessly traveled the DC Multiverse and timestream. Bart is also the living embodiment of the Speed Force and once reignited it when it was on the brink of collapse. While the limitless potential of his power is still unpredictable, Bart is quickly getting a handle on it.

2) Barry Allen

Ever since forensic scientist Barry Allen was struck by lightning in his lab, he became one of the central conduits and experts of the Speed Force. He was the first Flash to unlock the secrets of time travel and the multiverse by moving at preposterous speeds. Barry is constantly pushing the boundaries of what speedsters can do. He can react within the span of an attosecond, outrun the Black Racer for years, leave Superman in the dust, evacuate Japan’s entire population in 30 seconds, and inadvertently reboot the infinite DC Multiverse when he meddled with history. He’s also engaged in a race against Wally that threatened to tear apart the multiverse. Additionally, Barry moves so fast that he acts as a generator for the Speed Force.

1) Wally West

No one else in DC Comics has earned the title of the Fastest Man Alive more than Wally West. After suffering from an accident identical to that of his uncle Barry, Wally became the first Kid Flash. When Barry was killed in action, Wally took up the Flash mantle and quickly proved himself to be his predecessor’s superior. Wally reaches incalculable speeds daily and performs feats that bend the laws of the multiverse and the Speed Force. Some of his most impressive feats include outrunning the Black Flash and the Big Bang, moving faster than instantaneous teleportation, and nearly destroying the multiverse as a side effect of his speed. Of course, none of that compares to when he ran faster than the Speed Force itself.

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