10 Times Wally West Was The Fastest Man Alive

The Flash has always been one of the most important heroes in DC Comics, as he ushered in the Silver Age of Comics and helped popularize the concept of the multiverse. And while Jay Garrick and Barry Allen are both incredibly fast, neither of them can compare to the mind-bending power of the third Flash, Wally West. Starting as the Kid Flash and sidekick to Barry, Wally took on the Flash mantle after his mentor died. Upon assuming the role of the new Scarlet Speedster, Wally immediately began pushing the limits of what could be done with super speed. Now, no other character in comic books have ever matched Wally’s feats that break every law of time, space, and reality.

After Barry Allen’s death during the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Wally had some big shoes to fill. Luckily, Wally exceeded all expectations and became one of the most beloved heroes in DC Comics, thanks in part to his creative use of his super speed. Most of DC’s top speedsters draw their abilities from the Speed Force, which is an infinite cosmic energy field that acts as the source of all motion in existence. Over time, Wally has become a master of utilizing the Speed Force, enabling him to perform feats comparable to and sometimes beyond Superman’s.

10) Evacuated a City in an Instant

With his incalculable speed, Wally is the most valuable hero to have whenever civilians need to be evacuated from a disaster zone. Wally performed his most impressive evacuation feat in JLA #89, when Martian Manhunter was possessed by a malevolent entity called the Burning Martian. This terrifying Martian villain detonated a nuclear bomb in Chongjin, North Korea, which is home to over half a million people. Within the span of 0.00001 microseconds, Wally managed to run, grab everyone in the city, and place them 35 miles away so they were safe from the blast and radiation. For context, one microsecond is one-millionth of a second. Thanks to Wally’s efforts, not a single person died from the nuclear explosion or fallout.

9) Invented the Infinite Mass Punch

It’s a well-known that the faster something is moving, the more damage it will do when it crashes into something. In JLA #2, Wally was fighting a villainous speedster called ZüM and decided to unleash a new technique that he had been developing called the Infinite Mass Punch. By approaching the speed of light, Wally’s fist’s mass grows to an infinite degree. Later comics would further explore this technique by explaining that the strike has the force of a white dwarf star. Naturally, when Wally hit ZüM in the face with the Infinite Mass Punch, the villain was sent flying across the planet. Wally would perform this technique several times on villains like the Reverse-Flash and the Anti-Monitor.

8) Escaped a Black Hole

Wally is pushed to his limits during the “Human Race” storyline, where two ultra-dimensional beings force him to partake in a cosmic race to determine the fate of Earth. When racing against an alien speedster, Krakkl, the first obstacle they must face is running through a black hole. The incalculable gravity stretched Wally out like spaghetti; but getting into the black hole was the easy part; getting out was the hard part. Black holes possess gravity so immense that not even light can escape. However, by running faster than the speed of light, Wally manages to flee the black hole while also saving Krakkl from it. Even when breaking the laws of physics, Wally is always a good sport.

7) Chased Mordru Across Time and Space

In a moment that exemplifies Wally’s character, The Flash #800 has him chase a villain across all of time and space. When the wizard Mordru arrives on Earth, he snatches a little girl’s lollipop. Wally arrives on the scene and tries to catch him, but Mordru teleports away to an alien world. However, to Mordru’s horror, Wally had already found him. What follows is a chase that takes them to the age of dinosaurs, the far future, and even a demonic dimension. Yet no matter when or where Mordru teleports, Wally’s always right on his tail. Finally, Mordru teleports to the end of time itself, only to find Wally already there waiting for him. Wally requests the girl’s lollipop back, and the terrified wizard obliges.

6) Outran the Black Racer

In DC Comics, the New God Black Racer is one of many personifications of death. During the events of Final Crisis, Barry comes back to life after being dead for over 20 years, something the Black Racer wasn’t happy about. However, with the Black Racer chasing Barry, the Flash Family decides to use it to their advantage and stop Darkseid’s plans to conquer the multiverse. Together as they desperately try to avoid the Black Racer’s lethal touch, Wally and Barry surpass superluminal speeds, which is when matter moves so fast that it converts into pure information. Wally and Barry’s plan pays off when they phase through Darkseid, so he is touched by the Black Racer and his soul is taken instead of Barry’s.

5) Raced the Black Flash to the End of the Universe

The Black Racer isn’t the only Grim Reaper Wally has had to outrun. The terrifying Black Flash is the physical embodiment of death that focuses on taking the souls of Speed Force users. When Wally was the next on the chopping block in The Flash #141, the Scarlet Speedster must run as fast as he can to avoid the Black Flash’s deadly touch. Wally runs so fast that he travels billions and billions of years into the future to the end of not just the universe, but time itself, where death had no meaning. This causes the Black Flash to dissipate into nothingness. That’s right, Wally killed death itself.

4) Outran the Big Bang

In The Flash #141, Wally wasn’t out of the woods after he destroyed the Black Flash. At the end of time, entropy culminates with the inflationary epoch of the next Big Bang. An inflationary epoch is the near instant creation and expansion of the universe that occurs within a fraction of a second after the Big Bang. To outrun the creation of an entire universe, Wally would have had to run at speeds at least several sexvigintillion times faster than light (that’s 81 zeroes!). Not only does Wally succeed, but he also travels back in time and saves his fiancée, Linda Park. The fact that he accomplished this immediately after outracing the Black Flash adds even more to the outlandishness of this feat.

3) Ran Faster Than Instant Teleportation

As the final challenge in the “Human Race” storyline, Wally must face off against the ultra-dimensional aliens who were gambling with the lives of everyone on Earth for their amusement. Wally challenges the aliens to a race across the universe. However, the pair can teleport instantly. To win the race, Wally calls upon the people of Earth to all run as fast as they can. With the combined speed of over 8 billion people and every member of the Flash Family, Wally can siphon their energy and reach trans-time velocity in less than one unit of Planck time, which is the smallest unit of time possible. By reaching speeds that warp time and space, Wally wins the race against the aliens.

2) Threatened the Infinite Multiverse

During the New 52 reboot, Wally and his children, Irey and Jai, were seemingly erased from existence. And although Wally eventually made his way back home, his children were still missing. Overcome with an obsession to find them, Wally is manipulated by the villain Zoom in “Flash War.” Zoom convinces Wally that his kids are stuck in the Speed Force and that he must destroy it to free them. When Barry tries to stop Wally, the two engage in a race that takes them across the world countless times. As they continued to accelerate, their energy output threatens to tear apart DC’s infinite multiverse. By the end, Wally won the race against Barry, and thankfully, neither the Speed Force nor the multiverse was destroyed.

1) Outran the Speed Force

Out of all of Wally’s mind-bending and reality-bending feats, moving faster than the Speed Force takes the cake. In Flash Forward #5, Wally ends up on a dark planet in the Dark Multiverse. It’s here that he finds Irey and Jay. Unfortunately, a tidal wave of dark matter consumed them. The cosmic entity Tempus then arrives and saves Wally from the dark matter. Having his kids stripped away from him again, Wally tries to destroy the dark planet. By pushing himself further than ever before, Wally runs across the planet at speeds faster than the Speed Force. As mentioned earlier, the Speed Force is the infinite source of not just the powers of every speedster, but of all motion in existence. Eventually, Wally manages to rescue his kids.

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